COLORADO COACH- WINTER 2018 FROM THE SPORT PRESIDENTS UPDATES from the Sport Presidents CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK President Brett Shanklin Fellow Coaches, Happy New Year! I hope you all were able to enjoy the holiday season and spend it with loved ones. As we enter 2018 it is first worth reflecting on last year and the most recent cross country season. This past cross country season the following schools won state titles: 5A: Mountain Vista (Boys), Mountain Vista (Girls) 4A: Palmer Ridge (Boys), Battle Mountain (Girls) 3A: The Classical Academy (Boys), Peak to Peak (Girls) 2A: Lyons (Boys), Nederland (Girls) Congratulations to those schools on their accomplishment! It is also worth recognizing the work Stan Lambros, Karen Scott, the Cheyenne Mountain team of volunteers, our cross-country officials, and the CHSAA staff put into making state such a special event for our athletes. They put in many hours before the event to ensure the event runs smooth and is special for our student athletes. This year they even ordered great running weather J. Hearing CHSAA Commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green speak at the cross- country committee meeting was confirmation of how far the state meet has come compared to when she was the Assistant Commissioner that oversaw the sport several years ago. To wrap up the cross-country season I believe it is important we also recognize some teams and individuals who competed on the national stage. Colorado was blessed to have two teams finish third, Mountain Vista Boys and Battle Mountain Girls, in the prestigious Nike Cross Nationals. That is an incredible feat to say the least. The strength of girl’s teams in Colorado continued with the Mountain Vista girls finishing sixth and Broomfield girls finishing tenth. Three girls teams from Colorado all placing in the top 10 is definitely a new high water mark for our state. Colorado was also represented at NXN by individual qualifiers on the boy’s side by Cole Sprout of Valor Christian (21st ), Easton Allred of Rock Canyon (22nd ), Charlie Perry of Monarch (30th ) and on the girl’s side by Anna Shults of Peak to Peak (51st ). Finishing out Colorado competing on the national stage was Harrison Scudamore from Denver East finishing 13th overall at the Foot Locker National Championships. Congratulations to all of these student athletes and their coaches on a great season. The cross-country committee meeting was in November at the CHSAA office. A few recommendations from the committee that will hopefully be approved at the legislative council meeting on January 25th: 1. Scoring in 2A will change from the current format of run 6 score 3 to a format of run 6 score 4. a. There is amendment coming from the San Juan Basin League to try to amend this change and keep scoring as is. 2. A fifth team from the four regional meets in 2A will be added to the state field. a. This would match the number of team qualifiers already in 3A, 4A, and 5A 3. Regional alignments were also made for the next cycle for each classification. One thing I want to make you all aware about is that we are still taking nominations for the CHSCA All State Games in Alamosa this summer. For athletes to be nominated they need to be a senior this year and have competed at state in the fall. All nominations can be made on the CHSCA website under the “All State Games” tab. Now let’ move on to track and the upcoming season. The Track and Field Committee meeting will be on Friday January 26th . The meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. at the Radisson