Editor’s note: John Stroud is a Roaring Fork High School track and field coach and a substitute teacher for Roaring Fork School District.
It’s homecoming week at Roaring Fork High School, as well as neighboring Glenwood Springs High, which means lots of home games and events are on tap Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
On Thursday night at 6pm under the lights at Rams Field, the Roaring Fork boys varsity soccer team hosts Aspen to begin the all important 3A Western Slope League (WSL)schedule.
The Rams are sitting at 5 wins, 2 losses heading into the league opener with the Skiers, who come in at 4-2. Roaring Fork senior Oliver Shook has scored eight goals on the season, while Aspen’s Ryan Nitti has been good for 16.
Roaring Fork gathered its latest win on the road at Steamboat Springs on Sept. 17, 4-2. The Rams were down 2-1 at the halfway point, but came out in the second half to score three unanswered goals for the win.
Senior Cal Stone had two goals and an assist, while freshman Noe Alvarez-Tellez had a goal and an assist to help lead the Rams. Senior goalie Quentin Galbraith recorded five saves.
Roaring Fork held a Colorado 3A ranking of No. 5 coming into the week, while Aspen was No. 28.
Volleyball
Meanwhile, the Roaring Fork girls volleyball team was on the court Tuesday night for its homecoming game, hosting Delta for a 3A WSL match. The Rams varsity team fell in three straight sets, 17-25, 20-25, 13-25, to drop to 3-10 overall on the season and 1-5 in league play. The Panthers improved to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the league.
In earlier action over the past week, the Lady Rams lost 3-1 at Gunnison on Sept. 17 (20-25, 25-23, 11-25, 18-25).
Football
While Roaring Fork has decided to disband its varsity program for the season, and will also not play a junior varsity schedule, several Rams athletes have been added to the rosters of the 3A Glenwood Springs and 2A Basalt varsity football teams.
Among those joining the Glenwood varsity squad are senior Gianluca Liuzzi, juniors Emmit Nieslanik, Blake Tardif and Tobin Vinciguerra and sophomore Levi Bumgarner.
The Demons (0-5, 0-1) host Grand Junction Central for their homecoming game Friday (7pm kickoff) at Stubler Memorial Field.
Cross country in Cali
The combined Basalt-Roaring Fork cross country running team spent the past few weeks preparing for the prestigious Woodbridge XC Classic in Irvine, California.
Billed as the fastest 3-mile cross country course in the U.S., the weekend racing festival brings in high school teams from all over the country.
The Longhorns entered runners in multiple age and ability classifications in the Green Division. Here are the results:
Boys — junior Levi Friday (38th Varsity A, 15 minutes, 58.5 seconds); sophomore Elliot Galbraith (67th Varsity A, 16:37.8); junior Kaiden Werth (94th Varsity A, 17:04.6); junior Henry Ogburn (144th Varsity A, 17:58.8); sophomore Hunter Raymond (168th Varsity A, 18:41); sophomore James Honey (64th Junior, 19:11.5); junior Maximus Rooding (49th Junior, 18:45.9); junior Nick Searles (52nd Junior, 18:55); sophomore Caleb Opp (69th Junior, 19:29.5); sophomore Travis Beard (95th Junior, 20:50.4).
Girls — sophomore Scarlett Jones (12th Varsity A, 18:55.8); sophomore Jude Tiernan (17th Varsity A, 19:19.9); senior Miley Stuart (29th Varsity A, 19:55.3); senior Sadie Silcox (50th Varsity A, 20:45); sophomore Maggie Cole (68th Varsity A, 21:29.3); junior Eva Feinsinger (70th Varsity A, 21:32.8); senior Marin Weaver (13th Junior-Senior, 21:16.9); junior Sophia Warner (23rd Junior-Senior, 22:13.7); junior Isla Friel (25th Junior-Senior, 22:21.6); sophomore Lucy Sparhawk (48th Junior-Senior, 24:15.9); junior Juniper Mullet (84th Junior-Senior, 28:09.3); freshman Nevee Campbell (18th Frosh, 22:32); freshman Florence Serson (26th Frosh, 23:11.7); freshman Hazel Kuhn (64th Frosh, 27:29.5); freshman Bianca Liuzzi (78th Frosh, 33:35.7).
Next up, the Ram’horns and other area high school and middle school cross country teams are at the Glenwood Springs Demon Invitational this Saturday, Sept. 26. Races begin with the combined boys-girls 3-kilometer middle school race at 9:30am in the open space just west of Glenwood High School, followed by the 5K high school races, girls at 10:15am and boys at 11am.