Longhorn girls win Hotchkiss Invitational

Behind second, third and fourth-place individual finishes, the Basalt High girls cross country team won its first meet of the season Saturday at the Hotchkiss Invitational.Kate Wilson finished the 5K course in 21 minutes, 50 seconds for second place, about a minute behind winner Cass Henion of Hotchkiss. Basalt’s Amy Lund was third (21:53), followed by Sofie Stenstadvold in fourth (21:54). Emily Taets finished 10th (22:50).”We’ve had a couple thirds and a second, but this was their first win,” said Basalt coach Ron Lund. “They ran really well.”And that’s the first time we’ve had a strong pack-type finish. Emily made a huge improvement, which was really nice to see. And that’ll help us down the road.”The Basalt girls finished with 19 points. Glenwood was second (44), followed by Gunnison (56), Hotchkiss (59) and Ouray (72).In the boys race, Basalt’s Collin Stewart was second overall in 18 minutes flat. Alex Tiernan of Glenwood Springs won the race, edging Stewart by 14 seconds.Incidentally, both Stewart and Tiernan attend Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale – both choose to run with their respective squads because Roaring Fork doesn’t have a cross country program.Basalt’s Casey Weaver was 11th (19:57). The Basalt boys finished fifth as a team with 75 points. Glenwood won the meet with 31 points, followed by Hotchkiss (51), Olathe (52) and Gunnison (55).Other Basalt girls’ finishers included Deanna Spracher (21st, 24:49), Molly Honan (26th, 25:31), Britany Guglielmo (31st, 26:11), Nuala Del Piccolo (32nd, 26:37) and Katie Staerkel (33rd, 27:06).Other Basalt boys’ finishers included Theo Parker (27th, 20:50), Duncan McDaniel (35th, 22:14), Jesse Regan (37th, 22:40) and Sean Owens (42nd, 24:28).On Saturday, the Basalt teams will compete in the Glenwood Springs Two Rivers Invitational. The course starts and finishes at Two Rivers Park; the girls race starts at 11 a.m., and the boys race begins at noon.Basalt beats CRMS 4-0After suffering a tie on the road at Vail Mountain Saturday, the Basalt High boys soccer team returned to its usual form Tuesday at home with a 4-0 win over the Colorado Rocky Mountain School.Ryan Zubizaretta scored two goals for Basalt, and Trevor Brown and Cy Eaton scored one apiece. Jamie Wirkler recorded the shutout in net.With the win, Basalt improved to 4-0-1 in Class 3A Western Slope League play and 7-1-1 overall.Yesterday, Basalt coach Erik Streff was still hung up on the artificial turf at Vail Mountain Saturday.”It took us awhile to get used to the field,” he said. “It’s a turf field, so the ball rolls a lot further and faster than it does on grass and makes for a great advantage for them.”We had a lot of good passing, but we just couldn’t put it in the net.”Basalt is off until a makeup match at Aspen on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 4 p.m.”It’s tough this week,” Streff said. “We have homecoming, so I’m actually giving the boys the day off [Wednesday] after the homecoming game [Tuesday]. But they know they’ve got to get back into it hard just the same. We’re playing two or three games a week from here on out to playoff time, so we’re just gonna work hard in practice, scrimmage ourselves a lot, just to try to get back into game mode.”Aspen stung by one-point lossesThe Aspen High boys soccer team opened its Class 3A Western Slope League schedule with three consecutive losses, all by one goal, this past week.Aspen lost to Roaring Fork 3-2 in overtime on the road last Thursday, then fell to Paonia 3-2 on the road Saturday. Back home in Aspen on Tuesday, Aspen lost to Vail Mountain 2-1.The team is frustrated but not disheartened, according to Aspen coach Junior Sutherland.”We’ll hang in there,” Sutherland said. “Our goal is to make the playoffs, and I think we can still make it.”They’re young kids, and they’re in every game, but they just don’t have that killer instinct now,” he continued. “They haven’t found what it takes to put together a fine second half, so we’re still trying to get up to 80-minutes-a-match speed.”Aspen dropped to 0-3 in league play and 3-4 overall.”Against Vail, we just couldn’t put it away,” Sutherland said. “But that’s the way it goes. That’s what soccer is all about. The game lasts 80 minutes.”Today at 4 p.m. at the AHS field, Aspen looks to exact revenge on Paonia.Lessons learned for AHS tennisThe Aspen High boys tennis team wrapped up its regular season schedule this past weekend with a pair of losses to powers Steamboat Springs and Evergreen at the Maroon Creek Club.AHS coach Sherril Kerr put it this way: “You might say we had a couple lessons. We learned a lot about competing and what it looks like at a higher level. And that’s a good lesson to learn because I think we can play like that,” she said.Aspen lost to Steamboat on Friday and Evergreen Saturday. Evergreen beat Steamboat in the tri-meet format matches.Still, Aspen finished its Class 4A Western Slope League schedule at 6-1 on the season, with Steamboat representing the sole defeat. And now Aspen has its sights set on the Class 4A Western Regional Tournament, slated for Oct. 8-9 in Steamboat Springs.”The only team we haven’t beaten is Steamboat, but Cortez, Montrose and Steamboat are all fairly strong this year,” said Kerr. “But I’m an optimist. I think we’ll do well. And hopefully we’ll qualify some kids for the state tournament,” which is Oct. 14-16 in Pueblo.”We’ve had some good results, now’s the time to put it all together, and hopefully that’s what happens next week,” said Kerr.