Niwotonceagaindominatesatstate

Editor’s note: This article was published originally on Oct. 31, 2021.

Colorado Springs

— Finding a bit of variation inside the Niwot program at the state cross country meet, boys champ Zane Bergen collapsed to the ground as soon as he crossed. Girls winner Eva Klingbeil flashed a pair of peace signs. Other than that, though, much of what the Cougars did looked awfully familiar on Saturday afternoon.

Headlining another banner day at Norris Penrose Event Center, the Class 4A perennial power sandwiched its pair of individual winners around a fourth straight girls team title.

Bergen — in a much cleaner uniform than 12 months ago when he was bodied to the ground on the race’s final stretch and won by disqualification claimed his second straight gold while eclipsing his own 4A course record time in 15 minutes, 17.7 seconds.

Klingbeil, after sitting out of the state meet a year ago with injury, won her first in 17:58.9.

“It’s super special,” Niwot coach Kelly Christensen said of his senior winners.

“You obviously talk about the possibility of stuff like this happening, but we didn’t discredit how many good runners there are.”

Zipping away with the girls team title, the Cougars placed five inside the top nine and six through the first 11.

Mia Prok, the 4A individual runner-up in 2020, added a third-place finish as Niwot scored 20 team points compared to runner-up Battle Mountain’s 138.

Bella Nelson was fifth for the Cougars, Stella Vieth eighth, Sarah Perkins ninth and Madison Shults 11th.

“They do a good job working together, loving each other,” Christensen said.

“They work hard and consistently but they’re always having fun. They treat each other like a family.”

Out front at the turn into the stadium’s final stretch, the sight of Klingbeil all alone was a bit of a headturner Many had expected it to be Air Academy’s defending champ Bethany Michalak, who dropped out during the race and needed to be assisted off the course. Klingbeil herself was taken aback.

“I really didn’t expect this at all,” she said after beating the field by 24 seconds. “It was definitely a surprise.”

Bergen also had plenty of leeway Somewhere around the last mile, the senior who is headed to Stanford expanded the gap on a trio of Cheyenne Mountain runners and beat second-place Erik Le Roux by 13 seconds.

The Red-tailed Hawks countered by landing four in the top seven in their team victory. Carlos Kipkorir Cheruiyot followed in

BASKETBALL frompage12

Barcewski’s athletic skills on the football field. How it could translate to the court. Then, more so by his character — deeming it “off the charts.” eighth for Niwot (15:57.8), shadowed by Joey Hendershot (15:58.1).

For the last 2 1/2 years, Barcewski has developed on the fly under the Klosters. He carved a spot on the JV team as its 12th man his sophomore year, then improved and moved up the ranks. All-in by that summer, he then joined the Colorado Titans club team and that next winter he earned a spot in the longtime coach’s starting lineup.

“Going in, we wanted the team title — that’s it,” said Bergen, whose team narrowly missed out on a third straight team gold. “Getting an individual title was a byproduct of trying to score the least amount of points for the team.”

Bergen’s latest win capped off a season in which he had the state’s fastest

“I think it blends perfectly with Cade (Kloster’s) defensive coaching style and Coach (Jeff) Kloster’s offense,” Barcewski said of the fit. “Just being gritty and getting up in someone’s face and playing defense as hard as you can and not taking a play off. In football, you can’t run a route at 50% and you can’t make a cut in basketball at 50%.

I think it helps having the football players as part of the team. It’s tough kids going in to get every board and playing as hard as they can, taking charges and not afraid of a bit of contact.”

In his final high school season, Barcewski will look to take another step in his hoops progression. The plan is that he will slide from power forward to Kurjak’s former mainstay at center. He said he’ll use what he learned from Kurjak to help him through it — from play in the post to pushing in transition.

His coach, meanwhile, said he just wants “Brendan to be Brendan. … play to your strength,” Kloster said, “and continue to blend your talents with those on the floor.” high school 5K time in 14:42.2, which was also 10thbest in the nation.

Another spot atop the podium, his place in Niwot history is concrete.

“I’m happy that I took home the individual (win), so we can light some fires for some of the younger boys on the team,” Bergen said. “Help them chase aspirations that will hopefully feed into the future generations at Niwot.”

And if so, it should be another good March at Longmont.

That month Kloster will get inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

As for the team he leads — with a blend of football pedigree and basketball smarts — it hopes to be a part of another deep run.

“I don’t think that we’re expecting anything less than a conference championship and a Final Four into the state championship game,” Barcewski said. “That is what we expect every year.”