Cougar cross country teams run away with two state titles

For the sixth time in six years, the Niwot High School girls cross country team reigns supreme in Colorado. And, not to be outdone, after a disappointing two-year hiatus, the Cougar boys team reclaimed its state title at this past weekend's 4A Colorado State Cross Country Championships.

Taking advantage of their outstanding individual leaders and incredible team depth, the Cougars wrapped up their near perfect season with two runaway victories on the Norris Penrose Event Center course in Colorado Springs. In both races, the green and silver-clad boys and girls outraced host and second-place finisher Cheyenne Mountain High School for the gold in a dominating fashion.

Sophomore sensation Addison Ritzenhein captured the gold medal in the girls 5000-meter race leading the Cougars to just 20 points as all five of the contributors to the team point total finished among the top eight places. The 20 points, which includes the places of the team's top five runners, tied Niwot's own state 4A record for fewest points. Cheyenne Mountain tied for the silver medal with Northfield High School, each well behind the champions with 150 points. Ritzenhein also shattered the previous 4A course record from 2015 by more than 30 seconds.

The boys, led by sophomore Rocco Culpepper's third-place finish, tallied 58 points to easily outdistance the Hawks' 104 points, and third-place Thompson Valley High School's 146. The Cougar boys returned to the winner's circle for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2020. The past two seasons, Niwot was forced to settle for second place behind Cheyenne Mountain.

"It's great, I mean, those kids spend a lot of time with each other and work hard and it was just good to see them do what they've done all year," Coach Kelly Christensen said of the boys team. "A lot of times you go to those meets and for some reason kids let pressure get to them. And it's easy to do when you go up in altitude on a course with hills. It kind of magnifies and reinforces the negative mindset you might have had during the race, but our kids battled the whole time. It was fun to see."

GIRLS 4A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

The race for the individual goal medal featured last year's top two finishers, Ritzenhein and Summit High School's Ella Hagen. In a reversal of last year's finish, Ritzenhein ran away from Hagen, bettering the Tiger standout by nearly 30 seconds. The Niwot sophomore finished the course in 17:08:20 to better Hagen's mark of 17:38.00. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Ritzenhein and Hagen, two of the nation's top runners, should face off once again a year from now in another highly anticipated 4A showdown. Ritzenhein's performance was 20 seconds better than any other female runner in any class.

"When she finished, she was just smiling," Christensen said about his star. "Huge smiles. And I think that was the way we all felt from her teammates to her family to the Niwot community and from her coaches. I think she probably had the biggest smile of anyone out on the course yesterday (Saturday) and that's just exactly how it should be. She earned it."

Four Niwot seniors closed out their Colorado high school careers with outstanding performances. Olivia Alessandrini, who came on strong at the end of the season and finished third, while teammates Sarah Perkins and Mia Prok finished fourth and sixth, respectively.

Rounding out Top 10 finishes for the Cougars were sophomores Avalon Beltran (8th) and Anna Prok (10th). Senior Cayden Justice took 15th overall. Though Prok and Justice did not contribute to the Niwot team score, which counts only the top five places, they would have been no worse than second or third, respectively, if they ran for any other team in Class 4A.

BOYS 4A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

Christensen knew going into the race that his ace, Culpepper, was going to need to go out strong and hang with the state's top runners, especially the Battle Mountain High School duo of Will Brunner and Porter Middaugh.

"The strategy for Rocco specifically was to commit to two miles with the leaders regardless of how you're feeling or what's happening -- how aggressive or not aggressive they (the leaders) were," the Cougar coach said. "Rocco didn't get to two miles with the leaders. But those are some really strong runners, and they went out pretty hard." He noted that at one point Culpepper fell back as far as eighth place before coming on strong to take the bronze medal.

It was Battle Mountain's Brunner who took the gold with a finishing time of 15:19.90, just two seconds ahead of Mullen High School's Jacob Sushinsky. Culpepper finished six seconds behind the Mullen senior, while Middaugh came in fourth, one second behind the Niwot sophomore, who improved on his ninth place finish a year ago at state.

Junior Cole Mazurana, a transfer this year to Niwot, finished in eighth place, and was joined in the winning team total by sophomores Ryder Keeton (11th) and Hunter Robbie (20) and junior Evan Kear (21). Junior Keegan Geldean (25) and freshman Quinn Sullivan (26) rounded out the Cougars' state representatives with Top 30 finishes in the field of 151 runners. Both Geldean and Sullivan would have counted in the team score if they ran for any other 4A team in the state.

COMING UP

Having dominated Colorado competition, the Cougars aren't quite ready to stop running in 2023. Both the boys and girls teams will compete in the Nike Regionals on Nov. 18 in Phoenix, Arizona, as they attempt to earn invitations to the Nike National Championships on Saturday, Dec. 2, in Portland, Oregon. The first two teams from each of the nine Nike Regionals earn automatic berths in Portland. Four additional at-large berths will be selected from the remaining teams to complete the field of 22 teams chasing the title of Nike National Champions.

"I think (the girls) have got really good momentum," Christensen said. "I think the girls are even more excited now than they've been all year and really getting along as a team and can't wait for what's next. I think they have a lot more fun once we get into these other races here in November and December."