Girls Track Headed For Photo Finish?
How tight is the race for the Greater Spokane League girls track title?
“The league is amazingly close this year,” said Central Valley coach Dennis McGuire. I can’t remember it ever being like this.”
Last week his Bears tied University. This week CV lost by just three points, 72-69, to unbeaten Shadle Park and the Titans lost by a mere point, 71-70, to Lewis and Clark.
Next up for the Bears at home Thursday May 1 are unbeaten Mead and the once beaten Tigers.
U-Hi ends its season May 8 at home against Mead and Shadle.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” said McGuire. “We could win two, lose two or split. But there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s fun.”
There is a caveat in CV’s loss to the Highlanders. Because of sore legs, sprinter Whitney Schmaljohn was being rested and didn’t compete.
“She has bad shin splints,” said McGuire, “and I don’t know how close they are to stress fractures. We didn’t want to take a chance.”
At that, there were come throughs in the javelin and discus where the Bears earned 17 of 18 points, led by Annie Moseanko in the former and Mary Caruso in the latter.
Like any meet, however, there were “what-ifs.” In this case, the Bears came up shorter than expected in the high jump.
The Titan girls nearly swept the field events against LC, winning 46 of 54 points.
That simply wasn’t enough to recover from a huge track deficit. LC won 9 of 11 running events, including sweeps of the 200 and 400 for a 63-24 advantage and the narrow win.
Both boys teams won easily, CV javelin thrower Keith Carpenter topping 190 feet for the second time this year, hurdler Hoa Duong and sprinter-shot putter Garrett Graham each winning twice.
Titan Jason Berger ran 10.9 and 22.0 sprints, hurdler Paul Salcido won twice and sophomore 800 runner Kris Martin had a 1:59.6 time in his second-place effort.
EV hosts WV in biggie track meets
There will be a couple of super sized track meets next Thursday at East Valley when the Knights host West Valley.
Both schools won overwhelmingly despite eased-up efforts to open the Frontier League season two days ago.
They finished first and second in league last year and are odds-on favorites to battle each other for team championships again.
There will be some interesting matchups when the defending champion Eagle boys race the Knights, particularly in the sprints, relays, jumps and pole vault.
WV’s Rick Collins and Josh Rieger, and EV’s Jake Kammers are all 13-foot-plus vaulters. Eagles Ryan Schroder and Devion Tensley challenge Knight Jerry Claridge in the jumps.
Vinnie Pecht increased his WV discus record to 188-6. Claridge reached 44-10 in the triple jump.
In the girls meet, events like the high jump and hurdles are too close to call. The distance races, relays and throws, featuring Eagle Stacey Roberts and Knight Kristi Blindauer will be particularly telling.
Who knows? It could go down to the pole vault which is a new event this year.
In openers WV had strong sprint efforts from Staci Adams, Cindy Simpson and Erika Frampton.
EV distance runners Korinda Godwin, Ann Marie Adams and Crystal Gerky ran good times.
Titan coach cautious about lead
University High’s softball team entered the second half of the GSL season Friday with a surprisingly large three-game lead and eight games remaining.
“If you told me we’d have a three game lead at the halfway point, I don’t know if I’d have thought it could happen,” said Titan coach Ken Van Sickle.
University has been able to win close games, and Van Sickle said the pitching of Cheryl Andrizzi has improved with each outing.
“Typical of a lot of pitchers, the more she pitches the better she gets,” he said.
But he also was cautious about the remainder of the season.
“Things can go south in a hurry,” he warned. “Any team can get on a roll. Mead and Rogers are capable of going 8-0 and Central Valley has a lot of talent.”
U-Hi plays a quarter of its season over the next week, including Gonzaga Prep on Monday and Mead at Franklin Park next Friday.
“It’s got to be an advantage,” admitted Van Sickle, of the size of his team’s lead at this point of the season. “I feel good about where we’re at.”
Painted Hills golf
The fourth hole was kind to Painted Hills Ladies Club golfers last week.
Marji Evenson and Kathy Smith both birdied the hole and Sharon Meier pitched in from off the green.
It all occurred during medal play when Lori Gray in A flight and no-handicap golfer Carol Blume shot low gross 48s, Sheryl VanDinter had 51 in B, Evenson had 53 in C and Cathy Diehl shot 60 in D.
Net winners were Connie Goodman in A and Arleen Espe in B with 36s, Colleen Weflen in C with 35 and Nancy Moore in D with 29.
During closest to the pin competition, Tanna McLean won A-B flight and Smith won C-D flight.
, DataTimes