Cv’S Karlee Poirier Shines In Bears Loss

Monday was the first time Central Valley gymnast Karlee Poirier made it through a full practice in more than two weeks.

She hurt her back when she fell off the bars during a meet at University on Dec. 10 and was forced to sit out.

So she was eager to get back into competition on Thursday when the Bears hosted Ferris with championship of the Greater Spokane League on the line.

The Bears came up short, losing 174.10 to 172.30 to Ferris, but Poirier had her best effort of the season so far, according to CV coach Kim Brunelle.

She finished in a first-place tie in the floor exercise and in fourth place on the vault and bars en route to third in the all-around competition with 35.55 points.

“It was adrenalin,” said the sophomore, who was a club gymnast for seven years. “It was a mind memorization thing. You know you’ve done it before and when you’ve done gymnastics for that long, you don’t forget.”

Poirier, however, minimized the impact of the meet.

“I’m not much of a competitor,” Poirier said. “For me it’s all for fun. With seven years of club gymnastics, I had enough competition. But I couldn’t give up the sport completely.”

CV junior Emily Roberts struggled Thursday after spraining her right ankle in warmups. But she still managed to finish second all around behind Ferris senior Gail Larsen. She had beaten Larsen in two previous meetings.

“I did really good for how bad it was,” said Roberts, noting there was no way she was going to miss the meet. “I figured even if I fell or something, whatever I could add to the final score would help out.”

Brunelle said the Bears could have won the meet with a stronger performance on the beam.

“It obviously matters to my kids, the seniors,” she said of the loss, which likely relegated CV to second place. “We haven’t been this close in a long time.”

The sum of their parts

Togetherness helped University’s wrestlers make the most of things following their holiday break.

“Almost every kid showed up all the time for practice and that’s really uncommon,” said Titan coach Don Owen. “They worked really hard over vacation.”

The result was Wednesday’s convincing 48-15 win over previously unbeaten Mead.

“Our chances of winning the GSL are not that great,” said Owen, “but they were going to be ready in case it happens.”

He lauded virtually every wrestler. U-Hi won 11 of 14 individual bouts to take any suspense out of the night.

Prior to the match Owen figured that the 158, 178, heavyweight, 101, 115 and 129 pound classes were all toss-ups. U-Hi wrestlers won every one.

Included were pins by Gordon Moore at 178, Ryan Montang at 101 and Andrew Smith at 129.

Additionally, Todd Slater captured an 11-6 decision at 115.

“It’s his first big-time match,” said Owen the morning of the contest. “We’ll see how he does.”

Zach Ewers won in overtime at 158 to open things. Jeremy Dowling rallied for a 6-3 victory at heavyweight.

Montang’s pin, in a match between freshmen, came midway through the night, staking U-Hi to a 27-6 lead that was virtually impossible to overcome.

Tied 4-4 midway through the third round, he reached back for a head and arm move and got the pin. His opponent had made the same move a round earlier, but didn’t secure an arm and was docked a penalty point instead of garnering a potential fall.

“I always have to go in and think I can win,” said Montang. “I kept fighting to the end and got it.”

The Titans are tied with Central Valley at 4-1 in league. CV was impressive in two wins while pointing toward the Battle of the Bone between the Valley schools at CV on Jan. 28.

Knights open with a triumph

East Valley’s wrestling team, defending a Frontier League championship it has held for four years and eight of the last nine, began successfully.

The team beat visiting Clarkston 35-22.

EV won the first five matches including decisions by Mike Shull, Chris Dassow, Josh Birt and Matt Jolley.

Through eight matches the lead was led 29-6 en route as Matt Croskrey won by major decision and John Sommer pinned.

In a thriller to end the night, David Musser lost on a late third-period takedown.