Roaring Fork High School’s girls basketball team continued to impress at the Weld Central tournament last weekend, running the slate on a trio of Class 5A, 4A and 3A teams to win the tourney title and remain unbeaten going into the holiday break.
“The girls are playing very well right now and at a fast pace,” third-year head coach Mike Vidakovich said.
The Rams get to soak in the early-season success for a few weeks before opening the 3A Western Slope League (WSL) season on Jan. 9, on the road at North Fork.
“We have to stay focused,” Vidakovich said of what’s expected to be a more-competitive league this season than it was last year. North Fork, Meeker and defending league champion Cedaredge are all currently ranked ahead of the Rams among 3A teams in Colorado based on their respective early season successes.
The Rams are certainly making a case for themselves. At the Weld tournament, they defeated the host Rebels from the 4A Patriot League, 70-22, on Thursday, Dec. 4, to advance. Junior Riley Bevington amassed 44 points in the win, while senior Nikki Tardif had 16 points and 11 rebounds.
A showdown with 5A Regis Groff on Friday ended with a Roaring Fork win, 72-26 (Bevington 28, Tardif 16, sophomore Annelise Bumgarner 10 and junior Hazel Jenkins 10); and Saturday’s championship game saw the Rams brush off 3A Brush, 68-30 (Bevington 33, Tardif 20, Jenkins 9), to stay undefeated at 6-0.
Bevington and Tardif are now among the 3A leaders in points and rebounds per game.
“We have very good athletes,” Vidakovich said. “They are fit and can play that up-tempo game for 32 minutes, and our rebounding has been great.”
A goal heading into the new year will be to develop some of the younger players for some depth coming off the bench.
“We have people that are capable of doing it, we just need to give them the repetitions and the confidence,” Vidakovich said.
Ram boys seek consistency
The Roaring Fork boys are also ranked among the top 3A teams and are the favorites to repeat as WSL champs.
Also playing at the Weld tournament, the Rams defeated Weld Central, 73-46, but lost to Regis Groff, 81-65 (senior Lucas Carballeira led all scorers with 27 points).
That set up a thriller of a third-place game against Brush. The Rams won a close one, 58-56, to enter the holiday break at 4-2.
“There have definitely been some ups and downs, but mostly up,” veteran head coach Jason Kreiling said. “They have a lot of experience playing together, and a lot of varsity experience that has allowed us to pick up where we left off last season.
“We do need to work on consistency, and the mental part of the game when things are not going our way,” he said.
Unfortunately, the Rams were dealt a blow when junior Quentin Galbraith went down with an injury during the Weld tournament. Kreiling said on Monday that they were awaiting test results to determine the extent.
The boys also travel to North Fork on Jan. 9 to open the 3A WSL season.
Combined sports
Meanwhile, the combined-schools girls swimming, boys and girls wrestling and boys ice hockey teams also saw action this past week.
Top swimmers for the Glenwood Springs-based team at the Dec. 13 Cowboy Invite in Gunnison were Ellie Rippy, second in the 50 Free; Sylvia Duchscher, second in the 100 Back and fourth in the 200 IM; Isla Friel, fourth in the 100 Breast; the 200 Medley Relay, fourth; and the 400 Free Relay, third.
Roaring Fork student-athletes on the swim team include Friel, Maggie Cole, Caroline Cole, Claire Hardaker and Sophia Warner.
The Basalt-based wrestlers were at the Western Slope Showdown in Grand Junction, Dec. 12-13.
Luca Del Cid (6-4) scored 3.5 varsity points, earning a technical fall over Eagle Valley’s Brider Bair in the second round, before falling in 2:45 to North Fork’s Abel Etter. Brooks Ragan (7-2) scored six varsity points, earning wins over a pair of Walsenburg wrestlers, Bianni Mayden in 2:06 and Jason Brown in 1:37, before falling to Alamosa’s Max Dokson in 0:54.
Roaring Fork student-athletes wrestling this season are Waylon Applegate, Graham Rose, Colby Samuelson and Luca Shafer; and for the girls: Jocelyn Rivera, Isabella Gonzales and Ashley Nunez.
In recent action for the Glenwood-based hockey team, the Demons won 4-1 versus Aspen on Dec. 12, and lost 4-1 to Battle Mountain on Dec. 13; now standing at 3-2 on the season.
Roaring Fork hockey players this season are David Santini, Finley Carter and Luke Phillips.