As springtime begins we see the end of winter, we look back on all of our sporting events over the past winter season. Here is a wrap-up of each sporting event over our winter season, and how they performed overall.
Girls Swim and dive has gained a lot of traction recently, both with the newly constructed pool meaning new outreach to incoming students, and with team members rising to higher ranks than ever expected. However, the team remains unpopular. The team went completely undefeated in all of their swim events this year, and went 1st of 19 at the Cheyenne Mountain invite, 1st in 3 at a Dual, and 1st of 6 at the 5A CSML, which adds up to a 7-0 record for the year. Swimmer Sydney Ashton, a senior specializing in breaststroke events, competed heavily this year reaching finals in almost all of her events, she comments “I think we did really good. Even though we didn’t win 5A State, we still have had an undefeated season for the last 3 years, and we still got 5th at state despite being the smallest team there.” Overall, our women’s swim and dive team performed excellently like the past 3 years, and next year are aiming to return to the Colorado 5A State Championships to secure a victory.
Another sport of note this winter season was Wrestling. This year wrestling also got a lot of traction with the inclusion of an all new women’s wrestling team, which performed excellently as per usual with our wrestling teams. Billy Gabel, the Pine Creek wrestling coach, comments that he was incredibly proud of how both of his teams performed, and he was even more impressed by the synergy between both male and female teams and their interactions. Aside from the official work of Pine Creek’s male wrestling team, for the past 5 years Gabel has been working on the side to work with a team of female wrestlers and raise them to be incredible at their sport, and another coach Johnny Lopez has worked with the female team even longer. Having placed 4th in the state with 5 placers for the state championship for men’s wrestling, and the girls making the top 10 in the state for womens wrestling with 3 state places and state finalists, the coaching staff are incredibly proud and satisfied with their team and look forward to what’s to come with both teams next year.
With an amazing season of 13-5-2 overall and a 6-3-1 league game, our hockey team also placed 14th in Colorado and 1st in the Colorado 4A League. The team also placed 3rd in the 2025 CHSAA State Ice Hockey Championship. Overall, all of this is a huge accomplishment and a huge leap forward, this is the best the team has been in many years and the team is excited. “I think we did really well as a team,” commented senior Emmett Smith, a center for the PCHS varsity hockey team, “we got to the state semifinals, we didn’t get the championship, but that’s the furthest we’ve been in state history!” The seniors on the team are sad to see the end of their careers in high school, but they look forward to the future, and hope the others on the team can continue their legacy of one of the best seasons hockey has ever had.
The next sport is Men’s Basketball. The basketball team played pretty averagely, ending up with 12-12 overall and 6-6 in league games. This meant they ended the year strong at 4th in the state for the 6A/5A/4A Colorado Springs Metro League. “I think we were pretty successful,” commented sophomore Brayden Plunkett, a guard for PCHS varsity men’s basketball team, “obviously we could’ve been better. We could have won more games and won the playoffs, but we still did pretty good.” Brayden had a hard time finding himself this year being one of the youngest players on the varsity team, but it gave him a chance to grow and get better at the sport. The underclassmen and coaches are looking forward to next season with all the new talent they will get, and as always, aim for that championship spot.
The final sport is Women’s Basketball. The women’s basketball team took a huge hit in performance during covid, as did all teams, but unlike some other teams they have risen to the occasion and are exceeding expectations. This year the girls went 24-2 overall and 12-0 in their league season winning them their 1st in the league position and narrowly missed the championship round, falling to Grandview in the final 4. This year they outperformed all other seasons to make history at Pine Creek.
