The state track and field meet isn’t until May, but we’re going to get a small preview on Saturday at Mile High.
Pomona and Eaglecrest feature all kinds of speed up and down the roster. And everyone involved can’t wait to watch it play out during the Class 5A footballchampionship game.
“It’s really fun when you’ve got just dogs on both sides of the ball going at it. The fans are going to be into it,” said Pomona quarterback Ryan Marquez. “There are going to be explosive plays, people are going to be making people miss, and big hits, so it’s going to be a fun game.”
(Renee Patridge/reneepatridgephoto.com)
Pomona’s Marquez, Max Borghi and David Ross are veterans of the state track meet, and Billy Pospisil is also a burner. Eaglecrest’s Jalen Mergerson, Victor Garns, Kenny Wanting, Jaydin Vaughn, Corey Corbin and Jon Heupal were all on state meet relays last season.
At the 2016 state meet, a group of Pomona football players, including Borghi, won the 5A 4×100-meter relay. That type of speed remains on the roster.
“I’ve seen them run the 4×1, and those suckers can fly, man,” said Eaglecrest coach Mike Schmitt. “I love fast football, I love speed.”
So do the players.
“They’ve got some good playmakers over there, some great athletes. We also have some great athletes and playmakers over here, as well,” said Garnes, a senior wide receiver, running back and safety for the Raptors. “So it’s going to be a great, fun game to play Pomona.”
Said Borghi, Pomona’s senior running back: “There’s a lot of athletes on both sides of the ball, so it’s going to be a fun game.”
Said Mergerson, Eaglecrest’s senior quarterback: “It’s great to get the best of the best athletes that you’re going to have, within the state, both sides of the ball, and both teams, to play in one game. That’s always what you want in a big state championship game like this. And just the amount of talent and speed on the field is going to be a great one to watch.”
All the speed is going to be an emphasis on matchups.
(Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“We really kind of mirror each other very similarly on the offensive side of the ball, so both defenses really have their work cut out for them,” said Schmitt, in his ninth season as Eaglecrest’s coach.
Schmitt is no stranger to speed. He grew up in Louisiana, and started his coaching career there.
“You just hope that you can matchup and you hope that you can be consistent in your alignment, and you know where you’re supposed to be,” Schmitt said. “Because any slight miscalculation, with that kind of speed, it’s a big play. Pomona’s made big plays day-in and day-out, game-in and game-out.
“So for us, it’s really about making sure our alignment is correct, making sure our athletes are where they need to be, and understand the angles of it.”
Pomona coach Jay Madden said Tuesday that he was up early in the morning worried about his gameplan.
“Trust me, I’m not sitting here saying, ‘We’ve got all these guys,’” Madden said. “We know they got guys, too.”
As for the speed we’ll see on Saturday?
“When you’ve got it, it’s great, but when you both have it, it’s a little scary because anytime one of those guys touches the ball they have a chance to go the distance,” Madden said. “The fact that we have three or four of those guys and they have three or four of them is going to be make it a pretty exciting state championship game.”
GOLDEN — Golden senior Joe Madsen took a calculated risk late in the fourth quarter Thursday night.
With less than a minute to play in the Class 4A boys basketball showdown between Golden and Holy Family — ranked No. 1 and No. 5 in the CHSAANow.com preseason poll — the Demons were hanging on to a 3-point lead. No. 5 Holy Family was clearly looking for a 3-pointer to tie the game, but Madsen had other plans.
“I saw him coming off a double-screen and once I get there I got the steal,” Madsen said of his steal and layup with 30 seconds to play that all but sealed the home victory. “All I had to do was finish the layup. Luckily I came away with it. If I didn’t it could have been bad.”
Golden’s Joe Madsen (22) goes up for a layup during the Demons’ 51-44 win Thursday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Top-ranked Golden pulled off a 51-44 victory in the season opener for both teams in what was the first night of the D’Evelyn/Golden Preview Classic at Golden High School.
“First game of the season, everyone’s emotions are through the roof,” said Golden senior Adam Thistlewood, who finished with a game-high 23 points. “Getting the first win is just a stepping stone to a great season.”
It wasn’t a great start for the Drake University-commit. Thistlewood couldn’t buy an outside shot throughout the game. Holy Family went on a 12-0 run in the first half, opening up a 27-21 halftime lead.
“Going into halftime we were more positive than anything. We weren’t down,” Madsen said. “We were just waiting for our moment to strike.”
Thistlewood got things going in the second half after the Demons had just four points in the second quarter. He poured in 10 points in the third quarter to cut the Tigers’ lead to 36-33 heading to the final quarter.
“The whole game was rough for me from the outside. At halftime I told myself if I wasn’t going to make a 3-pointer I’ll just shoot from 2-feet away,” Thistlewood said. “I told the coaches and my teammates to give me the ball inside and I’ll go to work.”
Holy Family’s junior trio of Adam Jolly, Kyle Helbig and Tanner Baird combined for 28 points on the night. Baird hit a jumper with 2:44 left in the fourth quarter to give the Tigers a 44-42 lead, but Golden finished the game on a 9-0 run.
Golden held Holy Family to 17 second-half points Thursday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
The Demons continued with their strategy of getting the ball inside. Even when shots didn’t fall, Golden was able to get rebounds and eventually got fouled. After not making a trip to the free-throw line in the first half, the Demons finished 10-for-11 from the charity stripe in the second half.
“The key to the game is we started rebounding,” Golden coach John Anderson said. “This team has got to be a great rebounding team. We weren’t shooting well at all. We were just playing well enough in the first half to stick around.”
Senior Jack Moore finished with a dozen points, while Madsen had 10 points. Sophomore Jack Anderson played a pivotal role too, forcing a turnover in the fourth quarter and finishing with 5 points.
“I know my teammates are going to cover my back and I’m going to cover their back,” Thistlewood said.
Holy Family’s season started where it ended in a way Thursday. The Tigers were the No. 5 seed in the 4A state tournament, but were upset on their home court in the Sweet 16 by the No. 12-seeded Demons.
Golden gets another big test facing 4A preseason No. 2 Pueblo South (1-0 record) at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) before closing out the three-day tournament at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at home against last year’s 4A state runner-up Lewis-Palmer.
“You want to be tested early,” Coach Anderson said. “Good-coached teams are always ready to play. We know there is a lot of things we need to tighten up and it doesn’t get any easier.”
Holy Family heads over the D’Evelyn to face the Jaguars at 7 p.m. tomorrow. The Tigers finish out the tournament against Pueblo Central at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at D’Evelyn.
Golden faces ranked No. 2 Pueblo South (Friday) and No. 4 Lewis-Palmer (Saturday) to close out the D’Evelyn/Golden Preview Classic. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Ray Lutz, a longtime football, basketball and track official for over 40 years, passed away Friday.
Lutz, a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame, officiated over 2,400 varsity contests, 1,000 sub-varsity games and nearly 500 playoff games in football and basketball. He was a life-long official who has served in a number of capacities in various officials’ organizations and he was a mentor to hundreds of younger officials.
He worked six football and 12 basketball championship games and as a state meet official in track more than 20 times.
Lutz, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004, served on numerous committees to better officiating in the state and his influence was felt statewide.
Services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 22 at Calhan High School, in the main gym. Dress is casual. Bolo ties are encouraged. Stripes are optional.
The baseball committee is recommending an expansion to the Class 1A postseason.
During their meeting on Tuesday, the group voted to recommend expanding the 1A tournament from eight to 16 teams. Their recommendation will be forwarded to the Legislative Council for approval at their January meeting. If approved, the changes would go into effect in the 2019 season.
“The 1A schools felt that a change was necessary to showcase the better teams in their classification,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann, who administers baseball.
The baseball committee unanimously approved the recommendation.
Under the proposal, the top two teams from each district would automatically qualify for the 16-team bracket, with the remaining eight spots being filled by the next eight highest teams in the final RPI standings.
The first two rounds of the tournament would technically be regionals, with one school hosting four-team pods a week before the state semifinals. The semifinals and final would be held on the first day of the state track and field meet. Currently, the state final is held on the first day of state track — something that helps small schools as many of their athletes are dual-sport competitors.
This 1A proposal mirrors how 2A handles its postseason, with four-team regionals starting the bracket, and then a final day of semifinals and the title game roughly a week later.
2A is keeping its format the same, but did recommend some changes to their seeding process.
The seven district champions will continue to qualify for the 16-team field, with the nine at-large teams coming via the final RPI standings.
New, however, would be criteria that says district teams cannot face one another in Round 1, and where possible, would not be placed in the same region. Additionally, if teams from the same district finish in the top 8 of the final RPI standings, they would be placed on opposite sides of the bracket.
“2A likes their format, but they felt it needed some tweaking in terms of seeding,” Borgmann said.
There was discussion of 3A, 4A and 5A moving to a single-elimination state tournament from its regional round to the end of state, but the committee elected to keep things as-is for now. They have commissioned a survey of schools to see if there would be interest in changing the format.
The 3A, 4A, 5A representatives also discussed reseeding teams after regionals, but the committee ultimately decided against doing so with a unanimous vote.
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Committee discusses expansion of regular season
The committee talked at length about a proposal that would expand the regular seasons in 5A, 4A and 3A from 19 games to 23.
Ultimately, a proposal will need to come from a league as it would amend CHSAA bylaws (2920), but the committee did express its support for one. It is likely the a proposal is filed with the CHSAA office by the end of next week.
We will have more detail on that proposal once filed, but it is likely to mirror what basketball and volleyball currently do: expand the game limits in 5A, 4A and 3A from 19 to 23, while leaving 1A and 2A at 19.
Worth noting is that this would be an expansion to the limits of games a team can play; teams would not be required to play 23 games.
The committee did note that if a game expansion were to be approved, it would likely also require the season to be extended by a week.
