Athletes of the Week: Jenna Fraser and Olivia Litzen

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KJCT) - Two Grand Junction Central High School softball players will continue their athletic career in college, but for the first time in their athletic careers pitcher Jena Fraser and catcher Olivia Litzen will be meeting as rivals on the softball field.

The two Warriors have been teammates for most of their lives, but their choice in schools means that they’ll be competitors rather than teammates.

Fraser signed with the Regis University Rangers, but Litzen will be playing for the Mavericks at Colorado Mesa University.

Both players say they had connections with the schools they chose.

Litzen has a history with CMU going back to when she was a little kid. “It’s really exciting because I remember going to CMU camps when I was like, six years old, just starting out softball. I’ve known Coach Mercedes [Bohte] my entire softball career. It’s really exciting to be able to go there and feel like I have a family to go to here that I can always look back on because they’ve done so much for me.” Litzen said.

Fraser, however, has connections. “I play on a Denver team for travel ball. My coach has helped me communicate to Coach Nicole Thompson at Regis. She liked how I played and all my attitude. That’s how that happened.” Fraser said.

“They’re great kids,” CHS’s softball coach Aaron Berk said, “They worked hard, they did an awesome job over the four years. Like I said, very grateful for the opportunity to be with those kids and see them kind of grow and mature.”

Both athletes will likely go head-to-head in some high-stakes games in the future, as both will be playing on teams that finished in the top three in the RMAC this past season.

“It’s gonna be surreal,” Litzen said, “We’ve played with each other for a long time, and we played against each other once. But other than that, we’ve been on the same team so it will be cool to compete with each other.”

“I don’t even know, I think it’ll be a fun experience, but just see what happens.” Fraser said.