Sports briefs from Thursday, Feb. 8: AHS swimmer breaks own record
Aspen High swimmer breaks own 3A record during state prelims
After being disqualified in the 200 IM, Aspen High School junior Davy Brown answered back in a big way Thursday during the prelims of the Class 3A state swim meet in Thornton.
Brown’s top-qualifying time of 56.86 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke broke her own 3A meet record of 57.37 seconds, which she set last year when she won the event.
Senior teammate Emily Driscoll qualified third in the same event Thursday with a time of 59.43. St. Mary’s Sydney Silver was second in 58.04.
Driscoll also swam well in the 100-yard butterfly, qualifying third in 59.06.
Aspen’s two strongest relays — the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle — both qualified second in prelims. The teams are made of Brown, Driscoll, freshman Emily Kinney and junior Taylor Pattillo.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team was 22nd.
Kinney was 11th in the 200 IM and Pattillo 18th. Pattillo finished 14th in the 500-yard freestyle. Kinney was 11th in the 100 breast.
Finals are scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday. AHS is the defending 3A state champion.
Aspen’s Wiley Maple 31st on second day of men’s downhill training at Olympics
For the second time in two days, Aspen native Wiley Maple bested his bib number during Olympic downhill training in South Korea.
Wearing bib No. 39, the first-time Olympic ski racer came into the finish area with the 29th best time up to that point. He eventually finished the training run in 31st with a time of 1:20.77.
The course was shortened because of wind. Times were roughly 20 seconds faster on Friday compared to Thursday.
Italy’s Christof Innerhofer had the top training time of 1:18.97 on Friday. Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud was second in 1:18.98 and Switzerland’s Beat Feuz third in 1:19.41.
The top American was Bryce Bennett, who finished sixth in 1:19.62 with the No. 2 bib.
Maple was 23rd in Thursday’s first training run. The skiers have one final training run, scheduled for 7 p.m. MT Friday (or 11 a.m. Saturday in Korea).
The men’s Olympic downhill is scheduled for 7 p.m. MT on Saturday.
ASPEN HIGH HOCKEY TO RECOGNIZE SENIOR CLASS FRIDAY AGAINST DENVER EAST
The Aspen High School hockey team will honor its 16 seniors Friday ahead of its 7 p.m. game against Denver East at Lewis Ice Arena. Including Friday, the Skiers have four regular-season games remaining, including key conference games at Heritage on Saturday and Feb. 16 at Resurrection Christian.
While the game against Denver East will be senior night, AHS still has a home game against Mountain Vista on Feb. 17 to finish out the regular season.
Also this weekend, the Basalt High School wrestling team is competing at its regional tournament in Alamosa.
