Jacob Smith was incredibly efficient as he threw a no-hitter for Middle Park baseball on Tuesday.
The sophomore needed just 39 pitches to accomplish the feat in his team’s 26-0 win over Bruce Randolph.
“29 strikes and 10 balls,” said Middle Park coach Jon T. Hall. “He was just throwing it right down the pipe, and they weren’t swinging at the first pitch a lot of times. 12 of the 29 were first-pitch strikes.”
Smith faced the minimum of 15 batters over five innings, allowing a lone base runner on a walk. (Smith picked that runner off the very next pitch.) He had seven strikeouts.
“It was a feat beyond feats, man,” Hall said. “It was like he was unconscious up there. It was something else.”
Hall, now in his fourth season at Middle Park, has been a baseball coach for 13 years. He said he’s never had a player do anything like Tuesday’s performance.
“I’ve never even seen anything like this, even in all the years I played college ball, or when I was 3, 4 years old growing up,” Hall said.
The Panthers’ offense held up its end of the bargain, too: Middle Park led 7-0 after the first inning, and also pushed across nine runs in the third. Gabe Loberg, Sam Colley and Turner Bjerken each had three RBIs, with Bjerken going deep.
Smith is now 2-0 this season with a 1.40 ERA in eight appearances. He also has a save.
“The young man’s been throwing well all year,” Hall said.
The Panthers moved to 8-6 with the win, including 7-2 in the Class 3A/2A Frontier League, and have five games left on their schedule — to play in six days.
“Living up here in the mountains, we’ve had snowouts and snowouts and snowouts and snowouts. Every one of them has been snow; it’s not been rain,” Hall said. “It’s definitely a tough place to play home ball games up here in the mountains.”
The good news? Smith will be available to pitch again. Because he only threw 39 pitches, he only needed one day of rest under the pitch count rule — which he’ll get on Wednesday before the Panthers play again Thursday.
“He’s free to pitch whenever I need him again,” Hall said.
The 2017-18 all-state skiing teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created based upon results at the state meet. Skiers of the year were selected based upon the number of team points they produced during the meet. Coaches of the year are voted upon by their peers prior at the state meet.
Skimeister is a season-long event conducted by the Colorado High School Ski League which honors the top skier in both disciplines.
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Girls
Devan McSwain. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Alpine skiier of the year: Devan McSwain, Aspen
Nordic skiier of the year: Kate Oldham, Colorado Rocky Mountain
Skimeister: Kiana Brausch, Battle Mountain
Alpine coach of the year: Bill Gooch, Lake County
Nordic coach of the year: Jonathan Mocatta, Summit
First team
Name
School
Event
Emma Blakslee
Vail Mountain
Nordic Classic
Molly Blakslee
Vail Mountain
Nordic Skate
Winter Boese
Steamboat Springs
Nordic Skate
Kiana Brausch
Battle Mountain
Skimeister
Emily Creek
Nederland
Slalom
Alex Cregan
Platte Canyon
Giant Slalom
Amber Eliott
Steamboat Springs
Slalom
Olivia Flake
Steamboat Springs
Slalom
Grace Johnson
Battle Mountain
Nordic Classic
Devan McSwain
Aspen
Giant Slalom, Slalom
Chelsea Moore
Aspen
Nordic Skate, Nordic Classic
Kate Oldham
Colorado Rocky Mountain
Nordic Skate, Nordic Classic
Kylee Ornstein
Evergreen
Giant Slalom
Noelle Resignolo
Summit
Nordic Classic
Madeline Robbins
Durango
Giant Slalom, Slalom
Tai-Lee Smith
Summit
Nordic Skate
Levyn Thomas
Aspen
Giant Slalom
Second team
Name
School
Event
Lizzy Barsness
Aspen
Nordic Skate, Nordic Classic
Nancy Brown
Lake County
Slalom
Kaela Fahrney
Battle Mountain
Nordic Skate
Analise Gates
Durango
Giant Slalom, Slalom
Katy Jane Hardenberg
Vail Mountain
Nordic Classic
Katy Jane Hardenbergh
Vail Mountain
Nordic Skate
Emily Jensen
Middle Park
Nordic Skate, Nordic Classic
Sonja Kainulainen
Colorado Rocky Mountain
Slalom
Gabby Myers
Summit
Giant Slalom
Alexandra Raichart
Battle Mountain
Nordic Classic
Edie Sherlock
Aspen
Slalom
Estelle Sweeney
Aspen
Giant Slalom
Ella Wiser
Middle Park
Giant Slalom
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Boys
Cameron Wolfe. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Alpine skiiers of the year: Luke Bailey, Platte Canyon; Michael Resnick, Vail Mountain
Nordic skiier of the year: Cameron Wolfe, Vail Mountain
Skimeister: Henry Barth, Aspen
Alpine coach of the year: Bill Gooch, Lake County
Nordic coach of the year: Jonathan Mocatta, Summit
LEADVILLE — Aspen increased its trophy haul on Friday, capturing both the boys and girls state skiing titles.
The Skiers won the boys event with 661.5 points, and their girls team won with 650.5 points.
Vail Mountain was the boys runner-up with 572 points, and Battle Mountain finished second in the girls competition with 581 points.
Aspen’s all-around performance in each event proved to be the difference during the two-day championships held at Ski Cooper.
Both the boys and the girls team either had the most points, or the second-most points in all four events — the Giant Slalom and Nordic Classic on Thursday; and the Slalom and Nordic Skate on Friday. Speaking to their team depth, Aspen had just one individual champion: Chelsea Moore in the Classic on Thursday.
It is the first time the Skiers have won both team titles since 2012. For each program, it is their eighth championship — the second-most of any boys team, and third-most of any girls team.
Individually, Vail Mountain Cameron Wolfe swept the Nordic events. He won the boys Skate on Friday with a time of 14:16. Aspen’s Everett Olson was second (14:51), a feat he duplicated from the Classic event. Summit had a trio of boys finish third through fifth: Quintin Weinberger, Peter Haynes, and Oliver Trowbridge.
Aspen’s boys placed three among the top seven finishers in the Skate, including Olson, Jacob Barsness and Noah Wheeless.
Colorado Rocky Mountain’s Kate Oldham won the girls Skate with a time of 16:28. Oldham had placed second in the Classic a day earlier.
Tai-Lee Smith of Summit and Aspen’s Moore tied for second in the girls race at 16:46, while Vail Mountain’s Molly Blakslee (17:20) was fourth, and Winter Boese (17:44) of Steamboat Springs placed fifth.
Aspen’s Lizzy Barness and Jordan Miner also finished among the top 11 for the Skiers.
The day started with the Slalom, and it was Vail Mountain’s Michael Resnick who took the title for the boys, finishing with a two-run time of 1:08.33. Resnick was second in the Giant Slalom on Thursday; he had also placed second in the GS last year, and was third in the Slalom a year ago.
Luke Bailey, Thursday’s GS champion from Platte Canyon, finished second in the boys Slalom (1:10.23), and Aspen freshman Noah Forman was third (1:11.53). Aspen also had Reed Beidlemann place fourth, and Alex Illic finish 11th.
Nederland’s Emily Creek won the girls Slalom with a time of 1:11.65. Creek was 24th in the Giant Slalom.
Steamboat Springs senior Amber Eliott placed second in 1:12.89, and Aspen’s Devan McSwain was third in 1:13.80. McSwain placed third in the GS.
Durango sophomore Madeline Robbins was fourth in the Slalom. It is the school’s highest finish in an individual event since the Demons brought their skiing program back last season.
Edie Sherlock (eighth) and Levyn Thomas (14th) also placed highly for Aspen’s girls in the Slalom.
Next year’s state skiing championships will be hosted by Durango at Purgatory Resort. The 2020 championships are scheduled for Vail, and 2021 will be hosted by Middle Park at Winter Park.
The state’s skiing schedule is scheduled to get underway on Friday, but a lack of snow at the mountain has caused one of the two events to be postponed.
Seven teams were slated to compete in the giant slalom at Ski Cooper. A lack of accumulated snow on the mountain, combined with a forecast of high winds and dry conditions through the week, have caused it to cancelled. The event will be moved to a new location the week prior to the state championships.
Lake County, Middle Park, Aspen, Clear Creek, Nederland, Platte Canyon and Summit were scheduled to race at Ski Cooper on Friday.
The giant slalom event scheduled to be held at Beaver Creek on Friday remains on as scheduled. Teams competing include Battle Mountain, Colorado Rocky Mountain, Durango, Evergreen, Eagle Valley, Vail Mountain and Steamboat Springs.
The 2017 all-state football teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues, and then a vote of head coaches across the state.
Players were placed onto the first-team, second-team and honorable mention based upon the number of votes they received. In 5A-1A, spots were reserved for linemen and one kicker/punter, while 8-man reserved spots for linemen.
CHSAA does not determine who makes or doesn’t make the team; they are created entirely from the results of the coaches’ vote.
DENVER — To start the volleyball season, Mountain Vista handed Cherry Creek one of its two losses on the year. To start the state tournament, the Bruins returned the favor.
Cherry Creek battled to a 21-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-20, 15-7 win over the Golden Eagles, knock off the No. 1 seed in the Class 5A bracket. It was just one of many upsets across all five classifications on Friday at the Denver Coliseum.
Mountain Vista won the regular season opener between the two teams. That match also went to five sets.
“It was motivation to come in here and beat them,” coach Sally Moos said.
The Golden Eagles claimed the first set of the match, putting the Bruins into a quick hole. It was all tied up after two, but Mountain Vista again pulled ahead, putting Creek on the verge of defeat and losing any control over its own fate.
Even at that point, there was no panic from the Centennial League’s only representative at the tournament.
“I don’t think so,” junior outside hitter Katie Sherman said. “We were all just so into (the match) and we wanted to win it so bad.”
So they battled. The fourth set remained tight until Creek pulled away at the end. They came out in the fifth and dominated from the start, jumping out to a 11-3 lead.
Mountain Vista started to rally back, but the Sherman put down one last kill to give the Bruins control of Pool I.
“We wanted to win that so bad,” Sherman said. “They’re probably our biggest rival. We’re super excited.”
Cherry Creek finished the regular season with just two losses. The first came against the Golden Eagles. The second loss was back on Sept. 16 against Rock Canyon. Cherry Creek evened the score against Rocky Mountain in the Legend Tournament on Oct. 28.
The Bruins and the Lobos will play Saturday morning and a win by Creek means advancement to the semifinals.
“Rocky Mountain is a very good team, too,” Moos said. “We’ll do the same thing, we’ll battle back and forth.”
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Other upsets shake up the pools
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Denver East continued 5A’s upset trend in the third match of day when the No. 11-seeded Angels swept No. 2 Fossil Ridge, the defending champions.
The Angels, who are now 21-6 this season, swept the Sabercats 25-23, 25-22, 25-20.
“They stuck to the gameplan,” Denver East coach Tarah Olmstead said after the match. “They ran outside their comfort zone, which is what we are supposed to do every single day. We watch film on everybody here. We know what everybody does before we even know our own rotations. And they called it, they stayed on top.”
Denver East last advanced to the state tournament two years ago, but only two players remain from that team.
“What’s really tough is we have a ton of people who have never been here before,” Olmstead said. “We only have two people who have been here. And their eyes, when they’re walking in, are all over the place. So in order to keep them present, I said, ‘Look around, Snapchat, I don’t care what you have to do, do it right now. But the second we get in there, you are present and you are with each other, because that’s what everybody came to watch.’”
The Angels will have the chance to win their pool and advance to the semifinals by beating Chatfield on Saturday.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
And with the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds already the victims of upsets, No. 10 Rock Canyon was looking to make it a hat trick against No. 3 Castle View.
The Jaguars fell behind 2-0 early, though both sets they lost were close. They battled back in the third to avoid the sweep and and evened things up after the fourth set.
With momentum on their side, they went into the fifth and deciding set believing they could get the win.
The Sabercats jumped out in front and seemingly had control with a 10-6 lead. But Rock Canyon had battled back to tie up the overall match, so coming back to tie the final set seemed like child’s play.
Down 14-11, the Jaguars rode a couple of key kills from Keeley Davis to pull even. Davis made the final kill to give the Jags a 16-14 win in the deciding set of the match.
“(Early on) it was just the nerves at state,” Davis said. “We have a lot of new people who are here in this big coliseum. I think once we set those nerves off and we started getting excited and being happy about things, we started getting less nervous.”
Rock Canyon will play Coronado Saturday morning and can advance to the 5A semifinals by winning that match.
In 1A, No. 9 Holly knocked off No. 4 McClave 3-2 to start the day, including 15-3 in the fifth set.
In 2A‘s first match of the day, No. 9 Denver Christian upset No. 4 Hoehne, 3-1.
Simla threw a second wrench into the 2A tourney when the No. 11 Cubs upset No. 2 Swink with a 25-16, 25-19, 25-15 sweep.
No. 5 Otis over No. 4 McClave in 1A, 3-1.
2A No. 6 Lyons beat No. 3 Dayspring Christian 3-1.
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Notables
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Buena Vista had probably the largest, and loudest, crowd of the day. The students at Buena Vista took a field trip to the Denver Coliseum on Friday. The school picked up the tab to get as many students as possible to support the Demons at state.
Kit Carson’s incredible run of not losing a set continued on Friday. The Wildcats swept Weldon Valley and Briggsdale, and have now won all 72 sets they’ve played this season.
Lewis-Palmer, the defending champion and No. 1 seed in 4A, extended its match winning streak to 56 with sweeps of Mullen and Roosevelt. The Rangers are ranked No. 5 nationally by MaxPreps.
Eaton is in search of a fifth-straight championship in 3A. The Reds opened their tournament with a 25-18, 25-20, 25-10 sweep of Platte Valley, and then swept Lamar in the evening.
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Semifinal berths clinched
Yuma won 2A’s Pool I with wins over Dolores and Rangely.
Niwot captured 4A’s Pool IV. The Cougars beat Discovery Canyon and Palmer Ridge.
Chaparral won Pool IV in 5A with wins over Fort Collins and Fruita Monument.
Kit Carson, after its two sweeps, clinched Pool I in 1A.
University won 3A’s Pool IV following wins over Middle Park and Resurrection Christian.
Lewis-Palmer will meet Niwot in the 4A semifinals after winning Pool I.
Fleming topped Genoa-Hugo and Springfield to win Pool II in 1A.
Eaton is back in the 3A semifinals following sweeps over Platte Valley and Lamar.
La Veta got wins over Sangre de Cristo and Wiley to win 1A’s Pool III.
Lutheran beat Sterling and Bennett in winning Pool II in 2A.
Valor Christian beat Cheyenne Mountain and Pueblo West as it won 4A’s Pool II.
Holy Family topped Ponderosa and D’Evelyn in winning Pool III in 4A.
Faith Christian beat Buena Vista and Valley is it won Pool III in 3A.
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.
