From a competition that brought all of Colorado together to events along the Western Slope, Moffat County High School’s winter sports teams have been on their game for the past week.
Moffat County High School cheerleaders perform a lifting stunt as part of their routine at the CHSAA State Spirit Championships. MCHS took ninth place out of 24 teams in the 2A / 3A Gameday category.
Courtesy Emily Anderson / CHSAA
Something to cheer about
The Bulldog team, which primarily supports other squads, had its time to shine recently.
The MoCo Spirit Team finished ninth of 24 schools in the 2A / 3A Gameday competition at the CHSAA State Spirit Championships Thursday at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. Although only the six best teams in the division made it to the final, the MCHS routine earned 72.45 points without any deductions.
Trained by Kamisha Siminoe and Alicia Noland, the state’s cheerleaders included seniors Nikki Brown and Madason Laman, juniors Reagan Bower and Zoey Cochran, and freshman Alexus Noland.
Fast swimmers
While the MCHS girls swim team is working towards some state qualification times, they will have a first place to build their confidence.
The Moffat County’s swim won the 400-yard freestyle relay at the Delta Invitational on Friday.
When they first participated in the longer season for the Bulldogs, Sarah Johnson, Morgan Schacht, Natalia Lopez and Megan Neton won this with a time of 5: 14.33, more than half a minute ahead of the next team.
At the smaller meeting, which included Fruita Monument, Montrose and Delta, Johnson also finished third in the 100 Frees with a new personal best of 1: 09.55, while the foursome of Schacht, Johnson, Neton and Lopez finished third in the 200 layer relay occupied (2: 26.98).
When they first met in the pool, Neton led the team in the 50s Free Spins where she finished fourth (31.35), and Schacht’s first try this season in the 500 Free Spins brought her fifth (7:27.79).
In the 200th free season, Moffat County finished eighth, with Mary Willems, Judit Ramos, Maddy Caddy and Megan Neton finishing at 2:30:31.
“The girls swam well and have less and less time,” said coach Melany Neton. “The new swimmers try out new events and do well.”
With nine teams in the mix at Saturday’s Gunnison Cowboy Invite, the Bulldogs faced significant competition, but highlights included cutting down lots of time on the 400 free spins and finishing eighth at 5:11:55 a.m.
MCHS swimming rounds off the first half of the season on Summit Friday and on Saturday in Montrose.
Moffat County High School’s Kaden Hixson is on the verge of winning the Maverick Duals. Hixson, Anthony Duran, and Ryan Duzik each won their weights during the Delta Invitational.
Andy Bockelman / For the Craig Press
Podium pride
Swimmers weren’t the only athletes to win in Delta.
Bulldog Wrestling has won multiple victories at the Panther Invitational on Saturday as Anthony Duran, Ryan Duzik and Kaden Hixson were the overall winners of their respective weights.
Duran had three consecutive pins in the 126-pound class, the latter two both in less than a minute. At 152, Duzik started a bye round before back-to-back falls, and at 120 Hixson pinned opponents from Meeker and Cedaredge to win it.
Caden Call (138) and Michael Voloshin (160) each made it to the finals before finishing second with a loss, with Call 3-1 for the day and Voloshin 2-1, all of their wins by pin.
Also at 160, Trace Frederickson scored a 3-1 decision in a 1-2 finish at his first university event of the year.
Colt Call (113), Eli Fredrickson (132) and Kalub West (145) each took third place, with the three making five falls, two main decisions and one 7-2 decision.
Fourth at 182 was Billy Lawton, 2-2 with two pins, while Alex Musgrave was fifth at 170, 2-2 with a fall and a 6-4 final.
MCHS Varsity finished second out of 12 participating teams while their younger athletes finished second in the Rifle JV Invite that same day.
Noah Duran and Kaeden Martinez won weights 120 and 138, respectively, with six pins in between.
Kalub Duzik took two pins before falling in the final and finished second in the 152s, while Osbaldo Quintana finished fourth with 126, Aron Aguilar fifth with 145 and Cris Calderon (113) and Cyrus Goldsmith (182) both finished sixth.
During the Soroco Girls tournament on Saturday, MCHS fought three wrestlers against each other when junior girls Hannah Frink and Makaela Simpson were accompanied by newcomer Victoria Deporto in Oak Creek.
The Soroco girls won the home race, with Simpson winning 2-1 silver in the 185 class, Frink 1-4 finishing fourth with an opening pen, and Deporto finishing third with 111 with two hard-fought defeats.
Before leaving the Yampa Valley, the MCHS wrestlers also took on their first singles dual of the season on Thursday with a 42-34 win at Hayden. Bulldogs Hixson, Anthony Duran, Eli Fredrickson, Hunter Fredrickson, Voloshin and Lawton each took a win in the competition, as did Tiger’s Chase Preston, Kalob More, Dylan Zimmerman and Cody Hawn.
The lost points went to Caden Call from MoCo and Israel Santos and Aaron Fuentes from Hayden.
MCHS will next compete at university level this weekend at the Warrior Classic in Grand Junction, with the junior university being represented at the Fruita Monument JV Invite, and MCHS girls will accompany Soroco at the UNC Christmas tournament.
Ian Hafey of Moffat County High School takes a jump shot at Glenwood Springs.
Andy Bockelman / For the Craig Press
Back and forth
With wins and losses, the Moffat County’s Hoops teams had a lot of work to do during the three-day Demon Invite in Glenwood Springs.
With no win for the Glenwood boys this winter, the Bulldogs saw them lose their first home game in a 73-57 game that saw many double-digit stats. Ryan Peck leads with 14 points, Bryant Carlson with 13, Ian Hafey 12 and Myles Simpson 10.
Nick Crookston almost double-doubled in the match, leading in the rebounds by a dozen and adding nine points.
The following night did not go as smoothly as the Dogs 63-49 fell to Faith Christian. Although MoCo beat the Eagles in the second quarter by 20:14 and in the fourth quarter by 18:12, the periods in between were very much against them.
Nevertheless, Ian Hafey got a double-double for the Dogs and led in the points with 16 and 11 boards.
With Jordan Carlson suffering a dislocated shoulder on Friday night, the boys from Moffat County started with an increasingly exhausted squad on Saturday, falling back to the 4A Indians at 62:32.
After a 3-0 run at Bennett a week earlier, Simpson said the level of competition against strong teams like Faith Christian and Montrose is very different.
“It will really help us move forward and get better,” he said.
The tournament did not start in the best of conditions for the MCHS girls who fell 51:37 on Thursday evening against the Canon City Tigers, who later won the tournament championship.
Rylie Felten of Moffat County High School attempts a shot at Roaring Fork.
Andy Bockelman / For the Craig Press
The Bulldogs girls saw some of the upcoming opponents in the following rounds and beat the Roaring Fork Rams 64-25 on Friday evening.
Lizzy LeWarne and Rylie Felten led by 15 points each, with LeWarne firing in the first quarter and Felten being a dominant force in the color in the third quarter. Halle Hamilton scored 10 points in the win, which allowed the entire Bulldog bank to hit the ground.
Beating 3A Western Slope League opponents left the group in high spirits for the final day, but pairing with the 3A WSL Coal Ridge Titans was more difficult.
While the MoCo girls even kept it for most of the game, Coal Ridge started clicking in the final third and won 51-37.
“They are a really good team,” said coach Eric Hamilton of the Titans. “We’ll bring her home later, so we’ll be there. They were a little worn out from this. “
MCHS girls will play Friday night in Vernal, Utah, while Bulldog boys will take on the Summit on Saturday afternoon, where all levels will compete, starting at noon at Moffat County High School.
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