Leah Vann / Steamboat Pilot & Tody
Two Summit High School wrestlers will represent the Tigers at the Pepsi Center in Denver on Thursday as part of the 2019 Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) state wrestling tournament.
The Tigers will send 113-pound senior Alex Barela and 126-pound junior Brandon Daniel to the competition, which features 14 different single-elimination, 16-wrestler tournaments spread across across 14 weight classes, from 106-285 pounds.
Barela wrestled to a fourth-place finish at this past weekend’s CHSAA Region 1 Class 4A Regional Tournament at Thomas Jefferson High School in Denver. The senior improved his mark to 32-10 on the season by defeating Windsor’s Jake Trusty in the fourth-place match. Then, in the third-place match, Barela lost to Palisade’s Judah Guardado.
Barela will open up his state tournament against senior Xavier Espinoza of Pueblo East High School (17-6), who won the 4A Region 2 tournament at Discovery Canyon High School in Colorado Springs.
In the 126-pound weight class at regionals, the Summit junior Daniel also finished in fourth place via a fourth-place match victory over junior Cobe Clark of Palisade. That win combined with Daniel’s fifth-place match victory over Steven Merrill of Wheat Ridge improved Daniel’s record to 20-7 on the season.
Daniel will open his state tournament against senior Patrick Allis of Discovery Canyon. On the season, Allis has won 36 matches against just one loss. The weigh-in for the class 4A competition at the state tournament begins with a weigh-in on Friday at 12:30 p.m., followed by preliminaries from 6-8:45 p.m.
Daniel and Barela were joined at the regional meet at Thomas Jefferson High School by teammates Giovanni Marquez and Ariel Mendoza. Marquez wrestled to a sixth-place finish and Mendoza wrestled to an eighth-place finish at regionals. With 33 points, Summit as a team finished in 11th place of the 14 schools at the regional meet.
Hockey
The Summit varsity hockey team wrapped up their 2018-19 season this past weekend by splitting their final two games of the season, including a Senior Night victory on Friday versus Glenwood Springs.
The Tigers held on after jumping out to an early 4-0 lead by way of scoring four goals in a three-minute span. The Tigers got on the board with an even-strength goal from Isaac Eland at the 13:44 mark of the first period, assisted by forward Dart Barson and defender Foster Krueger. Then, fewer than two minutes later, forward Ryley Cibula scored a pair of even-strength goals just a half-minute apart. Less than a minute later, the Tigers received a power-play goal from forward Max Bonenberger, assisted by Barson and Eland.
Summit took further control of the game a minute into the second period when Barson found the back of the net on an even-strength goal assisted by Eland and Bonenberger. The Devils rallied back with four unanswered goals and, at the 16:06 mark of the third period, pulled within 5-4 on a Sean Mooney goal. Less than a minute later, though, Barson put the game away with an even-strength goal assisted by Bonenberger. Tigers goaltender Maksim Rashchupkin saved 31 of 25 shot attempts.
The Tigers then concluded their season on Saturday with an 8-0 loss on the road versus Standley Lake. Tigers goaltender Marco Vogelbacher stopped 26 of 34 shots in the contest. With the loss, Summit finished the year with a 5-13-1 record and a 1-8-1 mark in Peak Conference play.
Basketball
This past week, the Tigers varsity girls basketball team concluded their season with an 8-15 record (4-8 in 4A Western Slope League play) after falling in an enthralling Senior Night game on Wednesday before defeating Steamboat Springs on the road on Saturday to close out the campaign.
On Wednesday, the Tigers forced double-overtime versus the Bears before ultimately losing 48-39. Summit was led by senior small forward Kamalani Kanamu’s 12 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Then, on Saturday, Summit junior Anna Tomlinson powered the Tigers to that season-capping 34-29 win over the Sailors with 15 points and eight rebounds on 5-of-7 shooting. Kanamu contributed six points and 14 rebounds while junior guard Nicole Kimball added seven points and nine rebounds.
The Tigers boys team finished the year with a 5-18 and 0-12 record in league play with a 63-44 loss on Senior Night to Rifle followed by a 54-35 loss at Steamboat Springs. In the loss to Rifle, Summit senior guard Wyatt Buller scored 19 points while senior guard Brendan Collins added 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Against Steamboat, Buller again led the way for the Tigers with 13 points.