Student-Athlete of the Week-Elizabeth Duncan

Looking over the long list of Elizabeth Duncan's high school achievements, a few words leap to mind: varied, wide-ranging, unconventional, and, finally, impressive. From stints on the cheer and track teams, to honor choir and color guard, there's no question that the senior has trod a unique path through Niwot High, and shows every sign of continuing on it after graduation.

Duncan's story originates about 25 miles east of Niwot, in Brighton, where the senior lives with her parents and younger sister. As an alternative to the local school choices, the Duncans instead sent Elizabeth to Erie Middle School. There, she learned about Niwot's International Baccalaureate program and her interest was piqued.

"Niwot had originally wanted me to be in their IB program, though, I did end up deciding that wasn't for me, and I might just take a few IB classes instead," she said. "But I decided I'm going to get a good education there, so why not just go with that instead of Brighton High School."

The long commute aside, it didn't take much time before Duncan was making her mark at Niwot. A talented singer, she found her first community in the school's music department, and would go on to sing with the treble, Sedalia, and chamber choirs over the years. Last fall, she was selected for the school's prestigious honor choir, and would have been a candidate for All-state choir, but that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Since I've been with choir, I've managed to make a lot of friends at the school," Duncan said. "It also helped me learn how to both audition for things properly."

Of course, choir classes haven't been quite the same since the pandemic began last spring, and Duncan has spent a lot of time over the past 10 months singing into a computer microphone by herself. Though not ideal, she and her classmates are taking the unusual set-up in stride and have even recorded several performances.

"I feel like we're still doing well," she said, describing remote choir classes. "Our teacher will have herself unmuted, and everyone else will be muted, and she'll play the warmups on the piano, and everyone at home will sing while on mute. It's a little bit different and you're singing all on your own the whole time."

But Duncan's love of performing goes beyond singing. She is also a longtime member of Niwot's color guard, though that, too, was shelved in 2020 due to the pandemic. So, with some free time on her hands last fall, she thought she'd show her school spirit another way: as a member of the Cougars cheerleading squad.

"I started cheerleading my senior year because I did it for two years in elementary school and decided I might just want to give it a shot. And so I tried it again, and I made varsity, and I had a lot of fun doing that."

Though a rookie, Duncan said the transition to the cheer team was seamless, and it didn't take long for her to learn the stunts and routines: "I was already friends with some of the senior girls on the team, and they were able to help me get more caught up and just do really well. I do not have a dance background, but I had no issues learning the routines. I think it's because I did karate as a kid, and I had to memorize forms and routines for karate."

When she's not singing or cheering for the Cougars, Duncan is also one of the few girls shot-put and discus throwers on the Niwot track and field team. Though her junior season was another casualty of the pandemic, she is looking forward to competing at the varsity level for the first time in 2021, and has been hitting the weights during the offseason in preparation.

As for her life outside of school, Duncan and her sister Kaitlyn, a Niwot sophomore, are active members of their local Girl Scout troop, a decidedly uncommon activity for high school girls.

"There are two troops I know that have girls my age in our service unit, but it's not very widespread," she said. "Our troop is only four girls, and two of them are me and my sister. The two other girls go to Horizon and Northglenn High schools and so our troop is almost aged out."

Duncan has earned both the Silver and Bronze awards, two of the organization's three highest honors. She also has her eyes on the Gold award, a Girl Scout equivalent of Eagle rank, but has been thwarted so far by the pandemic. Instead, she and the troop have completed other service activities, including trash clean-ups and a project to honor veterans and first responders.

"We take retired American flags, and we cut out the little stars, and put them in bags with notes to remind either soldiers, or veterans, or healthcare workers, or police officers and EMTs that there are people in this world that care about you, you're still cared about."

In the classroom, Duncan is taking what she describes as "a nice mix" of STEM- and arts-focused classes. She still has a few decisions to make about her plans after graduation, but is eyeing either Montana State, where she will study biomedical engineering or CU, where she plans to study aerospace engineering.