Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 9 are below.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 2 are below.
Haley Smith is the 5A softball player of the year. (Pam Wagner)
The 2013 all-state softball teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These team were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues and coaches, and then a vote of coaches. Find more information here.
The players who received the most votes in their classification were selected as the player of the year in their class.
Scroll down to see the teams, or use the menu below to navigate to the class of your choosing.
More photos. (Tim Visser/TimVisserPhotography.com)
DENVER — For some observers, this match wasn’t highlighted Thursday night at the Class 4A state wrestling tournament.
However, there was plenty at stake when Pueblo South’s Davis Baxter and Thompson Valley’s Sage D’Ambrosia met in the first round at the Pepsi Center — especially in the team race.
Broomfield, Thompson Valley and Pueblo South were ranked No. 1, 2, and 3 by On The Mat prior to the state tournament.
“Our focus right now is bringing home a team title,” said the senior Baxter about the Colts who won state in 1997, 2004 and 2005.
Baxter did his part by muscling past D’Ambriosa 4-2.
“We know all the head-to-head matches with Thompson Valley are very important because they have more guys qualified than us,” said the unranked Baxter after his win over No. 6-ranked D’Ambrosia . “I’m just glad I was able to come through.”
The Colts’ Mitchel Chavez also scored a dramatic 6-5 win over Thompson Valley’s David Eusea. Chavez had a five-point move in the last 20 seconds to get the win.
Defending champion Broomfield qualified 11 wrestlers for state, while Thompson Valley brought 12 and South nine.
Thompson Valley is leading the team chase with 25 points followed by Pueblo South and Windsor which are tied for second with 22 points. Broomfield is sixth with 18 points.
Thompson Valley and South both advanced eight wrestlers and Broomfield had six winners.
In the Baxter-D’Ambrosia match, neither wrestler could get anything going in the first period.
The match remained scoreless until Baxter hit a reversal to take a 2-0 lead with two seconds left in the second period.
Baxter knew his lead wasn’t safe and he was right.
D’Ambrosia answered with a reversal of his own to tie the match at 2-2 with 1:22 left in the third period.
“At South, we focus a lot on conditioning and in the third period I still had a lot left in me and I was able to get the job done,” said Baxter, who ran his season record to 31-13.
Baxter’s takedown at 1:10 of the third put him up 4-2.
“There was a lot scrambling out there and I was getting mixed up with the score,” Baxter said.
D’Ambrosia (33-12) also was lost in the moment.
“I was trying to take him down and he got a funky (two-point) nearfall,” D’Ambrosia said. “I knew after that I had to go after it and try and score some points.”
As the clock was ticking down, Baxter was clinging to his slim advantage.
“In those last seconds I looked at the clock and saw I was winning and I knew I had to avoid getting turned and not give up anything easy,” Baxter said.
D’Ambrosia was gracious in defeat.
“I was trying to take him down and I just ran out of time,” he said.
TURNING SOME HEADS: Berthoud’s Nate Ryken thought his wrestling season was over before regionals last weekend.
“I didn’t even think I was going to wrestle,” said Ryken, who was hampered by a dislocated left elbow injury. “My coaches told me to go out there and give it my all before I stopped my senior year. I went out there and gave it my all and I took fourth.”
That effort qualified Ryken for state and he took full advantage of the opportunity by stunning Broomfield’s Demetruis Zissimos with a third-period pin.
Zissimos (5-1), who was coming back from a broken leg he suffered during football season, was the only undefeated wrestler in all of the 4A brackets.
“I had never wrestled him before,” Ryken said. “I don’t look at the person if they are good or bad. I’m going in how I’m going to go in and I’m going to fight. I feel like this win shows heart and my work ethic and now I’m just going to take one match at a time and wrestle my butt off.”
Ryken improved his record to 16-5 after his pin with 1:19 left in the third period.
LAST YEAR’S CHAMPIONS MOVE ON: Broomfield’s Phil Downing and Zach Stodden, Weld Central’s Dalton Robertson, Palisade’s Dalton Harrington, Pueblo South’s Isaac Naro, Windsor’s Kennen Lanteri, and Mead’s Kyle Couch all won their first-round matches Thursday.
EYEING GOLD: A year ago, Montezuma-Cortez’s Seager Oliver advanced to the 160-pound Class 4A state finals only to get upended by Thompson Valley’s Francisco Marquez.
Now, a junior, Oliver is more determined than ever to capture a coveted gold medal.
Oliver, the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 170 pounds, made a quick statement Thursday night, scoring a 15-0 technical fall over Woodland Park’s Josh Smith.
“I’ve had several tech falls and several pins this season,” said Oliver, who ran his record to 38-2. “I approach every match the same and I treat every match like I’m wrestling the No. 1 guy in state. I never let up and I don’t overlook anybody. The first match is always the worst and I’m glad I got that one over, and I’m happy with the way I wrestled.”
Oliver has a simple plan for the rest of the weekend.
“I just have to go out there and be mean every match and not give them an edge,” Oliver said.
“He’s got the attitude that he wants that gold and he’s headed in that direction,” Belmire said. “He’s worked hard and pushed himself and he has that gold medal in mind.”
Oliver is trying to become Montezuma-Cortez’s first state champion since 2010 when Casey Lynn won state at 135 pounds in Class 4A.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
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Aurora Sports Park sits quiet prior to Saturday’s action. More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) A roundup of Saturday’s action at the state softball tournaments at Aurora Sports Park.
AURORA — Fossil Ridge won its first two games at Saturday’s opening rounds of the 5A state softball tournament by a combined score of 29-7. It now finds itself in the semifinals for the first time in school history.
In fact, Fossil Ridge had never even won a game at the state tournament before Saturday.
The third-seeded SaberCats beat No. 14 Pine Creek in the opening round, 10-3, then followed with a 19-4 mercy-rule-shortened win over No. 6 Eaglecrest which ended on Haley Donaldson’s walk-off three-run home run.
Legacy softball coach Dawn Gaffin goes over instructions between innings Saturday afternoon during the Lightning’s 8-1 quarterfinal victory against Dakota Ridge. Legacy, 5-time Class 5A state champion, will face Brighton in the 5A state semifinals 10 a.m. Sunday at Aurora Sports Park. More photos. (Dennis Pleuss)
Fossil Ridge is 22-1 in 2013. The SaberCats’ lone loss this season came to Legacy on Sept. 16. They could get a rematch on Saturday — but first they’ll need to get past No. 7 Legend, another first-timer in the semis.
Legend (19-5) dispatched No. 10 Grandview 13-8 to open the tournament, then beat No. 2 Rock Canyon 6-1 in the quartefinals.
No. 9 Brighton was the lone team to knock off a No. 1 seed on Saturday. The Bulldogs, now 22-2, beat No. 1 Douglas County 8-4 in the quarterfinals. That followed an 11-1 win over No. 8 Loveland, the defending champion.
In the semis, Brighton will get No. 5 Legacy, which beat a pair of Jeffco squads (Chatfield and Dakota Ridge) to earn its seventh consecutive berth into the state tournament semifinals.
No. 12 Chatfield gave Legacy a tough test before the Lightning pulled away in the late innings for a 6-2 win.
“I think we kind of learned from it,” Legacy senior pitcher Haley Smith said. “Our bats were kind of cold at first, but we had everybody set up.”
Legacy used some “small ball” tactics in the third inning against No. 4 Dakota Ridge to score four runs on the way to an 8-1 victory.
Despite the rich tradition of winning five straight 5A state crowns from 2007 to 2011, Smith doesn’t believe Legacy will be nervous going into the semifinals.
“If anything I think there is less pressure because everyone thinks we can’t do it,” Smith said. “We are the underdogs.”
Semifinal games:
(9) Brighton vs. (5) Legacy, 10 a.m.
(3) Fossil Ridge vs. (7) Legend, 10 a.m.
[divider] Broomfield is headed to the semifinals. More photos. (Pam Wagner)
Fifth-seeded Broomfield narrowly survived being No. 13 D’Evelyn’s second upset victim of the day. But the Eagles did survive, and advance, to the 4A semifinals on Sunday.
Broomfield rallied from 2-0 and 4-2 holes to hold on and beat D’Evelyn 7-6 on Saturday. The Eagles had a four-run fifth-inning which led to the win. They will face top-seeded Wheat Ridge in the semifinals.
Wheat Ridge junior Erin Dalton connects with a pitch during the Farmers’ 5-0 win against Roosevelt in the opening round of the Class 4A state softball tournament Saturday at Aurora Sports Park. More photos. (Dennis Pleuss)
Wheat Ridge didn’t have much problem advancing.
The Farmers shut out No. 16 Roosevelt by a 5-0 score in the opening round and cranked out 11 hits in a 9-4 quarterfinal victory against No. 8 Mountain View. Still, Wheat Ridge coach Marty Stricklett said there is “some improving to do” going into the final day of the season.
The Farmers edged Broomfield 2-0 earlier this season. Sophomore Christina Nelson hit a two-run home run in the first inning and senior pitcher Jessica Salbato pitched a shutout against Broomfield back on Aug. 30.
A 1-0 loss to Niwot in the 4A semifinals last year still motivates the Farmers heading into their eighth straight trip to the state semifinals.
“Tomorrow we are still going off what happened last year,” Stricklett said. “We’ve got to show up and play our game. The name of our game is hitting. We’ve got to hit the ball.”
On the other side of the bracket, No. 6 Erie beat No. 11 Silver Creek 11-1 and No. 3 Pueblo East 7-1 to advance to Sunday. The Tigers will face No. 2 Ponderosa, which escaped No. 15 Palmer Ridge’s upset bid, 5-4, to open the tournament, then beat No. 7 Berthoud 6-0 in the quarters.
The four semifinalists at the 3A level each only played one game on Saturday. That’s because Strasburg, Sterling, Holy Family and Valley all had opening-round byes as seeds Nos. 1-4.
Top-seeded Strasburg beat No. 9 Basalt 11-0, and will meet No. 4 Valley, which eeked past No. 5 Eaton 1-0.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 Sterling will meet No. 3 Holy Family. Sterling beat No. 7 Lamar 5-0 and Holy Family beat No. 11 Dolores Huerta 3-0.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
