Ferris Gymnasts Jump From District Meet To Sweetheart Dance

The Ferris gymnastics team accepted its district ribbons in evening gowns Friday night.

Every year, the District 8 4A meet falls the same night as the Saxons’ Sweetheart Dance.

Many of the gymnasts’ dates sat in the stands until Ferris was finished competing. The men were good fans, said senior Ivy Plewman; many of them often attend the meets anyway.

“When we force them to come, it’s nice, too,” said Plewman, whose team placed second with 167.3 points to advance to Saturday’s 1 p.m. Region IV meet at Central Valley against the Big Nine Conference.

The other Ferris gymnasts headed to regionals are Lisa Clifton, Jennifer Gamelin, Jennifer Miller, Heather Malott, Colleen Early, Alix Herr, Ashley Hilmes, Corrie Plewman and Natalie Weinmeister.

Lewis and Clark qualified three to regionals, including Liz Ransford in the all-around competition. Valorie Darling will compete on bars, beam and vault, and Kolbie Pearsall on floor, beam and vault.

Tiger coach Michele Peterson approached the head scoring desk after the district meet wondering why Ransford’s name hadn’t been called as a regional qualifier in any individual events. One of the meet officials told her that Ransford had advanced in the all-around, which had yet to be announced.

Peterson’s face immediately lighted up, and she bounced all the way back to her assistant coaches and shared the good news.

Peterson already had been happy with the meet results. Her team recorded some of its best scores of the season.

“I don’t know why (it was such a good meet),” admitted Peterson, whose team scored 146.8 points for eighth place in the nine-team meet. “The girls are under a lot of physical stress, but once they got started, they got good scores.

“Some meets, one girl will not have a good meet and another will have a good meet. Everyone did well tonight.”

Get there early

The highly anticipated boys basketball rematch between Ferris and Gonzaga Prep is Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. at Spokane Falls Community College. Get there early. The last time the teams played, the gym was packed.

The girls game follows at 8 p.m.

The Prep boys and girls both won in the teams’ first round.

Ferris and LC wrestlers advance

Ferris and Lewis and Clark won one dual each during the Greater Spokane League wrestling season.

They fared better by far during last weekend’s District 8 4A tournament.

The Saxons advanced six wrestlers and the Tigers four to this weekend’s regional tournament in Kennewick.

Veteran state placers Aaron Sedler, Daryl Gardner and Doug Baker led the way for the Saxons.

Sedler, who is 28-1 for the year with invitational championships at the Tri-State tournament and Rocky Mountain Classic, spent less than five minutes on the mat in pinning three straight foes at 215 pounds.

Baker, 23-9 this season, finished second at 112 pounds.

Also advancing are state veteran Blake Yonago, third at 119, Tyler Byers, fourth at 103, and Dan Gonzalez, fourth at 275.

LC’s Brian Greene is a returning regional veteran. He finished second at 160 pounds and is joined by Johnnie Counts, third at 140, David Kulisch, third at 189, and Tyler Menzel, fourth at 112 at this weekend’s state qualifier.

Menzel beat second-seeded Luke Kuhn of Gonzaga Prep 6-0 to advance.

The Bullpups, with a strong consolation round showing, finished second behind University High in team scoring at district and qualified nine wrestlers to regionals.

Included were champions Travis Pascoe, 189, and Greg Healy at 135. Also in the finals were Jeff Zappone, 103, and Brett Roberts, 125.

Finishing third or fourth were Matt Turner and Karl Koehler, both 145, Danny Pearson, 152, Will Tombari, 189, and Eli Hanson, 215. Top four finishers in the event advance to Mat Classic in Tacoma.

Cheney wrestlers rebound

Cheney wrestling coach Aaron Mason said he’d find out what his team was made of at subregionals after absorbing last week’s 45-24 Frontier League championship shellacking by Colville.

“Hopefully they’ll change things around,” he said.

The Blackhawks did in a big way, placing second in the tournament behind Clarkston and qualifying eight wrestlers to regionals.

Indicative of the turnaround were the efforts of Steve Rasmussen and Joe Wulczynski. Rasmussen lost a tough dual match on Feb. 1 but finished second at 140 pounds on Saturday. Wulczynski placed third at 215 by winning a major decision over Colville’s Pat Flanigan, who had pinned him five days earlier.

State veteran Blake Falor upset defending state champion Michael Schwegel 6-4 for the 275-pound championship. David Courchaine won at 145 pounds as well.

Second-placers included Paul Kimball, 103, and Ryan Gray, 5-3 in overtime at 130.

Also advancing to regionals this Friday in Ellensburg are Kayle Gray, 119, and Billy Weisgerber, 135. Both finished third.

The Frontier League proved why there was a three-way tie for the league title. They were more dominant in subregionals than in awhile, claiming three of the top four team scores and 25 regional berths.