The Aurora prep sports scene thrived in 2025 with a combination of significant events and notable performances.
In the calendar year between a fall, winter and spring season, area teams claimed seven state championships and 22 individuals or relay teams earned titles as the crown jewels on top of many other highlights.
Sentinel Sports Editor Courtney Oakes takes a look back at some of the top stories and achievements in 2025 in Aurora prep sports:
Bacon twins make history in many ways with matching wrestling state titles
Amelia and Ian Bacon put history in a headlock over three days in February.
In the culmination of their junior wrestling seasons, the twins both became Class 5A state champions to set history in the state and at their school (full story, here).
Vista PEAK Prep opened in 2011 and had never had an individual or two state champion, but got two just minutes apart at Ball Arena. Ian pinned Cherokee Trail’s Cooper Mathews in the second period of an all-Aurora area 120-pound boys final, then got to watch Amelia earn a 5-4 decision over Castle View’s Zaret Silva Lopez in the girls 125-pound title match.
The first twins to win state titles since the Colorado High School Activities Association sacntioned girls wrestling finished with a combined record of 79-8 (36-1 for Amelia, 43-7 for Ian). The Bacon bonanza led the way on one of the top combined performances for the area at the state wrestling tournament.
Ian Bacon was joined by Grandview’s JR Ortega (113 pounds) as 5A boys state champions, while Cherokee Trail’s Cooper and Chance Mathews, Grandview’s Jonathan Montes Gonzales and Leland Day finished as state runners-up.
A second girls state championship came from Regis Jesuit sophomore Remington Zimmerer, who finished a 38-3 season with a 6-4 win over Widefield’s Amaya Hinojosa in the 120-pound final.
Grandview’s Sienna Betts caps career with third state championship, national accolades, international gold
Sienna Betts ended her career as the Aurora area’s most accomplished female basketball player ever with a senior season that quite literally couldn’t have been any better on any scale.
The 6-foot-4 standout led her Grandview team to the Class 6A state championship — the program’s third in a four-year span and fifth all-time — to cap a season in which she averaged 23 points, 16.5 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 3.4 blocks shots per contest and also became Colorado’s all-time leading prep rebounder, male or female.
Multiple accolades followed, as she became the area’s first three-time winner of Colorado’s Gatorade Player of the Year award and she made the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game, in which she was the Most Valuable Player with 16 points and seven rebounds in the West team’s 104-82 win over the East at Barclays Center in New York (story, here).
In the summer, Betts made the USA U19 National Team and had five double-doubles in seven games — earning all-tournament honors — to help her team win the gold medal at the FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup in Brno, Czechia. As the frosting on top, Betts signed with NCAA women’s powerhouse UCLA to play with her older sister, Lauren.
Cherokee Trail boys track team finishes rare 5A state championship three-peat
It didn’t come easy this time, but the Cherokee Trail boys track & field team found a way to extend its run of dominance atop Class 5A for a third straight season (story, here).
Coach Chris Faust admitted he felt the pressure coming into the season with two straight titles in tow — including a 2024 crown won by a whopping 52 points — and it required grit to complete the first three-peat in the state’s largest classification since Smoky Hill achieved the feat in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
With star senior sprinter Peyton Sommers hobbled with a hamstring injury, Cherokee Trail needed the contributions of many over three days at Jefferson County Stadium to hold off Eaglecrest for the state crown.
The Cougars got individual state championships from Sommers (a Penn State commit who won his third straight 5A title in the 400 meters) and senior pole vaulter Taylor Waters and turned it over to the 4×400 meter relay team of Sommers, seniors Nick Hoffsetz and Nurudeen Diallo and junior Dylan Smith to finish it off. Cherokee Trail didn’t need to win to wrap up the team championship, but the 4×400 foursome won gold for the ultimate exclamation point on the program’s fifth all-time state title.
Grandview girls, Eaglecrest boys complete Aurora area sweep of 6A hoops
It was a championship-winning kind of day March 15 at the Denver Coliseum.
By the time a day’s worth of boys and girls state championship games came to an end, the Aurora area ruled Class 6A as the Grandview girls and Eaglecrest boys had hoisted trophies in the first Aurora area sweep of the largest classification since Grandview won then-5A titles in boys and girls in 2018.
First came the Wolves’ crown — the fifth in program history — with a 61-39 defeat of Legend that expunged the memory of a Sweet 16 loss from the previous season. In her final prep contest, star post Sienna Betts had 21 points and 16 rebounds and went out a winner, as did fellow senior starters Deija Roberson, Maya Smith and Leaiva Holliman.
Roberson added 15 points, while sophomore Ava Chang had 10 for coach Josh Ulitzky’s Grandview team, which finished the season 25-3. The Wolves’ only loss in Colorado came to 2024 6A state champion Valor Christian.
Later, Eaglecrest captured its third all-time state title — first since 2017 — with a 65-63 victory over Valor Christian.
The Raptors earned career win No. 200 for coach Jarris Krapcha in the Centennial League Challenge final and got him his first state title with a performance in which they outlasted the Eagles and star guard Cole Scherer.
Senior Anthony Nettles — who transferred to Eaglecrest before the school year — scored 14 points to lead the way, while fellow seniors Garrett Barger (12) and Jason Noone (11) also scored in double figures. The Raptors finished the season on a 19-game winning streak and were 26-2 overall with losses only coming to Regis Jesuit in the regular season opener and to Bingham, Utah, at the Tarkanian Classic.
Regis Jesuit boys tennis team completes near perfect season with load of state titles
The Regis Jesuit boys tennis team came within one set win of an absolutely perfect 2025 fall season both individually and as a team.
Coach Laura Jones Raiders won the Class 5A team state championship tournament for the first time in its current format with a defeat of nemesis Cherry Creek, while they also won six of the seven position championships at the individual state tournament, falling just a win at No. 4 doubles away from a clean sweep.
Regis Jesuit had won five 5A team state championships in the past when points were accrued from a single state tournament, but had lost in the championship dual format in each of the past two seasons. This time, wins from all three singles players — junior No. 1 Alec Rodriguez-Fields and seniors Clay Dickey and Adam Rydel at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively — plus the No. 1 doubles team of junior Koops Lord and sophomore Will Larkin, Regis Jesuit defeated the Bruins (who were going for a 48th all-time state title) 4-2.
That victory came just a few days after the individual state tournament, which saw Rodriguez-Fields (who was undefeated and defended the No. 1 singles title he won in 2024), Dickey and Rydel sweep singles titles, while Lord and Larkin (No. 1), junior Edward Samuelson and sophomore Reis Chervey (No. 2) and junior Beckett Martorella and sophomore Finn Carolan (No. 3) win their respective brackets. The No. 4 doubles team of junior Connor Hickey and freshman Daniel Hickey won the first set of their final, but lost in three sets to a team from Cherry Creek.
Cherokee Trail boys golf team prevails in playoff to win elusive 5A state title
Two times, the Class 5A state championship had finished just out of the reach of the Cherokee Trail boys golf team, which managed to chase it down in dramatic fashion this season.
Led by seniors Brayden Forte and Dalton Sisneros — members of the team that tied for second place in 2023 and finished as the sole runner-up in 2024 — the Cougars finished off a dominant season with the program’s first state title after prevailing in a one-hole playoff over Denver East at Bookcliff Country Club in Grand Junction.
Down a stroke with three of four qualifiers in the clubhouse (Sisneros, fellow senior Brayden O’Neill and freshman Jeffrey Chen), Forte made a dramatic eagle on the par-5 Hole No. 18 to give Cherokee Trail a stroke lead. The Angels evened it, but clutch putts by Chen, Forte and Sisneros in the playoff won it.
During the season, the Cougars had a tournament in which they finished 20-under-par as a team, which is believed to be a state record.
Grandview’s Oliver Schimberg, Gherman Prudnikau win two boys swim championships apiece in prep finale
Oliver Schimberg had been a fixture of the Grandview boys swim program for four years, while Gherman Prudnikau was for just one.
Both, however, graduated from the prep ranks as multiple-time Class 5A state champions with their performance for coach Dan Berve’s Wolves in May at the Veterans’ Memorial Aquatic Center.
Schimberg already held a place in program history as the only two-time state champion as the University of Minnesota signee had won back-to-back 100 yard backstroke crowns. He further cemented his place in the program recordbooks with his third backstroke title and added a crown in the 100 yard butterfly, while he was voted Colorado Swimmer of the Year by 5A coaches.
Prudnikau swam in club settings for three years of high school, then joined Grandview as a senior and made a huge impact. He ruled the distance freestyles at the state meet with championships in the 200 and 500 yard freestyles just a few days after he earned a scholarship offer from his dream school, Ohio State.
Eaglecrest boys volleyball team breaks through with first state championship
The Eaglecrest boys volleyball team knocked off top-seeded Littleton Public Schools 19-25, 25-23, 25-19, 27-25 at Trojan Arena on the campus of Fountain-Fort Carson High School to win the Class 5A state championship. Led by 24 kills and 19 digs from senior Jackson Shaw and 14 kills and 19 assists from sophomore Will George, coach Chad Bond’s Raptors (25-5), who defeated a team that was 3-0 against them on the season.
Eaglecrest girls win 4×200 relay at state meet for fourth straight season
One of the most remarkable feats in the Aurora area came from the Eaglecrest girls track team, which came away with the championship in the 4×2000 for a fourth year in a row. The common thread among the four winners was the presence of senior Jaylynn Wilson, who was joined this season by junior Tatum Gratrix, sophomore Malanya Gaines and freshman Evangeline Ansah. It was one of the final achievements of coach Chris Carhart, who spent
OTHER 2025 NOTEABLES: Cherokee Trail senior Kaeli Powe (5A girls triple jump) and Overland senior Jarrius Ward (5A boys discus) won second straight titles, while the Eaglecrest’s Quincy Clayton, Burke Withycombe, Bryson States and Eric Hill Jr. won the boys 4×100. …The Regis Jesuit boys soccer team defeated Ralston Valley 1-0 on an overtime goal by Sawyer Berg to win its first 5A state title since 1997. …State team runners-up in 2025 included Regis Jesuit (baseball, boys and girls swimming) and Eaglecrest (boys track & field).
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports