Steamboat Springs — 1. Soroco boys, girls hoops heads into break big winners

Both Soroco Rams squads took care of business Friday and Saturday and now head into the holiday layoff with strong records. On Friday night, the girls team blasted Rangely at the Panthers’ house by 21 points behind Jessica Rossi’s 23. The Rams boys used a late defensive push and a come-from-behind effort to erase a six-point deficit and snag one from Rangely, 34-32. In Soroco’s home opener Saturday, the girls were all over visiting South Park with a 54-point win. The boys again built on their defensive identity and downed the Burros late, 43-29. Again, Rossi paced the girls with 19 points, and Warren Hayes led the boys with 10.

2. 10 Sailors Nordic skiers are heading to state

Two weekends ago at Snow Mountain Ranch, a handful of Sailors Nordic racers punched their tickets to the state championships at season’s end. Natalie Bohlmann, Catherine Brodie, Eliza Leeson, Larkspur Skov, Mariah Hoots and Lauren Requist are already the Steamboat girls’ state qualifiers. On the Sailors’ boys end, Peter Myller, Riley Brodie, Micah Gibbons and Ben Lingle are heading to the championships.

3. Unsung Austin Kerbs comes up big for Sailors boys hoops

The Steamboat Springs boys basketball roster is full of varsity experience and proven talent. Heading into the 2014-15 season, senior Austin Kerbs wouldn’t have been put into that group. But the scrappy starter’s hustle and timely big plays has earned him some big minutes and even bigger buckets. In a closer-than-expected win versus Rifle on Wednesday, Kerbs scored five of his nine points in the fourth quarter and snagged a pair of giant offensive rebounds in those final 8 minutes. The Sailors won, 43-39.

4. Routt County wrestlers the class of West Grand tourney

The Hayden and Steamboat Springs wrestling teams dominated the annual West Grand tournament in Kremmling. As a team, the Tigers just barely edged the Sailors, 154-148. The next-closest squad was Saratoga with 125 points. Hayden got wins from Devlyn Mossman at 120 pounds and Kent Miller at 152 pounds. The Sailors got a win at 160 pounds from Gage Reynolds, who was competing in just his second live action this season.

Quote of the week

Soroco High School girls basketball coach David Bruner saw positive signs now that could very well come up huge when the postseason begins in January.

“We’re doing some things defensively now that we were not great at doing, like playing man-to-man in the full court,” Bruner said. “We aren’t great at it, but we do know down the road, we might need to do it to get a stop.”

To reach Ben Ingersoll, call 970-871-4204, email bingersoll@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @BenMIngersoll