Big Weekend Looms For Valley Wrestlers

Two East Valley High student body officers, president Brad Crockett and treasurer Kevin Woolf, won’t be in attendance at Friday night’s Golden Throne spirit basketball game.

“It’s kind of disappointing,” said Woolf, “but since I’ve never been there before, it’s no loss.”

Instead, the two EV school officers and athletes have been involved for four years in post-season wrestling tournaments.

When the basketball game is being played, they will be in Moses Lake for the first step in the East Valley wrestling team’s bid to repeat as state champions.

Other local wrestlers will also be involved in post-season competition on Friday and Saturday with an eye on Mat Classic X in Tacoma, Feb. 20-21.

Nearly two teams worth of Knights, 23 in all, will participate in the first 3A sub-regional at Moses Lake, which begins at noon Friday and continues Saturday at 10 a.m.

Six Frontier League wrestlers per weight, 84 total, including West Valley’s team, will go against 11 per weight from the Mid Valley League during the 12-school sub-regional.

The top five wrestlers in each class will qualify for the regional tournament in Ellensburg against schools from the Kingco League, which returns two state placers and seven with state experience.

“This is the regional for us,” said EV coach Craig Hanson. “We have to get out of the sub-regional.”

Ten of EV’s wrestlers will enter the sub-regional as No. 1 seeds, including everyone from 101 through 168 pounds. They are John Sommer, Brad Perry, Todd Perry, Woolf, Justin Walker, Jay Campbell, Crockett, Mike Manuel and Rusty Ruchert.

Additionally, Matt Jolley will be No. 1 at 190.

All 23 of EV’s entrants to sub-regional finished in the top five and will move directly into the 16-wrestler brackets at sub-regional.

“We’re hoping for 11 or more to qualify for regionals,” said Hanson.

Leading West Valley’s team into sub-regional are 148-pound top seed Justin Demke and 115-pounder Jeff Rigsby, who won Tuesday night matches in a 65-6 loss to the Knights.

CV eyes rebound

Unbeaten league champion Central Valley, second in state two years ago, is seeking to duplicate that performance.

The Bears will take the next step along that road Friday and Saturday during the Greater Spokane League District 4A tournament at Mt. Spokane High.

Sixteen wrestlers per weight class will compete for four berths in each weight to the Region IV tournament in Yakima Feb. 13 and 14. From there, four per weight advance to Mat Classic.

The Bears’ best bets for regionals include three-time state placer Shane Cunanan (129) and two-time placer John Reese (122), returning state qualifier Brandon Bouge (215), 1996 state placer Tyree Clowe (190) and 1996 qualifer Courtney Brown (158).

Blair Alderman who wrestled at 168 and 178 and Brandon Brown (148) were unbeaten in the GSL.

Other regional prospects are Brandon Bishop (135) and Matt Applegate (122 or 129).

University regional hopefuls are state veterans Gordon Bash (115) and Josh Vande Vanter (148), regional veteran Conor Jordan (135) and unbeaten freshman Tommy Owen (101). The latter two are top seeds in their respective weight classes.

Other Titans with a shot at regionals are T.J. Dowling (275), Curtis Bash (122), Reggie Lee (178), Ben Osborn (141) and Nick Peterson (135).

Freeman wrestlers advance

Freeman, which finished second in the four-team Northeast A League this year, sends a dozen wrestlers into this weekend’s District A/B tournament at Ritzville.

The district, including athletes from the Bi-County League, will advance six wrestlers per weight to the Region III tournament in Chelan.

From there six wrestlers qualify for Mat Classic, which has expanded to four tournaments.

Brothers Eric and Chris Fulkerson were among Freeman’s five champions and No. 1 district seeds.

Eric, Freeman’s only senior, won at 135 pounds and sophomore Chris won at 129. Other champions were sophomore Gabe Martinez at 122 pounds, juniors Bill Morphy at 141 and Jeff Wigen at 158.

Freshman Marc Hildescheim was second at 101 pounds and sophomore Brandon Marchand took second at 190.

Also qualifying for districts were freshman Buddy Robinson at 108, Tyrell Schlecht at 115, sophomores Travis Duncan at 135 and Andy Duncan at 141, and junior Chris Hodl at 168.

Hottest player takes on WV

Youth is being served for both East Valley and West Valley’s basketball teams this year.

The hottest youngster is Knight sophomore Andrew Burgess.

Burgess has been on a tear since the last EV-WV basketball game.

Averaging 10 points per game at the time, he scored 20 points during EV’s one-point loss to WV and has been under 20 just twice in five games since. In EV’s last seven games, Burgess is averaging 26.6 per outing.

Included was a career high 47-point explosion during the Knights’ 80-75 win over Sandpoint last Friday. It wiped out an earlier 33-point night.

Burgess improved his season scoring average to 17.2 per game for EV, which is 1-11 in league and 2-14 overall.

WV, 6-7 and 8-9, split last weekend, avenging an earlier loss by whipping Post Falls 67-51, but losing 64-59 in Sandpoint.

“We played really well Friday and actually played pretty well Saturday,” said coach Joe Feist. “The thing about us is sometimes we go on dry spells. We have to learn to keep scoring.”

Eric Deno had 37 points during WV’s weekend games.

Both East and West Valley boys and girls teams are junior and sophomore oriented which bodes well for the future.

While tomorrow night’s games between them are important, the Valley schools will likely play each other again during district competition beginning Feb. 17.

That’s when the games really count.

Panthers seek to wrap it up

Valley Christian School, enjoying its finest basketball season ever, can complete its season with undisputed first place in the Bi-County League.

The Panthers improved to 10-1 in league and 16-2 overall by outscoring Sprague-Harrington and Davenport by a combined 154-89.

Brian Sears score 25 points against Davenport and had 37 for the weekend. Five others also were in double figures in one game or the other, including freshman Brent Decker with games of 10 and 14.

Victory Friday night at home against Liberty will give the team top seed in the league tournament.

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