Basketball - The Durango Herald

Zuniga reflects on first season, optimistic about next year

Skyhawks women’s basketball expected to return eight rotation players

DATE: Mar 28, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Niko Medved leaves Colorado State for his native Minnesota after an NCAA tournament run by the Rams

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota hired Colorado State's Niko Medved on Monday, agreeing to a six-year contract with the Twin Cities-area native and former student manager for the Gophers who had...

DATE: Mar 25, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Kyan Evans and favored No. 12 seed Colorado State beat short-handed Memphis 78-70 in March Madness

SEATTLE (AP) — Kyan Evans made a career-high six 3-pointers and scored 23 points to lead No. 12 seed Colorado State past fifth-seeded Memphis 78-70 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament ...

DATE: Mar 22, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Team stats: Where Skyhawks women’s basketball finished in RMAC

Fort Lewis College didn’t excel in any key statistical categories

DATE: Mar 22, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Missing madness: NCAA Tournament bereft of buzzer-beaters and major upsets so far

The calendar says it's March. Most of the madness has been missing so far. There certainly have been upsets. Just ask the owners of the 99.9956% of brackets with at least one blemish. But as...

DATE: Mar 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Team stats: Where Skyhawks men’s basketball finished in RMAC

FLC excelled in scoring, turnover margin

DATE: Mar 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Three Skyhawks men’s basketball players enter transfer portal

Biko Johnson, Chuol Deng, AJ Riggs were key contributors to FLC’s success

DATE: Mar 20, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Here’s which Skyhawks basketball players finished top 10 in RMAC individual stats

Men’s team had more players in top 10 than women

DATE: Mar 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Skyhawks men’s basketball ends season with loss to Regis in RMAC tournament

Fort Lewis College’s quest for RMAC tournament title ends in semifinals

DATE: Mar 7, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Skyhawks dominate Colorado Mesa for statement win in RMAC tournament

Fort Lewis College advances to tournament semifinals in Golden

DATE: Mar 4, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Local sports schedule for upcoming week

FLC indoor track at conference championships; playoffs begin for local teams

DATE: Feb 26, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

Allen, Johnson lead Skyhawks men to senior day win

Fort Lewis College beat Colorado Christian 77-68 on Saturday

DATE: Feb 22, 2025 | CATEGORY: Sports

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High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest ColoradoFamily run, generational business dates back to 1940s

BREEN – The family-owned and operated High Country Cattle Auction is “in the bones” of the Cugnini family, said third-generation owner Chris Cugnini. The business was founded by Chris’ grandfather, Pat Cugnini, in the 1940s. Pat then passed the business down to his son, Duane Cugnini, who then turned the business over to daughters, Becky Hawkins and Chris Cugnini, whose daughters plan to take over the family business one day. The auction, which takes place once or twice a month from April to January at 13062 La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) near Breen, attracts ranchers, farmers and those in the cattle industry from far and wide.

Former Durango resident Steve Greenburg has been attending the High Country Cattle auction for more than 40 years, and continues to travel to Breen all the way from Arizona, where he now lives. He attended the September auction last week, where around 1,200 animals were up for sale. Greenburg said effective bidding takes concentration and a practiced hand. “You want to make sure you don’t pay too much,” he said. “And if you do, you want to buy the business.” Amber Belvin, employee of 15 years and Chris’ operations “sidekick,” said bidders are most often looking for signs of good health in an animal, like a plump, filled-out body. If bidding on a herd, a look of uniformity among the animals is key to a good purchase, she said.

Despite Greenburg already having a handful of filled out bidding cards marking the cattle he had won within an hour of the Sept. 23 auction, he said the day was young. One sale day last year culminated in Greenburg taking home 22 semi-trucks worth of cattle, he said. Chris said Greenburg is one of the auction’s longest-term and most generous supporters. “(Greenburg) pays top-dollar,” Chris said. “And (that) makes me feel good, because we’re giving back to (the sellers). I know these people around here, and they’re the hardest working people on the planet. If I can get them 10 or 20 cents more per pound, then that makes us happy.”

Cattle auction prices have gone up in recent years, both at High Country and nationally, Chris said. This year, animals are going for $2,500 to $3,000 a head – double and triple the average prices from last year. The increase, Chris said, is in part because of a screw worm making the rounds in cattle in Mexico, which has lowered the number of cattle coming in from the south, along with people subdividing and selling cattle branches, and local cattle herd numbers diminishing, which has increased demand.

Chris called the price increase “good and bad.” “It’s great if you’re a seller, because there’s prices that you’ve never seen before,” she said. “Older men come in, (and they) can’t believe the prices. Some of them do this for a living, and they count on that, so they’re so happy.” Belvin said some smaller farmers opt to buy less cattle during price surges like this, but echoed Chris’ sentiment about sellers being ecstatic about the unprecedented profit.

Local cattle farmer Lawrence Martinez entered 59 steers and 95 heifers in the auction Tuesday. Martinez has been involved in the High Country Cattle Auction “pretty much forever,” but recent years have been especially fruitful for sales, he said. “These last few years, we’ve been coming here to sell, because this is the place to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell anywhere else. (The market here has) been so good.”The auction’s community roots and generational touch doesn’t stop at the Cugnini family: Shane Hatch, the auctioneer, took over the job after his father’s death, Belvin said.

The auction serves as an opportunity for community members to get together and bond, Belvin said. “When we do have an auction, it’s a great place where local farmers and ranchers can get together and talk,” she said. “They come to the cafe, and they talk about the hay, and the drought situation, and I think it’s a good connecting point.” Chris and Belvin both expressed feeling glad the auction can supply so much generational value to the local farming and ranching community. “I mean, what other business can you think of around here that’s the same, right?” Belvin said. “We’re fair, and we’re very meticulous at our jobs. We take it very seriously, because this is (some peoples’) livelihood.”

For the Cugninis – and long-term employees like Belvin, who have become an honorary part of the close-knit High Country Cattle Auction family – the heart of the business aligns with the heart of the local farming and ranching community. “We’re just good, hard working people – Americans – that want to make a good living, and live off this great land,” Belvin said. epond@durangoherald.com

Family run, generational business dates back to 1940s