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Summit High roundup

BRYCE EVANS
summit daily news
Summit County, Colorado

On what coach Heather Quarantillo called the “hardest course” her team will run all season, the Tigers had a promising performance.

The Summit High cross country team finished sixth for girls and eighth for boys in the Battle Mountain Invitational at the base of Beaver Creek on Saturday.

“It was a technical, difficult course,” Quarantillo said. “It was a true mountain cross-country course, and our kids ran well.”



The girls’ team – even without its top runner, senior captain Cali Greksa, who was taking the ACT – had three girls in the top-25 of the race. Senior Julia Hayes finished 10th with a time of 24:33, Katherine Pappas was 13th at 24:44, and Tess Olson was 22nd at 25:18.

“We’re really excited where Julia and Katherine placed today,” Quarantillo said. “Both finishing that high was really impressive.”



Pappas’ finish was even more impressive considering she took a nasty spill on a steep downhill section about a half-mile from the finish line.

Also competing on the girls’ team for Summit were Sydney Stein (33rd), Paige Olson (48th), Jessica Malknecht (53rd) and Miikka Wickman (57th).

“I think it showed we have a really good squad,” Quarantillo said. “It’ll be exciting to see where we’re at once we get everyone plugged back into the lineup.”

The boys’ team was led by junior captain Emmett Bailey, who finished in 35th place with a time of 21:58.

“We were really excited to see Emmett lead the way,” Quarantillo said. “He’s the leader of the team and ran really strong.”

Next up was freshman Liam Meirow, who finished in 38th place at 22:18.

Quinton Bobb (52nd), Duncan Koehn (54th), Sam Piehl (61st), Troy Meeker (65th) and Ian Parker (67th) also ran for the Tigers.

And to show Summit’s depth on the boys’ side, freshman Robert Koegel ran the JV race – on the exact same course – in a time of 22:57, which would have been fourth on the varsity squad.

The Tigers are back in action Friday, when they travel to Grand Junction for a meet. Quarantillo is expecting a big meet from her team.

“It’ll be lower elevation, a flat-type course – they’re times should definitely drop,” the coach said.

After one half, the Summit High boys’ soccer team was barely hanging on. The Tigers were up 1-0, but Rifle had ripped three shots off the post.

Then, Summit came out after the break playing the way head coach Matt Zeiset had been hoping for four games.

The Tigers dominated the ball, won every 50-50 battle and added two more goals for a convincing 3-0 win Saturday on the road .

“In the second half, we finally played to our potential,” Zeiset said. “The guys played hard and really played the right way.”

Stale Norman led the Summit attack with a pair of goals.

The first came in the opening half off a free kick from about 25 yards out. The senior midfielder drilled the shot into the upper right-hand corner for the early 1-0 lead.

Then, only about 10 minutes into the second half, Norman struck again. Amir Foy centered the ball from the right sideline, and Norman was able to knock in his own rebound for the goal.

Max Ortiz made it 3-0 later in the game, after burying a shot off a feed from Garret Vonfeldt.

The win was the first for the Tigers on the season. And after an opening loss to Battle Mountain and a pair of disappointing ties to Steamboat Springs and Denver North, Zeiset was happy his team finally notched a “W.”

“The kids are definitely in good spirits, and I’m really happy with how they played (Saturday),” the coach said.

The Tigers (1-1-2) have a quick turnaround before opening the Jeffco League season with an away match at Conifer on Tuesday. The game is slated to start at 6 p.m.

Led by senior Dak Dice, the Summit High boys’ golf team finished in a tie for third place Friday at Hyland Hills Golf Course in Denver to close out the Jeffco League season.

The Tigers shot a four-man total of 329, nearly 30 strokes out of the first-place tie between D’Evelyn and Valor Christian at 298.

Green Mountain also shot 329.

Dice fired a 74 to finish alone in third place for the Tigers. It was the senior’s best round of the season and about six strokes lower than his scoring average.

“Dak got back to where we expect and need him,” SHS head coach Gary Sorensen said. ” … Maybe he is peaking at the right time.”

Sophomore Dylan Mitchell was next for Summit in 15th place after an 81, and Brian Metzger (84), Aaron Redner (90) and David Metzger (97) rounded out the Summit lineup.

Summit finished the season fourth overall in the league standings with two players making the all-conference teams.

Mitchell had the third-best average in the league this fall at 75.2 and was on the All-Jeffco first team. With an average of 78.2, Dice was ninth overall and made the second team.

Valor Christian, the defending 4A state champion, won the league title.

Summit still has two tournaments before the regional meet on Sept. 21. The Tigers are playing in a tourney at Aspen on Tuesday.


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