Carbondale and Basalt will be well-represented at the Colorado High School Cross Country Championships this Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs.
Competing at their Regional qualifying event last week, the Basalt High School cross country team, which combines with runners from Carbondale’s Roaring Fork High, qualified its girls team for the Class 3A state meet, and will send two boys as individuals.
Likewise, Colorado Rocky Mountain School will send its girls squad to the state meet in the 2A division.
Basalt senior Towler Scott was the boys overall winner at the 3A Region 1 meet in Craig on Oct. 24, covering the five-kilometer course at Loudy-Simpson Park in 16 minutes, 16.57 seconds to finish 27 seconds ahead of Moffat County’s Haven Carr.
Scott will be joined by teammate Levi Friday, a sophomore from Roaring Fork, who qualified for state with an 11th place finish (17:46.38).
The boys finished out of the running for team qualifying, taking fifth place out of eight teams, but Roaring Fork sophomore Kaiden Werth finished a respectable 28th out of 62 runners (18:47.13), and freshman Elliot Galbraith was 35th (19:13.33).
In the girls race, Basalt freshman Scarlett Jones paced the team to the third-place qualifying spot, taking second overall out of 60 runners in 19:56.74, holding off Moffat County sophomore Sydney Wattles (19:56.95) in a photo finish. The frontrunner, Coal Ridge junior Effie Fletcher (18:19.95), is among the favorites to win a state title.
As a team, Basalt grabbed five of the top-20 spots to qualify for state. Scoring was rounded out by a pack of Longhorn runners led by senior Caroline Cole (Roaring Fork), 16th in 21:37.56; freshman Jude Tiernan, 17th in 21:52; junior Miley Stuart (Roaring Fork), 18th in 22:01.36; and junior Sadie Silcox (Roaring Fork), 20th in 22:11.81.
Another pair of Roaring Fork runners will join the Basalt team at state, freshman Maggie Cole (22nd, 22:15.63) and senior Emmaline Warner (26th, 22:37).
Competing at the Class 2A Region 5 meet in Delta, the CRMS girls took the fourth qualifying spot, led by sophomore Kayla Steele in fifth overall out of 54 runners (20:08.48). Sophomore Abigail O’Keefe was 14th (21:37.21), junior Tacie Simmons was 28th (24:04.17), senior India Picard was 30th (24:11.93) and junior Gioia Liker was 34th (25:04.11) to round out the team scoring.
Joining them at state will be freshman Ayla Perry (35th, 25:13.15). The top boy for CRMS was junior Max Peterson, finishing 27th overall out of 74 runners in 19:53.69, but out of state qualifying.
Rams soccer earns 16th seed
The Roaring Fork High boys soccer team concluded the regular season with a pair of wins, and entered the 32-team 3A state playoffs on Wednesday as the No. 16 seed overall.
Roaring Fork was set to host No. 17 Rocky Mountain Prep SMART at Rams Field Wednesday afternoon (results not available by press time for this report).
The Rams concluded the regular season at 9-4-2 overall, with a 5-2 mark to take third in the 3A Western Slope League.
Roaring Fork scored an 8-1 win over cross-town rival CRMS on Oct. 24, and a 3-0 win at Vail Mountain on Oct. 23. Goals against CRMS came from juniors Wesley Serrano (2), Oliver Shook, Dennis Vargas-Herrera and Cal Stone, seniors Jason Clemente, Jesse Pimental and Miles Speiss, and sophomore Alan Rodriguez.
And, against Vail Mountain, junior Cristian Turcios had two goals, and junior Michael Parada one.
Volleyball season concludes
The Roaring Fork girls volleyball team closed things out with a 3-1 win (25-15, 25-18, 21-25, 25-15) at Meeker on Tuesday night, to finish their season at 9-13 overall and out of the playoff picture. The team was 5-5 in the 3A league play.
On Senior Night at home last Wednesday, Oct. 22, the Rams scored an exciting 3-2 win over Cedaredge (25-17, 24-26, 25-23, 12-25, 18-16).
Before the match, a quintet of seniors were recognized alongside their parents, siblings and friends. Playing their final volleyball match on the home court were Nikki Tardif, Yakelin Nunez Hernandez, Hannah Bays, Maddie Applegate and Elleree Richmond.
