Several Teams and Players Make State Appearances
Trevor Phipps
The high school winter sports seasons has officially ended as certain sports, such as wrestling, round out the year with state competitions.
In a banner winter time for WP sports, several teams and individual stars had good seasons, and some players qualified to compete in the state championships. This represented a big improvement from past years.
Earlier this month, the district celebrated the success of the girls’ swimming team. During the regional tournament, five swimmers did well enough to qualify for the state championships.
Hannah Winn took first place in the league tournament in the 100 Fly and 100 Back competitions. Kensley Pekron, meanwhile, took fourth place in the 500 Free competition and fifth place in the 200 Free competition.
The relay team consisting of Pekron, Winn, Maci Lundgren and Ellie Geissler took fourth place in the 400 Free relay, while the relay team with swimmers Winn, Geissler, Lundren, and Jerzy Leidy took sixth place in the 200 Medley.
The swimmers were sent off to state by students filling the hallways on Feb. 9.
The girls wrestling team also had two grapplers that qualified to wrestle at the state championship that took place in Denver last weekend. Trinity Diamond took second place at the regional tournament and Cheyenne Becker took third. Stay tuned to TMJ News next week for full results of the boys’ state wrestling tournament.
Woodland Park High School Girls’ Basketball
At the end of the regular season, the Lady Panthers completed one of their most successful seasons in several years. But since the girls are in a league with such stiff competition, they didn’t quite finish well enough to move past the regular season.
The ladies did earn a winning record this season as they finished with an 11-8 overall record, and a 7-7 league record. But, the girls were only able to come in eighth place in their 4A/3A Tri-Peaks league. The Lady Panthers did though finish in 20th place in 3A statewide.
On Feb. 11, the ladies traveled west to Buena Vista and lost 54-40. Then last Thursday, they finished their ’22-’23 season at home with a loss against the rival Manitou Springs Mustangs 65-44.
Senior Isabella Slocum ended this season the best on the team and one of the best in the league. Slocum finished with a total of 241 points and 238 rebounds.
Senior Sydney Roshek racked up 184 points and 90 rebounds. Senior Izabella Newsom scored 80 points during the season and picked up 36 rebounds.
Next year, the season will be losing a total of five seniors on their starting roster due to graduation. The next season will be the time for the underclassmen to step up and show what they have learned during their high school career.
Woodland Park High School Boys’ Basketball
The Panther hoopsters came out of the woodworks during the end of the season and picked up some key wins. In fact, the team won four games in a row to finish their regular season.
On Feb. 11, the team dominated Buena Vista on the road 57-38. Then during their last game of the regular season, they squeaked past the Manitou Springs Mustangs 57-56 during a home match.
During their final game, the Panthers and Mustangs were neck and neck. The game wasn’t actually decided until the Panthers knocked in a three pointer at the buzzer to finish off the game ahead.
The Panthers ended their season finishing with a 13-6 overall record and a 10-4 league record. In the end, they took fifth place in their 4A/3A Tri-Peaks League. They also were ranked in 16th place statewide in the 3A Division.
Woodland Park High School Hockey
The Ice Panthers this year looked strong at first, but then they struggled during the last part of the ’22-’23 season. Towards the end of their season, the boys lost a devastating four games in a row to bring them out of the pull of playoff worthy teams.
However, on Feb. 11, the team ended their losing streak with a big 8-2 victory against Air Academy.
The Panthers ended their season with a 4-9 overall record and a 3-4 league record. The team ended their season in third place in their 4A South League and 12th place in Colorado Class 4A.
