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Mike Vlahovich

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All Stories

Sports

Meads counts on McGowan as jack of all trades

If there were a baseball equivalent to those handyman shows that proliferate on cable television, senior Jordan McGowan would be a natural as the do-it-yourself host. McGowan has played nearly every position during his career at Mead, last year as an All-Greater Spokane League outfielder and part-time pitcher for the Panthers while finishing seventh in league batting.
Sports

Nelson helps own cause in Mead’s win over Mt. Spokane

Mead pitcher Matt Nelson was doing his best to hold the fort in a decidedly offensive contest against rival Mt. Spokane, and the Panthers needed one big hit in order to give him some breathing room. Who did they turn to? Matt Nelson.
Sports

This was a doubleheader of sorts

It wasn’t exactly Dickensian, but Tuesday’s baseball matchup between Mt. Spokane and University, won by Mt. Spokane’s Wildcats 5-4 was decidedly a tale of two games. The first part was a speedy pitchers duel between the Wildcats’ Drew Rasmussen and the Titans’ Davis Hill. They allowed a combined five hits and a single run in the four-plus innings.
Sports

Cantu sparks Cats’ offense

Cantu can do. Connor Cantu, left fielder for Mt. Spokane, swung his bat with authority during the Wildcats’ sweep of Shadle Park before Greater Spokane League baseball teams shut down over spring break. With the wins, Mt. Spokane remained unbeaten in the Greater Spokane along with Gonzaga Prep and Mead.
Sports

Wildcats slug 3 HRs in row

Old song lyrics croon that “love is lovelier the second time around.” You’ve got to love it when baseball players hit back-to-back-to-back home runs the second time through the order in the same inning. The bizarre scenario unfolded when Mt. Spokane scored 10 times in the first inning of a 16-5 victory at Central Valley. In their second at-bats during the frame, Jordan Fitzpatrick launched a two-run homer; on the next pitch Connor Cantu went yard.
Sports

U-Hi wins pitchers’ duel

Pitching and defense is at the core of baseball, and the University Titans took it to heart. The Titans turned a timely double play and had a highlight-reel effort by sophomore shortstop Garrett Schmerer. Junior pitcher Davis Hill did the rest in their 2-0 Greater Spokane League victory over visiting Shadle Park on a comfortably sunny Tuesday, leaving both teams with 2-1 records.
Sports

Athletic landscape tough to navigate

In his role as faculty athletic representative, Dennis Phillips weighed in with concerns that have led to the current state of university athletics. “There have been a number of major things that have changed the landscape,” he said.
Sports

Inside knowledge

Basketball enabled 1968 Ferris graduate Dennis Phillips an opportunity to circle the globe as a player; to become a coach, educator and administrator privy to the mire of collegiate sports. As faculty athletic representative for the University of Southern Mississippi he spends time reconciling two divergent worlds – the athletic tail that wags the collegiate dog juxtaposed with a university’s mission to educate.
Sports

Entire GSL baseball lineup appears to be improving

As far as baseball seasons go, last year treated the Greater Spokane League well. Three schools – Gonzaga Prep, Mead and Mt. Spokane – reached State 4A or 3A rounds of 16. Ferris and University came close. It had been 25 years since the last time a G-Prep Bullpups team went as far as last year’s top-eight finish.
Sports

Sunnyside Christian defeats Neah Bay for eighth state title

The contrast in styles was stark. Neah Bay likes to get up and go. Sunnyside Christian prefers to take its time. Chalk up another for the tortoise over the hare. The Knights put on a first-half clinic on tempo control and held off the Red Devils 44-36 for their eighth state championship and fifth as a Class 1B school.
Sports

McCaulley shoots Neah Bay back to final

On a team of gazelles, Neah Bay sophomore Tyler McCaulley is the antithesis. But McCaulley’s football lineman build (he’s actually a fullback and linebacker) belies a sweet basketball shot that undid LaCrosse-Washtucna/Kahlotus in Friday night’s second State 1B semifinal at the Spokane Arena.
Sports

Summers leads Tigercats

Individual basketball scoring averages can be deceiving. LaCrosse-Washtucna/Kahlotus guard Austin Summers is a case in point.
Sports

Eagles win on last gasp

For the first 31 minutes and 40 seconds of West Valley’s subregional basketball game against Selah at home Tuesday night, Aaliyah Ashley-Meek had been held scoreless. Her lone basket, a 3-pointer with time running down, sunk a Vikings ship bent on pillaging.
Sports

McLean chasing dream of joining dad/coach as wrestling champ

Sometimes the best wrestling matches aren’t on a mat. They are those between youngsters with their fathers rolling around on a carpet in the living room. Mead’s Tyler McLean and his dad and high school coach, Phil, have recollections of those good times.
Sports

Wildcats pick bad time to go cold

Kennewick picked a good time to get hot. Mt. Spokane picked the wrong time to go cold. That in a nutshell describes the Wildcats girls season-ending 61-50 basketball loss Wednesday to the visiting Lions in the MCC-GSL Subregional tournament.
Sports

CV, University positioned for runs at state wrestling

The Central Valley wrestling team has a bright future. Saturday night it had a brilliant present. The host Bears turned in an impressive effort by going 5 for 5 in championship bouts, best among 14 schools in the 4A regional tournament that qualified four wrestlers per weight to next weekend’s Mat Classic in Tacoma.
Sports

Mead, CV, University lead way in wrestling qualifiers

It was business as usual for traditional Greater Spokane League wrestling powers. Mead and Central Valley outdistanced the District 8 4A field, with Mead’s Panthers piling up 395 points to the Bears’ 306. Both earned the lion’s share of the individual berths to next week’s regional meet at CV.
Sports

No surprise in SWABs winners

It comes as no surprise that Mead wrestler Jordan Rogers and Reardan multi-purpose athlete Kelsey Moos are the 2012 Inland Northwest Sportswriters and Broadcasters Junior Athletes of the Year. Both had Paul Bunyan-esque seasons and their careers landed or will land them at bigtime colleges.
Sports

Wagstaffs honored for work in tennis

For the first time, a husband and wife have been jointly selected to receive Inland Northwest Sportswriters and Broadcasters 25-Year Awards. The plaques are annually given to those who have contributed, often behind the scenes, for the promotion and welfare of area sports.
Sports

Eagles football, January win big at SWABS awards

In the 66th year of voting by the Inland Northwest Sportswriters and Broadcasters, Eastern Washington’s football national semifinalists swept three honors and ex-Lewis and Clark basketball star broke the glass ceiling. Annually, beginning in 1948, the area media have recognized the accomplishments locally and nationally of area athletes, teams and coaches.
Sports

Eagles football, January win big at SWABs awards

In the 66th year of voting by the Inland Northwest Sportswriter and Broadcasters, Eastern Washington’s football national semifinalists swept three honors and ex-Lewis and Clark basketball star broke the glass ceiling.
Sports

Mead defeats CV to stay unbeaten

There was the possibility, however remote, that two of the best upper-weight wrestlers, Mead’s Chandler Rogers and Central Valley’s Tanner Davis, could have met during Greater Spokane League wrestling between the league’s two unbeaten teams. “I think Mr. McLean would have wanted me to get a chance at him,” two-time state champion Rogers said.
Sports

Mead goes long to win

The Mead girls basketball team has four starters listed at 6-feet or taller. The way they shot the basketball, their size advantage over Gonzaga Prep proved almost irrelevant. The Panther “bigs” knocked down eight 3-pointers in 15 attempts, the difference-maker in a 68-63 triumph Friday evening at Prep, tying them with the Bullpups (both are 10-1 overall and 8-1 in league) for first place in the Greater Spokane League.
Sports

Mead gets past U-Hi

The weight of the world rested on the shoulders of 138-pounders Wyatt Nemec from Mead and Dane Frobe of University. After the nightlong push and shove Wednesday between presumptive Greater Spokane League wrestling favorites, the final spotlight fell on those two with the outcome of match at stake. Nemec couldn’t have asked for better circumstances.