AURORA | Monday marked the opening of practices for the 2016 spring prep sports season, with a beautiful day greeting city teams beginning tryouts in baseball, girls soccer, boys swimming, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls track and field, girls tennis and girls golf.
The clock begins to tick down to the opening of the regular season, which comes as soon as Thursday for girls tennis and girls golf teams, while the remaining sports get underway on March 10.
Aurora has three defending state championship teams from last spring, all on the girls side.
The Grandview girls soccer team — still young after last season’s title and loaded with Division I commitments — seeks a repeat, as does the Cherokee Trail girls track team. The Regis Jesuit girls golf team, now under the new direction of Eric Ptolemy after George Miller’s retirement, is aiming for a three-peat.
City athletes returning to defending individual titles include Vista PEAK long jumper Maya Evans and a slew of Cherokee Trail girls in Amazing Ashby (triple jump) and three members of the Cougars’ state champion 4×100 meter relay team in Haley Rogers, Symonne Holland and Taylor Watson.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
