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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

CV Boys Lock Up At Least A Tie For Second In Gsl Hoops

Winners of five straight games in the Greater Spokane League, Central Valley’s boys basketball team assured itself a tie for second place.

Tuesday night the Bears posted up Mead inside to take a 31-17 halftime lead and held on for a 50-42 victory. With help from University, CV would finish alone in second place. The Titans need a win at Mead tonight to clinch an outright playoff berth as well.

“I’d much rather be alone in second,” said Irwin. “Anytime you can avoid a Tuesday loser-out game is nice. But it still turned out all right in a sense.” The top two teams in the GSL automatically qualify for the Lamb Weston Regional tournament. Third through sixth place teams meet in loser out competition Tuesday which makes second place huge.

Key to Central Valley’s turnaround has been the inside play of Jeff Allen in general and Carson May in particular.

Both were dominant around the basket against Mead both scoring and rebounding.

“We certainly have tried to put the ball (inside) in the past,” said Irwin. “Now we seem to be able to do more with it. Carson, no question about it, has really been a factor offensively.” More importantly, the success of the two post players has taken the pressure off CV’s perimeter shooters.

If the Panthers beat U-Hi, they’ll resolve the second place tie in a game with CV Saturday at North Central.

Central Valley’s GSL third-place finishing girls are in a tenuous position. One of four teams in Eastern Washington teams capable of placing high at state, only three teams advance from the region to state.

The Bears lost 54-33 Tuesday to Mead missing out on a share for the GSL title.

Friberg scorching for Freeman

Garen Friberg took matters into his own hands as Freeman shared third place in the Northeast A League.

Both the Scotties boys and girls will be involved in district playoffs with the top two finishers qualifying for state.

While relying on balance for the bulk of 14 wins this year, Friberg scored 59 points in two games, a 76-50 win over Kettle Falls and 91-57 loss to league champion Chewelah.

The latter loss left Freeman a game out of second place. Friberg scored 36 points on Friday, and Nick Schuerman added 20, then scored 23 during the contest with Chewelah.

Freeman’s girls finished sixth in the league and finished the regular season with a 5-15 record. They play third-place Newport Friday night in a loser out game at Mead High School.

Eagles near title

Despite losing to Riverside last Saturday, West Valley needs one win in its final two games to at least share its sixth straight Frontier League basketball championship and eighth in nine years.

The Eagle boys lost 87-79 in a game in which they were whistled for 32 fouls, the equivalent of six players fouling out.

Wins this week against Clarkston would put EV’s girls in the district playoffs.

Gymnasts hope to improve

Record-setting University gymnasts will seek to improve on their sixth-place state finish of a year ago during competition this weekend in Tacoma.

The Titans won regionals with 175.975 points and send their entire team to the meet.

Among them are all-around winner and fourth place finisher Kim Meyers and Kalie Cosette, Tara Hulbert who was second on bars, fifth on vault and 10th on beam, Coleen Pierce who was fourth on bars, sixth on floor exercise and ninth on vault, Adrienne Mullenix who was a surprising third on balance beam and Jen Repp who finished seventh on vault.

Although failing to qualify as a team, Central Valley sends Lindsay Linerud to the all-around competition and has qualified Sidira Sisich on vault, Shelly Cunanan on beam, Angela Weathers and Sarah Shryack on floor exercise.

Wrestlers headed to state

Mat Classic VIII called and local wrestlers answered.

Central Valley Tuesday night won its first-ever Region IV championship and qualified nine to the State AAA portion of the tournament in Tacoma. Coupled with five qualifiers from University, the two Valley schools had a quarter of the region’s 56 state entrants.

Additionally, seven Valley wrestlers, five in AA and two from A/B, are headed to Tacoma for their respective state tournaments.

Led by regional champion Rick Giampietri at 158 pounds, the Bears continue to have their best overall tournament wrestling season ever.

“Ricky has never wrestled better and the team’s done things we haven’t done before,” said Coach Dale Ethridge.

CV scored 140.5 points to win regionals for the first time.

Joining Giampietri at state are second place finisher Bob Perkes at 275, third placers John Reese at 108, Shane Cunanan at 115, Joe Thiefault at 178, freshman Tyree Clowe at 190, Aaron Bauer at 275, fourth placers Courtney Brown at 141 and Shane Yackel at 168.

University’s Andy Roberts won the 129-pound championship and Jeff Schmedding won at 215 pounds. Placing fourth were Gordon Bash at 101, Jared Osborn at 115 and Josh Knowles at 122.

Two East Valley High wrestlers reached the Region IV AA finals, both finishing second. Junior Quinton Chapman at 129 pounds and senior Ben Wise at 215 advanced to state after losing taught championship matches, Chapman 7-6 and Wise 5-1.

Joining them is teammate Kevin Woolf, fourth at 108 pounds, and West Valley wrestlers Quinn Sharpe, third at 115 and Josh Ludwig, third at 129.

Advancing for Freeman are 190-pound David Aman, who finished third, and 129-pound Dan Ross, who was fourth.

, DataTimes