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.
Paonia’s Brooklynd Erickson jumps 15 feet, 10.25 inches to place ninth at the 2A state long jump. Erickson, a freshman, competed in the maximum four events.
It wasn't the Lady Eagles' first time to run all five relays at state, but it was the first time that all five placed, according to head coach Brian Mitchem. The relay teams also re-set school records in four of those relays.
With only one senior competing, the girls team earned 62 points to place fourth in 2A competition.
Sprinter Lindsay Russell was ranked eighth in the 200-meter dash. Russell, a junior and 3-time state competitor, placed first at the 2A Western Slope League meet, but in preliminaries she upset Swink, Lyons and Lutheran Parker to head into finals ranked fifth. In finals, she ran a 26.82 race to hang on to fifth place.
Russell also anchored the 800-meter sprint medley relay.
The team of Brooklynd Erickson, Easton Hartigan, Gabrielle Moet and Russell ran their best time of the year in preliminaries, then shaved almost a second off of that time to finish third with a time of 1:52.39.
Photo by Tamie Meck
Paonia freshman Morgan Hartigan competes in the preliminary run of the 300-meter hurdles. Hartigan placed fifth in the hurdles and shot put, and ran on two relays.
After placing third in prelims, the 1600 team of Russell, Taylor Plymale, Chelsy Reed and Taylor Polson shaved almost seven seconds off of their time to finish second behind Vanguard.
The fourth-ranked 400 team of Erickson, Easton Hartigan, Gabrielle Moet and Morgan Hartigan also re-set the school record and upset Dolores to finish third.
Running for their second consecutive year, the 3200 team of Reed, Carson Pipher, Clement and Polson placed fourth with a time of 9:59.37. They were less than five seconds off of the state record of 10:15.46.
In her third consecutive appearance in the event, Reed placed eighth in the 800. In other individual events, Polson finished the 400 in sixth place, Ce'rra Carsten placed seventh in the triple and eighth in the high jump. Erickson placed ninth in the long jump. And Morgan Hartigan placed fifth in both the shot put and 300 hurdles.
"All of the kids are excited about the possibilities for next year," said Mitchem. "Almost as much as the coaches."
