All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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Shaving nearly two seconds off her second run, Niwot freshman Emily Creek claimed her second individual slalom title of the season at the CHSAA Girls Slalom Event at Winter Park on Feb. 8. Skiing for the Nederland High School team, Creek finished with a combined time of 1 minute, 50.01 seconds, more than two seconds faster than runner-up Beth Anne Droll of Middle Park (1:52.14). Nederland ended the day with 163 points, good for third overall in the tight team race, one point behind Middle Park...
Late season woes continued for the Niwot girls basketball team, which dropped another two conference games last week, and were all but eliminated from post-season contention in spite of a Saturday night victory over Silver Creek. On Feb. 6, the Cougars were blown-out at Mountain View 60-24, a stunning reversal from the earlier season matchup, won handily by Niwot. Then, two nights later, the Cougars squandered a 13-point third-quarter effort by Sophie Grant at Thompson Valley for their sixth...
Niwot senior David Koon wrapped up his high-school wrestling career last weekend at the Class 4A State Regional tournament. Saying goodbye to the sport he has loved since eighth grade has been harder than he expected. “Even though you wrestle as an individual, it’s really a team sport,” Koon said. “It’s a brotherhood. Everybody works together to better each other, and that aspect is really important to me.” Koon didn’t have a ton of success on the mat this season, with just five wins in 20 match... Full story
Niwot wrestling called it a season at the Class 4A Regional 4 tournament at Golden High School last weekend, after none of its wrestlers qualified to compete at the upcoming state meet. Max Pechersewski (106), Brandon Barton (138), and Keith Hemenway (152) all won consolation round matches, but otherwise the Cougars were shut out of the scoring and finished last in the team standings, with just 10 points. Niwot head coach Bobby Matthews had tempered expectations for his team going into the weeke...
A pair of exciting top-three finishes in the last four events catapulted the Niwot girls swim team past cross-town rival Silver Creek and into fifth place at the Class 4A State Championship finals at the VMAC Feb. 10. Sophomore Abby Shaw bested her preliminary time by more than half a second to take second in the 100 backstroke right after freshman Emiley Yie led the eighth-seeded 200 freestyle relay team to a surprise third-place finish in the dramatic final. Niwot ended the day with top-ten...
With 420 team points, the Niwot girls captured second place in the 2018 Northern League swimming championships, held Feb. 2-3 at the Veteran’s Memorial Aquatic Center (VMAC) in Thornton. Niwot swimmers claimed conference titles in four of the 12 events, and three more Cougars qualified to compete in next weekend’s Class 4A state meet. “They were fantastic days of swimming for all of our girls,” Niwot head coach Sarah Stamp said. “It was an awesome performance by everyone.” Sophomore Payten Irwi...
On Jan. 26, Niwot High freshman Emily Creek took first place in the CHSAA girls slalom race at Copper Mountain. With a time of 1 minute 35.66 seconds, Creek beat out more than 70 other competitors for her first high-school win and her third top-ten finish of the season. On Jan. 18, she was just 12 one-hundredths of a second out of first in the girls slalom at Winter Park, and on Jan. 12, she finished fifth in the giant slalom (GS) event at Eldora. With the wins, she is qualified to compete at... Full story
Thanks to an outstanding defensive effort led by seniors Rosie Setter and Allie Colvin, the Niwot girls basketball team snapped its four-game losing streak with a dramatic 34-32 victory over cross-town rival Longmont on Feb. 2. The Cougars forced 23 turnovers on the night, and held the Trojans to their lowest point total since Dec. 7. “That was a hard-fought win,” Niwot head coach Terri Ward said after her team edged out the Trojans for the second time this season. “Either team deserved to wi...
The Niwot wrestling team wrapped up the 2017-18 regular season on Feb. 1, falling 55-24 to 10th-ranked Mountain View. Matt Bitterman, David Koon, and Julian Molina all posted victories in their contested matches, while senior Brandon Barton was the beneficiary of a forfeit in the 138-pound class. Sophomores Keith Hemenway and Colton Gruszczynski fell in decisions. Following the meet, Niwot head coach Bobby Matthews said he was pleased with his wrestlers’ improvement down the stretch, even if i...
Niwot senior Rosie Setter may not be the highest scoring player on the girls basketball team, but it would be impossible to tell the story of the team’s recent success without her. After sitting out most of her junior season after suffering a torn ACL, the power forward returned to the court for Niwot in November on a mission: make up for lost time. “I hate the saying, ‘You never know how much you love something until you let it go’, but it’s so incredibly true,” Setter said. “I realized how... Full story
No coach enjoys losing, but Niwot’s Terri Ward was surprisingly upbeat following her team’s 49-38 home court loss to Greeley Central on Jan 26. After her team fell to Northridge unexpectedly on Jan. 23, the coach admitted she wasn’t sure which version of her team would take the court against the first place Wildcats; the one who put together an impressive string of wins to start 2018, or the one that “laid an egg” against the Grizzlies earlier in the week. Much to her relief, it turned ou...
There’s a touch of irony in the fact that Payten Irwin has emerged as a standout swimmer for Niwot. After all, her mother — better known around these parts as Coach Aimee Keronen — has long been the head of Niwot’s high-performing girls tennis team. Irwin, however, never took to the racquet and court, so it was into the pool she went. “I tried tennis, but I was always pretty bored with it,” she said. “I played soccer a lot when I was younger, but one day I just decided to try swim practice and I...
The red-hot Niwot girls basketball team finally cooled off a bit last Thursday night, falling 45-41 to the first-place Centaurus Warriors after nearly pulling off a late-game comeback. Down by 11 early in the fourth quarter, the Cougars battled back to take the lead with less than 90 seconds to go, but late turnovers gave Centaurus all the chance they needed to put the game away for good. “We knew we had to play pretty much perfect, and we had some miscues,” Niwot head coach Terri Ward said fol... Full story
Niwot swimmers took first or second place in seven of 12 events at the four-team All-City meet on Jan. 20, but it wasn’t quite enough to overtake the Silver Creek juggernaut. With a team score of 375 points, the Cougars finished second to the Raptors (455) for the fourth straight year, and will have to wait until 2019 for their next chance to reclaim the “Best in Longmont” title. “I’m thrilled to get second - the girls did great,” Niwot head coach Sarah Stamp said following the four-team m...
Led by first-year wrestlers Julian Molina and Matt Bitterman, the Niwot Cougars outlasted cross-town rival Silver Creek Thursday night Jan. 18, picking up their second Northern League victory of the year. “I am very proud of the two of them,” Matthews said following the win. “To come out for wrestling as sophomores for the first time is tough and they have embraced the grind.” Senior Brandon Barton (138 pounds) notched his sixth win of 2018 in the 41-36 Cougar victory, while sophomore Keith H...
It’s been an undeniably rough few weeks for the Niwot boys basketball team. Since resuming conference play on Jan. 9 against Longmont, the Cougars have gone 0-4, while scoring just 40 points per game, and losing by an average of nearly 32 points. With just nine games to go in the season, the Cougars’ playoff hopes are gone, but head coach Eric Hejl is hoping to end the year on a high note nevertheless. “At this point, a lot of guys have to take a hard look in the mirror and decide why they... Full story
Niwot senior Nathan Hemenway is only 85 percent of the wrestler he was last year, and that’s just the way he likes it. As a junior, Hemenway wrestled in the 195-pound weight class, up 25-30 pounds from his sophomore weight of 170. After just moderate success at the heavier weight, he elected to shed the extra pounds and return to the lighter classification ahead of his fourth and final season. “I was being kind of stupid in how I was managing my weight,” he explained of the decision to retur...
The Niwot girls basketball team played its best game of the season on Thursday, Jan.12, beating conference foe Mountain View 62-46 in a game Niwot head basketball coach Terri Ward called “fabulous.” “They did everything I wanted them to do and more,” an elated Ward said after her team’s best offensive effort of the year. “We’ve had a good week. We’ve had a good 2018.” After starting the season 0-4, Niwot has gone 4-2 to improve to 6-6 on the year, and is now 2-1 in conference play. On Jan. 9,...
The Niwot girls swim team is making a splash in the early weeks of 2018, thanks to veterans Payten Irwin and Abbie Shaw, plus a group of newcomers who are providing depth in several key events. With the annual All City Meet just around the corner, head coach Sarah Stamp and the Cougars are looking forward to competition heating up in the final weeks of the season. “What’s been great is that they’re improving from week to week,” Stamp said of her team’s strong showing so far in 2017-18....
It was a rough ride for the Niwot boys basketball team at last weekend’s fourth annual Roughrider Shootout at Roosevelt High School. The Cougars went 0-3 at the round-robin tournament, losing on successive days to Skyview, Conifer, and Denver West, and extending their losing streak to eight games. Though their play improved over the weekend, a lack of consistent effort was once again the Cougars’ undoing, according to head coach Eric Hejl. “When we don’t play with confidence, we have a really...
Representatives from five decades of Niwot wrestling were on hand for the second-annual Niwot Wrestling Alumni Night, held Jan. 5 during the Cougars’ dual against Elizabeth. From Brett Rugger (class of 1977) to Brandon Slepicka (2014), more than a dozen former Cougar grapplers came out for the event, which was organized by Niwot head wrestling coach Bobby Matthews in an effort to strengthen ties between his team and the community. “Thank you guys for coming out here and trying to help us build t... Full story
It would have been hard to picture a month ago, but the Niwot girls basketball team is on a bit of a hot streak. Since their 74-17 pummeling at the hands of Greeley Central on Dec. 8, the Cougars have regrouped, and their renewed focus on discipline and teamwork has started to pay dividends in the form of wins. After picking up another two last weekend’s Roughrider Shootout at Roosevelt, the Cougars improved to 4-6 on the year, and will be heading into the heart of their conference schedule w...
It’s not typical for a freshman to emerge as a team leader, but, then again, it hasn’t been a typical year for the Niwot cheer team. Following a last-minute coaching change and the departure of more than half of the cheerleaders, the team nearly disbanded in the early weeks of the 2017-18 school year. As the fall sports season loomed, just a handful of cheerleaders remained. Fortunately for new first-year coaches Alexis Bellinger and Catherine Linhardt, ninth-grader Kendra Perez was one of the... Full story
Niwot cheer coach Alexis Bellinger isn’t shy about praising her team’s performance at this year’s Class 4A State Cheerleading tournament, held Dec. 8-9 at the Denver Coliseum. “The girls were in a great place,” said Bellinger, who co-coaches the team with former Erie cheer assistant Catherine Linhardt. “Everything was falling into place. We went out to perform, and they had an absolutely flawless routine. They had zero deductions. Absolutely every stunt, every tumbling, and every jump hit, and w...
The Niwot girls basketball team headed into the holiday break on a high note, with a hard-fought win over the previously undefeated Skyview Wolverines. In a defensive battle on the professional-size court at the Pepsi Center, the Cougars held Skyview to a just 33 points, while another multifaceted offensive effort netted the Cougars the 35 they needed to pull off their second victory of the still-young 23-game season. For Head Coach Terri Ward, her team’s effort on both sides of the ball in the...
Niwot senior Tyler Crall didn’t have much time to lament the end of his high school soccer career. Less than 48 hours after the Cougars’ semifinal loss to Centaurus in the Class 4A state playoffs on Nov. 8, the second-year varsity defenseman switched out his cleats for sneakers in preparation for the upcoming Niwot boys’ basketball season, which officially opened on Nov. 10. In 18 games with the Niwot soccer team this year, Crall had four goals on 13 shots, but made his bones as a member of th...
Niwot student Lucas Steiner’s penchant for hard work is paying dividends this fall. As a member of the Niwot’s football team, the 185-pound offensive lineman was pressed into service on defense this season, after a rash of injuries left the coaches scrambling to field a full squad. Steiner played both as offensive guard and middle linebacker in several games, earning a post-season “Dog” award from the coaches for being a “loyal, hardworking kid who does things the right way.” “Lucas was...
After a shaky 0-4 start to the season, the Niwot girls basketball team finally got a tick in the win column Dec. 12 with a dogged overtime victory over cross-town rival Skyline. Senior Mary Gillett had a season-high 22 points in the win, while Rosie Setter led the defensive charge with seven rebounds, three blocks, and three deflections. “We needed a win in the worst way, and we got it,” Niwot head basketball coach Terri Ward said after her team snapped its four-game skid. “We didn’t play pe...
In the wake of Tommy Stager’s tremendous individual success, the Niwot wrestling program has seen a surge in popularity. Since taking over the program three seasons ago, head coach Bobby Matthews has seen his team more than double in size, from just 12 wrestlers in 2015-16 to more than 30 wrestlers this year. Such growth is not only gratifying, Matthews said, but it’s also one of the key factors to future success. “It’s huge in the process of building the program,” he explained. “More com... Full story
After their impressive ninth-place finish at last season’s Class 4A state meet, the Niwot Cougars girls swim team lost nearly 20 swimmers to graduation, including talented state-qualifiers Chase Balman, Madison Barkow, and Camryn Kenkel. Luckily for head coach Sarah Stamp, a brand new crop of speedy freshman was waiting in the wings, and a restocked Niwot squad is ready for a fresh run at the Class 4A state title. “I feel we can be quite competitive this season,” said Stamp, who was last seaso...
After opening the season with three straight non-conference road games, the Niwot boys basketball team finally made their home debut last Friday night, hosting Greeley Central in an early Northern League contest. Unfortunately, the struggling Cougars were unable to convert that home crowd energy into a much-needed win. “The urgency’s just not there,” said a clearly frustrated head coach Eric Hejl after his team’s third straight loss. Since the team’s 60-55 season-opening win over Frederick... Full story
Junior Tommy Bounds and company sprinted out of the gate in their season-opener against Frederick last Wednesday night, building a quick lead over the Warriors and giving Cougar fans plenty of fodder for their post-season fantasies. A slew of turnovers and missed shots in the second quarter stalled the Cougars’ early momentum, and new head coach Eric Hejl’s team had to battle down the stretch. Buoyed senior Cameron Carlson’s fourth quarter heroics, Niwot finally put Frederick away 60-55, and c...
Led by senior guard Mary Gillett’s 16 fourth-quarter points, the Niwot girls nearly pulled off an improbable comeback against the Erie Tigers last Friday night. Down by seven with just over a minute to go, Gillett rattled off four points in the next 45 seconds to bring the Cougars to within three. After a forced turnover at half court, her senior teammate Sophie Grant evened it up at 55 as the last seconds ticked off, forcing overtime in a game that was seemingly out of reach just seconds earlie...
Niwot head girls basketball coach Terri Ward didn’t need to come up with any clever gimmicks to motivate her team this year. After coming achingly close to making the postseason for the first time since 2014, Ward and her team are keeping one number in mind as they take the court for the 2017-18 season: .003678. “Point zero-zero-three-six-seven-eight is driving this team this year,” said Ward, who is entering her fifth season since resuming head coaching duties in 2013. That tiny number was t...
Don’t look now, but Mackenzie Fidelak might not be the only Niwot senior headed to a highly selective California university to continue her volleyball career. Senior Katie Pearson, who finished the season as the Cougars’ top defensive specialist, has submitted her application for admission to the exclusive California Institute of Technology (CalTech), where she hopes to study biochemistry and compete for a spot on the Beavers’ volleyball roster. Last season, Pearson was a reliable presence in th...
It’s been a memorable few weeks for Mackenzie Fidelak. On Nov. 9, the senior inked an early letter of intent to continue her volleyball career at Stanford University, fulfilling a long-time dream. On Nov. 10, she led the Cougars to their first appearance in the Class 4A state semifinals since 1997. Then, on Nov. 21, Fidelak was named Class 4A Player of the Year by the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA). “It’s a wonderful accomplishment,” said Niwot head volleyball coach Daisha...
Following the graduation of seven varsity players and the unexpected resignation of head coach Preston Hardy, there isn’t much resemblance between the Niwot team that exited the court after a playoff loss to Elizabeth last February and the one poised to take the court against Frederick on Wednesday night. But that’s just at a glance, according to new interim head coach Eric Hejl. Behind the new faces, most of the framework supporting last year’s memorable season is still intact. “We had a lot o...
It’s hard to characterize 2017 as anything but a breakout season for Niwot forward Manual Tapia. After just two varsity appearances in 2016, the junior seemingly came out of nowhere to score a team-high 41 points and lead the Cougars to the Class 4A state semifinals for the first time since 2011. Of his 16 goals on the year, five were game winners, including the golden goals in Niwot’s Oct. 10 win over Silver Creek and in the quarterfinal match against Denver North in the final seconds of dou... Full story
Mackenzie Fidelak - Stanford For as long as she can remember, Niwot volleyball standout Mackenzie Fidelak has had Stanford University at the top of her college wish list, but not necessarily for obvious reasons. To be sure, Stanford is home to one of the most successful collegiate volleyball programs in the country. Winners of seven NCAA national championship matches —and runners-up in another eight—the Cardinal are a perennial top-ten team that has never finished a season with a losing record.... Full story
Last Friday at the Denver Coliseum, the Niwot volleyball team did something no other Niwot team has done since 1997 -- advanced to the final four of the Class 4A state tournament. With a boisterous contingent of fans cheering them on, the No. 4 seed Cougars dispatched No. 9 Discovery Canyon 23-25, 25-15, 25-17, 25-15 and No. 5 seed Palmer Ridge 20-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-13 to clinch a berth in the semifinal round, their first in 20 years. Unfortunately for Niwot, their semifinal opponent was No....
With 176.75 team points, Niwot captured second place overall at last weekend’s Class 4A State gymnastics meet at Thornton H.S. Despite leading after their first two rotations (floor and vault), the Cougars fell just shy of beating Anastasia Buzalsky and the Elizabeth Cardinals (179.15), who took home their fourth state title since 2009. Buzalsky took the top individual honors with high scores in all but one of the rotations. Niwot gymnast Lindsay Chohon took second in the All-Around c... Full story
Niwot gymnast Lilliana Martin is the Left Hand Valley Courier Student-Athlete of the Week. Martin capped off her high-school gymnastics career last weekend with her fourth appearance at the Class 4A state meet where she placed ninth in the All-Around competition, and helped lead her team to second place overall. In the individual events, the senior placed fifth overall in the floor event, and sixth in vault and bars. Her final appearance at state was all the sweeter because it almost didn’t h... Full story
The Cougars cleared one more hurdle in their quest for the 2017 state volleyball title last Friday night, sweeping No. 33 Cañon City and No. 21 Eagle Valley to win the Class 4A Region 4 tournament and earn the No. 4 seed in next weekend’s state tournament at the Denver Coliseum. “So far this season, our goals have been accomplished. League champion was number one. Regional champ was number two, and now we move on to number three,” said Cougar Head Coach Daisha Agho after the Cougars clinch...
If Niwot’s 7-0 win in Round 1 of the Class 4A state tournament put any lingering doubts about the offense to rest, then the two matches since have done the same for the defense. Thanks to their nearly impenetrable back line, the Cougars claimed narrow victories over Battle Mountain and Denver North to advance to the State semifinals for the first time since 2011. “They’re a special crew,” Niwot head coach Stephen Dimit said of seniors Tyler Crall, Nicholas Grant, Cam Lee, and Abel Marrufo... Full story
The Niwot Cougars put together their best offensive performance of the year last Saturday, but fell 56-15 to the Greeley West Spartans in the final home game of 2017. Senior quarterback Matt Baun went 12-for-20 passing with 136 yards on the day, and connected with senior Nate Nielsen for the Cougars’ first receiving touchdown since Sept. 22. Freshman Ayden Bartko also had positive yardage on the day, with one completion in one attempt for 46 yards. Nielsen ended the day with six catches for 8...
Any lingering doubts about the potency of Niwot’s offense were put to rest in a 7-0 rout of the No. 30 seed Erie Tigers in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs last Wednesday. Even with their leading-scorer Manny Tapia minding the net for an injured Mario Munoz, the Cougars dominated possession in all but a handful of the match’s eighty minutes and had no trouble generating scoring opportunities. “I don’t know if I expected seven goals, but I expected our guys to come out and play really...
In 2016, life handed Niwot distance runner Maggie Smith a big lemon in the form of an injury that kept her out of competitive racing for all but a few weeks of her sophomore year. “It was a big emotional struggle for me because I love running,” said the junior, who took up the sport at Boulder Country Day in first grade. “I realized when it was taken away that it was my personality and my identity.” Fast forward to 2017, and Smith has turned that lemon into lemonade. After several months...
The Niwot Cougars will have to wait a few more weeks for their next chance to avenge last year’s heartbreaking playoff loss to Holy Family. Last Monday night, Ali Travis and the Tigers clawed their way back from an 0-2 deficit to hand Niwot its third loss of the season, 25-23, 25-23, 15-25, 17-25, 15-17. Niwot head coach Daisha Agho praised her team’s effort following the hard-fought match, but was disappointed with her inability to adjust to Holy Family’s attack. “I’m glad to see we can still... Full story
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...
Despite playing their “best soccer in two years,” the Niwot boys soccer team almost got more than it could handle from a Longmont Trojans squad still vying for a playoff spot in the last game of the regular season. An overachieving Trojans’ defense repeatedly stymied Niwot’s relentless attack during the rare night game at Everly Montgomery Field last Wednesday, and the Cougars barely escaped with a 1-1 tie. “Score line aside, I was really happy with the way that we played for most of that game... Full story
