The local prep girls tennis population had to confront nothing but disruption and delay this spring after a long, cold winter, which was great for the soil but lousy for someone trying to hone her forehand. Tryouts often found players landing in unexpected places, with junior Annelise Jorgensen ending up at No. 1 singles for Loveland, and Tai Mayes and Lexy Stevens falling back into doubles for Thompson Valley after playing singles in 2006.

Eventually, it came down to facing the competition. Jorgensen had a winning record in Class 5A at that most demanding position; Mayes and Stevens also won a bunch of matches, and that earned them the 2007 Reporter-Herald All-Area girls tennis singles and doubles players of the year award, respectively.

Jorgensen ended up 6-4 overall, taking third place at Loveland’s regional tournament to fall just short of a state berth. It proved to be a sturdy achievement after playing No. 1 doubles as a sophomore.

“It was a little bit (intimidating), but my coach (Kelly Blanks) would come and talk to me, and my teammates would come cheer,” Jorgensen said. “That helped a lot. I ended up doing a lot better than I thought I would.

“Playing for third (at regionals) was really close, and I thought I was going to lose, but I didn’t. At the end, I had some people cheering for me, and the other girls just lost it.”

Jorgensen also provided stability for an Indians team that took on some early blues as a few top players didn’t come out, and then eligibility issues dinged the lineup later.

For Mayes and Stevens, the No. 1 doubles slot had the early look of a consolation prize, but they learned the subtleties quickly and posted an 8-2 overall record. Only a tough setback in a challenge match at regionals kept them from the 4A state tournament.

“It was hard for me at first — I hadn’t played at all before tryouts. Doubles was fun, faster in a different way and more at the net,” said Mayes, a sophomore who also had last summer interrupted with a foot injury. “It took a couple of matches, because it was tough to communicate at first. But then we had that match against Greeley Central ... the best of the year. I’d like to play singles, but I wouldn’t mind playing doubles again.”

Stevens, who has a hearing impairment, worked with her partner to handle some strategy concerns and locked in to handle her share of the load.

“I was looking to get better at my net game, and I thought doubles might help me in how I play singles,” said the TVHS junior. “I was kind of amazed at how we worked together. I think we both have good baseline games, we got more comfortable at net, and together we had the overall game.

“We’ll see how it goes. I’d like to play singles, but if Tai and I were at No. 1 (doubles) again, maybe we could get to state, which is what I want to do.”

Publish Date: 6/9/2007

For siblings Nick and Lygon Stevens, it was hard to comprehend what they had accomplished as they stood on top of North America’s highest peak.

“Your brain does not work very well at 20,000 feet,” said Nick, a 22-year-old Loveland resident.

On May 26, Nick and his 20-year-old sister, Lygon, reached the summit of Mount McKinley with a nonprofit organization called Climbing for Christ.

Their mission: To share God’s love with other climbers, learn about God from each other and practice good environmental stewardship.

And of course, to prove their climbing ability by reaching the summit — a goal eight of the 10 team members accomplished.

“It was a huge relief,” Lygon said. “I thought, ‘We can go down now. ... We don’t have to go up anymore.’”

Alaska’s 20,320-foot Mount McKinley, or Denali, as it is more traditionally known, is North America’s tallest peak.

Its proximity to the Arctic Circle makes the weather there cold and unpredictable. In 2006, 582 of the 1,154 climbers who attempted the mountain reached the summit, according to the National Park Service.

On average, about 52 percent of people who start out actually make it to the top.

But for the 10 people on the Climbing for Christ team, the goal wasn’t solely to summit.

They wanted to share their faith as Christians.

“It’s just so amazing and so spectacular,” Nick said. “You watch clouds roll in, and this tiny bird flies near this glacier. There’s that knowledge that there has to be something that built this. There has to be a God.”

Nick, a Colorado State University student studying economics, and sister Lygon, a music student at the University of Northern Colorado, both have extensive climbing experience. They have climbed Colorado Fourteeners and other peaks around the country. Nick works for Laramie-based Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries, and Lygon has climbed the tallest mountain in Ecuador.

But both said Denali was their toughest climb yet.

During the 18 days they spent on the mountain, the group befriended a group of South Korean climbers, met “tons and tons” of climbers from Colorado and pushed themselves to the physical limit.

They also handed out Bibles to people who wanted them and talked to others about their mission.

Although they were surprised by the reservations other climbers had when they told them they were climbing for Christ, the siblings said they felt they had succeeded in their mission.

“We just wanted people to see that we weren’t crazy Christians who were spreading tracts all over the mountain ... telling you you would go to hell if you didn’t get saved before you came off the summit,” Nick said. “We wanted to share the love of God for the people of the world.”

ON THE NET: For more information, visit www.climbingforchrist.org.

Mount McKinley/Facts

• Denali, which means ‘The High One,’ is the Athabaskan name for Mount McKinley. Mount McKinley is the mountain’s official name, but Denali is the name most Alaskans prefer.

• Mount McKinley’s South Peak is the tallest point in North America at 20,320 feet.

• The first recorded successful summit of the peak was in June 1913.

• On June 6, 1947, Barbara Polk Washburn was the first woman to reach the summit.

• On June 15, 2005, 74-year-old Sadao Hoshiko became the oldest person to summit.

• On June 17, 2001, 11-year-old Galen Johnston became the youngest person to reach the summit.