The Boulder, Broomfield and Longmont areas had 17 girls make the Colorado High School Activities cross country all-state list.
Niwot, after winning its fifth straight Class 4A title, led the way with seven girls — starting with Longmont Times-Call runner of the year Addison Ritzenhein. Boulder and Mead each had two runners, led by the Panthers’ Kiki Vaughn, who was named the Daily Camera runner of the year after her 5A area-best 12th-place state finish.
Broomfield’s Maelynn Higgins had the fastest time in the area this fall, running a school-record 17 minutes and 24.40 seconds at the Liberty Bell Invitational.
Class 4A
Ritzenhein, a freshman, made the first team after she placed second at the state meet. She later took 18th at the Nike Cross Country National Championships in Oregon with a personal-best time of 17 minutes and 38.40 seconds.
Joining her on the first team from Niwot were junior Mia Prok (third at state), sophomore Bella Nelson (fourth) and seniors Madison Shults (fifth) and Lex Bullen (sixth). Prok, Nelson and Shults each had season-best times under 17:50. Shults had the fastest time for the Cougars, posting a 17:36.70 at the Desert Twilight Festival in Arizona.
Silver Creek sophomore Cloe Ruth was the other first teamer in the class. Ruth took seventh at the state meet and ran a season-best time of 18:32.40 at Liberty Bell.
On the second team, freshman Anna Prok and junior Olivia Alessandrini made the cut for Niwot. Prok was eighth at state, Alessandrini 14th. Both ran under 18:10 on the year.
Mead’s Frances Hudson also made the second team after placing 13th at state. Her best time of the season was 18:20.00. Fellow-senior teammate Lauren Caldwell was an honorable mention after taking 15th at state.
Class 5A
Vaughn had the best finish in the area at the pinnacle high school season race, finishing 12th in 5A. She was the lone second teamer from the area in the class and had a 5A-area most five top-three finishes on the year.
In honorable mentions, Fairview’s Sierra Wall was 16th at the state meet, followed by Higgins in 22nd. Wall had a season-best time of 18:11.00. The other was Panthers freshman Anika Leovy, who took 30th at state.
Class 3A and 2A
Jefferson Academy junior Maya Ross and Holy Family sophomore Anabella Descalzo each earned honorable mentions in Class 3A, placing 22nd and 25 respectively at the state meet. Each ran under 20 minutes at regionals and state.
Lyons’ Leah Shelton was a 2A honorable mention after placing 25th at state. Her best time was 21:48.40.
