Played in near perfect conditions and on the excellent pitches of the United States Air Force Academy, the 2021 CIRA State Championships saw Summit High School (Frisco, Colo.) take the Colorado Cup with 33-0 win over Monarch High School (Superior, Colo.), while Denver's East High School topped Regis Jesuit (Aurora, Colo.) 24-7 for 3rd place.

Earlier in the day East and Monarch played an intense opening semi final that saw both sides cross the chalk three times but in the end an extra conversion saw Monarch through to the final 19-17 in what was a great battle to the final whistle. 

In the second semifinal match the Summit Tiger dotted down seven times to one for Regis and cruised to a 47-5 win.

The final was a physical tussle from the opening whistle with players from both teams finding themselves on the wrong end of a big tackle or fend, but the pressure of Summit's defense forced key turnovers that they quickly counter attacked into points en route to building a 19-0 halftime lead. Monarch never backed down and despite surrendering two more tries played open and aggressive rugby on both sides of the ball until the final blast.

Junior Paola Arendondo led the Tigers with 3 tries. Captain Olyvia Snyder and fellow senior Elizabeth Darst each added one try and junior Jocelin Roque converted four out of five kicks. Jenna Sheldon (Summit) and Kate Muldoon (Monarch) stood out for their tireless work, big tackles, and leadership by example.

Next week the top 24 players from across the Colorado Interscholastic Rugby Association (CIRA) will come together to play in the State All-Star games at Infinity Park to wrap up what has been a very successful 2021 season.