After a rigorous season of hockey, Sami Cassel, a sophomore in Delta, achieved a memorable experience many athletes most likely will never experience ... unless they play hockey and make it to the USA Hockey National Tournament.

Senior Ty Grant signed a letter of intent to participate in the Colorado Mesa University's track program on April 11. Cedaredge High School's student body gathered to watch the signing ceremonies with Athletic Director Brandon Milholland reading a brief statement on behalf of Grant's achievements at CHS.

At Friday's four-team Delta Twilight track and field meet, Hotchkiss scored 83 points and won six events to win the meet. Delta was second with 76 points, Cedaredge third with 60, and Olathe finished fourth with 27.

Of the four girls teams at the Delta Twilight Invitational, Cedaredge had 31 top-three placers and won eight events to take first with 111 points, followed by Delta with 90 points. Olathe finished third with 32 points, and Hotchkiss placed fourth with 31 points.

While the Paonia track teams didn't score a lot of points at Saturday's Demon Invitational track meet at Glenwood Springs -- the girls placed seventh with 48 points and the boys finished 11th with 16 points at the 19-team meet -- multiple Paonia athletes set personal best times, heights and distances.

At Saturday's Western State Combined Invitational at Gunnison, the Cedaredge boys finished third overall with 101 points, behind Salida with 135 point and winner Gunnison's 165 points. The Cedaredge girls took second with 141 points, behind Buena Vista with 179 points.

North Fork baseball teams cleaned up on Saturday at Ignacio, dominating 2A District 5 teams Dolores and Ignacio. Paonia slipped past Dolores 14-2 in its first game and then shutout host Ignacio 17-0 in game two.

Hotchkiss High School moved closer to another 2A District 3/5 showdown with Paonia after a pair of wins against Dolores and Ignacio in doubleheader play in Ignacio. Hotchkiss defeated Dolores 14-0 in game one and routed Ignacio 15-0 in game two.

Delta High School's baseball fortunes included a pair of wins and a loss last week. Wins came against Olathe (0-3 and 1-10 in 3A WSL) and Hotchkiss (2-0 and 9-1 in 2A District 3/5).

Could the 800-meter sprint medley relay be on its last leg?

Traditionally a girls' relay, the sprint medley has been a state track event for decades.

Despite a forecast of winter-like weather and high winds, last Friday was almost perfect for the Delta Twilight track meet. The tiny "quad" twilight meet, which began at 3 p.m., was the first of its kind for the area since the days of the annual Delta County meets.

The Cedaredge tennis team won two matches last week, 7-0 over Grand Junction junior varsity on April 3 and a 5-2 defeat of Fruita Monument's junior varsity on April 6.

Against Grand Junction, Samantha Ribbens won at 1 Singles; Clarity Call was a winner at 2 Singles and Sabrina Gilmore won at 3 Singles.

The Paonia girls track team scored 74 points last Wednesday evening to place fourth at the 13-team Grand Valley Cardinal Open track meet. On Saturday the Eagles finished fifth with 69.5 points at Palisade High School's Frank Woodburn Invitational at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction.

Last week's soccer action resulted in a tie and a win for the Delta Panthers. A tie with Roaring Fork (1-1) came after two overtime periods failed to produce a winner.

At the April 4 Grand Valley Cardinal Open track meet, the Paonia boys' 3200m relay team took first with a time of 8 minutes, 48.08 seconds. At Saturday's Frank Woodburn Invitational the team of Caden Meilner, Ethan Bartlett, Harley Ewert and Logan Green took nine seconds off that mark, placing fourth overall and first among Class 2A teams with a time of 8:39.98.

Cedaredge High School has had successful track performances the past few weeks. The Bruin girls won last week's Grand Valley Open (April 3) with 117 points and tied for third with Fruita Monument at Saturday's Frank Woodburn Invitational with 85 points.

Hotchkiss senior Darrin Young shot to the top of the Class 2A state rankings with a winning throw in the shot put of 48 feet, 2 inches at the Grand Valley Cardinal Open. Young is a two-time state qualifier in the shot put and placed third at state his junior year.

Delta High School was highly successful at last week's Grand Valley Open on April 3.

The boys finished the meet with 97 points to outdistance the 12-team field while Delta's girls finished in second place with a total of 84 points to Cedaredge's 117.

After winning the Class 3A state heavyweight wrestling title in February, Delta High School senior Logan Church achieved another dream. Church became an All-American wrestler in March after placing fifth at the National High School Coaches Association High School Nationals senior class wrestling tournament.

This photo is a reprint from last week's edition due to the omission of Lisa Oeltjenbruns' name in the list of family members.

Coach Al Blanc was inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Association (CHSCA) Hall of Fame on March 24 in Denver. He is pictured here with his wife, Becky, and several former Delta High School basketball players and manager.

There were plenty of prep basketball teams for fans to watch this past basketball season. Cedaredge and Delta High School each sent their boys and girls basketball teams to various locations to participate in this year's 3A State Basketball Championships.

Delta and Aspen are tied, 3-0, at the top of 3A WSL standings as of last week's play. Aspen is listed first by virtue of its 6-1 overall record with the Panthers owning a 5-5 mark.

Last week's action, for Delta, was taking on the visiting Gunnison Cowboys on April 3.

In a close game that went into an extra inning, the Hotchkiss Bulldogs defeated the visiting Cedaredge Bruins last Wednesday, 5-4.

Hotchkiss scored three runs on two hits in the opening inning.

The Paonia baseball team remains undefeated after sweeping a doubleheader at Rangely Saturday. Both games ended in five innings.