NoCo Nine: Track champs, big tennis wins and district dominance highlight week's best

NoCo Nine returns with a track-and-field-heavy edition — no surprise with a big week that included the Randy Yaussi city championships.

Fossil Ridge keeps proving itself across the board, Timnath is making some serious noise and a Windsor sprinter continued a breakout campaign.

Elsewhere, Rocky Mountain tennis added another accolade, Fort Collins got a city rivalry victory on the courts and two district boys squads earned high-flying home wins.

Here are the best things we saw in Fort Collins-area high school sports over the past week:

Note: If you have nominations for future NoCo Nine editions, please send them via email to ChrisAbshire@coloradoan.com for consideration.

Fossil Ridge stands out at city meet, Pomona Invite

The SaberCats keep showing out on the track this season, posting another big week in two prominent events.

The Fossil Ridge girls took the Randy Yaussi city team title by 190 points and the boys took second in a close race with Fort Collins.

Fossil won seven of 10 relay events, five of six jumps and the girls shot put and pole vault. Tatum Berg won the 800 and 1,600-meter runs, securing a school record in the 1,600 with a sub-5-minute time. Luke Garvin nearly swept the boys jumps, winning the high/triple jumps and placing second in the long jump.

The SaberCats followed it up with an impressive showing at the Pomona Invitational over the weekend. The girls squad finished fifth and Fossil compiled six total top-five finishes.

Berg took the 1,600 meters again and nearly broke her own school record, Mia Williams won the 800 meters, and Marcus Mozer had top-five finishes in the boys long jump (runner-up) and 200-meter dash (5th).

Rocky girls tennis builds on special season

The Lobos have been acing this season on the tennis court.

Rocky Mountain earned the city title two weeks ago and followed that up with a team championship at Ralston Valley's Mustang Invite last week.

Six Lobos lines out of seven won their brackets, including No. 1 singles player Faith Galyardt and No. 1 doubles sister duo Lucia and Nora Johnson.

Rocky is now 7-0 (5-0) in duals this year, plus this tournament win and another runner-up. Next up is the Front Range League Championships this week in Loveland.

PSD Stars shine on big Canvas stage

The Canvas game is becoming a tradition for the Poudre School District boys lacrosse team with an annual matchup in the Colorado State University stadium.

The Stars took down Mountain Range on Saturday with an easy 14-7 win in the league matchup.

Nine PSD players scored overall, and Colton Pawlak led the way with three goals, while Ethan Hough added two goals and three assists.

The Stars (5-4) are surging lately, winning three straight and averaging 14 goals in their last four games.

Timnath track keeps leveling up

The Timnath track and field team keeps proving itself as a state favorite in Class 2A, especially on the girls side.

The Cubs punched above their weight at the Yaussi city meet and again at the Pomona Invite, taking on the big schools and faring well.

Timnath won three of four hurdles events, with Lily Eisbrener (100 girls), Addison Geraets (300 girls) and Vince Hochhalter (300 boys) all winning city titles.

Then, the Cubs' girls finished 10th at the Pomona Invite, a remarkable showing against a field full of far bigger schools. Timnath had five top-five finishes, including new school records for Geraets (300 hurdles), Natalie Washburn (800 run) and the 4x800 relay (Geraets, Eisbrener, Izzy Schimmelpfennig and Jensen DeAngelis).

Timnath now holds the top 2A times in all five girls relay events.

Rocky girls soccer pushes past Lambkins in city rivalry

The city rivalry intensity was on full display at French Field on Thursday for another soccer rivalry matchup.

The Lobos took down Fort Collins, 4-2, pulling away after the match was tied at halftime. Jace Holley scored two goals and nearly had a first-half hat trick with a ball off the post.

But Isabel Guerrero and Fiona Khankhanian matched her with two sensational goals. After halftime, though, Rocky dominated possession with Mia Thomas and Addison Osilka converting for two key scores.

The Lobos have just one obstacle for the city title: top-10 Fossil Ridge in a crosstown showdown Tuesday.

PSD boys volleyball get ranked win in busy week

It was a busy several days for the PSD boys volleyball district squad during a 4-2 week overall.

The Stars split four matches at the highly competitive Cheyenne Mountain tournament in Colorado Springs, sweeping James Irwin and Sand Creek but falling to Littleton and Valor Christian.

PSD also won a pair of earlier home matches, highlighted by a tight 3-2 win over No. 9 Niwot. Geo Schwalm, Trevor Baldwin and Alex Van Thuyne each had double-digit kills, while Ty Morris and Jason Mynatt dished out a combined 42 assists.

Windsor's Mikey Munn sweeps again

The Wizards senior may be having a better spring than he did in his fall football campaign. Which is saying something since he was a Class 4A first team all-state selection there.

But Munn swept the 100- and 200-meter dash titles at the Pomona Invite over the weekend, his third time sweeping both events this season.

He set new meet record times in both events and his time of 21.05 seconds in the 200 is among the top-10 in the country this season for high school boys.

Collins takes thrilling crosstown rivalry dual

Fort Collins went on the road for a city tennis matchup and headed back crosstown with a big rivalry win.

The Lambkins beat Poudre 6-1 in a thrilling dual that came down to several third sets.

Evy Sadeh outlasted Kavi Voglund on the No. 1 singles line, Malena Glaser and Sierra Wheeler dominated a super-tiebreak set in No. 4 doubles and Taylor Alcaraz won her winner-take-all set 6-1 over Avery Leman.

Fort Collins' other city rivalry match at Fossil Ridge last week was rained out midway through the dual.

Games of the week (April 15-20)

There are some key city games this week, especially on the diamond and the soccer pitch:

• Fort Collins at Fossil Ridge baseball (Tuesday, 4:30 p.m.)

• Fossil Ridge at Rocky Mountain girls soccer (Tuesday, 6 p.m.)

• Front Range League tennis championships, in Loveland (Monday and Tuesday, 9 a.m.)

• Wellington at Resurrection Christian baseball (Thursday, 4 p.m.)

• Rocky Mountain at Poudre baseball (Thursday, 6 p.m.)

• Fort Collins at Poudre girls soccer (Thursday, 6 p.m.)

• Huskie Twilight track invite, Parker (Friday, 1 p.m.)

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: NoCo Nine: Best of Fort Collins-area prep sports for April 7-13