Noah Grolnic and Ethan Polacsek found the net in the first period and No. 10 Ralston Valley hockey rolled to 6-1 win over No. 23 Aspen in the first round of the state hockey tournament.
Aidan Kuhl’s 21 points lifted No. 38 Rocky Mountain to a 68-64 overtime win over No. 27 Rock Canyon in the first round of the Class 5A boys basketball tournament.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
The 2020 state skiing championships are running on Thursday and Friday in Beaver Creek and Minturn.
Find links to the live results for each event below.
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Alpine: Giant Slalom
Nordic: Classic
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Alpine: Slalom
Nordic: Skate
Jeffco Preps With Pleuss is a monthly roundup of Jeffco prep highlights hosted by Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ sports information director. This month’s edition features the girls swimming state championship at VMAC in Thornton. Evergreen captured another Class 3A team title. Ralston Valley diver Izzy Gregersen won the 5A diving state championship and Chatfield junior Kathryn Shanley swam to two individual titles. Ralston Valley and Columbine locked up in a big Class 5A Jeffco boys basketball game that came down to the wire. Before the postseason started, Wheat Ridge took a non-league victory over Bear Creek on the hardwood. Green Mountain’s girls basketball continued its historic season. The big National Letter of Intent Signing Day on Feb. 5 was celebrated by several Jeffco schools.
Thomas Jefferson advanced to the second round of the Class 4A boys basketball tournament after beating Thompson Valley 49-34.
LAKEWOOD — Lakewood seniors Nadia Trevizo-Medina and Aaliyah Sabala would love to play one more game inside the Denver Coliseum.
“Before the game I went into the mindset that this wasn’t going to be my last game of my senior year,” Trevizo-Medina said after she scored a game-high 22 points Tuesday night in Lakewood’s first-round playoff victory against Rock Canyon. “I’m pushing to make it back to the Coliseum again.”
Trevio-Medina and Sabala are some of the last reminisce from the Tigers’ back-to-back trips to the Final 4 of the Class 5A girls basketball state tournament. Lakewood advanced to the state championship game in 2017 and made it back to the semifinals in 2018 at the Denver Coliseum.
Lakewood sophomore Logan Watson (2) works her way around Rock Canyon junior Madeleine LeGrande (33) during the first half Tuesday night at Lakewood High School. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“Nadia and Aaliyah has meant so much and been through so much with state championship games and Final 4s,” Lakewood coach Chris Poisson said. “This year we are giving them everything we can and see what happens.”
It was a little dicey early in the opening round of the state tournament Tuesday night for the No. 18-seeded Tigers (13-11 record) hosting No. 47 Rock Canyon. The Jaguars actually jumped out to a 14-10 lead after the first quarter.
Lakewood made just three field goal in the opening quarter.
“We were stuck on 10 points for a long time,” Poisson said of the Tigers’ poor shooting early on. “We were taking good shots that were open. They just weren’t falling.”
Shots started hitting the bottom of the net in the second quarter. Sophomore Logan Watson poured in all of her eight points in the key second quarter for the Tigers. Lakewood outscored Rock Canyon 21-7 in the second quarter.
“I knew I had to shoot them if I was open,” Watson said of her offensive output in that helped Lakewood push out to a double-digit lead at halftime. “Those felt good.”
Rock Canyon senior Halle Hamilton (10) drives on Lakewood sophomore Amanda Archuletta (3) during the second half Tuesday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Sophomores Amanda Archuletta and Haven Kutch hit a 3-pointer each before halftime. Junior Mariah Ramos had a pair of buckets during the Tigers’ 18-2 run.
“I was a bit nervous just because our energy seemed a bit off,” Watson said of the rough start. “We weren’t shooting well at all. We just never quit.”
Trevizo-Medina took over in the second half. She drained a trio of 3-pointers and even had a 3-point play in old-school fashion with a drive to the basket and getting fouled. She had a dozen point in the third quarter.
Lakewood finished the game with a dozen 3-pointers made by six different players. Trevizo-Medina led the way with four 3-pointers.
“We had to work around our strengths,” Trevizo-Medina said. “That’s shooting the ball and feeding the ball into the bigs we do have.”
While the Tigers’ offense got going, the defense locked down Rock Canyon in the second half. The Jaguars (9-15) was held to 21 points in the second half.
“We are playing our best right now,” Poisson said. “It just took us a long time for us to find the combination of executing and making shots.”
The Tigers had a quick first-round exit last year with a road loss to Liberty. The young squad got back above .500 during the regular season this year and finished third in the 5A Jeffco League behind No. 1-seeded Valor Christian and No. 7 Ralston Valley.
With Poisson playing six sophomores on varsity this season, he talked about how important it is to get some postseason experience for the future. The Tigers will get a big playoff road test against No. 15 Cherokee Trail on Friday night in the second round.
Lakewood senior Nadia Trevizo-Medina (23) scored a game-high 22 points in the Tigers’ 70-42 win over Rock Canyon on Tuesday night. The Tigers hit the road for the second round of the 5A state tournament. Lakewood faces No. 15 Cherokee Trail on Friday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Mountain Vista advanced to the second round of the Class 5A girls basketball tournament with an 80-45 win over Prairie View.
Columbine is into the second round of the Class 5A girls basketball tournament after beating Rocky Mountain 71-42 on Tuesday.
Bayfield girls basketball advanced to the semifinals of the Intermountain District Tournament with a 41-33 win over Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday.
File photo. (Ismael Gomez)
Hitting the road isn’t always a sign of impending doom when it comes to basketball playoffs. That certainly turned out to be the case for Pine Creek as it made its way west on I-70 for the first round of the Class 5A girls basketball state tournament.
The Eagles entered the tournament as the 39 seed, but it didn’t deter them as they left the western side of Colorado with a 29-26 win over Grand Junction Central. They’ll stay a little closer to home on Saturday when they head to Arvada to take on No. 7 Ralston Valley.
Pine Creek jumped out to a 20-8 lead at halftime but the offense quickly slowed down in the second half. Leah Redding knocked down a big 3-pointer for Central early in the fourth quarter to cut the Eagles’ lead to eight points.
Pine Creek made its way to the free throw line where Brynae Stewart made two and Jordyn Gutierrez made one to keep the game just out of Central’s reach.
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(22) Fairview 47, (43) Castle View 45
Fairview’s Izzy Munson led all scorers with 19 points as the Knights battled back from a five-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter. They’ll meet Denver South in the second round.
Leaya Mckinney and Alexa Barkeen each scored 11 for the Sabercats.
(37) Brighton 63, (28) Mountain Range 53
The Bulldogs were one of just three lower-seeded teams to get wins in the first round. Their win over Mountain Range puts them in the second round where they’ll travel to Fruita Monument.
(36) Arvada West 48, (29) Loveland 38
Arvada West’s first round win sets up a matchup with Grandview in the second round.
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File photo. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
No. 37 Longmont upsets No. 28 D’Evelyn in first-round thriller
Jordynn Lee scored 17 points to lead Longmont to a first-round upset win over D’Evelyn. The Trojans advance to the second round of the 4A tournament where they’ll see a familiar foe in Erie.
Longmont opened the season with a 56-42 loss to the Tigers and now get a chance at redemption.
Emmelia Ashton added 13 points in Longmont’s winning effort on Tuesday.
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(19) Skyview 39, (46) Coronado 36
Jordan Gonzales knocked down a big 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter as Skyline held off a persistent Coronado team. The Cougars trailed by one entering the fourth quarter but Fatinah Muhammed made two key buckets to put them up by five.
But the Wolverines battled back to avoid the upset and stay alive in tournament play.
(23) Palmer Ridge 38, (42) Pueblo East 36
Eden Bonser led all scorers with 17 points as the Bears grabbed a narrow win over the Eagles. They won’t travel far for their next game as they’ll take on league rival Air Academy on Friday.
Jaylene Escajeda led Pueblo East with 11 points.
(34) Littleton 58, (31) Denver West 44
Ava Youngblood-Yazzi and Jasmyn Thompson-Harvey each scored 12 points as the Lions were one of just two lower-seeded teams to get a win in Tuesday’s slate of games.