AURORA | With a potential reminder of winter weather coming Tuesday, practices for the 2017 spring prep sports season begin Monday.
Tryouts for baseball, girls soccer, boys swimming, boys and girls lacrosse, boys and girls track and field, girls tennis and girls golf all get underway, with two weeks or less until the beginning of the regular season depending on sport.
Girls tennis and girls golf open their season March 2, while March 9 is the opening date of competition for the rest of the sports.
Aurora has four defending state team champions coming into the season in the Grandview girls soccer team — which begins its quest for a three-peat — the Cherokee Trail baseball team, Regis Jesuit boys lacrosse team and Grandview girls golf team.
Individually, there are a slew of defending Aurora champions, including a number on the track in Grandview’s Brie Oakley (5A girls 1,600 & 3,200 meters), Hinkley’s Angel Heredia (5A boys 300 meter hurdles) and Darrien Wells (5A boys 400 meter dash), Vista PEAK’s Maya Evans (4A girls long jump), Cherokee Trail’s Sydnee Larkin (5A girls triple jump) and the Cougars’ Jaiden Paris, Taylor Watson and Aumni Ashby (5A girls 4×100 & 4×200 relays).
In the swimming pool, Regis Jesuit’s Elijah Warren is back to defend in title in the 5A boys breaststroke, while he, Alexander Strepman and Ty Coen form three legs of last season’s title-winning 200 yard medley relay team.