Colorado has never had much trouble producing elite distance runners, and this year is no different.
All told, six teams ranked nationally by dyestat.com will compete in the boys and girls races during Saturday’s CHSAA state cross country meet at the Norris-Penrose Event Center.
That includes an absolutely loaded Class 5A girls race that features three of the nation’s top 13 teams in No. 5 Mountain Vista, No. 6 Cherry Creek and No. 13 Cherokee Trail. The Niwot girls, prohibitive favorites to defend their 4A crown, are No. 8 in the same national rankings.
Then there’s Valor Christian senior Cole Sprout — the two-time Colorado cross country runner of the year and No. 3 runner in the country, according to dyestat. Sprout goes into the 5A boys race as a two-time state champion (4A in 2017, 5A in 2018), with his main challenger, Dakota Ridge senior Connor Ohlson, rated 12th in the country by the same site.
Sprout is one of three boys looking to defend their state titles, with The Classical Academy’s Mason Norman going for his third straight in 3A and Niwot’s Cruz Culpepper going for his second in a row in 4A. Lyons’ Katie Fankhouser (2A) is the lone returning state champion on the girls’ side.
The schedule for the races is as follows: 2A boys at 9 a.m., 4A girls at 9:40 a.m., 2A girls at 10:20 a.m., 4A boys at 11 a.m., unified race at 11:40 a.m., 3A girls at 12:20 p.m., 5A boys at 1 p.m., 3A boys at 1:40 p.m. and 5A girls at 2:20 p.m.
Softball semifinals set. Ralston Valley came into the Class 5A state softball tournament Friday at Aurora Sports Park as a No. 16 seed. The Mustangs will go into Saturday’s semifinals as one of four 5A teams with a shot at a state title.
Ralston Valley upset top seed Rock Canyon 6-3 in the first round, then knocked off No. 9 seed Loveland 4-1 in the quarterfinals to advance to Saturday’s semifinal against No.5 Fossil Ridge, which also pulled off a minor upset with a 6-4 win over No. 4 Broomfield in the quarters. On the other side of the 5A bracket? Chalk. No. 3 Rocky Mountain will take on No. 2 Columbine.
In the 4A bracket, top seed Golden will face No. 5 Silver Creek and No. 2 Holy Family meets No. 14 Erie, which knocked off third-seeded Pueblo South 18-14 and beat No. 11 D’Evelyn 10-4.
In 3A, the lone top-four seed to fall was No. 2 Basalt, which lost to No. 7 Sterling 10-0 in the quarterfinals. The Tigers face No. 3 Brush in one semi, while top seed University will take on No. 4 Strasburg at the same time.
All semifinals are slated for 10 a.m. at Aurora Sports Park. The finals begin at 1:15 p.m.
