Few of the state's jumpers rival the diversity of talents Nola Basey brings to the runways. Photo by Jeff McCoy.
5A
You'd expect 5A to be the most competitive of all the classifications, and things are already shaping up very much that way in most of the 5A jumping events.
In the high jump, Poudre's Carly Paul should figure as the favorite, but she doesn't come in as a prohibitive favorite. She'll be chased by the likes of Courtney Bartusiak (Heritage), Katelyn Ellis (Brighton), Ashlyn Hare (Rampart), Melissa Barella (Arapahoe), Kelsey Cleere (Grandview), and, of course, Autumn Gardner (Mountain Range). Fossil Ridge, which figures to be a major player in the team title race has a potential player as well in the person of Koree Willer. Conventional wisdom says to take Paul and Gardner as the two favorites and throw the rest of the names into a hat and draw names for the other places. At this point, it's difficult to do much better than that. But don't be misguided in...