Ferris Team Seeded No. 1 For District
The Ferris boys basketball team frosted its Greater Spokane League title cake with a 60-48 win over University last Thursday.
Tonight the Saxons go for the sugar sprinkles.
No. 1-seeded Ferris resumes play at the Arena against the lowest remaining seed from Tuesday night’s district matchups between University (No. 3)-Gonzaga Prep (No. 6) and Central Valley (No. 4)-Mead (No. 5).
“I feel pretty good about our last couple of games,” Ferris coach Wayne Gilman said. “I feel like we’re on the upswing again.”
In the win over U-Hi, the passing game was excellent; 22 of Ferris’s 24 baskets came off assists. If there’s anything that concerns Gilman, it was the Saxons’ soft 3-point defense late in the game, although even that’s understandable. Ferris players were exhausted at the end by their up-tempo offense and pressure defense.
Frederickson sixth in floor exercise
For the first time since 1979, a Ferris gymnast qualified for the coveted second day of individual competition at the state gymnastics meet in Tacoma.
Turning in a lively, dance-influenced floor routine, Kacey Frederickson tied for sixth in the floor routine. Both she and Bridget Finkbonner of Sehome, last year’s state champion on the floor, scored 18.575.
“Every judge came up and said, ‘Boy, Kacey just sells it so well,”’ said Coach Bill Christianson, explaining that whatever Frederickson’s routine might lack in tumbling moves she makes up in style and artistry.
For Ferris’ gymnasts - as for all of the GSL gymnasts the state meet was something of an eye-opener. For instance, while the Tsukahara is the top vault in the GSL, the three Seattle-area girls who won that competition are already nailing “front-fronts.”
“It lets our girls know what they have to work on in the gym to compete at state,” Christianson said.
In another highlight at Friday’s competition, the Ferris team was awarded the state academic championship on Friday for its 3.72 grade-point average.
With her 4.0 GPA, Kim George is on track to be a valedictorian. Frederickson has a 3.9, Ivy Plewman has a 3.8, and Andy Evans has compiled a 3.7 average to round out the top Ferris GPAs.
Ferris, LC wrestlers place
A pair of late-match takedowns in the quarterfinals hurt Ferris wrestlers, but Coach Tim Owen had nothing but superlatives to say about his team’s showing at the state championships in Tacoma.
“I felt like we handled the pressure really well,” Owen said of 122-pound Zack Moffatt and 101-pound brothers Jack and Joe Claros. It was all three’s first trip to the state tournament.
Moffatt wound up seventh, and Joe Claros was eighth.
Joe Claros had wrestled up a weight at 108 pounds during the regular season, and Owen said the El Salvador native was psychologically stronger as a result. Claros narrowly missed a near-fall in the third round of his final match that would have tied the score. He wound up in eighth place.
After both Moffatt and Jack Claros won their tough first-round matches - Claros racked up an 8-2 lead against the third-place state finisher from a year ago before pinning him - they shared similar fates in the quarterfinals. Each was taken down with just a second to go and lost by a point.
Claros never recovered from the loss and didn’t place, but Moffatt won his final two matches for the seventh-place result. All three of Ferris’ state participants are juniors.
“We have a lot of juniors coming back,” Owen said. “If we use it the right way, we could have a good team next year.”
Lewis and Clark’s Brian Lehrman, a 108-pounder who was sixth at state a year ago, placed seventh this time around.
“When it’s over, you always wish for more, but realistically, it was a very tough weight class,” said LC Coach Dan Thew.
The weight class was so strong that three state placers from a year ago didn’t make it into the finals, Thew said. Lehrman opened the tourney with a 9-8 win over the 108-pound class’s No. 1 seed, then lost his next match in overtime to relegate himself to the consolation rounds.
Cheney girls nail down second
A rejuvenated Cheney girls basketball team handed West Valley its only league setback of the year on Saturday by dumping the Eagles 49-43.
With the win, the Blackhawks earned the Frontier League’s second seed - and more important, a first-round district bye - heading into post season.
“We’re playing our best basketball of the year,” said Coach Marty Jesset.
In the win, Tiffany Van Matre scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on a night when Anna Getz, the team’s high-scoring guard, eclipsed 1,000 career points. Her 1,003 lifetime points are a Cheney record.
A night earlier against Pullman, in a game that Cheney won 76-48, the Blackhawk girls showed just how far they have come since dropping a pair of games in midseason to Riverside and West Valley.
In one second-quarter run, Getz had bookend 3-point baskets around Kara Weitman’s three consecutive 3-pointers.
Suddenly basketball is fun again in Cheney.
“We’re playing so much better as a team,” Jesset said. “Even practices are fun.”
Cheney plays Riverside (No. 3), Clarkston (No. 4) or Colville (No. 5)- depending on who wins in the district tourney’s first round - at 1 p.m. Saturday at East Valley High School.
Fine finish to wrestling season
Medical Lake placed three wrestlers en route to a 10th-place finish at Mat Classic XI.
Jesse Moroni was fourth at 108-pounds, 275-pound Oly Mahaffey was fifth, and Jeff Racicot, a lean 158-pounder, finished sixth.
Cheney had a pair of wrestlers at the state tourney, and both wound up placing.
Gabe Schaefer, on his third trip to Tacoma, was seventh at 135 pounds. He finished third last year.
At 141-pounds, Mike Gibson lost 6-4 in a hotly contested final match to place sixth.