Briefs: Aspen boys tennis wins season opener, softball falls twice, BME update
Aspen boys tennis opens season with easy win over Durango
The Aspen High School boys tennis team got its season underway Saturday with an easy 7-0 win over shorthanded Durango in Grand Junction. The Skiers won all seven matches, with Christian Kelly winning 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles to lead the way. Alex Mosher won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 singles and Lukee Tralins won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
Liam Sunkel and Georges Ghali paired to win 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles.
Second-year coach Steve Sand said the lineups would remain in flux for the time being. Aspen won’t compete again until the Western Slope tournament in early September, after experiential education week.
Aspen softball opens season with pair of losses to Durango
The Aspen High School softball team opened its season Saturday with a pair of losses against Durango. AHS lost 16-0 and 21-6, with both games being played in Grand Junction. The Skiers (0-2) will host Delta, preseason No. 4 in Class 3A, in a Tuesday doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. on Upper Moore.
Big Mountain Enduro finals conclude Sunday in Snowmass
The Big Mountain Enduro finals will conclude Sunday in Snowmass. The event began with a trio of stages on Saturday, with all three stages taking place in Snowmass.
Halfway through the season-ending event, Crested Butte’s Cooper Ott holds a slight lead over Utah’s Lia Westermann in the women’s pro open field, while Carson Lange of Texas has a slight lead over a tight field of pro men.
Aspen’s Victor Major is sitting in fourth place after three stages in the expert open men’s division, while Carbondale’s Megan Cerise was leading the way for the amateur 21-39 women and Basalt’s Erik Obermeyer was on top for the amateur 21-39 men after a day.
Racing concludes Sunday with three more stages, including Stage 5 on Aspen Mountain. The sixth and final stage is back in Snowmass on the Banzai trail, with the finish line and awards taking place at Snowmass Base Village in the afternoon.
ASPEN’S GASTON 6TH IN LEADVILLE 100 MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE
Aspen’s John Gaston, the Strafe Outerwear co-founder and elite endurance athlete, finished sixth overall in the Leadville 100 mountain bike race on Saturday, Aug. 10, one of the most prestigious races in the country.
He finished with a time of 6 hours, 28 minutes, 11 seconds, nearly nine minutes back of winner and Olympian Howard Grotts of Durango (6:19:18). It was the third straight Leadville 100 MTB win for Grotts.
Fellow Durango rider Quinn Simmons was second (6:22:24) and Lachlan Morton, a noted Front Range road cyclist, was third (6:22:42).
Basalt’s Ryan Marshall finished 37th overall (7:35:04), while Carbondale’s Kevin Willson was 75th (7:54:54).
Montana’s Rose Grant won the women’s side of things, finishing 41st overall in 7:36:06. An accomplished cross-country rider, it was her Leadville 100 debut.
For Gaston, his sixth-place finish followed up his win a week earlier in the three-day Leadville Stage Race, where he finished with an aggregate race time of 6:11:57. His Day 1 time of 2:11:08 over 40 miles was a new course record.
How a Colorado trooper saved a Dew Tour competitor off a gridlocked highway, helping him onto the podium
Colorado State Patrol Trooper Devin Sparks arrived that morning to the scene of a head-on collision between Copper and Leadville on Colorado Highway 91 and was in the process of documenting the crash and assisting the victims when he noticed a man with ski gear hiking his way north to Copper.