Colorado Preps

High winds forced the postponement of a number of events across the region last week and more could be on the slate this week. Schools are already scrambling to find make-up dates and any more postponements could lead to the outright cancellation of contests.

There are no more unbeaten teams in the realm of Class 1A baseball, as the last team to suffer a defeat, Otis, dropped a pair of lopsided contests at home on Saturday to Stratton. The Eagles won the opener 18-1 and followed that with an 18-8 win in game two. Brothers Bex and Cooper Seaman each drove in three runs in the first game and both finished with five RBI on the day. Ethan Bohnen used a four RBI second game to also finish the day with five knocked home.

The hottest team in 1A is Holly, who brings an eight-game winning streak into the week. The Wildcats took two from Granada (8-3, 7-2) last Tuesday and followed those with wins of 9-2 and 10-0 over Stratton on Friday.

Right behind the Wildcats in terms of longest winning streak is Merino, who has put seven straight in the right hand column. The Rams won two high scoring games against Yuma, 18-10 and 11-1 early last week and they then took down Caliche by scores of 15-0 and 13-8. The Rams bring an 11-1 mark into this week, one game ahead of Holly in the class standings.

Limon and Rye stand atop the Class 2A standings, as they come into the week a combined 17-0. The Badgers moved to 9-0 with a 16-0 shutout of Burlington last Tuesday. It was the eighth time in nine games that Limon had scored at least 10 runs this season.

Rye, who will visit Limon in two weeks, swept a doubleheader over Las Animas on Saturday to improve to 8-0 on the campaign. The Thunderbolts claimed victories of 11-5 and 14-1 against the Trojans. They are 4-0 in Santa Fe League play.

Burlington bounced back from the loss to Limon to take down Byers 5-4 on Friday. Matthew Gutierrez scattered four runs on seven hits and four walks over six innings to earn the win. Ty Marcum drove in a pair for the Cougars, who allowed all four runs in the top of the third. After scratching out a run in the bottom of the frame, Burlington took the lead with four in the fourth. Kyron Crites worked a scoreless seventh for the save. Easton Eymann took the loss for Byers, allowing all five runs while striking out 10. He also collected a pair of hits and reached base three times in the defeat.

Sterling remains one of the hottest teams in 3A, as the Tigers rolled to their eighth straight win, 17-3 over Strasburg on Thursday. The Tigers had claimed a 15-2 win over the Indians two days earlier. They have scored a total of 47 runs in their last three contests. After visiting Bennett for a non-league game on Monday, Sterling visits rival Brush on Thursday and when then host the Beetdiggers on Saturday.

Speaking of Brush, the Beetdiggers picked up their fourth straight win last Tuesday, as they routed Resurrection Christian 21-7. Brush trailed 5-2 after five innings, but a six-run top of the sixth gave them the lead for good. The 13-run seventh was icing on the cake. Alejandro Maltos-Garcia let his bat do the talking, as the senior hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam and drove in seven. Braxton Shelton smacked his fifth homer of the season.

The Beetdiggers had a tasty non-league affair at Lamar on Monday before focusing on the two games with Sterling. Lamar took a five-game winning streak into that clash, with the last two coming by way of forfeit over James Irwin last Saturday. The Savages have an important league doubleheader at home with St. Mary's on Thursday.

Fort Morgan outlasted Riverdale Ridge last Tuesday, improving to 8-2 on the season with a 13-10 road victory. The Mustangs led 10-0 through four and a half innings, but had to hold on, as the Ravens made things interesting with a five-run bottom of the seventh. Fort Morgan got four RBI from Joseph Laydon and three from Briggs Wheatley, while also benefiting from six Ravens errors.

It was a busy week on the area golf courses, beginning with the Brush tournament on Monday. Fort Morgan finished second in the team chase behind Resurrection Christian, with Lexys Siebrands shooting an 85 to win the individual title by a single stroke. Holyoke, Brush, Washington County and Burlington all had strong outings on the blustery day.

On Tuesday, Swink won the title of the Trinidad tournament by nine strokes over Pueblo West, while Fowler was just eight more shots back in third. Kinzie Ensor continued her strong play for the Lions, as she won the individual crown with an 88, 11 shots clear of the field. Ensor also took first in the Fowler Invitational on Thursday, as her 84 helped the Lions win the team event, again.

Last Friday, a solid field made its way to Burlington and just four strokes would separate the top three teams. Holyoke claimed the team title with a total score of 300. Washington County, led by the top overall performer, Kendall Velder, was second at 303, one shot ahead of the hosts. Burlington's Anna Marie Schaal fell two shots short of Velder, posting a 95, good enough for second. Emma Thompson, Sabryn Burris, and Erin Andersen, all from Holyoke, tied for third.

Cheraw had some strong efforts at the Ray Headley Invitational at Swink on Friday, with both boys and girls finishing fourth in the team standings. Freshman Delanie Bond led the girls by winning the 200 meter. She would duplicate that feat the following day at the Holly Invitational. Bond also added the title in the 100 meters at Holly. The top three finishers in that event were all freshmen. Kenzi Bartholomew won the 800 at Swink and then took the 400 in Holly, while taking second in the 200 behind Bond.

After finishing second in the 800 at Swink, Josh Snyder won the 1600 at Holly. The Wolverines had three relays with top three finishes at Swink and their 400 relay was second in Holly.

Friday was a good day for Trinidad's Joe Ross. The senior swept the 100 and 200. Rogelio Rangel from Cheyenne Wells was second in the 200, third in the 100 and second in the 400. Granada's John Hainer won both the shot and discus on Friday and had so much fun doing it that he did it again on Saturday at Holly.

There were a number of great performances on Friday at the Greeley Twilight Invitational, two by Mohamed Ibrahim from Wiggins. The senior won the shot and discus, reaching MileSplit US Second Team standards in both. Younger brother Laith was second in the disc and fifth in the shot.

They weren't the only Wiggins athletes who had a good time throwing objects at the meet. Allison Thomas won the shot and also finished second in both the discus and javelin.

Saturday saw area teams not only competing in Holly, but also Holyoke, Eaton and Limon. Two girls cranked out MileSplit “Elite” performances at Limon, with Lamar's Alee Tice reaching the second team standard in both the shot and discus, and Elbert's Zadie Mackey, who won the discus by establishing a new meet and stadium record, also reaching the standard. Strasburg's Peighton Marrero, a freshman, created a new meet record in the 400 meters with a time of 58.32 seconds. She was the only girl to break one minute on the day. Marrero also won the triple jump, coming up less than a foot short of a new meet record, as well.

Sterling girls soccer suffered its fourth straight defeat, as the Tigers fell to Liberty Common 4-0 early last week. They come into this week with a mark of 1-6-0. Fort Morgan dropped all three of its matches last week, 6-0 at Frederick, 8-2 against Severance and 8-3 at Skyview.

Conversely, last week was very good for Lamar, who took a 2-1 win over Fountain Valley in OT on Tuesday, before beating Ellicott 2-0 on Thursday and Thomas MacLaren School 2-1 on Saturday. Lamar is 7-0, one of two unbeatens in Class 2A.

Brush's Delaney Lambert made school history, as she picked up the tennis program's first individual victory in her match at Berthoud on Friday. This is the first season that Brush has fielded its own girls tennis squad.