BOYS

Moments later, Brown scored on a twisting, falling-down attempt as he navigated from the X to in front of the Raiders’ cage.

When it was all said and done, Brown had scored the game’s nal four goals. His last came with 31 seconds left in the game, serving as an exclamation point on what was a dominant Valor e ort.

“We just got rolling there,” Brown said of the second quarter, when his three goals and individual goals from Rush LaSelle, George Reider a time of 1:40.68, breaking his own record of 1:41.53 from 2022.

“I felt like it was a really good, strong swim,” said Kajfosz. “I felt strong through the whole race and felt tired afterwards but that is a good thing.”

Kajfosz will be competing in the Continental League championships on May 5-6 and then at the 5A state meet which will be held May 11-12 at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in ornton.

“At the beginning of the season, I said I wanted to win an event at the 5A state meet and that’s still to come,” said Kajfosz.

In the Continental League championships, Kajfosz will swim in the 200 IM and the 100 butter y individual events but doesn’t know yet which ended the Eagles’ scoreless stretch. e sophomore scored again a minute later — on a play in which she hooked around Colorado Academy’s goal, crossed over the middle from right to left and deposited the orb into the cords — to trim the Mustangs’ lead to 8-6 with 16:38 left in the game. and Alexander Rismani turned a 3-3 tie into a 9-3 Eagles advantage. “We sort of just felt them out in the rst quarter. We didn’t run too much of our stu . In the second quarter, we picked it up, ran our motion and played as a team. It worked out great for us.” events he will enter at the state meet.

Kaley Kakac’s goal made the score 9-7. However, the Mustangs (11-0, 4-0 in 5A West League) responded by scoring three in a row.

Of course, a player can’t score if he doesn’t have the ball, and getting the ball to his team time and again was Luong, who won a whopping 79% (11 of 14) of the game’s faceo s.

“ e three most important positions on the eld are faceo , goalie and short-stick defensive mid elders, and they’re the positions that don’t get talked about enough,” rstyear Valor coach Jeremy Noble said.

“I’ve tried not to specialize in any particular stroke because I feel like there is always room for improvement in any stroke,” he said.

Last season at the state meet, Kajfosz was third in the 200 freestyle and sixth in the 100 butter y.

“Unfortunately about midway thought the high school season I was a little bit sick,” explained Kajfosz. “ is year I’ve stayed good and healthy. I’ve been able to stay up with my conditioning. I’m fully ready to go into the state meet.”

Defending state champion Regis Jesuit is the favorite to take team honors at the Continental League meet and the Raiders and Cherry Creek are the top teams heading into the state championships.

Eliza Osburn and Stevens each recorded a goal in the nal minutes, both on 8-meter shots, but it was too little too late for Valor (9-3, 2-1).

“I think they play a little faster than us sometimes. at was the di erence today,” Stevens said. “But we’ll come back next time. We’ll see them again (in the state playo s).”

If the Eagles and Mustangs do see each other again in the state playo s, it’ll be the third consecutive year the two schools have faced o

“We’re just very lucky and blessed to have really hardworking and coachable kids.” e junior turned away nine of Regis’ 12 shooting attempts. Kyle Green also got some playing time in Valor’s cage and tallied two saves.

When Regis did gain possession of the ball and advance it into Valor territory — which wasn’t often — Cunningham was there to deny most of the Raiders’ shots.

“It starts with our defense — our defense and our goaltending,” Noble said. “Credit to the boys for sticking to the game plan and believing in themselves and each other.” e two teams traded goals in the

“We’ve got a really good program at Highlands Ranch and a bunch of up and coming guys who are going to do really awesome things,” pointed out Kajfosz. “ e program is heading in a good direction. We’re doing some really good thing right now and we hope to continue what we’re doing.” Kajfosz will be heading to Purdue next fall.

“I verbally committed last April,” said Kajfosz. “Now that I’ve been accepted by the admissions side, I am still fully intending to go to Purdue for my freshman year of college.

“I am going to be going into the engineering program and Purdue has a great engineering program and I’m looking forward to that and the coach Alex Jerden and I connected really well.” for the state crown. Colorado Academy beat Valor 13-9 last season and 14-3 in 2021.

Does Ellis think his group will see the Mustangs in this year’s Class 5A state tournament, which begins May 10?

“I hope so,” he said. “ at would be a great matchup and a fun game. ey’re a great opponent.” rst quarter. Scoring for the Eagles (12-1, 6-0 in 5A League #3) were Brown, Reider and Rismani.

Reagan Digby had two assists against the Mustangs while Boll notched one.

After Regis’ (8-2, 3-1) Jamie Rosenzweig scored to tie the score at 3-3 with 10:10 remaining in the second quarter, the Raiders didn’t score again the rest of the way.

Recording the assists for Valor were Brown and Rismani (two each) and Parker Barhydt and Blake Benton (one each).

With the state playo s only a couple weeks away, it’s quite possible that these two teams haven’t seen the last of each other in 2023. If they do meet again in the state tournament? “We’ll be ready again,” Brown said.

New funding, new opportunities ree major grants the county recently received will help expand these o erings to more areas.

One grant, distributed by the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council, comes from funds received from settlements reached by the Colorado Attorney General’s O ce with opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

At the Arapahoe County Health Department, this grant will go towards a new mobile outreach unit that they hope to receive in the next couple of months, Whatley said.

“It will be like a bigger RV-type type vehicle,” he said. “We’ll have running water, sinks, bathrooms, that kind of stu , so folks can do HIV, hepatitis C, STI testing.” e mobile outreach unit will also o er other harm reduction services including syringe exchange. It will not be a mobile supervised injection site, Whatley added. e county is hoping to put funds from a grant from the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment towards adding a new xed site in the Englewood or Sheridan area.

Currently, the county’s harm reduction program has one fixed location in Aurora where they offer services and resources in partnership with It Takes a Village, a community organization that aims to reduce health and social disparities among people of color in the Denver Metropolitan area.

“We know the need there along Broadway and that western part of Arapahoe County — the need is signi cant,” Whatley said. “We’re going to be using the money to kind of work with a community partner out there and, in time, bring on a fulltime employee to kind of do a lot of that work and to do a lot of the com- munity engagement in and around the Englewood-Sheridan area.”

Arapahoe County Public Health was also chosen for the Reducing Overdose through Community Approaches Mentorship Program, offered by the National Association of County and City Health Officials with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“ is funding brings together local health departments through virtual meetings to allow mentors to share their experience and practical knowledge with folks,” Whatley said.

Arapahoe County’s mentor through this program is the San Francisco Department of Public Health.

“We’ve started working with them a couple of months ago,” Whatley said. “I’s really to kind of help strengthen our capacity, help implement those best practices — the evidence-based strategies that work.”

Reducing stigma

Whatley said he is excited for these grants to help reduce stigma around people who use drugs.

People often assume that using drugs is a cause for those who experience homelessness, he said. In reality, many unhoused individuals start using drugs as a response to their situation, in order to stay warm or stay awake and alert for their own safety, Whatley said.

“People use drugs in all walks of life,” he said. “A lot of these folks that we deal with that are unhoused are kind of victims of circumstance and are not necessarily using drugs beforehand.”

In addition, he is looking forward to these services helping to save more lives.

“To meet people where they’re at, and really with a goal of making sure that people are safe because that’s what we want,” he said. “ ey are still people, they should be treated with dignity.”