Girls lacrosse: Mead's Hartman is the Longmont Times-Call player of the year
Jun. 10—Following Mead girls lacrosse's dominant Class 4A finals win last month, senior Allie Hartman said she received a congratulatory text from former Fairview teammate Cami Johnson.
Hartman is the 2023 Longmont Times-Call player of the year. Johnson, the Daily Camera's.
"Congratulations. Go Allie. Knew you could do it," Hartman recalled Johnson's message offhand. The gesture, among the warmness of it all, also served as a reminder of the wave emotion the two endured in their final year of high school lacrosse. Hartman now heads to the University of Michigan and Johnson is going to the University of California, Davis.
As Hartman put it, her final season in high school started with apprehension, the result of finding out she'd have move on from her star teammate and the Boulder Valley School District program to join the new St. Vrain Valley School District team. However, it ended in euphoria.
Fittingly, Hartman held the ball last as the remaining seconds leaked away in the finals at DU. She flung her stick high into the air in celebration.
"After last year's (semifinals) loss (with Fairview), we weren't necessarily losing that many pieces in our seniors, so we knew we were going to come back even better. Except, there wasn't a next year. So that was very disappointing," the Silver Creek grad recalled. "But it ended up being a great thing and everyone who came from Fairview had a ton of fun at Mead."
No one coming to Mead had a bigger impact than her.
The senior midfielder had 70 goals and 25 assists in the spring and her best stuff may have came in the postseason.
Hartman had the game-winning goal over Evergreen in the final seconds of the state semifinals. She then happily played more of an assist role in the finals, helping set up sophomore Lucy Connors again and again in a 13-5 blowout win over the team it'd lost to in its program's inaugural game in March.
"I think when people scout our team, they scout Allie Hartman because she is going to Michigan and is a very, very, very talented player," Connors said after scoring eight times in the championship. "So that leaves holes open for me and other players on my team."
Mead's practices leading up to it often centered around Hartman, too.
First-year coach Katie Coleman Bergmann, who Hartman credited with bringing the team together for its title run, said the Mavs had big questions defensively coming into their first season. Stopping Hartman at practice, or at least trying to, helped the growth of that unit.
"It was almost a competition of who defensively can go against Allie at practice. Because if I can stop Allie at practice, I feel pretty good about my other matchups," Bergmann said.
Hartman will join the Wolverines for the 2024 season. And though recruited as a defender, Michigan coach Hannah Nielsen recently played her at midfield and attack in a tournament — something Hartman believes is attributed to her offensive growth.
But she's not naive. The player of the year is well aware she'll have to prove herself again, characterizing this next transition as going from a "top dog" to the bottom of the totem pole.
"My biggest goal is just to try and get some playing time this year as a freshman," Hartman said. "Michigan is a great place to do that. They give everyone an equal opportunity and there were a couple freshmen who played this year. So, I'm hoping to be one of them next year."
