State cross country: Niwot girls and boys stay golden

Oct. 28—COLORADO SPRINGS — When Niwot girls cross country steps onto the course at the Norris Penrose Event Center for the Class 4A state championships, a team title is almost a foregone conclusion.

An individual course record is just icing on the cake.

On a chilly Saturday morning for the penultimate competition of the fall sports season, the Cougars cruised to an easy team championship behind sophomore phenom Addison Ritzenhein, who crushed the previous 4A course record of 17 minutes, 39 seconds set by Air Academy's Katie Rainsberger in 2015.

Ritzenhein clocked in at 17:08.2, the first in a sea of green to ascend the podium. In doing so, she beat out last year's state champion, Summit's Ella Hagen, by 30 seconds.

"I kind of envisioned it from the start of the season, but I wanted to do what I could do, put it all out there and race with Ella. I knew there would be so many good competitors and I'm just so grateful," Ritzenhein said. "I consider her one of my favorite competitors. She paces the race so well."

Behind her, seniors Olivia Alessandrini (third, 18:01.2), Sarah Perkins (fourth, 18:07.1), Mia Prok (6th, 18:17.2) , sophomores Avalan Beltran (eighth, 18:22.9), Anna Prok (10th, 18:46.4) and senior Cayden Justice (15th, 18:58.7) all poured into the finish.

In doing so, they tied their own 4A state meet record of 20 points. No team came close to touching the Cougars as Cheyenne Mountain and Northfield tied for second with 150 points apiece.

That's just become the norm for the dominant program, which has now won six straight team crowns.

"I feel like whenever one of us wins something, we all win something," Ritzenhein said. "It's something we all share and cherish with each other. We all go celebrate. (The boys) winning their race before us, they really helped us succeed."

Niwot boys break Cheyenne Mountain's' streak

For two agonizing years, Niwot boys cross country sat on the outside looking in of a team state championship behind Cheyenne Mountain. That changed on Saturday morning.

Sophomore Rocco Culpepper paced his way to the bronze behind Battle Mountain's Will Brunner and Mullen's Jacob Sushinsky, clocking in with a time of 15:27.8 to beat his seed time by 43 seconds.

Junior Cole Mazurana was quick to close the gap as he joined Culpepper on the podium in eighth place with a time of 15:45.3. When everything was said and done, the Cougars snagged the team trophy with 58 points, beating out Cheyenne Mountain by a cool 46.

Their two-year drought had come to an end.

"I knew that Battle Mountain boy was going to crush it pretty hard, so I thought, just depending on how fast we were in the first mile, I'd try to stick right on him or a couple steps back, then just try to roll as much as I can the last mile," Culpepper said.

"Our team is very close. We all push each other. This is probably the best team in Niwot history and just being in such a good environment with your team is really awesome. It feels like a family almost. It's really nice, and everyone's really good people."

Sophomores Ryder Keeton (11th, 15:56), Robbie Hunter (20th, 16:13.1), juniors Evan Kear (21st, 16:14), Keegan Geldean (25th, 16:21.5) and freshman Quinn Sullivan (26th, 16:24) rounded out the full-team effort for Niwot.

Mead senior Ben Mayer provided the area's best non-Niwot finish as he found himself swimming in a sea of runners at the finish line, ending the race himself in 15th place with a mark of 16:01.8. The serendipitous conclusion to his high school career came on the heels of an injured hip flexor, which sidelined him for a good portion of the season before his return four weeks earlier.

His strategy circulated around keeping pace with the top 10 competitors right out the gate.

"After months and months of hard training, it's good to pay off and say that you can show how many people you've beaten and exactly what you've done during that spot," he said.