Boys and girls NHS cross country win titles in the desert

The Niwot High School cross country team showed Friday evening, Sept. 29, that Colorado isn’t the only state where the Cougars’ dominance will be felt in 2023. Coach Kelly Christiansen led his team into the Arizona desert, and the Cougars ran away with both the boys’ and girls’ coveted Sweepstakes titles in the Desert Twilight Cross Country Festival in Mesa, AZ.

The event, one of the premier invitationals in the country, included 248 teams and nearly 6,000 athletes from five states. Thirty-one different races were held during the evening over the Toka Sticks Golf Course, but it was the Sweepstakes run that capped off the festival and shined the spotlight on the top teams and runners in the event. And no team shined brighter than the stars from Colorado.

GIRLS XC

For the third time this season, sophomore Addison Ritzenhein left the field behind on her way to victory. Ritzenhein’s 16:44 was among the best times ever in the event and was a stunning 47-seconds ahead of her closest chaser, teammate Mia Prok (17:31).

As impressive as Ritzenhein’s individual performance was the Cougars’ team dominance. Joining the Cougars’ top two finishers were Avalon Beltran (17:38), Olivia Alessandrini (17:50) and Cayden Justin (17:54) as the Cougars swept the top five places for a perfect 15 score, shattering the festival’s previous team low score of 25 points set in 2011.

The Niwot victory was its third straight in the desert and fourth in the past five seasons at the Desert Twilight event.

BOYS XC

The Cougars also ran away with the boys’ Sweepstakes behind the silver medal performance of Rocco Culpepper. The sophomore finished less than a second behind senior Donovan Bitticks of Scottsdale’s Horizon High School.

Freshman Quinn Sullivan displayed his continued growth in his first year wearing the green and white jersey, finishing in fourth place, just seven seconds behind the winner. Junior Cole Mazurana (15), Evan Kear (18) and Hunter Robbie (19) contributed to the team-winning total of 47, which was 80 points lower than second place ThunderRidge (127). The overall performance returned the Niwot boys to the championship podium after winning the event in 2021. All eight Niwot runners who competed in the premiere Sweepstakes for Niwot are undergrads, including Christopher Wood (24), Gavin Engtrakul (27) and Sammy Jackman (31).

Niwot’s second tier of runners also left the desert with the team title in the Championship race. Junior Keegan Geldean took the gold medal and was joined by junior Kye Toothaker (7), Ryder Keeton (8), James Anthony (9) and William Lennert (17) for the team victory.