2013 Archive Stories

COMMERCE CITY - Hannah Gerdin has a gift for understatement. Minutes after she led Cheyenne Mountain to a dominating 2-0 victory over Broomfield in the 4A soccer state finals, Gerdin looked, somewhat reluctantly, into the future. How powerful will Cheyenne Mountain be in 2014? “I would assume we’ll be pretty g

COMMERCE CITY – After a loss to Doherty in the season’s third game dropped Cheyenne Mountain to 1-1-1, third-year Indians coach Tomas Martinez threw down the gauntlet to his young team. “We let everyone know that day, that if that’s going to happen, let’s just hang out and kick the ball around, have fun,&rdq

The area’s top high school baseball players will compete in the 52nd annual Southern Colorado High School All-Star Games, the longest-running high school all-star event in Colorado. The games will be Monday after the Sky Sox-Fresno game scheduled for 12:35 p.m. The Southern Colorado High School All-Star Games have been featuring th

COMMERCE CITY • From the opening seconds to the last minutes of double overtime The Classical Academy girls’ soccer team had chance after chance to put away defending 3A champion Peak to Peak. But after more than 108 minutes, those chances turned to disbelief. Off a corner kick, Peak to Peak’s Belle Morel, the st

COMMERCE CITY • Please, don’t expect Mikayla Murphy to say anything positive about finishing second. The Classical Academy freshman forward came achingly close to pushing her Titans to victory over Peak to Peak in the 3A state title game. In the game’s first 30 seconds, she almost scored twice. The sequence summa

ENGLEWOOD – Kelly Kruse bit her fingernails. Kylee Sullivan cried. Bill Paulson added up the scores in his head, wondering about the possibility of a playoff to determine a 4A state girls’ golf champion. Everyone at Broken Tee Golf Club had their eyes fixed on the scoring area after the second and final round of the two-day e

An injury took Mary Kate Nelson out of 5A girls’ golf title contention before she hit the first tee Tuesday at Tiara Rado Golf Course in Grand Junction. The Pine Creek junior injured rib cartilage in the morning and the injury was painful enough to affect her swing throughout the day. Nelson, who was in eighth place after r

The Classical Academy goes into Tuesday night's 3A state championship game with a wealth of experience. Ten seniors, nine of whom were on the Titans' 2011 championship team, will step on to the pitch at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City for one last high school game. The No. 1 Titans (15-2-1) take on No. 2 Peak to Peak (15-2-2)

Tomas Martinez took over the Cheyenne Mountain program in 2012. As the assistant coach before that, the team was plenty familiar with him. But when he took the reins, he brought his own style, immediately implementing a team-first approach. That meant less relying on one or two superstars and more relying on all-around team performers.

The top hurdlers in the 3A girls’ ranks are going to sleep much better at night knowing Alexa Chacon has run her final race at the state meet. The Classical Academy senior capped an excellent career at the state championships and helped lead her team to an astonishing seventh team title in eight years in the process. &ldquo

At Grand Junction: Coming into the 5A tournament, 5A Metro League champ Mary Kate Nelson decided to aim for a top-15 finish. Her coach Shane Brown demanded better, asking for a top-10 finish. The Pine Creek junior is in perfect position to finish in the top 10 after shooting a 7-over-par 79 a

ENGLEWOOD – In another region, Lewis-Palmer’s Jessica Hedgpeth wouldn’t have had the chance to compete in the 4A girls’ state golf tournament at Broken Tee Golf Course. So don’t blame the senior if she felt a little out of place. “I didn’t know if I’d hit well enough to belong here,”

Mattie Schwall remembers always being able to drive the ball farther than almost everyone her age when was she 7 years old and just learning how to play golf. The current Manitou Springs junior also remembers how the inner perfectionist of her youth would get frustrated if every shot was not exactly how she envisioned it. Now, ma

LAKEWOOD – As Noah Gabel turned on the jets to reclaim the lead for Vista Ridge on the 1,600-meter relay, his three teammates could sense victory as they urged the senior to the finish line. Gabel, along with fellow seniors Aaron Johnson, Pierre Copeland and Darrian Morgan, then celebrated in earnest once the clock showed the Wolve

PARKER • Soccer is a game of grace and finesse. Or at least it should be. During a decade of watching Colorado high school girls’ soccer, I’ve seen a variety of questionable tactics. Well, actually, the tactics sometimes travel beyond questionable into the realm of flat-out dirty. That’s why I was happy to

LAKEWOOD • The only time Coronado standout Bailey Roth struggled at the state track meet was climbing to the top of the nine-step podium Saturday. Fighting to stay upright after his 4-minute, 18-second win in the 4A state championship 1,600 meters, Roth joined Discovery Canyon big man Jackson Spalding and Cañon City speedster

PARKER • Two first-half penalty kicks were too much for Palmer Ridge to overcome in its 4A state semifinal soccer struggle with Broomfield. The Bears lost, 2-1, Saturday. The second penalty kick baffled Palmer Ridge coach Nick Odil. The goal came after a hand ball on Cydney Skinner. “It was real iffy,” Odil said.

DENVER • More than once, The Classical Academy’s season flashed before its eyes. And that was just in the final 2 minutes. Ultimately, the top-seeded Titans survived a rare deficit and two late breakaway chances for Colorado Academy star Marin McCoy to prevail 2-1 on Meghan Troupe’s overtime goal Saturday, capping a jour

AURORA - No matter how many times Cañon City tried to rally, Northridge kept its lead. And by the time the No. 4 Tigers’ bats got hot, the score was well out of reach. Cañon City scored five times in the bottom of the seventh, yet No. 8 Northridge still won 14-8 on Saturday at Cherokee Trail High School to eliminate C

NIWOT - A school record-setting season came to a sudden end for Peyton baseball. No. 4 seed Lutheran of Parker took advantage of four Panthers errors to score 11 runs in the first inning en route to a 14-1 mercy-rule victory in the regional semifinals of the 2A state tournament. “That was unfortunate,” Peyton coach Ke

DENVER • Air Academy’s boys’ lacrosse team only lost twice this season, and it happened against the best 4A team in the state both times. Wheat Ridge defeated the Kadets for the second time in 2013 with a 14-2 rout in the 4A state championship game Saturday at Sports Authority Field. While Wheat Ridge (15-4) won

THORNTON • Air Academy capped its second straight 4A boys’ swimming state title with an exclamation point Saturday. Senior Devon Davis, chosen as the 4A Swimmer of the Year after the meet, anchored the winning 400-yard freestyle relay for the Kadets in his final high school swim to help give Air Academy a wide final margin. Th

Coronado sets relay state record Coronado’s 200 freestyle relay team of Kyle Allison, Bryan Rossmanith, Eric Albers and Danny Kay set a 4A state record en route to the state crown with a time of 1 minutes, 26.66 seconds. That was nearly a second faster than the previous mark and helped propel the Cougars to a third-place tea

DENVER – Down by three goals to Air Academy just six minutes into Saturday’s state girls’ lacrosse semifinal, Cherry Creek knew it had been there before. With a quick comeback and a dominating goaltending performance, the No. 3 Bruins rallied past No. 2 Air Academy 13-9 at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium at the University

TCA defends boys’ and girls’ crowns The Classical Academy went about its business in two entirely different ways the past three days at the state track and field meet at Jeffco Stadium. But both the boys’ and girls’ teams arrived at the same goal of repeating as 3A state champions. The girls