19-Sports
February 12, 2015
SPORTS
Highlands Ranch Herald 19
Local swimmers shine at league meet Rock Canyon, ThunderRidge establish Continental League marks By Tom Munds
tmunds @coloradocommunitymedia.com League and pool records fell to ThunderRidge and Rock Canyon swimmers during the Feb. 7 Continental League swimming meet finals at Heritage High School. ThunderRidge senior Annie Ochitwa set records as she won the 100 butterfly and the 50 freestyle while Rock Canyon’s Abigail Kochevar set records in the 100 backstroke. The day was devoted to league water sports. Earlier, the league diving championships were held at Littleton High School. Regis took the top three spots in the finals. While Regis was the team league swim meet champion, performances by other Rock Canyon swimmers helped the Jaguars amass the 469 points that placed them in the runnerup position in the team standings. Other area schools did well as Mountain Vista was fifth, ThunderRidge was sixth and Highland Ranch was 10th in the team standings. Rock Canyon’s Nicole Vanderpoel was named league coach of the year and Ochitwa as the league swimmer of the year. Ochitwa is defending state champion in the 50 and the 100 freestyle events. “I don’t think there is a lot of pressure being
Annie Ochitwa heads for the finish line in the 100 butterfly at the Feb. 7 Continental League Swimming Championship. The ThunderRidge senior won the event and won the 50 freestyle and set new league and pool records in both events. Photo by Tom Munds a defending champion other than the pressure I put on myself,” she said during a break in the action. “I am having a lot of fun enjoying my last season of high school swimming. It has been a great season so far.” She feels she is a better swimmer at this point of the season this year than she was last
year. “I swim all year and just have focused on trying to improve my techniques and my times,” she said. “I am stronger and I feel I am faster. But I know the competition is tough, and it seems just about everyone is faster this year so I am looking forward to next week at
SPORTS ROUNDUP
state.” Swimming meets are individual and team competitions at the same time. A swimmer is awarded team points according to where she finishes in an event. At the Continental League meet, the times posted in the Feb. 5 preliminaries determined placement in the Feb. 6 finals. There are eight individual events and three relays in a swim meet. At the league meet, individual meet competition was held in the A, B and C finals with A and B finals for relays. League scoring awarded 27 team points for the first-place finisher in the A finals with lesser points for each finisher to one point for the sixth-place finisher in the C finals. Swimming uses a different system to determine state qualifiers. The state established two qualifying times for each event, one for pools with lanes measured in meters and one for pools measured in yards. All the teams at the league meet have swimmers already qualified for state, but there were many athletes who on the cusp of earning trips to state and the league meet was the final qualifying opportunity. While the league meet was the final meet of the year for those who didn’t reach thequalifying standards, those individuals and relay teams equaling or surpassing stateestablished qualifying standards move on to next week’s state championships. The 4A state meet will be held in Thornton Feb. 13 and 14 while the Class 5A state championships will be held on the same dates at EPIC in Fort Collins.
Ranch senior Stewart racks up the points Falcon surpasses 1,000 career points, leads league in scoring this season By Jim Benton
jbenton @coloradocommunitymedia.com
and Michaela Trainer 11. Scooter Lopez was the high scorer for the Golden Eagles with 15 points. Regis Jesuit 63, Rock Canyon 39: Sophomore Julia Doherty had seven points to top the Jaguars scorers in a lopsided Feb. 3 Continental League setback. Mountain Vista 60, Rock Canyon 45: Chelsea Pearson scored 12 points while Molly McCabe had 11 points and 10 rebounds in the Golden Eagles’ Feb. 6 Continental League win. The Jaguars’ Delaney Sullivan took scoring honors with 14 points SkyView Academy 49, Denver Jewish Day 25: The Hawks earned their first victory in nine games on Feb. 2. Alyssa and Caroline Milner combined for 37 points in the
There will be an asterisk next to Ryley Stewart’s name when it is entered into the Highlands Ranch boys basketball history book. An asterisk in sports is usually used to suggest some record or statistic that is questioned. Stewart, a 6-foot-4 senior, surpassed the 1,000-careerpoint milestone in a Jan. 5 game against Dakota Ridge, but an asterisk will be applied to that total because not all of his points have been scored for the Falcons. Stewart He is the third player in Highlands Ranch boys basketball history to score over 1,000 career points, joining Brett Olson and Ryan Moats. Stewart transferred from Douglas County after his sophomore season and missed the first 11 games in 2013-14 for Highlands Ranch before he became eligible. However, anyone seeking his scoring totals for his sophomore campaign won’t find them in the MaxPreps statistics for the 2012-13 season at Douglas County. MaxPreps is a source for high school statistics, leaders and scores. He scored 300 points as a freshman, and his sophomore statistics, which were provided by former basketball coach Jeff Riley, showed that he tallied 336 points in 25 games “I played two years down there,” said Stewart. “I think my old coach deleted the statistics. That’s interesting. We just weren’t that great ... I just wanted to be in a better environment and on a winning team. I knew coach (Bob) Caton. I talked to him and transferred.” Riley, who is still the Huskies golf coach, explained what happened to the MaxPreps statistics.
Roundup continues on Page 24
Stewart continues on Page 20
Mountain Vista’s Chelsea Pearson (3) fights to keep a loose ball in play as Rock Canyon’s Julia Dohety covers her from behind. Pearson led all Mountain Vista scorers with 12 points in the 60-45 victory over the Jaguars. Photo by Paul DiSalvo
Girls Basketball Highlands Ranch 68, Heritage 24: Freshman Leilah Vigil scored 27 points in the Falcons’ easy Feb. 3 Continental League victory. Sophomore Haily Cechini led the Eagles with eight points. Highlands Ranch 58, Regis Jesuit 43: The Falcons built a big lead after three quarters in the Feb.6 Continental League win. Highlands Ranch improved to 6-1 in the league and 16-4 overall. ThunderRidge 86, Douglas County 28: Junior Taylor Rusk scored 23 points and four of her teammates also finished in doubles figures as the Grizzlies, the top-ranked Class 5A team in the CHSAANow.com poll, rolled to a Feb. 3 Continental League win. Brittany Birdsey added 13 points to the Thunder-
Ridge offensive attack, Alyssia Martinez had 11 while Jaz’myne Snipes and Madison Ward each scored 10 points. ThunderRidge 53, Legend 33: The Grizzlies, the No. 1 team in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A poll, led by 28 points after three quarters and cruised to a Feb. 8 Continental League triumph. It was the ninth consecutive victory for ThunderRidge which improved to 6-0 in the league and 17-2 overall. Joey Sale had 14 points to spark a Titans’ team who shot just 21 percent from the field. Castle View 72, Mountain Vista 53: The Golden Eagles played with intensity and received good help off the bench in a Feb. 3 Continental League game. Savannah Heebner scored 21 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for Castle View with Makayla Gonzalez tallying 14 points, Shaina Smidt 12