Sweep over Lamar puts Manitou baseball in Tri-Peaks driver’s seat
PHOTO AND STORY BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
After splitting a doubleheader with Salida to kick off Tri-Peaks League play, the Manitou Springs baseball team knew it had to get at least one back against Lamar.
But they happily took two.
The Mustangs beat Lamar in their first home league doubleheader, taking Game 1 7-4 before routing the Thunder 13-3 in Game 2.
It was a massive rebound that now puts the Mustangs (7-7 overall, 3-1 Tri-Peaks) in the driver’s seat when it comes to the league championship.
“Lamar was at the top of the league,” coach Brandon DeMatto said. “We knew at this point we needed a bare minimum of a split with these guys, but we were hunting two from the get-go.”
The two teams traded blows in the early innings of the first game, with Lamar scoring two in the top of the third to take a 3-2 lead.
An Ashur Lavigne single scored Maxton Bolster to tie the game in the bottom of the inning and the Mustangs jumped ahead in the bottom of the fourth on a Trafford Havens double that scored Hayden Martinez.
“We’re capable of putting the bat on the ball when we’re focused,” Havens said. “We can do great things, and we’re locked in at this point in the season.”
Between the two games, Havens went 3-for-8 and drove in a combined three runs. Martinez led the second game with four RBIs while Ben Perkins had three.
Since the Mustangs have returned home from Arizona, they’ve gotten solid production through the entire lineup.
And they’ve gotten some solid pitching to go with it. Cooper Frojen got into the fifth inning of Game 1, striking out eight Lamar hitters and giving up only two earned runs.
Bolster was once again solid in relief, going 2 1/3 innings and not giving up a single run.
Preston Rhodes was solid across the board in his start in the second game. He went all five innings and limited the damage to three runs, but was happy to see plenty of offensive support along the way.
“He’s had a couple situations this year that he’s come in and given us some extended innings that we didn’t necessarily anticipate,” DeMatto said. “A lot of that is because he’s now throwing three pitches. He can throw a fastball, curveball and change-up, all for strikes in any count. You don’t have to throw 90 (mph) to be effective.”
The Mustangs kept their momentum going with an 11-5 win over St. Mary’s on Tuesday. They head to La Junta this weekend to continue their quest for a league championship.
Girls golfers feel at home in Pueblo
PHOTO AND STORY BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
By the time the Class 2A girls golf state tournament kicks off in May, Addie Dorsey is going to feel right at home in Pueblo.
The Manitou Springs sophomore snagged another top-five finish as she shot a 4-over-par 76 at the Pueblo West Invite at Desert Hawk Golf Course on April 21. She finished fourth with Air Academy freshman Landy Frost winning the event with a 67, which was seven shots better than second place.
“I don’t think anyone was going to get [Frost] today,” coach Ken Vecchio, “But she’s a girl that Addie has played with and beat before.”
Dorsey had a couple of errant shots that resulted in two double-bogeys, but she got around a tough course fairly well as she chipped in for eagle at the par-5 11th and also made a birdie on the par-5 sixth.
After struggling with the putter a bit last week at Kissing Camels, Dorsey rolled the ball noticeably better at Desert Hawk, which is in similar conditions that the Pueblo Country Club is in. The state tournament will be played at the Pueblo Country Club starting on May 19.
As competitive as she is, looking at two double-bogeys on her card will leave Dorsey wondering what could have been on the day. But it was just two shots that separated her from second place (Doherty’s Joylanae Barnhill). Dorsey is consistently near the top of the leaderboard in each tournament that she plays in and doing so against the likes of the Pikes Peak Athletic Conference and Pueblo area schools that she competes with is going to have her ready by the time the postseason begins.
“As the importance of the tournaments ramp up a bit, the better she’ll be,” Vecchio said.
Senior Madison Sharon snagged herself a top-20 finish as she shot 92 at the Hawk. She opened her round with a birdie on the short par-4 16th and then made another on the par-3 fifth. If she can clean up a few double-bogeys, another state tournament berth could very well be in her future.
But as the girls look to state, they’ll try to get acclimated to Pueblo. They went right back to the area to compete at the Pueblo East Invite at Walking Stick on Wednesday. Results were not available at press time.
Dorsey will play in perhaps her most competitive round of the year next week when she heads to The Showcase Classic at Cherry Creek Country Club on Monday. That tournament will feature the top players from all four classifications.
Wall breaks a record again, Mustangs track and field ramping up for state
STORY AND PHOTO BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
Wins and spots on the podium were not the goal as the Manitou Springs track and field team made its way to Douglas County for the Huskie Twilight on April 21.
There were certainly some highs at the meet, the big one being Mackinzy Wall again breaking her school record in the discus. Her throw of 142 feet, 7 inches was within just a few inches of Pagosa Springs’ Abigail Nehring, the current Class 3A leader in the event.
“It’s a testament to hard work paying off,” coach Anna Mack said. “Frankly, there is still work to be done and there’s still more growth she can have. But it’s great to see. We had concern in the beginning of the season with her starting so great and we’re hoping it wouldn’t go in the opposite direction. But she just keeps going up.”
The other top finish was the girls 4×800-meter relay team outpacing everyone to get a big win. The team of Keyaira Moore, Natalie Traenkle, Chloe Bresnahan and Acacia Gilmore nearly broke the school record when they crossed the finish line in 10 minutes, 6.83 seconds.
That mark is almost three seconds faster than the best time the Mustangs have posted this year. They’ve solidified themselves at the No. 2 spot in 3A, behind The Classical Academy. The Titans are the only 3A 4×800 relay team to run the race in under 10 minutes.
Aside from that, it was more about the team being in a competitive environment than securing high finishes. Ethan Traenkle had a good run in the boys 1,600, finishing 17th with a time of 4:40.11.
Jon Polizzi ran the 400 in 52.90, which also placed him 17th.
The meet was anything but discouraging for the teams as they came away in good spirits. If anything, the Huskie Twilight was a great atmosphere for them to mentally prepare for the full scope of what the three-day state track meet will look like in the next few weeks.
“We see more 4A and 5A schools and everything is ramping up,” Mack said. “It makes the kids kind of rise to the occasion so going to these meets are more for the competitive edge.”
The Mustangs head to Lamar for the Tri-Peaks League meet this weekend and then have two trips to Pueblo before they make their way to Jeffco Stadium on May 15.
Manitou soccer on verge of claiming a league championship
STORY AND PHOTO BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
The girls soccer Tri-Peaks League has taken on a different look in the last few years. The 2025 version of the league consists of just four teams and the Manitou Springs girls soccer team is now in the driver’s seat of winning the league title after beating Lamar 1-0 on April 17.
There are two truths about winning a league title that the Mustangs (8-1-2 overall, 2-0 Tri-Peaks) can acknowledge as they look ahead to the final league game against Woodland Park.
The first is that winning a league title is still a goal that can help them push forward with the playoffs just around the corner. The second is that the shine just isn’t as bright as it used to be.
Both things can be true at the same time and the team is more than accepting of that mindset.
“It’s becoming less and less important,” coach Ben Mack said. “There is so much movement with so many traditional league teams going down to [Class] 2A, I think it’s lost a little bit of its luster. But a league championship is still a league championship, so it does matter.”
And the team used that approach in its win over the Thunder. The Mustangs were without Brenna Cote, a key piece of the back line, but there was never any worry. The offensive firepower the Mustangs possessed a year ago has been watered down this year, but the team is certainly stronger on the defensive end.
It was a Kara Donegan penalty kick that made it 1-0 in the first half and once the lead was in hand, there was a high level of confidence that the Mustangs would hang on.
“I really like how we have so many good subs on defense,” goalkeeper Nici Sharon said. “We have Nolan [Barrett] and we have Karsynne [Murphy-Skillen] that we can put in on the back line as freshmen. And that gives us the opportunity to put Brenna up or put Nolan up. It’s fun to watch.”
If there’s one critique right now, it’s that the Mustangs are still struggling to finish their shots on the attack. Against Lamar, they registered 28 shots. Outside of Donegan’s PK goal, 21 of those shots found their way on net.
“I thought we played pretty well,” Mack said. “We didn’t finish well, but we moved the ball pretty well.”
The Mustangs got a key non-league road win at Eagle Ridge Academy on Tuesday. The 3-0 win over the Warriors is a good confidence boost as Manitou tries to win an outright league title if they beat Woodland Park on Monday.
The Pikes Peak Bulletin is proud to partner with the Manitou Springs High School newspaper, The Prospector, to bring you a selection of articles by student journalists. Read more at MSHSProspector.org.
TikTok remains a factor in the lives of staff and students
BY NAOMI PORTER/ENGAGEMENT MANAGER, THE PROSPECTOR
TikTok is a social media platform that gives people a place to post, watch and share short videos. Since 2024, there have been talks of banning TikTok in the United States, but a full ban has not yet been put into place. Lawmakers have been worried about the risks of national security and youth mental health due to the app being owned and run by a Chinese company, ByteDance.
A ban was originally proposed in 2020 by President Donald Trump and signed into law in 2024 by former President, Joe Biden. On Jan. 18, 2025 TikTok shut down its services in the United States but restored them after Trump signed an executive order to postpone enforcement of the ban for 75 days. At the end of the postponed period, Trump signed another executive order to postpone the ban 75 more days, to June 19, 2025.
Riley Walker, an English teacher at MSHS, worries about the effects of TikTok and other social media platforms on society. “I feel like TikTok is a poisonous cancer in our society,” Walker said. “I don’t like the way that it’s designed to capture our attention and provide us with content that is less enriching and less interesting and less challenging as time goes on.”
According to teenagers at MSHS, they spend an average of two to three hours a day watching TikTok, which takes away from their time spent doing homework or interacting with other people. Brooklyn Sheffield, a junior at MSHS, believes that her time on TikTok impacts her relationships. “I think that I lose a lot of time with my family,” Sheffield said.
This opinion is shared by other students, including freshman Brynlee Havens, who says she often resorts to TikTok instead of social interactions. “I just spend more time on my phone than actually hanging out with people,” Havens said. “I don’t think that’s a good thing.”
Walker sees the impact of TikTok in the way that students interact with each other and with him. “It degrades our culture and our ability to interact with each other,” Walker said. “It’s harder and harder to hold and maintain eye contact and to have difficult conversations.”
Hours spent on TikTok come along with other things, such as slang and trends that very quickly go from in to out. “It just seems exhausting to be a student. You have to learn some new slang word, use it for a month, and then it’s on to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing,” Walker said. “You have to pay attention to and learn so many pointless things that you’re just gonna have to forget immediately.”
It’s very addictive. – Tiffany Selz, MSHS teacher
With TikTok being owned by a Chinese company, trends tend to promote the social online shopping environment that is prominent in China. One of the main trends that promotes this consumer culture is “fit checks,” where a person posts a video of their outfit of the day and where they got it. “You see these trends and you get persuaded by them, and then you want to be like those people, so you start buying new clothes,” Sheffield said.
Consumer culture on TikTok is also promoted by the TikTok shop, allowing people to link a product directly to a video talk about how it’s the next new thing. “You post a silly little video of you wearing a thing and then add a link for other people to buy it,” Walker said. “It’s just another way to extract your money from you.”
In addition to clothing and slang trends, creative trends also pass through TikTok. These trends allow teenagers to get inspiration for projects – if they can spend enough time away from their phones to complete them. “I’ll see cute little projects and stuff, like paper flowers and different painting things, and I’m like, Oh, that’s cool. I want to do that,” Havens said. “And then I don’t do it because I just sit there and watch TikTok.”
It’s not just creative projects that TikTok distracts from, it also takes away from students’ ability to focus and do school work. Tiffany Selz, a math teacher at MSHS, notices this in her class. “It’s very addictive, and the videos are short, so it has changed attention spans for kids, which is kind of crazy,” Selz said.
Students also acknowledge that TikTok is distracting them from more important things. “I think it takes time away to do things, it definitely makes me unproductive, because I don’t get stuff done,” Havens said. “It doesn’t give me time to actually do the things that I want to do.”
The problems stemming from TikTok don’t singularly impact teenagers. Adults and younger children also use the app, along with other social media platforms. “It’s not just a teenage problem, everybody is this way in our society right now,” Walker said. “I don’t expect teenagers to solve it all by themselves, and I don’t expect teenagers to not be affected by it, because parents are affected by it. It’s deeply sad to me.”
Some students, including junior Ezra Gervais, have found that uninstalling TikTok has been helpful to them. “It’s almost like a drug, where I was always dying to get the next hit of dopamine, and it’s just beneficial for me not to be scrolling,” Gervais said.
Walker believes that a complete shutdown of TikTok and other social media would be beneficial to everyone. “I don’t think they’ve done a single good thing for the world. I think that we should take them off the internet and that’s that,” Walker said.
Gervais shares Walker’s belief that getting rid of TikTok would be good. “It’s improved my life a lot, and I am a lot more productive without it,” Gervais said. “I recommend that everyone deletes it.”
Students gain life experience with part-time jobs
BY KALEB CERVANTES AND ELLIOT METTLER
High school presents a lot of opportunities for students. One available opportunity is the chance to work while being able to go to school.
The ability to earn money helps give students a sense of freedom and responsibility, which helps them prepare for adulthood. “I don’t have to rely on my parents for food and gas all the time now. If I want to go out and do something, I can just go out and do it,” Landon Foster (grade 12) said. “I’m more self-reliant now that I have my own stream of income.”
The jobs that high schoolers work give them opportunities to gain valuable skills that can be used both on and off the job. “I learned how to work under pressure, especially on tests. I’ve become a better test taker, working through rushes at work, when things get really, really stressful,” Shaena Vigil (grade 12) said. “I’ve learned to calm down during rushes, and they are less panicky for me. I can apply that to the test because now I can just calm down before a test, and I tend to do better.”
In addition to practical skills, students also gain social skills that help them in many aspects of life. Learning how to interact with others professionally early on can help students prepare for their future careers. “I think of time management and communication, being able to talk to adults, and that kind of stuff has really helped,” Foster said.
While there are many advantages to having a part-time job while in school, there are also many disadvantages students might face. “It can be stressful, as sometimes there are moments where I’m kind of like, ‘oh, geez, man. That is harsh or even hard to do, because I work at the pool, and that can be a really stressful job on some occasions, ” Jameson Cunningham (grade 12) said. “Even if it wasn’t a super busy day, if it was a stressful one, when I get home, I feel too tired to do any homework or anything like that. So it can impact school work.”
One important skill that having a job while in high school can teach you is how to balance both your work and social life. “On the nights that I have off, I try to focus on school work before I focus on my friends,” Vigil said. “Sometimes it doesn’t always happen, but for the most part, I can keep my grades good while still working, because I prioritize my schoolwork when I’m not working.”
Students with jobs also learn the importance of future planning. “I just try to do the work before it’s due, you know, not procrastinating and doing it the night before. Instead, I do it before I have to work, so that way I’m getting stuff in on time,” Foster said.
Despite the challenges that come with having a job, many students find it to be rewarding. “Find one that’s decent – whether it’s minimum wage or higher – just find a job that you’re comfortable with,” Cunningham said. “If you don’t like it after a few weeks, don’t be afraid to move on.”
In addition, students should take into account finding a job with flexibility. “Find a job in which your boss is going to be flexible with your schedule, so that way, you are still able to have a social life and be a teenager and do that kind of stuff, but also have a job and your own stream of income,” Foster said.
Working in high school can provide students with independence, life skills and an introduction to money management. While working in school does come with its challenges, like added responsibilities and time management struggles, students often find it to be a beneficial learning experience. By learning how to balance their personal lives and work lives, students gain important experiences that will help prepare them for life after high school.
