Mrs. Jones Message

Spring Break is over and our Spartans are back in action!

With one more week left in the regular season, the High School team has put themselves in playoff contention.

High School:

Smash Bros Gold (CHSAA) - 4-3 Standing 88/179

Smash Bros Blue (CHSAA) - 4-3 Standing 60/179

Mario Kart (CHSAA) - 5-2 Standing - 10/74

Marvel Rivals (Regional) - 5-2 Standing 7/83

Rocket League (Regional) - 5-2 Standing 5/21

Middle School

WIth a month left in the season, Middle School eSports is hanging tough.

Smash Gold 4-2 Standing 17/80

Smash Blue 4-2 Standing 18/80

Smash White 2-1 Standing 47/80

Smash Silver 0-4 Standing 68/80

Way to go Spartans!

On Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14, the STEM high school speech and debate team competed at Mullen High School in its final tournament of the 2025-26 season (excluding nationals), the National Qualifying Tournament for the Rocky Mountain South NSDA District. STEM brought 9 students: Amanda Lin, Ash Ambalavanan, Emmett Cumbler, Aaron Dologonos, Widget Taylor, Darshan Satish Kumar, Arya Karthikeya, Hayden Gotto, and Krishanika Paramasivam Vijayalakshmi. Jane Kim, Mark Gotto, Thiyagarajan Paramasivam, and Dale Taylor served as parent judges while Heather Dillon and I also served as judges.

Sadly, due to illness and other circumstances, our speech captains and previous tournament winners were absent. Despite high hopes and outstanding preparation, our debaters - all young compared to other teams - did not place in the top three and therefore did not qualify for nationals. Regardless, consistent with other tournaments, they had strong performances and were well respected by other teams vying for the top spots.

As this was STEM's final tournament before nationals, it makes sense to review some of our accomplishments for the year:

· Alex Gerali (11th Grade) took first place in US Extemporaneous Speech at Colorado's Oldest Tournament and second place in the same event at the Chatfield Chill Tournament at Chatfield High School.

· Aidric Peterson (11th Grade) took first place in Informational Speech at the Chatfield Chill Tournament and the Jeffco Novice Tournament at Chatfield High School.

· Sofia Bertsch (11th grade) medaled in US Extemporaneous Speech at Colorado's Oldest Tournament at Mullen High School.

· Emmett Cumbler (10th Grade) went undefeated in Lincoln Douglas Debate at the Cherry Creek Classic Tournament and the Angels and Demons Tournament in Golden, and undefeated in US Extemporaneous Speech at the Jeffco Novice Tournament.

· Aaron Dologonos (10th Grade) went undefeated in Lincoln Douglas Debate at Colorado's Oldest Tournament and went undefeated and took second out of 94 competitors at The Mile High Tournament at East HS.

· Orfeas Sioutas (9th grade) medaled in Original Oratory at the Angels and Demons Tournament in Golden.

In addition to all these accomplishments, our team medaled four times at the state championship tournament and won 13 "excellence" ribbons and 12 "superior" ribbons at two novice tournaments in October. We have a great deal of young talent from which we expect great things in the future. Overall, 23 high schoolers participated on our team this year, during a season that spanned from September to March and included twice weekly practices, 11 tournaments, and over 156 hours of competition. It was quite a year!

Next up is nationals, which will be held this year in Richmond Virginia from June 14 - 19. We expect to take from 12 to 15 competitors, who will be coached this year by Heather Dillon.

STEM had a busy week! We hosted St. John Paul the Great on Monday, with both Varsity and JV picking up easy wins. Next up was Denver Waldorf on Wednesday. Despite playing hard, the Spartans lost in 3. With a quick turnaround Mile High Academy came to compete on Thursday. The Spartans played great team ball and came away with another 3-0 win!

Next up for the team is an away match at D’Evelyn on March 30th, followed by another away match at Alameda on April 1st and then finally back home against Vail Christian on the 2nd and finishing up hosting Aurora West College Prep on the 3rd. Whew!

Girls Soccer traveled to Mile High Academy on Wednesday and came away with a 2-1 victory! The team has 3 straight away games coming up: March 31st at Clear Creek, April 1st at William Smith and April 6th at Englewood HS.

Throughout Wednesday's JV Invitational at South Suburban Golf Course, STEM sophomore Leah Hunt kept within fingertip distance of the lead -- with a field of Skyview Hawks within her sights.

In the end, Skyview's Tea Sunahara won the tournament in resounding fashion with a score of 36, but Hunt placed second with a score of 41 to lead a field of nine total Spartans in the tournament.

The event was the first-ever girls' golf tournament hosted by STEM, after the sole attempt in the team's inaugural season had to be cancelled due to bad weather. Joining the Spartans and the Hawks were the DSST: Cole Dragons and the Englewood Pirates.

Englewood's Marli Lighthill rounded out the top-three with a score of 42. Also placing in the top-10 for STEM were Ryann Vanderhye (tied for 5th at 47) and Mandy Britt (tied for 7th at 48).

Rounding out the field for the Spartans were Tessa Joseph (52), London Treece (53), Marina Miller (53), Jade Bustamante (53), Cat Bench (53) and Becca Kendrick (54).

STEM will next compete on Monday, March 30th in the St. Mary's Invitational at Lone Tree Golf Club -- which will be an 18-hole varsity event.

Way to go Spartans!
Looking forward to another great week!

Susan Jones
Athletic Director