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.
The Cedaredge boys' track team had themselves a big week of competition. After earning 130 points, the Bruins finished second to the Rifle Bears who collected 167 points.
Photo by Wayne Crick
Cedaredge high-jumper Danny Martinez won last week’s 3A league meet and advanced to state.
Junior Dante Markley was busy for the Bruins as he captured titles in three events. Markley won the 100m dash title with a time of 11.29. He was fourth in 3A state rankings for the 100m going into the past week. Markley was the class of the field in the 110m high hurdles as he ran away from the field after Coal Ridge's Andy Bowles and Rifle's Taylor Webb false-started in the finals. Bowles was the top qualifier at 16.12 and Webb the third best at 16.39 Markley was the second best qualifier with his 16.30.
Markley had little trouble outrunning the rest of the field in the finals posting a 15.49 to Grand Valley's Benjamin Coleman's 17.15. Bruin teammate Steton Brewer placed fifth. Markley was seventh last year at state with a 16.67.
Markley qualified fourth in the 100m race but outlegged his competitors to win the finals in ll.29. Tyler Guettler (Coal Ridge) had an 11.34 to place second and Rifle's Brandon Kittle third with an 11.52.
In the 300m hurdles race, Markley qualified first and smoked the field in finals with a time of 40.61 to second-place Webb with his 42.34. Teammates Brewer and Logan Cronebaugh placed sixth and eighth respectively. In last year's state competition, Markley was fifth with a time of 40.87.
Miguel Barajas finished his senior season strong with wins in both the shot put and discus events. He threw the shot 46-10.75 and sailed the discus 136-11 to record wins in the two events. He was 13th at state last season in the shot and 16th in the discus.
Barajas will have company in the shot at state with Tylor Balistreri joining him, who threw 43-07 last week. Teammate Luke Wieben is ranked 10th in the discus and Barajas eighth in the discus. Reid Gates placed fifth in the discus to help the Bruins earn team points.
Cedaredge's Danny Martinez achieved one of his goals in getting to state in the high jump. He won last week's 3A WSL title with a jump of 6-03.5 and immediately went to 6-8 in hopes of setting a record. He missed three on three attempts, but not by much. He remains confident and looks forward to next week's state competition. "This is the best time of the year," said the Western State-bound senior. "People don't butt heads and everyone is friendly on this team."
It was Martinez's third consecutive league title in the high jump.
Martinez will be one of four Bruins to attend this week's state meet. Joining him is Gates (6-01.5 on Friday), Dagan Smith (6-01.5 on Friday), and Luke Wieben who cleared 5-11 at Coal Ridge earlier in the season to qualify.
Martinez and Gates produced more points in the jumping events with a fourth and fifth place finish in the long jump.
Martinez, Brewer, Smith and Ryan Latta put together a 1:36.22 in the 800m relay race to finish third and the team of Dylan Buckallew, Smith, Kyle Kanz and Latta ground out a sixth-place finish in the 1600m relay.
Kanz, Buckallew, Car-ter Stoudt and Rowdy Murphy ran a 9:07.41 to place sixth in the 3200m relay while Martinez, Brewer, Jake Arter and Latta got together for a seventh place finish in the 400m relay competition.
Eighth place finishes went to Gates in the 200m and Kanz in the 3200m run.
A rundown of the Bruin boys attending this year's state meet begins with Markley and his four events: 100m dash (ranked fourth), 110m high hurdles (ranked fifth), 300m hurdles (ranked fifth), and a member of the 1600m relay team (ranked 15th).
Barajas is on his way in the shot (third) and discus (eighth).
Gates will be busy in the high jump (fifth), long jump (seventh), and 1600m relay.
Martinez's return to state will see him attempt to better his 6-2 jump at last year's state appearance and a fourth-place finish in high jump. He is ranked second in Class 3A. Martinez is ranked 17th in long jump and hopes to finish nearer the top at state.
Smith is a member of the 1600m relay team and is ranked eighth in the high jump this season.
Wieben will compete in discus (10th) and high jump where he is ranked 15th.
Latta is the fourth member of the Bruins' 1600m relay team.
Head coach Kirby Henderson is confident that the Bruins will perform well at state. "We will fare very well at state> We have loads of experienced, focused athletes who have goals in mind. With that, no matter what, we will have a great experience. I've not seen a more focused group heading to state before. It's fun!"
