Niwot cross country sweeps RE-1J District Meet, continues prep for state championships

It was a successful Homecoming week for Niwot High School. Football won on its home turf, volleyball swept Silver Creek, boys tennis went 1-1, softball got a win and for cross country, both the girls and boys teams cruised to first place in the RE-1J District Meet.

The cross country boys were led by four seniors who finished from third place to sixth in the order of Jeremy Gillett, Frederick Ambrose, Stefan Haug and Carlos Kipkorir. And even though the first and second place individual finishers were Mead runners, the Cougars' depth gave them an easy win – Niwot ended with just 25 points while Mead had 52 and Longmont and Lyons each scored 95.

Behind Kipkorir, Niwot rounded out the top 10 with freshman Rocco Culpepper and sophomores William Lennert, Keegan Geldean and Kye Toothaker.

"The depth is great," said head coach Kelly Christensen. "The number one goal for the results were that (in) the second mile, the leaders on our team would stretch out our runners to where only five were left by the end of the second mile and then (we'd) just finish as a group of five within one second of each other."

Christensen's goal of having a cluster of Cougars finish together came true, but Gillett's time of 17 minutes, 17.1 seconds gives him at least some bragging rights.

"He's put in a lot of work," Christensen said of Gillett. "He's always been super dependable and will always set the tone if someone else is struggling or one of his teammates quits – he'll run right by them and they kind of get a wake-up call. Having someone like Jeremy on our team is critical for us to be successful."

Niwot's girls team was even more dominant with 12 of the top 13 runners wearing green and white (Mead's Frances Hudson took ninth). Junior Olivia Alessandrini took first at 19:46.8 seconds, just barely ahead of senior Madison Shults, freshman Anna Prok and junior Mia Prok - all of whom recorded a time of 19:46.9.

The Cougars also had two other freshmen, Addison Ritzenhein and Avalon Beltran, finish fifth and 12th, respectively.

With so many of his runners throughout all four grades making noise, Christensen said it'll be difficult for him to pick his best seven on each side for the state championships.

The Cougars took a big step forward in preparing for that state meet when Christensen took his top athletes down to the Norris Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs on Friday, where Colorado's best will run on Oct. 29. Christensen said his goal was to allow his runners the opportunity to form a visualization of the course and to develop some comfort with it.

"We made it all the way down there and ran in the rain and had a great day," Christensen said. "It was definitely our best workout we've ever had down there and we do two of those each year. It was the most (athletes) we've ever had go down there. We took over 42 athletes in two small buses and a 15-passenger van. The kids had a great workout, temperatures were great. It was a little wet, but a little easier to breathe."

And yes, Christensen was sure to have them back in time for the Homecoming dance.

Niwot's next race is the St. Vrain Valley Cross Country Invitational on Sept 17. For the first time this season, Christensen's plan is to unleash his team's full potential in hopes of having a more accurate measuring stick.

"We're going to see what we've got and we're going to see where our athletes are on the team right now," Christensen said. "Some kids will step up and some will just see where they are and where they need to improve."