Colorado Preps Weekly

CHSAA's Season B officially comes to a close this week, as Spirit wraps up the slate of championships. Ten champions were crowned over the past weekend in basketball, and Class 3A girls finally got in the pool last Tuesday, for their state event. Season C is already underway, with girls volleyball, boys soccer and spring football on the docket.

A number of area schools will be competing in this week's state Spirit championships at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs. Thursday morning will see the preliminary round in the Game Day competition, while the afternoon session will be dedicated to Cheer. Friday is a mix of Co-Ed, Poms and Dance.

Byers, Crowley County, Swink, Brush, and Rocky Ford all will be representing the area in the 2A/3A Game Day event on Thursday. Strasburg, the defending champion in the discipline, is also in the field. Swink recorded a fourth place finish last year. This is only the second year that Game Day has been sanctioned.

Cheyenne Wells, a five-time champion in 2A Cheer (2007, 2012-2015), will be competing on Thursday afternoon. The Lady Tigers finished third last year and also have second place finishes in 2009, 2017 and 2018. Wiley, Limon and Holyoke are all part of the pack looking to unseat the defending champion, Front Range Christian. Lamar and Sterling are in the group looking to knock off last year's 3A titlist, Prospect Ridge Academy. Lamar was fourth last season.

Seven programs will compete in Friday morning's 2A/3A Co-Ed Cheer competition. Stratton is the only one from the area. Coal Ridge won the event last year, but is not in the field this time. That could make Bayfield, last year's runner-up, the favorite. That is not the only discipline on Friday that will not see the 2019 champion in the field. Limon, who won the 2A Poms event last year, won't be competing.

Last Tuesday saw La Junta and Holyoke participating in the 3A Girls Swimming and Diving championships. La Junta tied for 19th in the team race, while the Lady Dragons finished 22nd. The top individual finish came from Gracie Moreland of La Junta, who took home sixth place in the 100 backstroke. The senior also took 12th in the 100 freestyle. Her teammate, Grace Gardner was 17th in the same event and Isabel Gaines claimed 13th in the 100 fly, two spots ahead of Holyoke's Tayla Martin.

La Junta earned 16th place in the 200 medley relay, three spots in front of Holyoke. Rylee Schneller, who placed 15th in 100 breaststroke, helped Holyoke to a 14th place finish in the 200 freestyle relay, and 16th in the 400 freestyle relay.

Fleming's girls’ basketball team, after upsetting #2 Kit Carson in the semifinals (55-48) came up short in their bid to win the program's first title in 40 years, as they fell to Flatirons Academy 64-52 in the finals on Sunday. Their lone senior, Kendyl Kirkwood, finished her career with more than 1,400 points and 1,000 rebounds, with 52 double-doubles. She's one of the big reasons the Lady Wildcats are the #1 team in the Class 1A coaches volleyball poll, as they look for a repeat in that sport. They open their defense on Saturday at Kit Carson's tournament.

Limon and Wray met for the titles in both 2A girls and boys. It was the first time in state history that the same two schools met in both championship games. Behind junior Trista Marx, Limon avenged a 69-44 loss to Wray in the regular season, as the Lady Badgers won 63-50 last Saturday. Marx finished with a double-double of 27 points and 10 rebounds. It was the sixth title for Limon, and the first since 2007, which was also won against Wray.

In the boys’ game, which was a rematch of a regular season clash that Wray won 72-66 a month earlier. While the scoring wasn't as high as that first match-up, neither team could build a comfortable cushion throughout. Regulation would not be enough time to decide a champion, and the two teams went overtime. Wray would come out with a 56-50 victory, claiming their first state championship in program history.

As mentioned earlier, the volleyball season is already underway. While Fleming is the top team in the initial 1A poll, there is no shortage of challengers behind the Lady Wildcats. Briggsdale, Kit Carson, Otis and Merino round out the top five. South Baca (9th), Springfield (10th), Haxtun (12th), Genoa-Hugo (13th), Wiley (14th) and McClave (15th) are also in the top 15. Weldon Valley, one of the top teams just outside of the rankings, got off to a 2-0 start, sweeping Peetz and Prairie during the opening week.

Class 2A had a logjam at the top of the initial rankings, with 2019 champion Denver Christian just one point ahead of #2 Limon. Wiggins and Fowler came in third and fourth. Yuma (6th), Sedgwick County (11th), Swink (12th), Hoehne (13th), Rocky Ford (14th) and Rye (15th) give the region nine of the top 15 in the preseason poll.

Defending 3A champion Sterling was the overwhelming top choice in the preseason rankings, pulling in 10 of 15 first place votes. Preseason #5 Lamar dominated Salida and Ellicott in opening week matches, allowing no more than 16 points in any of the six sets they played. Fernanda Merancio and Syndey Dunning each recorded 26 kills in the first week of play.

Fort Morgan was the last team in the “others to receive votes” section of the Class 4A preseason rankings. The Lady Mustangs should garner more attention this week after upsetting #12 Longmont is straight sets last week. Tasha Hansen pounded a team-high nine kills, and Ive Miller served four of the team's 13 aces.

The only area boys’ soccer team to get any preseason love was Lamar, who got four votes in the Class 3A rankings. Lamar made it to the second round of the playoffs last season before falling to eventual champion Kent Denver.

Hoehne and Las Animas both picked up lopsided wins in the opening week of spring football. The Farmers were the top-ranked team in eight-man and they handled Plateau Valley 50-18, while Las Animas, #6 in the preseason poll, beat Justice 48-12.

Lastly, Savannah Tice, a senior from Lamar, earned All-American status by finishing fifth in the 200-yard backstroke for Western Colorado at the NCAA National Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday. Also earning All-American honors last week was UCCS senior Kayla Zink from Caliche. Zink clocked a 7.47 second 60-meter sprint at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.