East Side Dominates Lakeside’S Title Underscores Reason Gnl Deserves More State Seeds

Talk prior to Max Classic XI about the quality of Spokane-area wrestlers was not exaggerated.

With only 28 wrestlers, the Great Northern League had nine finalists and 20 placers as well as a runaway team championship by Lakeside.

And the league could have had an even greater impact.

The GNL only was allowed to send two wrestlers per weight class. Meanwhile, District 1 sent six. And, in a couple weight classes, wrestlers got here without winning a district or regional match because there were only six entries.

“It’s a dilemma,” Lakeside coach Scott Jones said. “It’s a hardship, not necessarily for my team this year, but for our sport, our area, it is. What the new classification and allocation process has done to the Great Northern League is take us out of team contention.”

Obviously, Lakeside’s extraordinary postseason overcame the lack of depth.

Chewelah had four third-place wrestlers at the district tournament and Riverside three. Jones said they all could have scored here and propelled their teams to a top-10 finish.

“In fairness to other coaches, they see the inequity,” Jones said. “They’re willing now to (discuss it), to come up with an equitable solution to get the top 16 wrestlers to state.”

The key, he added was to look at the big picture.

“You fight for the sport. You need to get people to vote what’s best for wrestling and not what’s best for their team or their town,” Jones said. “It’s not easy to do. You have to have a pretty global perspective to vote for what’s best for the sport.”

West Valley swimmer scores

West Valley’s Joe Covey finished second in the 100 freestyle and fourth in the 200 with times of 47.54 seconds and 1:45.09 respectively at the State 3A swimming and diving championships at Federal Way.

GSL’s incredible mat dominance

As anticipated prior to the meet, Region IV in general and the Greater Spokane League dominated Mat Classic XI.

In addition to the GSL’s 10 finalists, eight other wrestlers reached the consolation finals and five more medaled. Winning consolation titles were G-Prep’s Kyle Gleason, 178; Mead’s Jesse McCarty, 135, and University’s Conor Jordan, 141.

All told, Region IV had 15 finalists, more than half the available total, and the top three teams. With 20 percent of all the state’s 4A placers coming from the GSL, little more could have been expected. VAULTING TO THE TITLE Freshman Katie Dinsmore became Lakeside’s first gymnastics champion in only the second year of the school’s program. She vaulted from fifth to first in the State 3A vault with a 9.55. She scored 8.975 on Friday. Dinsmore, who placed seventh in the all-around on Friday, finished fifth in floor exercise, ninth on the balance beam and 10th on the uneven parallel bars in Saturday’s individual competition finals. Ferris senior Gail Larsen, who was second in the 4A all-around on Friday, didn’t have quite as good a day on Saturday. She slipped from a tie for first to fourth on the bars and from second to third on the beam. She was also sixth on the floor and vault. Emily Roberts of CV was eighth in vault and Filicity Frederick of Ferris was 10th on the beam. The happiest camper was Amber Baines of North Central. After she finished competing Friday, Baines had no idea she qualifed for the bar and vault finals, so she wasn’t at the awards ceremony to receive a sportsmanship medal. After NC coach Bob Litton broke the news to her at the hotel, she was bouncing on the beds. Baines ended up placing 10th in vault and ninth on bars. Her bars score made her the school record-holder in all four events, as well as in the all-around. And, she’s only a sophomore.