AURORA | A look back at significant individual and team performances at Hinkley High School for the 2024 spring prep athletic season:
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
HINKLEY (SPRING 2024)
BOYS VOLLEYBALL: The boys volleyball team carried the headlines of the spring season at the school, as a squad led by a huge group of seniors — and guided by Paul Reyes, who celebrated a quarter century of coaching — finished 17-7, which marked a significant move forward from a 10-11 2023 season. The Thunder (who finished a sparkling 10-2 against City League opponents) earned seven more wins than the previous season and qualified for the regional postseason, but lost to Thornton and Sand Creek in a bid to make the state tournament. Five players earned All-City League honors, with senior Ammon Fifita on the first team, senior Samuel Addai-Opoku on the second team and seniors Ryan Bieber and Pragyan Gurung plus junior Luis Rangel-Cepeda on the honorable mention list.
GIRLS SOCCER: The girls soccer team finished with a 5-10 record (down slightly from a 7-6-2 campaign in 2023) and had one All-City League first team performer in senior Rut Salinas. Coach David Westhoff’s Thunder also had two all-league second team picks in junior defender Josline Mendez and senior forward/midfielder Ixcel Soto Gonzalez, along with three honorable mention picks in junior keeper Tania Ramirez Cardenas, sophomore defender Gisele Chavez and freshman striker Alexsandria Ortiz, the team’s goal-scoring leader with six.
TRACK & FIELD: Hinkley did not have any qualifiers for the Class 5A state track meet, but the boys finished 12th in the team standings at the City League Championship meet.
GIRLS TENNIS: The Thunder swept Kennedy for their lone dual win in eight matches. Coach Brian Hayenga’s team — which had a plethora of juniors on the roster — also lost two matches by 4-3 counts.
NOTES: Hinkley will have a new athletic director for the 2024-25 athletic year, as Rodney Padilla — who also served as the school’s head wrestling coach — retired from the post at the conclusion of the school year. …Hinkley has been home to the Aurora Public Schools co-op boys swim team in the past, but there was not a team this season.