HIGHLANDS RANCH — Faith Christian boys basketball beat SkyView Academy Friday in a Class 3A Metro league game, 70-45. The Eagles are now 6-2 in league.
THORNTON — Fossil Ridge is the favorite here at the Class 5A girls swimming state meet. Thursday’s preliminaries hammered that fact home.
The SaberCats, who have been ranked No. 1 all throughout the regular season, entered with the top-seeded time in nine of the 11 swimming events. They lived up to expectations at the Veterans Memorial Aquatics Center, closing the preliminaries with a swimmer or relay team leading nine of the 11 events.
Included:
A record-setting performance by junior Zoe Bartel in the 100 breastroke.
A record-tying time by sophomore Coleen Gillilan in the butterfly.
The top three qualifying times in the 200 individual medley.
A dominant showing from Kylee Alons, who holds the top times in two events.
“I think it kind of has a snowball effect,” Gillilan said of the team’s success. “You start out good, and you’re winning, and then that gets other people excited, and they want to win. It just keeps going.”
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Said Bartel: “We have a highly-competitive group. We’re not just a group of swimmers. We’re a group of athletes that loves to compete. So anytime we see one of our really good friends go and break a pool record, or have a great time, you’re like, ‘Oh, I want to do that! I want to do what they did!’
“It’s almost like a, ‘I don’t want to be left out.’ But it’s also, ‘I want to participate. I want to be a part of this.’”
Bartel shattered her previous state record of 1:01.88 — set earlier this season — with a 1:00.39 in the breastroke.
“She is so talented. She’s a nationally-ranked swimmer,” said Fossil Ridge coach Carolyn Fries. “She’s one of the hardest workers on our team — on a fast team. She’s outstanding.”
Gillilan tied a state record in the 100 butterfly, matching the time of 53.22 swam by former SaberCat Bailey Nero in 2015.
“I was just hoping to make it back,” said Gillilan, who won the 100 fly at the state meet last season and placed second in the 50 free. “It just made me so much more hyper and excited for my next races.”
Alons, a Fossil Ridge junior, qualified first in both the 50 and 100 freestyle races. Her preliminary time in the 50 was 0.23 away from Missy Franklin’s record of 22.41.
The 200 IM was a microcosm of the prelims: Fossil Ridge’s Bartel, senior Bailey Kovac, and junior Bayley Stewart qualified 1-2-3 in the event. Bartel shaved more than four seconds off her seed time to finish in 2:02.44.
Stewart and Kovac also qualified first and second, respectively, in the 100 backstroke.
The 200 medley relay, which opened the meet, saw the SaberCats finish in 1:42.53. They own the top time by more than three seconds — and they can go faster. Fossil Ridge’s seed time was 1:42.39.
Fossil Ridge finished third at last season’s 5A state meet, a year after winning the title. Another championship, which would be the program’s third, is now in their sights.
“We’ll try to keep them excited. We’re going to chase a couple more state records,” Fries said. “They’ve been waiting for this since last year.”
Fairview senior Brittney Beetcher qualified first in both the 200 and 500 freestyle races. She went 1:51.88 in the 200, and 4:59.47 in the 500.
Beetcher won both events last season after finishing second in both as a sophomore.
After the first day of diving, Douglas County’s Lexie Barker led the field. The Ohio State-bound senior had an eight-round semifinal total of 346.85, heading Arapahoe’s Franny Cable (332.45) and Cherry Creek’s Sydney Fulton (322.40).
Barker finished third at the state meet last season, and 23rd as a sophomore, when she didn’t qualify for semifinals.
Thursday, she had the top total of the prelims at 218.90, and extended her lead in the semifinals.
“It’s where I hoped to be,” Barker said. “I didn’t know how this year was going to go. My first year, I didn’t even make the cut. And then last year, I think I got third, so this year, I was thinking, ‘As long as I make podium, I’m good.’
“I’m feeling pretty confident” heading into finals, she added.
Finals for both swimming and diving begin at 4 p.m. on Friday. Prior to that, the first-ever 3A state meet will begin prelims at 10:30 a.m.
COLORADO SPRINGS — It looked like Doherty was going to cruise to a second-straight Class 5A Colorado Springs Metro League title, but Rampart just wasn’t going to make it that easy.
The Rams charged back in the second half, but a 22-point cushion proved to be just enough as the Spartans walked off the visiting floor with a 79-74 win, once again staking their claim as league champs.
“I knew that we were capable of scoring on them in their zone and their man,” Doherty coach Jarris Krapcha said. “I’m confident in our group of guys and I thought we were the better team.”
Krapcha stood outside the Spartans’ (17-3 overall, 10-0 CSML) locker room in a crisp t-shirt celebrating the team as “Back 2 Back” league champs. One by one, the players filed out with smiles on their faces, but it very well could’ve been a celebration that would’ve had to wait a few more days.
Doherty went into halftime with a 51-29 lead. It seemed like Brevin Brimble couldn’t miss as he equaled the Rams (15-6, 7-3) scoring output in the first 16 minutes.
On the flip side, Rampart seemed of sync and in their own heads in that span. The Spartans had a 13-9 lead when Cal Zeb Roberson was slapped with a technical foul. Doherty took advantage, going on a 7-0 run following the call.
“We played scared and intimidated,” Rampart coach J’on St. Clair said. “Before we got the technical it was close. So yeah, it hurt us. Hurt the momentum.”
They dominated the rest of the first half with Brimble scoring 29 of his game-high 34 in the first two quarters.
“We just needed to keep doing what we were doing,” Brimble said. “We knew in the second half, we might not hit all the shots we were in the first.”
That might be the understatement of the week.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
The Rams came out firing while Doherty went ice cold. Rampart senior Jackson Ehrlin, fresh off a 49-point performance against Liberty, scored seven of his team-high 26 in the third helping Rampart to a 25-9 advantage to come out of halftime.
Entering the fourth quarter, what looked as close as possible to a sure-fire win for the Spartans had turned into a competitive basketball game.
“(I was) pretty concerned,” Krapcha said. “I thought our defense just dropped off. It’s tough, we had a big lead at half and we relaxed defensively.”
And Brimble went cold. After scoring 29 in the first half, he would only connect on one more field goal for the rest of the game. So guys like Kyrele Benford and Emmanuel Burleson had to step up as the Rams were coming back.
Benford ended with 15 and Burleson scored 10.
“We just count on each other and keep each other strong,” Benford said. “We hold each other accountable and we have each other’s back.”
And when that happens, league championships can be clinched. Both Rampart and Doherty came into Thursday’s game in the top 10 of the 5A RPI. With a league championship in hand and a top 10 rating, Doherty is looking at prime seed for the playoffs, but they still want to finish the regular season strong.
“I think we need to finish league first,” Brimble said. “Once we know what seed we are we can start to focus on that exact team.”
It marked the start of the first-ever championship meet in the classification, which was added, in part, to create more participation opportunities in the sport for girls.
Well, that worked.
Roughly 54 percent of participants in this year’s state meet didn’t participate at state last season. Two schools, Moffat County and Northfield, were represented after not sending a swimmer to last year’s state meet.
“This is great now,” said Kent Denver coach Craig Petersen, who saw his team qualify nine to the state meet — up from an average of three or four per year. “It’s great for the girls, it gives them some confidence, and it’s just so much more fun now for the kids.”
“It’s huge,” added Longmont coach Kelly Shipley, whose team also added a significant number of qualifiers this season. “It gives girls more opportunities to make it at the state level.”
It also has changed the meet in terms of competition as the enrollment gap has shrunk. Now, the top-end of the class is 1,234, spanning 42 schools. Last season, the cap was 1,410 — but that spanned 70 schools.
“This is so great for these girls. We’ve been trying to get this 3A classification going for years,” said Petersen, who credited Ron Johns — the Chatfield coach, coaches association president and state meet director — for his role in advocating for a third classification. “It hasn’t been right from the standpoint of schools. We had to compete at essentially a 4-to-1 ratio against some of these bigger schools. But this is huge. I couldn’t be happier for my girls.”
Alex Reddington. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
On Friday, St. Mary’s Academy senior Alex Reddington stood out in the prelims.
She ended the session with the top qualifying time in the 200 freestyle (1:52.93) and the 100 butterfly (56.35) — which wasn’t too surprising considering she won both events at the 4A state meet last season.
But Reddington also helped her team qualify second in the 200 medley relay, and anchored the Wildcats’ 400 freestyle relay that posted the top time of the round (3:41.79).
“It went really well,” Redding said of the prelims. “I posted some times I’m pretty proud of. I’m excited for tomorrow. It felt really good.”
Reddington added that while 3A was “a little less competition,” she liked the new class because “we were able to bring another relay here, we had a few more individual swimmers.”
“That is great,” Reddington said.
Aspen, the top-ranked team heading into the state meet, also had a number of girls who stood out.
Sophomore Davy Brown qualified first in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. Senior Kennidy Quist was first in the 50 free and second in the 100 free.
The team also qualified first in the 200 medley relay and second in the 400 freestyle. Both relays included Brown and Quist.
Pueblo County notched the top time in the 200 freestyle relay, finishing in 1:42.67. That group included Amanda Blickensderfer, who also qualified first in the 100 breaststroke.
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THORNTON — Kylie Jimenez scored 24 points as No. 4 Horizon topped Fort Collins, 71-54 to stay undefeated in league play. Horizon is now 10-0 in 5A’s Front Range League.
Heritage named Hannah Eberle as its new volleyball coach last month.
Eberle replaces Jana Barrett, who coached the Eagles for the past two seasons.
“Hannah has a passionate vision for our volleyball program that is contagious,” said Heritage athletic director Brock Becker. “She understands what it takes to build a successful program from the ground up at all levels. We really were impressed with her experience from club volleyball to high school volleyball, and her excitement for developing young people.
“She has a magnetic personality that makes it easy for her players to know how much she cares. We feel lucky to have landed her at Heritage.”
A graduate of Ralston Valley, Eberle has been coaching for more than 11 seasons, including time as the JV coach at Ralston Valley. She has also coached youth, club and high school volleyball in Nebraska.
Heritage was 4-18 last season. The Eagles return a ton of talent, including Sydney Larson, a junior who led the team in kills, and Audrey Gerze, who led them in digs.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE — In a battle between top-ranked teams in the CHSAANow.com hockey rankings, No. 3 Cherry Creek and No. 4 Monarch tied 2-2. Monarch won a previous matchup 5-1.
CENTENNIAL — Mentally, it’s tough to forget giving a 20-point lead to a league rival. But Eaglecrest had to figure out a way to do that.
It took 22 points from Colbey Ross a surge from Ikenna Ozor to start the second half, but the Raptors were able to come away with a 56-43 win over Grandview, avenging a loss in which they gave up a 36-16 lead.
“Of course it was on everyone’s mind,” Ross said. “We just came out and played hard. That was the main key.”
But simply playing hard doesn’t always generate the ideal results. The Raptors (17-3 overall, 10-1 Centennial League) struggled to find an offensive rhythm early and ended the first quarter in a 12-10 deficit.
It wasn’t an ideal feeling for coach John Olander, who routinely sees his team start a little better each game.
“We’re a fast starting team and I feel better when we start fast,” Olander said. “In the back of my mind, I knew if we could get a lead again and handle the situation better we could increase the lead. But I told our guys before the game, it was going to be close.”
Coming out of the first eight minutes, the Wolves (18-2, 9-2) were knocking down outside shots thanks to Gunner Gentry and Ben Boone.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
But as the game went on, there was a lack of scoring from where Grandview usually likes to see it. Gaige and Dayne Prim combined for eight points on the night, leaving the Wolves a little flustered offensively.
“Scoring-wise we didn’t get much from either brother,” Grandview coach Michael Rogers said. “That kind of threw us off a little bit. Usually they’re good for 15 to 20 at least.”
The Raptors were able to gain a two-point edge at halftime, even if it took a little more scrap than Olander wanted. But Ozor ignited Eaglecrest to start the second half.
He sank a tip-in for his first basket of the game and on the ensuing possession, he drove to the basket and made his shot while drawing the foul. Five of his nine points in the game came on those two possessions.
“In the first half, a lot of the shots that I can usually make just weren’t going in,” Ozor said. “That was kind of tough, but in the second half, a huge goal was to push it and really run the court.”
And that’s where the difference in the game came.
Once the Raptors were able to push the pace and convert on the shots that they’re used to converting on, they proved to be too much trouble for the Wolves.
Back-to-back lay-ins from Ross gave Eaglecrest a 45-33 lead in the fourth quarter, and the crowd began thinning out at that point.
“(Coach wanted us) to set those screens and roll,” Ozor said. “They’re not as fast as a team as we are.”
But Grandview is far from a bad team and they weren’t the CHSAANow.com No. 5-ranked team for nothing. They also sit at No. 2 in the Class 5A RPI, so a win over this team is impressive by any means. And Olander even admitted that he’d happily take a one-point win.
But now Rogers has to re-evaluate the outcome and figure out what he needs to get his boys to do in order to produce the winning result from the first go-around between the two rivals.
“We can take something from this,” he said. “We’ll watch film tomorrow and see what we did right and see where we were disciplined and undisciplined.”
