16 Pikes Peak Courier
October 21, 2015
Aspen Heidekrueger leads a talented WP cross country team The junior didn’t take up running until March Danny Summers dannysummers@yourpeaknews. com Late last winter – March to be exact – Aspen Heidekrueger started running through woods, city streets and about anywhere she could find a path. She hasn’t stopped since. The benefactor of her obsession has been the Woodland Park High School cross country team, where the junior has become the star attraction. “I started running last winter after basketball ended just to run,” Heidekrueger said. “I kept running over the summer and I really enjoyed it. It’s been really fun. Heidekrueger’s interest in run-
ning led her to want to compete, so she hooked up with the Panthers’ cross country team over the summer and immediately liked her new surroundings. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. “Aspen does 55 miles a week,” said Woodland Park sophomore and teammate Alana Dillinger. “She’s a great runner. She’s so fast.” Heidekrueger typically finishes more than a minute ahead of her teammates. She won the Cougar Classic Division 2 race with a time of 20 minutes, 34.78 seconds, more than 20 seconds ahead of Canon City’s Katie Till. The next four Woodland Park runners were sophomore Kelsie Bragg (21:42.76), Dillinger (21:43.72), senior Alana Dillinger (2:14.37) and senior Erin Babinski (23.16.29).
Heidekrueger finished second overall at the Andy Myers Invitational in Greeley on Oct. 9, recording a time of 19:56.9. Sandra Dillinger was the next Woodland Park runner to cross the line at 21:08.00 (16th place). Heidekrueger not only became a quality runner, she established herself as the best runner on the team, and is a big reason why the Panthers are in prime position to return to the state cross country championships Oct. 31 at Norris-Penrose Events Center in Colorado Springs. Bur first they have to qualify for state, which means finishing in the top three at the Oct. 22 regional meet at Pueblo City Park. “If we run the regional meet the way we’ve been running all of our meets, we’re definitely going to state,” Heidekrueger said. “We finished third in a meet on that
The Woodland Park girls’ cross country team celebrates after finishing xxxx during a recent meet in Greeley. From left to right are: Kelsie Bragg, Aspen Heidekrueger, Erin Babinski, Alana Dillinger, Joanna Waddell, Sanda Dillinger and Zoe Austin. //Photo courtesy of Mike Schoudel
The Woodland Park cross country team has enjoyed another successful season. //Photo courtesy of Mike Schoudel course already this season and I think we will run it well again.” Rounding out the top seven Woodland Park runners is senior Joanna Waddell and junior Zoe Austin. “Last year we were really good, but I think we are even faster because we have Aspen,” Bragg said. “I think we’ll make state for sure.” Woodland Park finished 22nd among 24 teams at last year’s state meet. “Our goal is to finish in the middle this year,” Bragg said. The girls have had much more success than the Woodland Park boys in recent years. “It’s not something we hold over their heads or anything,” Heidekrueger said with a smile. “We all love each other, but that’s just how the girls decide to run.” The Woodland Park boys are going to have a much tougher time qualifying for state. The Panthers are young, with their only senior among the top seven being Dylan LeGrande.
“We just need to get a faster average time,” said junior jack Fisher, who consistently finishes first for Woodland Park. Fisher had fourth-place overall finishes at the Cougar Classic and Lake County Invitational. Darwin Edie, a sophomore, is one of the top seven runners on the team. He feels the boys have gotten stronger as a unit as the season has progresses. “You try to find another person on the team and run with them and use them for support to keep running faster,” Edie said. “We’ve been doing a good job of that and I think it shows.” Rounding the top seven runners on the boys side are junior Thomas Marshall, sophomores Alex Conlin and Zane Pasley, and freshman Josh Higgins. “It’s going to take a lot of focus for us to have the same sort of success the girls have had,” Pasley said. “It’s great to have a good motivator like Aspen. We need somebody like that on our team who can do the same thing.”
Woodland Park soccer season winds down Despite high hopes, Panthers endured another tough season Danny Summers dannysummers@yourpeaknews.com In a bleak season of loss after loss, could the Woodland Park High School boys soccer team end with a win? The Panthers enter the final week of the season with a dismal 0-13 record. They play their final match Oct. 21 at Sierra. This is the same Sierra team that Woodland Park had its best game of the season against on Sept. 29. The Panthers held a 1-0 lead late into the second half, but the Stallions tied things up early in the second half and then won the match in the second overtime. “That was a tough one,” said Woodland Park senior Nick McMorris, a varsity player since his freshman year. “I knew we had one chance at winning a game and that was it. We just kind of gave up in the last two minutes.” It’s been that kind of a year for the Panthers. “We’ve been working really hard, but we just don’t have the talent,” said senior Cody Stroup, who also is a kicker/punter for the school’s football team. “It’s been a little bit frustrating. “I come from playing club soccer in (Colorado) Springs where everyone is faster and skilled. That’s not the case with our team.” “It’s been a tough season for me, but it will be good for me in the long run,” Stroup said. “I’m part of building a better program.” The stats don’t tell a pretty story. Through its first 12 matches, Woodland Park was outscored 90 to 8. The Panthers scored two goals in a game just once all season; a 10-2 loss to Elizabeth on Sept. 26.
For all intent and purposes, the Panthers’ chances of winning games were over by halftime as the opposition built substantial leads. “It kind of stinks,” said Dalton Lafever, one of four seniors on the team. “People aren’t showing up to practice on a regular basis, which is a bummer. It’s just been tough.” Woodland Park has had marginal success in terms of wins and losses in recent years. Records kept by MaxPreps date back to 2009. Beginning that season and continuing to the present, Panthers teams have posted records of 4-9-1, 7-6-1, 2-13, 0-14-1, 4-9-1, 1-14, 0-13. That works out to a combined 18-78-4. Coach Noel Sawyer recognizes the record looks bad but insists the team he took over two seasons ago is on an upward trajectory. “People look at us and see we’re 0-13, but they don’t know what’s going on,” said Sawyer, a Woodland Park city councilman. “I am proud of this team. They have gotten better every game. “When you look back at high school you don’t remember scores of games. You remember that great slide tackle. That great shot. Hey great save the goalie made.” Woodland Park was weakened before the season ever began when its best allaround player – Kristian Hooker – transferred to Air Academy. Hooker has played in 11 games for the defending Class 4A state champions, tallying a goal and four assists. “The good times we had this season, hanging out with each other and having fun, is what I’m going to take away from this, because I’m not taking away any wins,” McMorris said. McMorris, Stroup and Lafever have maintained a healthy outlook, despite what the scoreboard reads. They believe the future of Woodland Park soccer is very
Woodland Park senior Dalton Lafever, No. 12, gets tangled up with an opponent. //Photo by Paul Magnuson bright. “We had 14 freshmen this year and a lot of really talented sophomores,” Stroup said. “We won’t be a part of it. But those guys are only going to continue to get better. Woodland Park soccer will be better in the years to come. That’s for sure.”
Sawyer said he plans on having team camps over the summer, as well as building up the Woodland Park Football Club. “We have some amazing, smart young players,” Sawyer said. “I’m really excited about the future of Woodland Park soccer.”