Mike Vlahovich

Linda Sheridan was in the formative stages of her storied Shadle Park coaching career when, as an equally young sports writer at the Spokane Valley Herald, I wrote critically of the Highlanders posting a lopsided win over an outmanned Central Valley girls basketball team. I didn’t know her then, but we’re friends today. She reminded me recently about that story at our meeting with the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame committee.

The Tracy Walters Invitational cross country race is unique in that it features 10 runners, scoring eight, as opposed to the typical seven runners per team, with five scoring. Thus it was that North Central repeated as champions over Ferris’ upfront strength, 155-160, during Saturday’s meet at Audubon Park. I errantly indicated that Ferris won in my story Sunday, confused by double scoring listed in the result sheet.

For the better part of the third Tracy Walters Invitational boys cross country race, it was difficult to determine which of five teams was in control. On the final lap, three Ferris Saxons closed ranks with race-long leader and teammate Adam Thorne and showed why they are the No. 1-ranked 4A team in Washington and in the nation.

It was something old versus something new in a football game that had something for everyone when the venerable option offense of Gonzaga Prep went against the new-age spread of Ferris. For the G-Prep Bullpups, it was a blast from the past, led by the Shane Schmidlkofer-Bishop Sankey rushing tandem, that upset the mistake-prone defending Greater Spokane League champions, combining for nearly 400 yards rushing in a 38-35 victory in front of 6,057 fans.

The cross country season begins with a bang at 11 a.m. Saturday when three ranked boys teams in a national magazine’s preseason poll face off at Audubon Park in the Tracy Walters Invitational. Host North Central went from preseason No. 1 last year to the real thing at season’s end by winning the Nike Nationals.

Idaho football star and NFL quarterback John Friesz is one of four who will be inducted into the 2009 class of the Inland Northwest Sports Hall of Fame. Friesz, coaches Irene Matlock and Roy Graffis and contributor Jon Heimbigner will be inducted Oct. 13 during a luncheon in the Veterans Memorial Arena.

It seems like only yesterday that Dave Trimmer and I were driving back from Tacoma following state track meets, and here it is the start of the 2009-10 sports season. Alas, age hastens the passage of time.

American On-Site Services (Pasadena Park) denied teams from Liberty Lake a sweep and perfect seasons during the Spokane Valley Baseball championship games Aug. 1. In the opener of two championship games, American On-Site (12-2), seeded No. 2 in the Midget League, scored early and often for a 10-3 victory over Spokane Athletic Supply (13-1).

Samantha Hill, a 14-year-old about to enter her sophomore year at North Central, made the Girls Select Red age group national volleyball team that participated against older players in the Women’s International Junior tournament. The team played against Canada, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Italy and different regions from throughout the United States, finishing with a 7-7 record.

What happened in Vegas for the Ferris basketball program was a second-place finish in the high school division during the Reebok Summer Championships. It was, coach Don Van Lierop said, the school’s first finals appearance there.

A hunch paid off, and as a result Mt. Spokane Wild advanced to the final four in their eight-team bracket today of the Washington Junior American Legion state baseball tournament. Coach Alex Schuerman, after agonizing the night before, went with Kelly Fitzpatrick on the mound Monday and the lefty pitched a gutsy 3-2 win over the Yakima Valley Peppers in loser-out play at University High. It was Mt. Spokane’s third one-run decision in the tournament and fifth in the past six games overall.

Katie Antich is living the dream. The Gonzaga Prep softball standout currently starring at Seattle University is spending part of her summer at Safeco Field snagging foul balls at Seattle Mariners games.

Postseason tourneys for Spokane Valley Baseball and Girls Softball Association leagues begin next week. All teams will be involved in respective single- or double- elimination events. Heading into the final two games of the scheduled baseball season (plus a handful of rainouts to be made up), teams from Liberty Lake, Spokane Athletic Supply and Blasingame Insurance had 9-0 records to lead the Midget and Pee Wee leagues by a game over American On-Site Services (Pasadena Park) in the older league and Leo’s Photography (Sunrise 2) in the younger.