{"id":67511,"date":"2017-05-29T13:58:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T19:58:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/spring-sports-season-produces-lasting-memories\/"},"modified":"2017-05-29T19:58:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T19:58:32","slug":"spring-sports-season-produces-lasting-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/spring-sports-season-produces-lasting-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring sports season produces lasting memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Austin Wagner strikes gold<\/div>\n

Competing at the Colorado State Track Championships in Lakewood,, Montezuma-Cortez High School senior Austin Wagner came through in a big way, finishing as the top-ranked triple jumper in Class 3A with a mark of 44 feet, 9 inches.<\/p>\n

For Wagner, the championship-winning leap served as the culminating moment of an impressive senior season that featured several lengthy leaps and multiple podium finishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of like a storybook finish for (Wagner),\u201d said M-CHS boys\u2019 coach Bob Archibeque. \u201cIt all came down to one jump, and he nailed one and he won by an inch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Wagner has yet to settle on a college for next year, the M-CHS standout plans to compete at the college level next season.<\/p>\n

Baseball team makes playoffs<\/div>\n

For the first time in more than a decade, the Montezuma-Cortez High School baseball team qualified for the postseason, thanks to a memorable campaign that featured 10 total wins and a 7-3 record in the West Slope League.<\/p>\n

Among the top performers for this year\u2019s team were junior Jasen Engel, who batted .509 and drove in a team-high 27 runs. Engel also excelled on the mound for the Panthers, finishing the season with a team-high five wins and a 4.04 ERA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll always remember how we came together as a team over the course of the year,\u201d said Panthers manager Tim Passell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just one individual. It was somebody different that came through for us each outing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking the playoffs and getting the experience will help us for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshmen make big impact<\/div>\n

Suiting up for her first season of high school soccer, Dolores High School freshman McKenzie Howerton reminded fans that inexperience at the high school level does not necessarily preclude big-time results. She scored eight goals in 14 games for the Montezuma-Cortez High School girls\u2019 soccer team.<\/p>\n

Also making the most of her first year as a high school athlete was Dove Creek High School freshmen Kiara Lingenfelter, whose 39th-place finish at the Class 3A State Golf Tournament capped off a season that saw her lead the Dolores High School golf team to its first tournament victory ever.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the area\u2019s top first-year prep performers was Mancos High School freshman Cayden Showalter, whose sixth-place finish in the discus (135 feet, 9 inches) and 15th-place finish in the shot put (39 feet, 4\u00be inches) at the state track meet ranked best amongst freshmen in Class 2A.<\/p>\n

Keeping the record in the family<\/div>\n

Competing at the Colorado State Track Championships in Lakewood, Colo., two Montezuma-Cortez High School track athletes broke school records.<\/p>\n

Among the record-breakers was M-CHS senior Josh Ramos, whose time of 1:55.62 placed him second in the state and broke his brother, Justice Ramos\u2019 record of 1:55.74.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh broke his brother\u2019s school record, and that was a feather in his cap,\u201d said M-CHS coach Bob Archibeque. \u201cJosh is one of those workers that all coaches dream of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also breaking a family member\u2019s school record was sophomore Aryelle Wright, whose 400-meter dash time of 58.28 broke her mother, Amber Cunningham\u2019s school record of 58.6, which was set in 1990.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my race, I went up in the stands and (my mom and I) just embraced each other,\u201d Wright said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even say anything. We were both just hugging each other and crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores baseball team improves<\/div>\n

After finishing last season 0-16 record, the Dolores High School baseball team showed fast improvement this season en route to a 7-12 record.<\/p>\n

Highlighting the Bears\u2019 season was a 14-7 victory over Ignacio in the Class 2A District 3\/5 Tournament, which allowed the Bears to advance to a Regional Tournament game against eventual Class 2A state champion Paonia.<\/p>\n

Among the leaders this year was sophomore Dakota Smith, whose .452 batting average and nine RBIs over the course of 12 games led the Bears.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played good baseball \u2026 and teamwork was the biggest key for us,\u201d Bears manager Rusty Hamilton said. \u201cWe are improving every day, and I expect our future to be bright.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wagner strikes gold Competing at the Colorado State Track Championships in Lakewood,, Montezuma-Cortez High School senior Austin Wagner came through in a big way, finishing as the top-ranked triple jumper in Class 3A with a mark of 44 feet, 9 inches. For Wagner, the championship-winning leap served as the culminating moment of an impressive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[470,38,36,29,845,2343,594],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-67511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-baseball","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-soccer","tag-sports-group","tag-track-and-field"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67511"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=67511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}