Prep notebook: Vail Christian extends win streak with victories over Vail Mountain School and Buena Vista

Vail Christian normally has no issues putting the ball through the net. On Friday night, however, the Saints showed they can lock things down on the other end of the floor when they need to.

“(It) was all about defense,” coach Andrew Neumann said after his team defeated Vail Mountain School 44-28 in East Vail. The Rangers burst out of the gate on their home floor. Grant Iverson drilled three triples as Vail Mountain School scored 19 points in the first quarter alone.

But the hosts would only score nine more points the rest of the way.

“I’m really proud of how our young team locks in even when we are behind,” Neumann continued. “We quickly got down by 10, but never slowed down. Even though we had an ice cold shooting night, our defense and rebounding led the way to a great win.”

Rayman Romanin led the Saints with 19 points as Oliver Neumann pitched in 12 more.

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The Saints extended their winning streak to five with a 51-50 victory over 3A Buena Vista on Saturday. Vail Christian trailed by three with under a minute to go when Wyatt Hansen nailed a long 3-pointer to tie things up. Oliver Neumann — who made a pair of clutch free throws late in the fourth quarter — was fouled with one second remaining and went 1-for-2 from the line to win the game.

Vail Mountain School (2-5) will host Battle Mountain on Tuesday while the No. 9-ranked Saints (6-2) start a three-game home stand next week, starting with No. 11 Plateau Valley on Tuesday and ending with No. 8 Swallows Charter Academy on Saturday.

Colorado High School Nordic Ski League season gets underway

The defending boys and girls state champions opened the nordic ski season with strong performances on Friday. Lake County put three in the top-6 to take the girls team race and Summit swept the boys individual and team titles at the first race of the Colorado High School Ski League season at Gold Run Nordic Center.

Aspen’s Kate Goldfarb claimed the 5-kilometer classic crown in a time of 18 minutes, 36.73 seconds, six clicks ahead of Nederland freshman Kajsa Wik. Aimee Lenhard, Finnley Stanek and Lyza Zoller led the Panthers in fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively as Ruthie DeMino (21:27.20) was the top Eagle County finisher in 12th. Battle Mountain finished third as team. Eagle Valley came through in eighth, led by Eva Klesner’s 14th-place mark and Caroline Provencher paced Vail Mountain School to a 10th-place team finish by coming through in 29th out of 79 starters.

On the boys side, Summit’s John Ryan (16:22.44) claimed a 16-second victory over Vail Mountain’s Tyler Ciluzzi as Carter Niemkiewicz claimed third. Eagle Valley finished second as a team, led by Jonah Barber’s fourth-place finish. Christopher Marsh, Tyler Blair and Jack Sargent were 10th, 12th and 15th, respectively, to round out the Devils scoring. Vail Mountain scored 149 points to sneak past Battle Mountain (141) for seventh in the team standings.

The high school ski circuit travels to Snow Mountain Ranch on Jan. 16 for a 3.5-kilometer classic in the morning followed by a 4.7-kilometer skate in the afternoon.