Some teams hit bumps and face adversity. And some teams get stuck on top of a 10,000-foot-high mountain pass submerged in a blizzard.
The Metro State men’s basketball team, while vaulting to the top of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference standings this season, has overcome several standard hurdles. The team has suffered injuries and cold shooting and offensive dry spells.
But coach Brannon Hays’ team hit bottom when it got as high as 10,857 feet up on Wolf Creek Pass in the San Juan Mountains in Mineral County. On a December road trip, after a date in Gunnison against Adams State, the Roadrunners — ha! — drove over the pass en route to Durango to play Fort Lewis the next night.
The team got stuck for more than three hours, after midnight, in the snow and didn’t arrive in Durango until the morning.
“What’s carried us through the hard times this season was our defense,” Hays said.
And, apparently, a shovel.
“They’re working hard. We’re very pleased with the energy they’ve been bringing night in a night out,” Hays said.
Metro is back in better climes this weekend for two home dates. The Roadrunners (16-3) face Chadron (Neb.) State (6-13) tonight and Nebraska-Kearney (6-12) on Saturday. Both games tip off at 7 p.m. at Auraria Events Center.
“You can’t take anybody in this conference for granted,” Hays said. “As soon as you do, they take you down. There are no gimmes. We’ve been down and bounced back pretty well this year.”
Jesse Wagstaff, a 6-foot-8 senior forward from Australia averaging 17.1 points this season, has Metro St. back atop the RMAC after falling off some last season. Since 1998, Metro has won seven of the 10 RMAC Tournament titles. Fort Lewis took top honors last season.
“We’ve seen a lot of adversity this season,” Hays said. “But we’re hitting our stride.”
Helps when there’s no blizzard in the way.
AROUND TOWN
Wrestling bling at the Springs.
The bar set by former champions of the Dave Schultz Memorial International wrestling tournament is rather high. None is more recognizable than Rulon Gardner. An Olympic gold medalist is a tough act to follow.
But among the 11 world and Olympic medalists who will headline the field for the Schultz Memorial today through Sunday at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, attention likely will be on one another and not on past champions.
The tournament, with world-class freestyle and Greco-Roman stars from 15 countries, stands out as one of the world’s best gatherings of wrestlers. In men’s Greco-Roman, Americans Lindsey Durlacher and Harry Lester are world bronze-medal winners.
But the big stars are in women’s freestyle, highlighted by Olympic gold-medal winner Carol Huynh of Canada, world champ Clarissa Chun of the U.S., and Olympic bronze medalist Patricia Miranda of the U.S. Check for information.
STAY ON THE COUCH
Down times in D.C.
Yahoo Sports’ Jamie Mottram, writing on his blog , last week charted the 12 four-sport cities in America, ranking them based on success since 2007. Denver, with subpar seasons from the Broncos and Rockies, rated 10th. Boston was No. 1, followed by Philadelphia.
The worst four-sport city in America? Washington, which only recently has has success with the NHL’s Capitals.
The District tonight will host the start of the Nuggets’ four-game swing of the East Coast, when Carmelo Anthony and crew take on Antawn Jamison and the Wizards.
The Nugs (33-16) remain near the top of the Western Conference.
The Wizards, with star Gilbert Arenas still out after knee surgery, are the worst team in the Eastern Conference at 10-39. The Wizards are weighing D.C. down.
GET OFF THE COUCH
Hare treatment.
The 15th running of the Wild Hare Snowshoe Trek on Saturday will gather all types in Granby for three races, from hardcore shoers to novices.
A 5-kilometer women’s race, starting at 11:30 a.m., will send out casual hikers through the tracks around Snow Mountain Ranch. That race is followed by a more contested 5K women’s trek and a 5K mixed men’s and women’s trek.
The race serves to raise awareness for The Sporting Woman Community Fund.
Check for more information.
WHAT WE’D LIKE TO SEE
Young and talented.
Krista Halsnes, a freshman at Steamboat Springs High School, is no slouch when it comes to sled dog racing.
The 15-year-old Thursday outraced a field of 19 to win the 53-mile sixth stage of the International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race in Wyoming.
Halsnes, the youngest musher in the race, went from Kemmerer to Evanston in five hours, 43 seconds. Melanie Shirilla from Lincoln, Mont., was second at 5:02:42 and continues to lead the overall standings.
Halsnes has two days to move up the overall standings. The longest sled-dog race in the continental U.S. at 345 total miles finishes Saturday in Park City, Utah.
