South Metro boys miss volleyball finals

FROM PAGE 26 back to attack because I had enough movement in my thumb. But I was just doing so good; there was no reason to go back.”

Ensuring that his newly minted goalie was pressured as little as possible was Ben Hasselback, who won 66% (146 of 220) of his faceo attempts to keep the ball away from opponents and set up Douglas County’s scoring opportunities.

His biggest game came against Prairie View on April 14, when he won 87% (13 of 15) of the game’s faceo s, allowing Douglas County’s shooters to tee o in a 13-0 win.

“I just try to think about each one on its own,” Hasselback said of how he approaches faceo s mentally. “If I lost the last one, I just try to erase it from my memory and focus fresh.” win the team championship but I couldn’t be happier with the way we swam.”

Cherry Creek’s Brodie Johnson won the 100 butterfly at the Class 5A boys state swimming championships on May 12 at the VMAC in Thornton. Johnson was also on the winning 200 medley relay team. Creek finished second to Regis Jesuit for state crown.

Johnson also was on Creek’s winning 200 medley relay team with Zachary Reese, Trevor Boodt and Jason Fan. e foursome had a winning time of 1:30.38 in the rst event during the nal session of thetwoday meet.

Other top nishers from South Metro schools included Creek’s Chris Mikulecky, who was second in the 100 freestyle with a time of 45.20, and Vladislav Kazakin of Highlands Ranch, who was the runner-up in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:36.13.

And now, Holvick and Hasselback will move on. Both seniors this year, Holvick will attend Colorado State in the fall while Hasselback is set to attend the University of Tennessee. Both said they may play club lacrosse at their respective universities.

Meanwhile, the Douglas County program will play on, just as the Huskies did when Holvick was injured, just as they did when they were without a coach, just as they did when no one seemed to take the program seriously.

And, yes, Cavey will be back on the sideline in 2024. With a solid foundation laid and a coach who isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, who knows how far next year’s Huskies can go?

One thing is for certain: Holvick, Hasselback and their fellow seniors are leaving the program in a better place than they found it.

“For all of us, but mainly the seniors,” Hasselback said, “being able to be part of turning the program around meant a lot to us.”

BY JIM BENTON SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

ere were four South Metro teams that quali ed for the boys state volleyball tournament but all were ousted from the double elimination meet before making it into the nals at Overland High School.

Douglas County and Legend were still alive on the May 13 date but couldn’t climb out of the consolation bracket to play for the state title,which was won by Discovery Canyon for the second straight season.

Douglas County, which won the rst sanctioned boys volleyball state tournament in 2021, eliminated Valor Christian, 3-0, in a secondround consolation match while Legend downed Cherokee Trail, 3-1, in another second-round losers match.

Legend whipped Douglas County 3-0 in the third round of consolation play but the Titans lost to Eaglecrest, 3-1, in the fourth round and was denied a trip to the state championship game. Castle View lost its rst two games in the tourney.