Basalt and Roaring Fork high schools represented at the Colorado Track and Field Championships in Lakewood last weekend, coming away with three podium finishes.
Basalt senior distance runner Towler Scott took fifth place in the 3A boys 3,200-meter run on Thursday, May 14, overcoming the heat at JeffCo Stadium to finish in 9 minutes, 55.87 seconds.
Scott returned to the track on Saturday to move up 10 positions from his No. 16 qualifying spot in the 1,600 meters, taking sixth with a personal-best time of 4:27.36.
For the girls, taking fifth place in the 3A girls 800-meter run on Friday with a personal record time of 2:19.51, was Basalt freshman Scarlett Jones.
Also competing for Basalt was the boys 4×800 relay team of seniors Jackson Beard and Mik Levy and sophomores Henry Ogburn and Nick Searles (12th, 8:35.85); and senior Sidney Barill in the girls 100-meter hurdles (18th, 17.44).
Roaring Fork sophomore distance runner Kayla Steele moved up a couple of spots from her qualifying position in Thursday’s 3A girls 3,200-meter run, finishing in 16th place with a time of 12:47.72. Steele attends Colorado Rocky Mountain School, and was also a member of the state quarterfinalist Lady Rams lacrosse team along with Basalt’s Jones.
Elsewhere from the region, Aspen High School’s boys 4×100 relay team of Nikolas Lear, Connor Anderson, Charlie Deavers and Malcolm Berg took third place with a time of 42.6 seconds, and the Coal Ridge High School boys team won the overall 3A State team title, scoring 86 points to outpace defending state champion The Classical Academy (67 points).
Baseball bows out
The Roaring Fork High baseball team concluded its season on Saturday, May 16, with a 10-1 regional round loss at Prospect Ridge in Broomfield to exit the 3A playoffs. The Rams had entered as the No. 27 seed in the 32-team playoff field, playing against the No. 6 Miners.
Roaring Fork was down 3-0 going into the fourth inning, but could only manage one run with the bases loaded. The Miners added another run in the fifth and then exploded for six more runs off Rams starter Chase Fenton in the sixth to take the win.
“They’re a good, fundamental baseball team, but definitely beatable,” Rams head coach Marty Madsen said of the opening round matchup. “We played well the whole game, no errors, but we just never really hit the ball very well.”
Indeed, Prospect Ridge fell 4-0 in the regional final to No. 22 Wellington.
Rams senior Kenny Riley was two-for-three from the plate on the day, and senior Andy McMichael drove in the only run for the Rams on a sacrifice. Sophomore Blake Tardif was one-for-two hitting.
It was the final game wearing the Rams logo for Riley, McMichael and fellow seniors Donny Read and Charlie Filiss.
“They are four of the most hard-working, unselfish kids I’ve ever coached,” Madsen said. “They were team first from the day they showed up to the day they left.”
That rubbed off on the younger players who he expects to carry that team ethic into next season.
“We were a very solid baseball team by the end of year, and executed in all three phases of the game,” Madsen said. “There was not just one dominant player on the team, we played one through nine team baseball, especially toward the end of the year.”
The Rams concluded the season at 10 wins and 14 losses. Just one Western Slope League team advanced through the regionals to the 3A State Tournament, No. 7 Delta. The Panthers defeated the defending state champions, No. 10 Coal Ridge, to move on to the round of eight.
Aspen had entered the playoffs as the No. 4 seed, but fell in the title game of their home regional tournament at Crawford Field in El Jebel to No. 13 Elizabeth, 5-4, also on Saturday.