Not surprisingly, the only two Aurora area girls lacrosse teams to earn spots on the postseason appear heavily on the 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Lacrosse Team.
The All-Aurora team — which is picked by the Sentinel in conjunction with balloting of city coaches — is fueled by talent from Class 5A state qualifier Regis Jesuit as well as from 4A qualifier Cherokee Trail.
Both the Raiders and Cougars were stopped in the quarterfinals of their respective playoffs, but went deep because of talented rosters.
Cherokee Trail finished the season with a city-best total of 12 wins and coach Blake Macklin’s team — which was smallish in terms of numbers — did so thanks to a large amount of firepower in the lineup.
The Cougars were the only team in 4A with three players who ranked in the top 10 in the classification in total points in seniors Kyla Bieker and Aubrey Benton and junior Lorelei Gearity and had the third-most total goals as a team with 274 in fewer games than 4A leader Northfield (283) and state champion Evergreen (277).
Bieker — who has signed to play with Regis University — is the only Aurora area player to accrue triple digits in points this season as she racked up 108 on 67 goals and 41 assists to rank No. 4 in 4A. She increased her production in both categories between every one of her varsity seasons and finished with 268 career points on 175 goals and 93 assists. She also shared captain duties with two others, including Benton, who will join her at Regis next year. Benton has an impressive resume as well, as she led Cherokee Trail in goals with 70 and chipped in 14 assists for 84 points, which tied for 10th most.
While the Cougars will miss the high-scoring senior duo — both of whom were honorable mention 4A All-State picks from the Colorado High School Activities Association — they will be in good hands with Gearity and fellow junior Abby Vanzant. Gearity was yet another big time offensive threat for opponents to worry about, as she tallied 61 goals and added 28 assists for a total of 89 points that ranked eighth in 4A. Many of her scores came from her fearlessness in breaking through to the heart of the defense and she was accomplished with her free shot finishes.
Vanzant, meanwhile, thrived as a distributor and she racked up 61 assists to lead the state.
Defensively, Cherokee Trail allowed 14 fewer goals in one more game than in 2023 and senior captain Cassie Bruning played a big role in that, as she helped to direct the unit and also contributed 25 groundballs.
Coach Crysti Foote’s Regis Jesuit team had a dynamic scoring duo of its own in senior Phoebe Rogala in the midfield and junior Madisyn Jokerst on attack. Both players were All-5A East League first team picks and made CHSAA’s 5A All-State second team as well for the Raiders, who racked up nine wins in the season after they made the state championship game for the first time.
Rogala tallied 59 points to rank 18th on the 5A leaderboard, just one spot in front of Jokerst, who had 58. Rogala — who is headed to play at the University of Colorado — paced the Raiders with 19 assists, while she also tallied 40 goals to rank second on the team.
Jokerst earned team-high honors in a number of categories, as she was Regis Jesuit’s goal leader with 51 (just a shade off the 56 she scored a year earlier), while she also had the most groundballs (36) and forced turnovers (33) for her squad as she affected all phases of the game.
The Raiders allowed 7.4 goals per contest —fewest among city programs by far — with help of seniors Katie Kieran and Maeve O’Shaughnessy, who were All-5A East League first team performers and CHSAA 5A second team All-State selections. Kieran and O’Shaughnessy racked up 28 groundballs apiece and combined for 46 forced turnovers as key performers in a talented group that worked with alternating goalies all season.
In the All-Aurora goal for the second straight season is Regis Jesuit sophom*ore Rayn Parker, who split time throughout the season with junior Lauryn Mendelsohn, but was the most effective when she was between the pipes. Parker had a goals against average of just 6.125, which was second best among 5A goalies, as she yielded just 51 goals in 400 minutes with a save percentage of .433.
Rangeview junior Shylin Collins earned an All-Aurora spot as well with a 40-goal season (which represented 65 percent of her team’s total), which pushed her to 150 in three seasons.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2024 AURORA SENTINEL ALL-AURORA GIRLS LACROSSE TEAM
FIRST TEAM
Attack: Kyla Bieker, sr., Cherokee Trail; Lorelei Gearity, jr., Cherokee Trail; Madisyn Jokerst, jr., Regis Jesuit; Midfield: Aubrey Benton, sr., Cherokee Trail; Shylin Collins, jr., Rangeview; Phoebe Rogala, sr., Regis Jesuit; Abby Vanzant, jr., Cherokee Trail; Defense: Cassie Bruning, sr., Cherokee Trail; Katie Kieran, sr., Regis Jesuit; Maeve O’Shaughnessy, sr., Regis Jesuit; Goalie: Rayn Parker, soph. (goalie), Regis Jesuit
Full 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Lacrosse teams, here
