Niwot has dominated the running scene in both track and cross country for the past few years, but a move up to Class 5A in cross country last season saw the Cougars singing a different tune.

The perennial 4A state champion girls found themselves highly challenged by some of the top high school programs in the nation, falling to fifth in the team race at the Norris Penrose Event Center. Still, they lead a host of strong runners from the BoCoPreps area.

In this edition of the BoCoPreps.com Fall ‘Four’cast, let’s dive into four girls cross country storylines we’re excited to see play out.

Storyline 1: Still in power

From the moment she stepped on campus as a freshman, Addison Ritzenhein was a running star. She won the national Gatorade Player of the Year honor as a sophomore, then won the Colorado edition of the award a year later. Last season, she toppled the previous course record at the Norris Penrose Event Center — set in 2022 by Valor Christian’s Brooke Wilson at 16 minutes, 59.17 seconds — by nearly five full seconds.

She leads a crew of Cougars that includes senior Anna Prok (22nd at state), junior Elise Hagen (32nd) and Avalon Beltran (63rd) that fell to fifth against the likes of Mountain Vista and Air Academy, who won out at first and second with team scores of 63 and 101. The Cougars scored a 160. Will an added year of 5A experience help vault Niwot back to the top?

Storyline 2: Panthers moving up

Pack-running in cross country can be a sign of a tight-knit, well-trained team, and Boulder’s girls exemplified that to a tee during their state championship race last year.

They finished only four points behind Niwot, as now-senior Anika Leovy (25th), junior Sophia Africa (28th), sophomore Calia Vaughn (30th) and junior Rachel Tilton (34th) all finished within nine seconds of each other.

That type of course camaraderie begs the question: What could happen if that group collectively dropped times this year? After all, they all finished just two minutes shy of Ritzenhein’s course record, and second-place Tessa Walter out of Air Academy only beat Leovy by 1:22.

Storyline 3: Familiarity in 4A

Much like the Cougars, the Holy Family Tigers moved up a notch from their previous 3A classification last year.

That’s a daunting task for any program, but they more than rose to the challenge. They placed fourth with 147 points, lagging just behind Timnath (98), Battle Mountain (116) and Summit (124), as then-senior Anabella Descalzo sped to eighth in the individual race.

Her exit will certainly be a hit for the program, but it returns plenty of other firepower from that state team, namely senior MacKenzie McIntosh (16th), junior Liberty Ley (41st), senior Lilly Seibel (50th) and Rosario Portillo (52nd).

Storyline 4: Up-and-comers

Silver Creek’s Cloe Ruth was a local star in her own right during her high school career, and she proved as much when one final push toward the state championship finish line saw her edge out Timnath’s Izzy Schimmelpfennig by a hair to secure 4A silver.

She ended her career near the top and left the door open behind her for other athletes to follow her lead.

Her teammate Megan Bader, now a junior, may seem like the next-obvious choice to ascend to the top of the local 4A scene after she bookended the podium with 10th place and a time of 19:17.50, but Mead’s Ava Mierau was right there with her, lagging just six seconds and one spot behind her.