All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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All the hard work . . . all the long hours . . . all the miles of traveling . . . all of it is behind the Niwot Cougars’ cross country teams. Now, there’s nothing left for the runners to do but lace up their shoes and run for their ultimate goal . . . a 4A state championship trophy. Seven boys and seven girls from Niwot will don the green and silver and represent one of the country’s (not county’s) elite programs Saturday as they attempt to cap a nearly perfect 2023 racing season at the 4A State Championship Meet at Norris Penrose Event Center...
Make it a five-peat. For the fifth time in as many seasons, the Niwot High School girls cross country team took first place at the Class 4A state championships on Oct. 29. Months of preparation, including two trips to the Norris Penrose Event Center course in Colorado Springs, helped Niwot score 20 points - miles ahead of second-place Battle Mountain (122) and third-place Durango (134). "It was just incredible," said senior Madison Shults, who was one of six Cougars to finish in the top 10....
The past, future and present are all looking pretty good right now for the Niwot cross country program. One year after the girls' squad won state and the boys finished runner-up, the Cougars' juggernaut remains dangerous. On the boys' side, coming so close to winning Class 4A last season has Niwot motivated to finish the job in 2022. "I know the boys were pretty disappointed being runner-up and not doing as well as a team as they wanted to," said head coach Kelly Christensen. "They're on a reall...
BASEBALL David Bote, son of longtime Niwot High baseball coach Bob Bote, was placed on the 60-day injured list by the Chicago Cubs on March 19 as he continues to recover from off-season shoulder surgery. Bote, an infielder, dislocated his left shoulder while reaching back to touch second base after a slide sent him past the base on May 30, 2021. He missed almost two months of the season, but returned on July 25, only to go back on the injured list with a sprained ankle August 28. He is expected...
CROSS COUNTRY Taylor James (Niwot) is on the Cross Country roster for Stanford University this fall, but has not officially competed for the Cardinal yet. James, a freshman, will have an opportunity to run her trademark events (200M, 400M, 800M, Mile) during the indoor and outdoor track seasons. Her Stanford biography notes that her grandmother, Jana Veverkova (200M, 4x100M), and grandfather, Zdenek Veverka (triple jump), are both Czech Republic track and field national record-holders. Eva...
Niwot's Zane Bergen put an exclamation point on the end of his high school cross country career with another title-winning performance at the Class 4A state championships. All alone when he crossed the finish line at the Norris Penrose Events Center in Colorado Springs, the Stanford-bound Bergen posted a time of 15 minutes, 17.70 seconds, breaking the Class 4A meet record he set in 2020 (15:29). It was the second straight individual cross country championship for Bergen, and extends Niwot's...
Coming into the final 100 meters of the 2020 Class 4A state cross country race, Niwot junior Zane Bergen decided it was time to make his move. He was trailing leader Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos by a few steps, but he knew he had enough kick left to overtake the Green Mountain senior before the finish line. Unfortunately, the Green Mountain senior seemed to have other ideas. "I decided I'm going to go on the outside and get around him, but I guess I picked the wrong outside," Bergen said, describing the...
Fifth-year Niwot head coach Kelly Christensen is grateful that the 2020 high school cross country season is proceeding, even if in a modified form, but he was also quick to acknowledge that, like everything else that it hasn't cancelled or postponed this year, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the sport more difficult for everyone involved. "It's everything, whether it's the schedule, trying to plan Covid practices, debating whether or not we're going to cut rosters, or finding races. I would say...
It was another crowded National Letter of Intent signing ceremony at Niwot, as seven athletes made official commitments to collegiate programs on Nov. 13. Lexi Crow, Black Hills State University Lexi Crow's collegiate soccer ambitions may be taking her away from Colorado, but the picturesque campus of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D. will be like home away from home, according to the Cougar midfielder. "There's going to be mountains there, and open spaces, and it's green, so it's...
The Colorado state cross country meet has produced some amazing athletic achievements over the years, but few top Niwot's in the 2019 Class 4A championships, held Oct. 26 at the Norris-Penrose Center in Colorado Springs. Led by individual winners Samrawit Dishon and Cruz Culpepper, the Cougars emerged from a highly competitive field to capture both team titles and complete the first four-title sweep for a single school since 1995 (an honor Niwot shared with Lyons on the day). Afterwards,...
There were plenty of emotions to go around after the Niwot boys' inspiring win at the 2019 Class 4A state cross country championships on Oct. 26, but one in particular seemed predominant among coaches, parents, and athletes alike, according to fourth-year head coach Kelly Christensen. "A huge relief is probably the best way to describe it," he said after the Cougars beat out 19 other teams to claim the top spot at the state race for the first time in school history. "It's validation for them....
There wasn't much mystery about the team winner of the Class 4A Region 3 girls cross country race, after Niwot's top five runners crossed the finish line at Denver's City Park a good 30 seconds ahead of any other competitors. That resulted in a rare perfect score of 15 for the Cougars, which head coach Kelly Christensen feels is a good way to close out the 2019 regular season. "A perfect score is a perfect score, no matter where you get it or who you get it against or whatever the conditions,"...
It will be no small task for the 2019 Niwot cross country program to top the success of last season, especially with the names Layla Roebke, Ares Reading, and Maggie Smith gracing college rosters this year. But that’s the expectation of fourth-year head coach Kelly Christensen, and the results from the Cougars’ season debut at the VistaNation 2Mile Invitational lend credence to his claims. With top finishers in four of the six races at the exclusive meet, Niwot seems to have more than eno...
The Niwot track & field team put on a show at this year’s Class 4A state championships, and now the Niwot runners have been showing off across the country. From the Music City Distance Carnival in Nashville to the Great Southwest Classic in Albuquerque, the Cougars have been going up against the nation’s best and often coming out on top. Music City Distance Carnival, Nashville Two weeks after she won a second straight state title in the 800-meter run, Niwot sophomore Taylor James posted a per...
All eyes in Jeffco Stadium were on Niwot junior Jack Kenkel as he and Durango's Aidan Fitzgerald raced neck-and-neck down the stretch in the final leg of the 4×400 meter relay, the last event of the Class 4A state track and field championships. Down by four points in the team standings, the Cougar relay team of Kenkel, Jensen Douillard, Milo Ostwald and Nolan Johan needed a fifth place or better finish to surpass Pueblo East and claim their first ever team title. The crowd held its collective br...
Niwot track and field team is sending a robust contingent of athletes to this year’s Class 4A state championships, which open at Jeffco Stadium in Lakewood on Thursday, May 16. On the boys side, Niwot will have competitors in all but a handful of events, including junior Cruz Culpepper, the top seed in the 800m run. The Cougars also have the top seeded boys 4x800 relay, and Nolan Johan nabbed a pair of top-five seeds in hurdles. In field events, junior Milo Ostwald made the cut in both long a...
The Niwot girls track team continued its march towards the 2019 Class 4A title with a dominating performance at this year’s Northern Conference Championships, held May 3-4 at Everly Montgomery Field. The Cougars finished in first or second in all but a handful of events to end the day with 247 points, nearly triple that of second-place finisher Thompson Valley (95.5). Sophomore Taylor James was once again Niwot’s top point scorer, with wins in the 400 (56.40 seconds) and 800-meter (2:13.78) rac...
The Niwot track and field team turned in an historic performance at the Boulder County Championships (BoCo) meet last weekend, and now head coach Maurice Henriques can cross a few more items off of the Cougars’ 2019 to-do list. “Our goal was to win this meet on both sides,” Henriques said at the 43rd annual event, held on April 20 at Everly-Montgomery Field. “And, it’s the first time in school’s history that’s happened and the first time for the boys to have a win at the Boulder County Champi...
The Niwot track and field team lost a number of its top performers to graduation after last season, but Maurice Henriques isn’t fazed. In fact, the ninth-year head coach thinks the 2019 Cougars are poised for even more success, thanks in part to many of those departed stars. “I actually think we’re a better team this year than we were last year, as a complete team,” he said. “All of those girls are a year older, and the leadership that Mary [Gillett] and Mackenzie [Fidelak] passed down has been...
It’s hard to top a state championship for drama, but the Niwot girls’ performance at the Nike Cross National Championships on Dec. 1 may have come close. Seeded 22nd of the 22 teams invited, the Cougars finished fifth overall on the day and cemented their status as one of the most surprising high school cross country teams of 2018. One person who wasn’t surprised was Niwot cross country head coach Kelly Christensen, who said that his team knew they were better than their last-place seed. “Afte...
With barely time to catch their breath after winning the 2018 Class 4A state championship meet late last month, members of the Niwot girls cross country team traveled to Casa Grande, AZ, for the Nike Cross Nationals Southwest Regional on Nov. 17. Thousands of high school runners from teams in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah competed in the meet, one of eight regional qualifying events for the 15th annual Nike Cross National Championships coming up on Dec. 1 in Portland, Ore....
Niwot’s Ares Reading was not satisfied with his 11th-place finish at the cross country championships a year ago, so he decided to take a new approach for his senior year. Hoping to shake off the lingering effects of moving from California to a mile above sea level, Reading embarked on a grueling off-season workout program with his teammates over the summer in a bid for faster times. “The season before the season is where the work really gets put in, so I decided to focus on that,” he said....
Niwot star Cruz Culpepper capped off his sensational 2018 season by taking first overall at the Class 4A state championships, held Oct. 27 in Colorado Springs. Despite struggling “a bit” during the hilly second mile, the junior finished in 15 minutes, 48 seconds to claim his first-ever individual state title. “I didn’t have my best day, but I felt solid,” Culpepper said about his performance. Niwot’s Ares Reading came in just behind his teammate, as he has in nearly all of their races this...
The Niwot girls put an exclamation point on their “amazing” regular season with a dominating win at the Class 4A Region 3 cross-country championships, held at Lyons High School on Oct. 18. Running in a pack, the Cougars posted four of the race’s five fastest times to claim the team title and qualified to represent Niwot at the Class 4A State Championships in Colorado Springs on Oct. 27. “We had four girls, and any one of them could have won it,” Niwot head cross-country coach Kelly Christens...
Fresh off their head-turning performances at the season-opening Vista Nation 2-Mile on Aug. 24, Niwot’s top distance runners stepped aside for their underclass teammates at the Centaurus Warriors Invite on Sept. 1. For Cougars head coach Kelly Christensen, it was an exciting glimpse into the future of his program, as well as a way to solidify his 2018 varsity lineup. “They’re all ready, physically,” he said of the runners still competing for the remaining spots on the varsity roster. “It’s t...
The Niwot cross-country teams found their way back into the Class 4A top-10 in 2017, and now they’re ready to take it a step further. “Their goals are a state title and to go to Nike Nationals as a team,” third-year head coach Kelly Christensen.said. “Those are the goals they set, and that’s the work we did in preparation for that.” Both teams started charting their course to the Class 4A championship immediately after last year’s state meet. Since then, they’ve endured weeks of grueling indoor...
Even though their team fell short of its ultimate goal, seniors Alex Herman and Oskar Wells consider Niwot’s 18th-place finish at this year’s Class 4A state track and field championships a fitting coda to the boys’ most successful season in years. After scoring just 4 points total in their last four state appearances, this year’s squad racked up a total of 21 points at the three-day event, thanks mostly to Wells, who medaled twice, first for his fifth-place finish in the 800M and again with th...
For a sure sign that the Niwot boys track team is having a special season, look no further than the Northern League championships, held May 4-5 at Everly Montgomery Stadium in Longmont. Behind surprisingly strong performances in the sprints and jumping events, the Cougars scored 151 team points to claim the 2018 conference title, a feat Niwot head track coach Maurice Henriques called “a great accomplishment for our program.” “Being here for eight years, we’ve never a Northern Conference meet,...
Track and field coaches, student-athletes, parents, and other spectators from across Boulder paid their respects to long-time Courier photographer Edward Navarro at the 42nd annual Lonnie Nixon Boulder County Championships, held April 14 at Centaurus High School.. Navarro, a fixture at area high school and college sporting events for more than a decade, passed away on Dec. 31 from complications of pulmonary fibrosis. Navarro family members, including wife Trudy, son Edward (Lucky) and daughter...
Niwot sophomore Cruz Culpepper has finally hit his stride. After head-turning performances in two recent high profile track meets, the son of two former Olympians is generating buzz not just in local running circles, but nationally as well. On March 31, Culpepper took second in the 1600M at the Texas Relays, with a time of 4 minutes, 11.54 seconds, the fifth fastest high school time in this event so far this year. On April 7 in southern California, he took first in the boys mile race at the...
After her breakout cross country season, which included an impressive win in the regional meet, it would be easy to pigeonhole Niwot freshman Taylor James as mainly a distance runner. In her inaugural track and field season, however, the ninth-grader has shown a surprising depth of talent for both sprinting and jumping. Case in point is her performance at the exclusive Mullen Invitational, where she extended her streak of high jump wins to five with a mark of 5’6”, both a personal best and the s...
Even on St. Patrick’s Day, it wasn’t hard to spot the green-clad Niwot athletes competing in the Windsor Invitational, as they were almost always out in front of the pack. On a sunny spring day, tailor made for running fast, both veterans and newcomers set new personal bests in many of the meet’s sprint events, helping both the boys and girls to their second top-ten finishes of the still-early season. “It’s a perfect day,” Niwot head coach Maurice Henriques said. Now in his eighth year, Henri...
Following his team’s fourth-place finish at the Class 4A State cross country meet last Saturday, Niwot junior Benjamin Bi couldn’t hide his frustration. “We could have done a lot better,” said the junior, who finished 28th with a time of 16 minutes, 38 seconds. “I think we choked a little bit. There really isn’t anything else. We prepared all year. It just wasn’t our day.” Buoyed by a strong performance at the Regional meet in Lyons, the Cougars had their sights set on a top-three finis...
Niwot freshman Taylor James took top honors and junior Maggie Smith put an exclamation point on her comeback this season with an impressive fourth-place finish at the Class 4A Region 3 meet at Lyons H.S. last Thursday. With a time of 19 minutes 27 seconds, Smith finished right behind Valor Christian runners Keely Jones and Taylor Whitfield (2nd and 3rd) to post her first top-five time of the year. Smith and freshman James settled in at the head of the pack early, and led as a tandem until James...
Since their breakout performances in Arizona last month, the Niwot cross country teams have been gearing up for the postseason, which kicks off this week with the Class 4A Region 3 meet at Lyons High on Thursday. The top four teams in that race will advance to the state meet later this month in Colorado Springs. “We’re not going to make a big deal out of beating anyone and everyone,” said Niwot head coach Kelly Christensen of his team’s mindset heading into the regional qualifier, where the Coug...
The Niwot cross country teams turned some heads at the Desert Twilight XC Festival in Casa Grande, AZ last weekend with surprise third-place finishes for both the boys and the girls. More than 100 teams from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas competed in the meet, which is held on a lighted course after sundown. Niwot’s runners ran in the Sweepstakes race, which featured more than 200 runners from the region’s top cross country programs. Led by freshman Taylor James, who fin...
Running as a pack, the Niwot boys and girls cross country teams both took first place at the RE-1J District meet in convincing fashion. Paced by sophomore Cruz Culpepper, the Niwot boys had five of the race’s ten fastest times to take first place with 21 points. Lyons was second on the day, with 58 points, followed by Mead (60) and Erie (104). Culpepper took second overall with a time of 17 minutes, 51.79 seconds, followed by seniors Ethan Steiner (17:53.15) in third, Oskar Wells (17.55.64) in f...
The Niwot Cougars cross country teams kicked-off their 2017 season Aug. 25 at the Vista Nation XC 2-Mile Invitational in Highlands Ranch. Both Niwot varsity teams finished fourth on the day, with the girls just five points out of second place. Overall, Niwot head coach Kelly Christensen was cheered by the results, although he acknowledged the boys’ performance was “a little flat,” mostly due to a recent spate of illness and minor injuries. “Comparing it to last year, we’re light years ahead of...
The Niwot Cougars cross country teams kicked-off their 2017 season Aug. 25 at the Vista Nation XC 2-Mile Invitational in Highlands Ranch. The small, highly competitive meet attracted many of the state’s top teams and runners, including meet host and Class 5A powerhouse Mountain Vista, as well as perennial 4A favorite Palmer Ridge. Both Niwot varsity teams finished fourth on the day, with the girls just five points out of second place. Overall, Niwot head coach Kelly Christensen was cheered by t...
The Niwot boys tennis program lost seven of its varsity players from 2016, but head coach Miikka Keronen sees no reason why that should keep the Cougars from making another state title run in 2017. “We don’t accept being mediocre,” said Keronen, who had to replace two of his three top singles players and four of his doubles players. “It might take six days a week instead of five days a week, but we’ll figure out how to do it with the kids we have.” That has been Keronen’s philosophy in...
Niwot head cross country coach Kelly Christensen said he is out of the prediction business after his team’s dispiriting finish at last year’s Class 4A state championship meet. “I don’t want to say where I think they’ll be, because last year I said that and we had kind of a meltdown at state,” said the second year head coach. “So I’m just going to keep them healthy and keep them rolling.” But even if he won’t say so explicitly, it’s clear that Christensen believes Niwot has the potential for a s...
It’s no secret that the Niwot girls track team had its sights set on another state title this year. After a dispiriting third-place finish in 2016 following three successive state championships, this year’s squad buckled down, putting in months of grueling workouts, determined to regain the team’s customary place on top of the championship podium. As they cruised through the 2017 regular season, capturing one meet title after another with machine-like precision, the slip-ups that doomed their...
The Niwot girls track team took second place at the Class 4A Track and Field State Championships held this weekend at Jeffco Memorial Stadium. Originally scheduled to run Thursday thru Saturday, the meet was postponed two days due to last weekend’s winter storm. To accommodate a two-day schedule, preliminary races were eliminated, and jumping and throwing events were shortened to four-attempts apiece. Below are the full results for Niwot athletes. For a more complete look at the meet, see next W...
Before last weekend’s St. Vrain New Balance Invitational, Niwot head track coach Maurice Henriques was hopeful his boys relay team would finally post a state qualifying time. With just one week left before the 2017 Class 4A Track & Field Championships, the crowded meet was the last chance they would get this season, and he knew they were close. “That’s our goal,” he explained following the Northern Conference championships, where all four relays finished in second place. “Hopefully, the weath...
It was business as usual for the Niwot girls track team at the Stutler Bowl Twilight Invitational, held April 24 at Cherry Creek High School. Against a talented field comprised of several of Colorado’s top-ranked Class 4A and 5A squads, the Niwot girls scored 98.7 points on the day to edge out Rocky Mountain (96) for the team title. It was also business as usual for Niwot junior Mary Gillett, who finished the day with multiple individual titles, including the 100-meter dash (12.38 seconds), t...
The Boulder County Championship meet has been a mid-April fixture on the calendar of local track and field teams for more than four decades, but no team has made its presence felt there more than the Niwot girls. At this year’s event, held April 15 at Everly-Montgomery Field, the Cougars stormed to their eighth straight BoCo title, winning nine individual events and scoring 172 team points, nearly double that of second-place Broomfield (94). In a season already filled with personal bests and m...
On April 8, the Niwot track and field teams traveled to south Denver to compete in the small but exclusive Mullen Invitational, and once again there were many familiar names at the top of the girls leaderboard. Niwot junior Mary Gillett finished second in the 200-meter dash, with a season best time of 25.10 seconds. She also claimed a second and another season-best in the 300m hurdles (45.14). Senior Alexis Carroll finished second in the 100m hurdles (14.73, a season-best) and the triple jump...
The Niwot girls track and field team continued to dominate the local competition, picking up wins at the St. Vrain Re-1J District meet on March 23 and at the Broomfield Shootout on March 25. The boys also fared well at the District meet, finishing second out of nine teams, and placed 23rd at the Broomfield meet, in a 33-team field that included several Class 5A schools. It was another impressive week for junior Mary Gillett and her senior teammate Alexis Carroll. At the St. Vrain meet, held...
In a sport where results are measured in thousandths of seconds, and athletes are judged by measured individual results, it can be hard to quantify abstract concepts like unity and team chemistry. But that doesn’t mean such things aren’t critical to a team’s success. When members of the Niwot track teams take the field at their events this season, Head Coach Maurice Henriques wants each one to remember that the whole team has their back. “Our theme this year is loyalty,” he explained. “You’ll s...
On Saturday Mar. 11, the Niwot track and field teams got up in the wee hours and headed south for the CSU-Pueblo Early Bird Invitational. Niwot junior Mary Gillett won four individual events in the girls meet, the most by any single runner on the day. She secured the first place medal in the 100 meter dash with a time of 12.67 seconds, and was also the fastest girl at 200 (26:03), and 400 meters (57.76). In the long-jump, Gillett tied senior teammate Alexis Carroll for the top-spot, with a leap...
