Preps: Glancing back at 2024 as fall high school sports get underway

With the blink of an eyelid the summer hiatus is over and the fall prep sports season is underway. Practices and tryouts officially begin Monday, Aug. 11, for all sports that weren’t already going — like golf — meaning the countdown is on for the first games of autumn.

Before we dig into this season, let’s look back and remind ourselves what happened between Aspen, Basalt, and Roaring Fork high schools in the fall of 2024.

Football

Basalt is coming off one of the best campaigns in program history, going a perfect 9-0 in the regular season before earning the No. 2 overall seed in the 16-team Class 2A playoffs under longtime head coach Carl Frerichs.

BHS beat No. 15 The Academy (42-14) and No. 10 Sterling (34-14) in the first two rounds before the season ended in the semifinals, a 41-28 loss to No. 3 The Classical Academy. TCA beat No. 9 Wellington in the 2A title game, 42-36.

Aspen went 5-4 last fall, winning four of five games during a strong stretch in the second half of the season. However, a 35-21 loss to Basalt in the regular-season finale kept AHS out of the postseason field.

Roaring Fork finished 3-6 overall in 2024 and did not make the 1A playoffs.

Boys soccer

Roaring Fork was again the team to beat locally last fall, going 13-4-2 overall. The Rams earned the No. 5 seed in the 32-team 3A state tournament and advanced all the way to the semifinals before losing to No. 1 Holy Family, 3-0. Holy Family beat No. 2 Jefferson Academy in the title game, 1-0.

Despite finishing with a mere 5-10-1 overall record, a challenging schedule allowed Basalt to make the postseason field as the No. 26 seed, losing in the first round to No. 7 Woodland Park, 3-1.

Aspen went 6-8-1 overall but was among the first teams left out of the postseason bracket.

Volleyball

Aspen went 13-11 in 2024 and made the regional field as the No. 28 seed. The Skiers did upset No. 16 Cedaredge, 3-0, in the double-elimination regional, but a loss to host and regional champion No. 9 Peak to Peak ended their season. No. 3 Village ultimately beat No. 2 Platte Valley in the 3A championship game.

Basalt went 5-15 last fall, and Roaring Fork went 9-13 overall. Neither team made regional play.

Softball

Softball season was a struggle for both teams in 2024. Basalt finished 6-17 overall, while Aspen went 0-16 overall. Neither team saw postseason action.

Boys tennis

Both Aspen and Basalt will look to rebound after having no combined athletes make the Class 4A state tournament in 2024.

Boys golf

In a rarity, Basalt outshined Aspen at the Class 3A state tournament last fall at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo. The Longhorns finished third as a team (446, 14-over), placing them behind only runner-up Resurrection Christian (437, 5-over) and state champion Evergreen (420, 12-under). Aspen was sixth as a team (456, 24-over).

Individually, Basalt sophomore Griffin Didier finished as state runner-up after shooting rounds of 69 and 70 to finish at 5-under. Evergreen’s Tyler Long finished at 9-under to win the tournament.

BHS senior Jackson Stewart tied for 10^th overall, while AHS senior Ryan Rigney led the Skiers, finishing 15^th overall. AHS junior Houston Benvenuto — who won the regional tournament at Snowmass Club — tied for 16^th, finishing two shots back of Rigney.

Cross country

The season standout was Basalt junior Towler Scott, who finished 20^th overall in the Class 3A boys state championship race with a time of 17 minutes, 8.7 seconds. Aspen senior Julia Diaz was the top local finisher in the 3A girls final, taking 28^th in 20:22.7.

As for team scores, the Aspen boys finished 20^th (The Basalt boys did not record a team score), the Basalt girls finished 12^th, and the Aspen girls finished 13^th overall.

acolbert@aspentimes.com