Barbara Lawlor, Peak to Peak.   At the beginning of the new year, mountain towns are settled in for outdoor sports that involve snow and indoor sports that involve courts and mats. Outdoor court games, such as Pickle, move indoors. The skiers, both Nordic and Alpine, prepare to begin traveling to the mountain resorts and wrestling takes its place on the mats.

The 2015 snowsports year began with Nederland High School hosting a Nordic meet and an Alpine Giant Slalom, bringing in hundreds of athletes from the mountain ski teams.

The NHS Alpine team took second in the giant slalom at Eldora with three girls in the top ten and three boys in the top ten; including Ned skiers Trig Cambell, Quin Kuechenmeister and Brita Luscher

The Nordic skiers James McNamara and Sarah Davidson were the top placers for Nederland.

NHS alumni Sarina Perret a member of the CSU hockey team and her peers visited the Ned Rink and played with the Nederland Youth Hockey League, which was a fun day for both teams.

On Jan. 29, coach Chantal Knapp took the team to Winter Park where both the boys and girls won first place in the slalom qualifier. There were five boys in the top 10, and four girls in the top 10, with both Luscher and Kuechenmeister coming in fourth place.

The Nederland boys’ basketball team spent the season playing junior varsity teams from other schools. They are in a two-year cycle and will continue to play JV teams for one more year.

The Gilpin County Youth Wrestling team completed its first season of competitive wrestling. Cooley Murdock, 6, won the Metro Junior Wrestling League Championship.  The GCYW placed 25th out of 106 statewide teams at the Colorado State Youth Wrestling Tournament in Colorado Springs. Twelve wrestlers attended and brought home a total of 10 trophies, with Cooley Murdock taking first place in novice six and under division.

At the state ski championship, both the NHS alpine girls and boys came in third place in the giant slalom. The boys came in second in the slalom, and the girls came in fourth. League awards for the season: giant slalom boys’ league third ; slalom, second; Slalom girls champion. Overall including nordic and alpine, the NHS girls came in fourth; boys came in sixth.

As the basketball season came to an end the Gilpin Eagles girls beat the Cornerstone Christian Bulldogs in the first district game; then Jim Elliot in the semi-final playoffs. The girls went on to win the district championship after beating Rocky Mountain Lutheran.  Delainey Lepro was first team, all-league; Khristine Barr honorable mention.

The Gilpin boys had a 5-3 record in league and they are not losing any starting players next year:  Chase Boulter, Jonathan Ramsey, Bjorn Tomlinson, Matthew Immordino, Eryk Lorenz and Nick Peterson all returned.

The Ned rink closed in the first week of March. The Hermann team won the Bonspiel of the Nederland Curling Club. Members Phil Weeks, Al Leiser, Mike Hermann and Wilson were victorious for the second year in a row.

The Pink Socks won The Frozen Dead Guy Coffin Race for the fifth years in a row, even though there was a$100 reward offered to any team that would take them down.

In the spring, the Ned track girls 4 by 800 team, Sarah Davidson, Mackenzie Radandt, Sophia Lindenberger and Savannah Lindenberger placed 4th at the Holy Family Tiger Tornado meet.

The Four-Sport Award went to Sarah Davidson for cross-country, Nordic skiing, track and soccer and to James McNamara for cross-country, Nordic skiing, alpine skiing and track.

The prestigious Five-Sport Award went to senior Mackenzie Radandt who participated in cross-country, Nordic and alpine skiing, track and soccer.

Kenny Shankey was praised for his commitment to being a member of the Clear Creek baseball team.

The Colorado High School Athletics Association gives a $1,000 scholarship to one boy and one girl at a Rockies Game. The Nederland candidates are Ike Thibedeau and Mackenzie Radandt.

Track and Field Coaches Kathy Butler and Dave Femmer handed out special team awards: Most Valuable Player Award went to Noah Ridnell and Sarah Davidson; The Panther Award went to Skylar Pichon and Sofie Anderson; The Most Improved went to Quin Kuechenmeister and Sophia Lindenberger; The James Taylor Award went to James McNamara and Taylor Coons and the Taylor James Award went to Mackenzie Radandt.

Soccer coach Theresa Bagby presented the soccer awards to her team: The Most Valuable Player Award went to Kalina Culver; The Best Offensive Player went to Allie Ceurvorst and the Best Defensive Player went to Gillian Nasty. The Most Improved Player went to Mackenzie Radandt.

Coach Bagby said it was a quick and chaotic season, with many game location changes and cancellations due to weather.

Pickle Ball becomes the sport of choice for both Nederland and Gilpin adults.

After three events in the Gilpin Belt Buckle Series gymkhanas, the following winners went home with the coveted buckle: Allayah Boogard won the Pee Wee Division on Kenai, with 52 points; Rowan Nasty won the Junior Division on Velvet with 64 points; Jordan Hansen won the Intermediate Division on Spirit with 66 points; Stuart Schultz won the Senior Novice Division on Zip with 55 points; and Denise Loos won the Senior Advanced Division on Junior with 70 points. The buckles were earned by points accumulated in three gymkhanas.

The Champs won the Tonya Putnam Memorial Tournament in August after two days of consecutive games. It was their third consecutive championship and claiming the trophy. The Acers came out on top of the league in an incredibly competitive season but succumbed to the Champs in the tourney.

Nederland Middle Senior High School joined the Colorado High School Cycling League. The high school had the racing team and the middle school had the development team. NMSHS freshman Petra Schmidtmann took first place in the state mountain bike championship in Eagle.

The Nederland High School Panthers, with Jaylan Rasdall at quarterback, won their season opener against Elbert County. The highlight of the Panthers season was beating the Gilpin Eagles in the last minute with a touchdown by Bob Allen. The Panthers ended the season with a winning record, 6-3 in the 8-man category.

The Gilpin County Eagles football team, with Chase Boulter as quarter back won their first two games. They beat the Nederland Panthers in the Eagle Homecoming celebration under lights. The Eagles ended the season with a winning record, 6-3.

The Nederland High School girls volleyball team beat Shining Mountain in the Gilpin High School tournament to open their season.

The Gilpin Eagles volleyball team took first place in their own tournament and continued to have a winning season. They ended up winning fourth place in the Class A, District 8 championship. They had a 14-7 record.

Nederland High School cross-country runner Sarah Davidson qualified for state championships in Colorado Springs and came in 11th.

Jesse Pattridge won all-around miner in the Nederland Mining Contests. He beat Emmit Hoyl in the single jack drilling contest, but Hoyl won the World Championship in Carson City, Nevada, later in the summer. The Rollinsville resident has claimed the world championship five times. The All-Around Women’s Miner was Jenna Hinds.

The Gilpin County Youth Wrestling Team hosted the first Metro League tournament of the season with 560 matches taking place during the event. The young Gilpin wrestlers are making a name for themselves in the sport, bringing home many trophies. They finished eighth out of 52 teams in the Colorado Hall of Fame Tournament in Broomfield.

Before Christmas break and the end of 2015, the high school basketball teams began their games and the ski teams hit the slopes, training for the meets that will begin when school resumes in 2016. Montana Fels will be the head coach for the Nederland High School Alpine ski team, Jen Lavely will coach the Nederland High School Nordic Ski Team, Chris Dettman will coach the Nederland boys’ basketball team and Shelby Nation will coach the NHS girls’ team, which is working on building a team with the middle level athletes.

Corona is open at Eldora Mountain Resort and the sledding hill at the RTD parking lot in Nederland is already seeing quite a bit of action. Let the winter snowsports begin.