Trojan Shield Weekly Update: October 15, 2018

Greetings from Trojan Country!

Trojan Basketball

In the classroom

We are at the midpoint of the fall semester. Eight weeks of class in the books and another eight to go. The student-athletes have been spending extra time in study hall and in the classroom as most of their classes had midterm tests this past week. The coaches will be anxiously awaiting the grades to see where the teams are academically. With all of that in mind, I am extremely proud of the TSJC volleyball team and their coaches, even though they were on a long road trip this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they still found time (and a place) to get an extra study hall session in. Thanks to NJC for providing the team with a place to get some extra homework completed.

For the second time this semester we found ourselves in a situation that we had to have the assistant coaches step up into a head coaching role. Rand Love and Courtney Vigil each found themselves leading their respective teams for one reason or another, and I am proud and grateful for the great jobs they did. And proud of the head coaches for doing such a good job of preparing their assistants. We have a great team here at TSJC.

Last Week's Results

Cross Country –

Women’s 5K – Trinidad State was second with 74 points

Trojan Results –
1st – Benadine Chelimo - 19:05.7
3rd – Toni Moore - 19:17.0
8th – Mary Baldwin - 20:09.5
37th – Camille Ruggles - 21:05.4
39th – Kathryn Sauerwein - 21:07.4
67th – Vanessa Davis - 21:56.5

Men’s 8K – Trinidad State was fourth with 89 points

Trojan Results –
11th – Godfrey Chama - 26:08.2
21st – Bailey Smith - 26:34.1
27th – Derek Holdsworth - 26:46.0
31st – John McMahon - 26:51.1
39th – Riley Allen - 26:58.3
91st – Joseph Enright - 28:20.9
93rd – Brandon Cardenas - 28:22.6
94th – Richard Sais - 28:25.8

For full results - https://fhsuathletics.com/documents/2018/10/13//FHSUTiger_Open_XC_Results.pdf

Women’s Soccer –

Lost to Otero – 2-1

Men’s Soccer –

Lost to Otero – 4-0

Volleyball –

Lost to McCook – 3-2
Lost to Northeastern – 3-0
Lost to Western Nebraska – 3-1

This Week

Tuesday -

Volleyball hosts Otero at 7pm in Scott Gym

Saturday -

Women’s Soccer hosts a First Round Playoff Game (more information coming soon)
Volleyball travels to Lamar, Colorado for a Region IX contest with Lamar CC
Softball travels to Las Vegas, New Mexico for a scrimmage with New Mexico Highlands
Baseball hosts Luna CC for a scrimmage at Central Park at 1pm

Cross Country excels in Kansas

Fort Hays racers

Both Trojan Cross Country teams had excellent showings at the Fort Hays State Tiger Open in Kansas this past weekend. It is an extremely large meet with the larger NCAA schools competing in the “Gold” Division and the smaller schools and junior colleges competing in the “Black” division. TSJC fielded 14 runners all competing with the other smaller schools.

The women were up first with the 5K. TSJC’s Benadine Chelimo and Toni Moore were at the head of the pack for most of the race and ended up finishing first and third respectively. Mary Baldwin crossed in eighth, Camille Ruggles was 37th and Kathryn Sauerwine finished 39th to complete the team scoring for the Trojans. Chelimo ran a 19:05.7, four seconds ahead of Pratt CC’s Aminata Kenyawa and 12 seconds ahead of Moore to claim the individual title. The Trojans as a team were second behind Hutchinson who won the meet with 51 points. TSJC had 74, Regis finished third with 89. Ten teams with 113 runners competed in the women’s race.

The Trojan men finished fourth overall in the 8K. They scored 89 points, behind champions Colby CC (55), Hutchinson (57) and Cloud County (76). There were 12 teams with 175 runners in the men’s race. Individually Godfrey Chama ran the wet course in 26:08.2 to finish eleventh overall. Bailey Smith (21st), Derek Holdsworth (27th), John McMahon (31st) and Riley Allen (39th) scored for the Trojans.

The Trojans will be off this weekend before traveling to Riverton, Wyoming on Saturday, October 27 for the Region IX Championships. They will then head to the national meet in Garden City, Kansas on November 10.

Women’s soccer hosting playoff this weekend

Women's Soccer

The Lady Trojan soccer team showed great improvement all season, and despite competing most of the season with only 12 to 14 players in uniform, they finished second in the south and will host a first-round playoff game this coming weekend. The Trojans took an early lead off a goal from Madison Kaminky in La Junta this past weekend but ran out of energy late and surrendered a couple of goals to the Rattlers. Otero claimed the south conference with the 2-1 win. They will host Gillette in the opening round of the Region IX playoffs. Trinidad was second and will host Sheridan College. Western Nebraska was third in the south and they will travel to face Western Wyoming, and north champion Laramie County will host Northeastern.

Arrangements are still being made for this weekend’s game and we will share that information as soon as it becomes available. The winners of this weekend’s games will advance to the semifinals in Denver the following weekend.

Men’s soccer wraps season with loss

The Trojan men’s soccer team ended a forgettable season with a 4-0 loss in a La Junta on Saturday evening. The Trojans played with very low energy all night, surrendering a pair of goals in each half. The team went 4-12 on the year. 14 sophomores will be moving on.

The Trojans will look to improve next season as they already have a good recruiting class ready to sign in a few weeks at the national signing day.