Niwot cross country team running strong

Five girls 4A state championships in the past five years. Two boys state championships and two runner-up finishes in the last four. To say that the Niwot cross country program is a championship machine may be an understatement.

In his eighth year as head coach, Kelly Christensen has found a formula that other coaches around the state would love to steal. Christensen says it’s not that complicated.

“The right kids are coming to Niwot and the families are super supportive. They drink the Kool-Aid,” Christensen says with a smile in his voice.

“It seems they (the athletes) have built a legacy here that they leave behind a program that’s better than when they found it and it’s pretty amazing. I don’t know how much better we can get but it just keeps happening. It’s a pretty special program and it looks like it’ll be another special year, so that’s awesome.”

GIRLS XC

Coming off a dominant performance at last year’s state championship in which six girls were among the top eight finishers, the Cougars have a few holes to fill. But the remaining core of runners has plenty of talent to keep a sixth straight title easily within reach.

“One of our words this year is ‘irreplaceable’ – everybody’s irreplaceable. By that, we mean that we have over 100 kids (girls and boys) on the team, and they all serve a purpose – they’re all irreplaceable. They’re all leaders. We don’t have captains. We believe that anyone who wants to can step up and lead at any point in time.

“We lost two seniors, Lex Bullen and Madison Shultz, and Bella Nelson, whose family moved to Oklahoma. Those three are irreplaceable. Luckily, we have a team full of irreplaceable athletes. Those three were all leaders, but I think they left the program in good hands.”

One of those new irreplaceable leaders is senior Mia Prok. The third-place finisher in last year’s state meet has signed a national letter of intent to attend Wake Forest University and plans to run cross country and track for the Demon Deacons next year. Prok placed second in the state meet as a freshman and third her sophomore year.

“That (the signing) takes a lot of pressure off her,” Christensen said. "That is a very stressful process. Mia is such a hard worker and sometimes she works too hard, and we found that hurt her a little bit (last year). She’s been with us since being a freshman and she’s never looked stronger. She looks happy.

“She’s definitely a big leader on the team. A lot of the freshman girls’ parents have already emailed me, telling me to please thank Mia for her leadership and for how much she includes all the freshmen on the team.”

Sophomore Addison Ritzenhein was the Cougars’ top finisher a year ago at state, finishing second, just seven seconds behind gold medalist Ella Hagen from Summit High School. It was Ritzenhein’s first year as a competitive runner, having grown up more focused on swimming despite coming from a running pedigree.

“Last year, she really didn’t want to do it (run cross country),” Christensen said. “But I think it was the culture of our team that won her over. She never expresses what she wants to achieve individually. She’s just out there to run with her friends. She still goes out there to win every time, but she wants to take her teammates with her. She’s a pretty special girl.”

Other girls to watch this season, according to their coach, are junior Anna Prok, Mia’s younger sister and the ninth place finisher a year ago at state; senior Olivia Alessandrini, who finished 14th] last year at the state meet; senior Sarah Perkins, who placed 9th at state as a sophomore in 2021 and returns to the team after battling injuries a year ago; and sophomore Avalon Beltran.

BOYS XC

It’s another sophomore, this time on the boy’s side, that has Christensen excited about what could be in ’23. Rocco Culpepper finished 10th a year ago at state despite struggling to stay healthy late in the season. It’s Culpepper’s high energy and team leadership that Christensen says makes his runner “a blast to coach.”

“He likes to scream. He likes to dance. He likes to talk to the guys. He likes to talk to the girls. He’s a Tasmanian devil. Just look out,” Christensen laughs. “He’s just such a joy to be around. We’re fortunate to have him on the team. He makes us laugh every single day.”

Culpepper and his teammates will be looking to fill the running shoes of five graduated seniors from a year ago. It was the extensive experience those five brought to last year’s team that made the Cougars preseason favorites to earn their third title in four years. But team members struggled throughout the year with health issues and settled for a second straight second-place finish in the finals.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong last year,” Christensen recalled. “Honestly, I’m shocked they were able to do that (finish second) with all the issues.

“We only have two seniors this year, but we have 15 to 20 sophomores and 15 to 20 freshmen. The size of the team is growing a lot and they’re all really close together. No one’s really being selfish and worrying about themselves. But I think more than ever, we’ve got a swagger, we’ve got new leadership styles. They’re having fun.”

The two seniors Christensen will be looking to help fill the experience gap are Aiden Jiang and Ben Whitcomb. They will be joined by junior transfer Cole Mazurana.

“We got really lucky with Cole,” Christensen said of the transfer from Windsor. “He’s definitely going to compete for one of those top seven spots on varsity and could be one of the best runners in the state.”