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.
Last week's regular-season baseball finale in Gypsum was a victory for the Panthers as they rolled past Eagle Valley 12-1. The win left Delta with a league record of 12-2 and an overall mark of 16-3.
It was a tale of two games for Cedaredge's baseball team last week. The Bruins were on the road in Bayfield to face Peak to Peak's Pumas in game one of elimination play.
Photo by Tamie Meck Kylie Hodges releases the discus at the Bruin Invitational. Hodges will compete in both the discus and shot put at this week’s state 2A track meet in Lakewood. Teammate Daryl Batt had her best throw of the season and is going to state in…
Photo by Tamie Meck Senior Josiah Spano, of Paonia, was an All-Conference first team selecton in the 2A WSL for the 2012-13 hoop year.This year's Class 2A All-Conference and All-State honors in the 2013 Photo by Tamie Meck Paonia High School senior Annavah…
Photo by Tamie Meck Hotchkiss outside hitter Daryl Batt prepares to strike against visiting Plateau Valley. Hotchkiss posted convincing wins over the Lady Cowboys and Soroco last week. District playoffs are scheduled for this week.It's been an up-and-down season, but last weekend the Hotchkiss volleyball team posted consecutive and convincing wins over Soroco and Plateau Valley to end the season with a 7-11 overall, 4-7 league record.
"Tonight was awesome," said head coach Kendal Roberts following Saturday's three-set win over Plateau Valley, a team Hotchkiss had lost to in early-season play by a match total of 11 points.
After Friday's win over Soroco, senior middle hitter Savannah Rocha said they would settle up with Plateau Valley this time around. "We've prepared enough and come a long way since then. That was early in the season."
Plateau Valley has height in 6-foot hitters Hunter Morse and Sierra Reynolds. They serve hard, and they hit hard. But they didn't rattle the Lady Bulldogs, who fought off an early string of attacks to win the first set, 25-22.
Hotchkiss came back from a seven-point deficit to win set two, 25-22, and rolled over the Lady Cowboys in the third set, shutting down their hitting game and dishing out 10 kills and four aces for the 25-12 win. Rocha ended the final set with a block and three kills, and Daryl Batt added three aces and four kills.
With assists by setters Kelli Buhrdorf and Jessie Violett, Rocha and Batt combined for 25 kills against Soroco. Sadie Smith added seven kills and Kristina Deloury delivered five.
After 25-19 wins in the first two sets, Hotchkiss was down by 10 in the third set, but Batt, backed by a strong offense, served 10 unanswered points to tie the game at 21. The set ended in a 26-24 loss for Hotchkiss, but that only served to fire up the team. Down 15-24, Soroco threatened a comeback when Sadie Smith hammered a kill shot in for the 25-20 win.
Roberts knows her team will face tough competition in this week's district tournament. No. 1 seed Paonia is undefeated, and Meeker, Vail Mountain and Rangely all have winning records. They know they are underdogs, but Hotchkiss could surprise a few teams.
While seeding and pairings were unavailable at press time, the Lady Bulldogs will enter the district tournament seeded either fifth or sixth.
Last week's wins marks the first time in this up-and-down season that the team has won two in a row. They are playing the best they've played all season and continue to improve, said Roberts. "They believe in themselves again. They are where I knew they could be this time of year. Just in the last couple of weeks they've come a long way. As long as they can keep up the momentum, they should do well."
