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 middle hitter Easton Hartigan fires a shot past the defense in the Lady Eagles’ three-set win last Friday night over North Park. It’s Homecoming week and Paonia will face Rangely this Friday afternoon.
The Lady Eagles were able to get past 4A Delta but couldn't quite pull off a win at Olathe.
The host Lady Pirates (7-3 overall, 0-0 3A Western Slope League) had 42 kills, 11 serving aces and 74 digs last week to hand Paonia its first loss of the season (19-25, 28-26, 21-25, 21-25).
Setter/middle hitter Ce'rra Carsten led the Eagles in attacks (37) and kills (16), with Carson Pipher contributing 35 attacks and 8 kills. Paonia also had a combined 31 attack errors.
Defensively, Carsten, Taylor Carsten and Abby Campbell each contributed 10 digs, but the team also posted 24 dig errors.
"The Olathe loss was a character-builder for us," said head coach Krista Carsten. It helped us re-focus in practice and work harder. The team had gotten a little complacent, so it motivated us to change some of the things we were doing in practice."
Paonia ended the week with two wins, putting visiting North Park (4-3, 2-3) away in three (25-12, 25-23, 25-14) on Friday night, and subduing Soroco (1-7, 0-5) on Saturday at Oak Creek (25-23, 25-16, 25-17).
The Lady Eagles are now 11-1 and in first place in 2A Western Slope League standings. Paonia came in at No. 6 in Max Preps' state 2A rankings, which were released on Sept. 20. They are the only Western Slope team to make the top 12 list.
It's homecoming week at PHS. The Lady Eagles played a league match against Vail Mountain on Tuesday. They host Rangely (7-2, 4-0) Friday beginning at 4 p.m., with the junior varsity match scheduled for 3 p.m.
"Rangely will be tough," said Carsten, who described senior players Brittany Babinoux and Quincey Thacker as "... great hitters and phenomenal blockers. We need to take them out of the system and keep the ball away from those two in order to win."
On Oct. 2, Paonia and Hotchkiss will celebrate the fourth annual Pink Night! event in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The C-team match begins at 4 p.m., followed by JV and varsity games. There will be drawings, games, prizes and a lot of pink throughout the evening. All proceeds go to Delta County Hospice. For details, call Kriss at 527-4882.
