After rough start, Manitou baseball battles back
PHOTO AND STORY BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
In three big losses to start the regular season, the Manitou Springs baseball team figured that they had a lot of work to do.
So, on a snowy afternoon in Woodland Park on March 18, rather than complain about the high winds or the blowing flakes, the Mustangs simply got to work. They rolled by the Panthers 14-1 to snag their first win of the season.
It was a much-needed confidence boost for the Mustangs (1-3 overall) after getting beaten up by a Class 4A team in Pueblo East 11-1 and then falling to Delta 18-2 and Resurrection Christian 16-0.
“[Woodland Park’s] Cody Becker is a good arm,” coach Brandon DeMatto said. “To be able to do that against a good arm is fun to see. We reduced our strikeouts, but the important thing is that we played well defensively and threw a lot of strikes.”
Those strikes came from senior Preston Rhodes, who pitched all five innings in the win. He gave up just a single hit and one unearned run.
Offensively, seven of nine hitters had at least one hit while Rhodes, Cooper Frojen, Logan Moore and Ashur Lavigne all drove in two runs.
“We needed this after facing three hard teams,” Moore said. “We just felt like we were in a slump and couldn’t put things together. Then yesterday at practice, the word that we started throwing around was ‘compete’ and that’s what we needed.”
This may have been the spark that the team needed as it prepares for its annual trip to Arizona. In the first three games of the year, the Mustangs totaled four hits. They had eight alone in Tuesday’s win over Woodland Park.
Baseball is a game of odd streaks and just getting one spark to break a slump can do wonders for a team’s confidence at the plate.
We’re ready now. – Logan Moore
“We’ve tried to reiterate to our kids that we aren’t as bad as what we’ve experienced in the last three games,” DeMatto said. “But we certainly have a lot of work to do.”
When the Mustangs return from a three-game stretch in Arizona, that work resumes as they’ll host Peyton, a 2A team that traditionally makes deep playoff runs and then they’ll dive into Tri-Peaks League play.
A 1-3 start to the season isn’t ideal, but when looking at the slate of teams that Manitou has faced so far, early season struggles may translate to late season success, simply by being battle tested. And facing teams like Delta and Rez Christian early will make a team battle tested.
“That’s probably the best we’re going to see,” Moore said. “It prepared us. We realize how far back we are, and we lost some guys from last year, but you know, it’s baseball. Anyone can win later in the season. We’re ready now.”
Manitou track athletes must balance competitiveness with growth
BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
A lot of the results that the Manitou Springs track and field team are putting out gives an encouraging outlook for what the Mustangs are capable of this season.
The only problem is that it’s not satisfying some immediate goals.
Manitou returned to Pueblo last weekend, competing at the Pueblo Centennial Banana Belt Classic at Dutch Clark Stadium and saw some pretty good finishes in a field full of big schools.
Perhaps one of the most notable marks was senior Ethan Traenkle taking sixth in the 800-meter run, clocking a time of 2 minutes, 4.55 seconds.
He followed it up with a seventh-place finish in the 3,200, beating out runners from schools like Rampart, Pueblo West and Chaparral.
But even getting two top-10 marks, the senior understands that he’s in far from perfect form.
“There have been a couple of setbacks, and I wanted to start the season off a little bit better,” he said. “We’ve definitely had some solid performances so I guess that’s a good start.”
When asked about the setbacks, he noted that his splits in the 3,200 were inconsistent and the team is starting to feel the injury bug biting a bit.
Keyaira Moore would say she’s one of those athletes feeling that bite. She took eighth in the girls 800 at 2:35.57, but noticed some leg issues in the first part of the race.
“My calves have been hurting really bad,” Moore said. “I don’t really know what’s going on. But they started hurting during the first lap and that kind of affected the whole thing.”
She shook it off before competing in the mile where she clocked a 5:32.25 which put her in second place behind Alamosa’s Elizabeth McQuitty. To make it better, Chloe Bresnahan was right with her step-for-step which was a big factor in staying about eight seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
“She was right there with me and that helped,” Moore said.
The disappointment for both Traenkle and Moore is very real, but it’s still early in the season. The trick for the Mustangs is now trying to balance that competitive drive with setting themselves up to be at their best at the end of the season. Putting out their best performances now doesn’t do them a lot of good when it comes to state.
“It’s hard for them to understand that this is the second meet of the season,” coach Anna Mack said. “We have a long way to go and we don’t really start seeing big performances until April.”
So the key right now is on building. There are results to be proud of for sure; Mackinzy Wall’s win in the discus (her second of the year) is a great example.
But this team has all the potential in the world right in front of it and as long as the Mustangs are training the right way and making recovery a priority, they’ll see plenty of results to be proud of.
It’s not getting out of the blocks fast that will make this track season a success for Manitou. The team needs to maintain a steady pace and be ready to push for a strong finish. Right now, they’re just getting started.
Manitou soccer getting battle tested early
BY DANIEL MOHRMANN
The bad news for the Manitou Springs girls soccer team is that in three games to start the season, there is no win on the record.
The good news for the Mustangs is that despite scoring just a single goal all season, they’ve only lost one of those three games.
That loss came in the season opener as they fell to The Classical Academy 3-0 on March 11. The Titans are down to Class 3A for this cycle and are expected to be among the state championship contenders in May. Battling with TCA and falling 3-0 doesn’t bother coach Ben Mack one bit. If anything, it gave him confidence in his team as he knows it will only improve throughout the season.
“We’re resilient,” Mack said. “We have a lot of growth to make, but I’m happy with where we’re at. I’m confident with them.”
The Mustangs (0-1-2) followed up the TCA loss with a 1-1 tie over last year’s 2A runner-up, Buena Vista. They then traveled to Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo on Tuesday and came home with a scoreless tie with Pueblo Centennial.
Through three games last year, the Mustangs had scored 23 goals and had three wins under their belt. But the 2025 schedule, by design, was tougher early and the Mustangs are learning how they need to play together against tough teams in March rather than in May.
“We’re still trying to figure out how we move on the field together,” senior Brenna Cote said. “This is still a younger team that we have so we’re trying to figure out how to get the ball out and score.”
I’d rather get battle tested right now because we’re going to need it later. – Coach Ben Mack
Aside from the TCA loss, the Mustangs are finding ways to get shots off, they’re just not finding the back of the net. But Kara Donegan has yet to see the field and it’s only a matter of time before Elie Bourgeois, Cote and Elisa Karr start connecting on shots with the frequency they did last year.
Bourgeois, Cote, Donegan and Karr combined to score 48 of Manitou’s 61 goals last year. But going through this tough stretch of games now is only going to make this team better off down the road.
But they’d still like to get a win on the board. They nearly had it against Buena Vista and were leading in the second half before the Demons tied things up.
“I’d rather get battle tested right now because we’re going to need it later,” Mack said. “You’d rather go through that experience now than in conference play. The quicker you can figure out those tough lessons, the better, especially for a younger team. It felt like a loss to us and it felt like a win to them because it was so late in the game that they got that equalizer.”
The Mustangs will recharge over Spring Break and return to the field on April 3 against rival St. Mary’s. The Mustangs have four straight wins over the Pirates and have outscored them 37-0 in that stretch. Getting another big win over a rival would be the perfect way to start the longest stretch of the regular season.
SPORTS CALENDAR
Monday, March 24
Baseball: vs. La Grande (Ore.), 1 p.m.
Tuesday, March 25
Baseball: vs. St. Helens (Ore.), 9 a.m.
Wednesday, March 26
Baseball: Milwaukie (Ore.), 9 a.m.
STANDOUT MUSTANGS
Hayden Martinez (baseball): went 1-for-2 with a double and scored four runs in a win over Woodland Park.
Mackinzy Wall (girls track and field): In two meets this season, she has claimed two wins in the discus and set the school record in the event.
Evan Fugate (boys track and field): Finished 17th in the mile at the Banana Belt Classic track meet at Dutch Clark Stadium.
