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Best Sports Team -- College

Metro State Roadrunners Basketball

Under fiery coach Mike Dunlap, Metro State's unsung, largely unseen basketball team has become the duke of NCAA Division II hoops. Led by players from Australia (where Dunlap once coached a pro team), Belgium and Colorado, the Roadrunners have won two of the last three national championships. Despite losing five seniors to graduation last spring, this year's 28-5 club won another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title and narrowly missed returning to Division II's "Elite Eight" Tournament by losing a double-overtime thriller to Nebraska-Kearney on March 17.

Best Sports Team -- College

Metro State Roadrunners Basketball

Under fiery coach Mike Dunlap, Metro State's unsung, largely unseen basketball team has become the duke of NCAA Division II hoops. Led by players from Australia (where Dunlap once coached a pro team), Belgium and Colorado, the Roadrunners have won two of the last three national championships. Despite losing five seniors to graduation last spring, this year's 28-5 club won another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament title and narrowly missed returning to Division II's "Elite Eight" Tournament by losing a double-overtime thriller to Nebraska-Kearney on March 17.

Best University of Denver Hockey Player

Kevin Doell

The DU Pioneers did not have the greatest year in their storied hockey history; their bitter rival, Colorado College, overshadowed them all season, and they failed to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. But senior forward Kevin Doell lit it up. The 5-11, 187-pound scoring machine led the Pi's in both goals and assists, and he scored two of the club's ten short-handed tallies. Doell, born and raised in hockey-rich Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, emerged as one of coach George Gwozdecky's most potent weapons last season, with 20 goals and 23 assists. This year, he has played in every game and became the 83rd player in Pioneer history to reach the 100-point mark, joining such DU legends as Dallas Gaume, George Morrison, Peter McNab and Jim Wiste.

Best University of Denver Hockey Player

Kevin Doell

The DU Pioneers did not have the greatest year in their storied hockey history; their bitter rival, Colorado College, overshadowed them all season, and they failed to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament. But senior forward Kevin Doell lit it up. The 5-11, 187-pound scoring machine led the Pi's in both goals and assists, and he scored two of the club's ten short-handed tallies. Doell, born and raised in hockey-rich Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, emerged as one of coach George Gwozdecky's most potent weapons last season, with 20 goals and 23 assists. This year, he has played in every game and became the 83rd player in Pioneer history to reach the 100-point mark, joining such DU legends as Dallas Gaume, George Morrison, Peter McNab and Jim Wiste.

Best University of Colorado Athlete

Jorge Torres

Last November 25, the University of Colorado's Jorge Torres became just the third American since 1987 to win the NCAA Cross Country Championship, edging away from Arkansas's Alistair Cragg in the final strides at Terre Haute, Indiana, and finishing in course-record time. The diminutive 5-7 distance runner from Wheeling, Illinois, went undefeated in his senior year and outdistanced a dozen highly touted international stars in his surprising NCAA title run. Jorge also defeated a CU teammate named Ed Torres, who finished tenth. Among other things, that represented a victory of experience over youth: Jorge Torres is, after all, ten minutes older than his twin brother.

Best University of Colorado Athlete

Jorge Torres

Last November 25, the University of Colorado's Jorge Torres became just the third American since 1987 to win the NCAA Cross Country Championship, edging away from Arkansas's Alistair Cragg in the final strides at Terre Haute, Indiana, and finishing in course-record time. The diminutive 5-7 distance runner from Wheeling, Illinois, went undefeated in his senior year and outdistanced a dozen highly touted international stars in his surprising NCAA title run. Jorge also defeated a CU teammate named Ed Torres, who finished tenth. Among other things, that represented a victory of experience over youth: Jorge Torres is, after all, ten minutes older than his twin brother.

Best Colorado State Athlete

Ashley Augspurger

Colorado State Rams senior forward Ashley Augspurger is a first-team All-Mountain West star who this year averaged 13.4 points per game, along with 4.8 rebounds and three assists. At 6-1, she's big enough to have subbed at center for first-year coach Chris Denker, yet quick enough to have played point guard. Recently, the Wheat Ridge High School grad became just the twelfth CSU woman to surpass 1,000 points, which puts her in the company of former Ram greats like Becky Hammond and Katie Cronin. Did we mention that she carries a near-perfect 3.92 grade-point average? In biology. If the pros don't get her, she's headed straight for medical school. Whatever she chooses, Augspurger is the true personification of the oft-abused term "student-athlete."

Best Colorado State Athlete

Ashley Augspurger

Colorado State Rams senior forward Ashley Augspurger is a first-team All-Mountain West star who this year averaged 13.4 points per game, along with 4.8 rebounds and three assists. At 6-1, she's big enough to have subbed at center for first-year coach Chris Denker, yet quick enough to have played point guard. Recently, the Wheat Ridge High School grad became just the twelfth CSU woman to surpass 1,000 points, which puts her in the company of former Ram greats like Becky Hammond and Katie Cronin. Did we mention that she carries a near-perfect 3.92 grade-point average? In biology. If the pros don't get her, she's headed straight for medical school. Whatever she chooses, Augspurger is the true personification of the oft-abused term "student-athlete."

Best Olympic Hopeful

Dremiel Byers

The great David-and-Goliath story of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney was the shocking defeat of the world's greatest heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, a Russian who hadn't lost a match in thirteen years, by an engaging Wyoming farm boy named Rulon Gardner. The big news this year is that Gardner has been replaced as the USA's number-one heavyweight by Dremiel Byers, a 265-pound Army sergeant stationed at Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs. A former football player from North Carolina, Byers stunned the wrestling world last September by winning a gold medal at the World Championships in Moscow. But that's not good enough: Byers says he's determined to become America's lone heavyweight at Athens in 2004 and win Olympic gold for his beloved grandfather.

Best Olympic Hopeful

Dremiel Byers

The great David-and-Goliath story of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney was the shocking defeat of the world's greatest heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, a Russian who hadn't lost a match in thirteen years, by an engaging Wyoming farm boy named Rulon Gardner. The big news this year is that Gardner has been replaced as the USA's number-one heavyweight by Dremiel Byers, a 265-pound Army sergeant stationed at Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs. A former football player from North Carolina, Byers stunned the wrestling world last September by winning a gold medal at the World Championships in Moscow. But that's not good enough: Byers says he's determined to become America's lone heavyweight at Athens in 2004 and win Olympic gold for his beloved grandfather.

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