Delta coaches Luis Meza, center, and Clayton Curtis congratulate 152-pound senior Hunter Brasfield after an upset win sent him into the 4A Region 4 semifinals.
Hotchkiss senior Joe Boyle controls Ruben Chagoya of Basalt to win a 3A Region 1 title. He is one of 7 Hotchkiss state qualifiers.
Hotchkiss and Paonia boys will square off this week on the basketball courts. Both are 6-4 in league play.
Delta senior Brooke Taylor scores two of her 12 points against Summit after grabbing an offensive rebound.
Paonia 195-pounder Tyler “TK” Kendall sets Rangely’s Drew Collins up for a pin.
Paonia freshman Bo Pipher sets TJ Richard of North Park up for a pin in Saturday’s regional semifinal round. He is one of 13 Paonia wrestlers headed to state!
Surrounded by coaches and his dad, Conner Beard signs Letter of Intent to play football for the University of Nebraska Kearney.
Hotchkiss' Jacobe Galley signed a Letter of Intent to play football and study engineering at Colorado Mesa University.
Hotchkiss senior Cody Bartlett signed his National Letter of Intent to run cross-country for Hawaii Pacific University.
Photo by Tamie Meck Delta’s 3200m relay team placed fourth at last weekend’s 4A state track meet in Lakewood. Its time, 9:32.92, set a new DHS record. Team members are; left to right, Clarissa Whiting (Sr), Mykayla Music (Fr), Skylyn Webb (Sr) and Cleo Whiting…
Photo by Rich Meck Hotchkiss distance runners, and sisters, Natalie Anderson (left-center) and Mae Anderson start the 3200m run together on the opening day of the state track meet. They were fourth and fifth in the 3200 and fourth and sixth, respectively, in…
Photo by Tamie Meck Andy Pipher and son Bo meet Bo’s opponent during the Parade of Champions at the 2013 state wrestling tournament. Pipher was recently named 2013 Colorado Coach of the Year by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA).Paonia…
Hotchkiss placed four wrestlers in the top four and earned 119 points to place second at Saturday's Eagle Valley Invitational wrestling tournament.
"It was a good tournament for us," said head coach Glen Suppes. "Not a great one, but a good one."
It's always tough coming back from winter break, but after a hard week of practice, the team performed well, added Suppes. The first two rounds were a little slow, while the host team racked up the wins to take an early lead. Despite a strong finish by the Bulldogs, "Eagle Valley got a little too far ahead to catch."
Eagle Valley (4A) won the tournament with 148 points. A total of 18 teams were represented, including eight of the 11 teams from 3A Region 1. Only Gunnison, Olathe and Salida were not represented at the tournament. "It was a good mid-season gauge for us," said Suppes.
Rifle was only 6.5 points behind Hotchkiss to place third, with Buena Vista coming in at fourth with 98 points.
Senior 106 pounder Vikash Hypio gave the Bulldogs their sole tournament title, pinning Nick Wittrock of Summit High School (Frisco) in 1:05 and defeating Savian Wadsworth of North Park, 10-3, to advance to the championship round, where he defeated 9th-ranked Damien Atencio of Eagle Valley, 5-4.
Hypio was also voted lower weights outstanding wrestler for the tournament.
Two Hotchkiss wrestlers placed second. Dylan Hill (138) returned to the mat after suffering a minor injury at the Warrior Classic to post a 2-1 record and place second. Hill, who won by decision against Hugo Ruelas of Rifle, advanced to the championship match. He faced fourth-ranked Devon Godeski of Coal Ridge, and lost by a 4-0 decision.
Conner Beard, a junior competing at 220, hasn't wrestled competitively since injuring his shoulder in December, 2010. Beard pinned Aaron Medina of Lake County in 3:27 to win his first match of the season, then faced sixth-ranked Andy Armstrong of Eagle Valley, losing by major decision and placing second.
The Ibarra brothers, Tony (145) and Polo (152) also placed for Hotchkiss, with Tony going 4-2 to place fourth, and Polo defeating Mario Rodriguez in a major decision to place third.
Hotchkiss wrestlers remaining in this week's On the Mat rankings include Hypio (3rd), Garrett Toothaker (120, 7th), Hill (6th), Tony Ibarra (145, 8th), and Polo Ibarra (160, 11th).
Hotchkiss will dual Paonia this Thursday (see related story). This will be the first of three home duals for the Bulldogs. They host Rifle on Jan. 26, and Gunnison on Feb. 2.
The Bulldogs will attend the Rob Mickel Memorial Wrestling Tournament at Salida this Saturday.
The tournament will give them an opportunity to see for the first time this season some of the competition from the southeastern part of the state. There's a good chance they will dual Salida, said Suppes, which would be a first in his 11 years of coaching at Hotchkiss.
