Preps Notebook

Vail Christian Saints

Injuries to key starters Leo Rothenberg (ankle) and Quinn Downey (sprained wrist), combined with the cumulative fatigue of three tough games last week, led to three straight losses for the Saints boys basketball team. They will be looking to turn things around with a rematch Saturday against Vail Mountain, who narrowly beat them 62-54 in December. The 11-3 Gore Rangers are rangy, long and fast, while the smaller Saints rely on quickness and deep shooting. Without their leading scorer and most reliable 3-point shooters, however, head coach Sheldon Kuhns knows he will have to make adjustments.

“We have to tweak things,” said Kuhns going into Saturday’s game, noting his staff is becoming accustomed to adjusting for injuries and illness. “Against that length, we’re not just going to get layups at the rim. But we’re going to do some things differently than the first time we played them.”

Kuhns expects a chess match Saturday. “The kids know each other; there is not a lot of secrets. It really comes down to who plays the best on a given night.”

Finishing atop the league is important, but the bigger goal is to win the upcoming district tournament and earn a first round home game for regions.

“If we can get to districts healthy, we feel we can win the district tournament,” Kuhns said.

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Either way, they’ll likely have to confront Vail Mountain, a program the 22-year veteran Kuhns has watched blossom since Caleb Florence took the helm.

“He’s made basketball a thing to do at Vail Mountain, so he deserves a lot of credit for that. He’s turned that program into a legitimate program around the western slope,” Kuhns said.

Vail Mountain Gore Rangers

• The Vail Mountain Alpine and Nordic teams will compete on either side of the Continental Divide this weekend. Greg Kissler’s group will be competing in a giant slalom in Aspen on Friday while Shawn Ellenbaum takes his crew to Leadville for the Nordic Relay Championships on Saturday.
• Caleb Florence’s boys basketball team went 3-1 in a busy nine day stretch leading up to Saturday’s match-up against Vail Christian. They were able to defeat Cedaredge and North Park handily before dropping a close one to Meeker, 52-50 on the road last weekend. They moved to 11-3 on the year after a 21-point victory over Plateau Valley. They host the Saints in a potential district title game preview. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m.

Eagle Valley Devils

The Devils girls basketball team ended a four-game skid with a victory over valley rival Battle Mountain 45-37 on Tuesday. The loss of two starters — Lauren Hauseman tore her ACL Jan. 15 and Alyssa Jones recently was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her foot — has forced the young squad to flip the script to stay relevant.

“The last two games have been a bit of a turning point for us,” coach Vinny Cisneros stated. Anna Gill and Faythe Eichler have combined for 11 3-pointers in the last two games. “Getting the lid off the rim has been a huge jolt for us.”

Cisneros was pleased to see his squad put up 50 points in a loss against the no. 3 team in the state, Grand Junction Central Jan. 27.

“Really good team,” he said of the Warriors.

“Where our offense is beginning to click, our defense needs to improve in order to compete down the stretch. We believe we can finish in the top 3 in the league and earn that state tournament bid, which has been the goal from the start, so we still have a lot to play for!”

The Eagle Valley boys also defeated Battle Mountain, making it a 4-0 season sweep for both squads combined. The boys are 13-4 on the season; the girls are 6-11. Both teams hit the road this weekend, with consecutive games against Palisade and Montrose on Friday and Saturday.

Battle Mountain Huskies

The American Scholastic Climbing League’s (ASCL) Western Slope Regional Climbing Competition is this Saturday at Eagle Climbing and Fitness, and Battle Mountain’s Aiden Manning enters as the No. 1 ranked climber in the region based off of her regular season results.

“She’s really strong, a great competitor, and really experienced,” said Larry Moore, the owner of Eagle Climbing and Fitness. Moore has worked with Manning since the Husky senior was 5 years old. His wife also launched the Battle Mountain program that Eddie Farrell now leads.

Each region sends the top 10 male and female climbers to the state competition based upon their state qualification composite score (SQCS). Sixty percent of the SQCS is the best three in-region competition scores from the regular season, and the remaining 40% is derived from Saturday’s event.

For an academics-minded athlete such as Manning, who graduates this spring, climbing in college is becoming a more real opportunity, according to Moore, who is hosting two collegiate competitions in the next month at his gym.

“There’s a lot of great schools that are now taking on the sport of climbing,” he said, noting programs at Colorado State University, Air Force, University of Colorado and Stanford.

Sage Eaton, ranked 19th in the region, will join Manning in the girl’s competition while Nathan Rak and Gavin Gould lead the Husky boys. Gould is coming off of a 10th place finish at the Grand Valley Competition.

“All athletes have shown huge progress over the last year and we are excited to show the region what we can do,” stated coach Edward Farrell.