Dinsmore Hits Best Vault, Takes Second

Katie Dinsmore made sure the state gymnastics meet ended with a bang Saturday afternoon.

The Lakeside sophomore had the best vault score of the day in the individual event competition.

Her score of 9.825 kept her in second in the 3A/2A finals but wasn’t quite enough for her to defend her state title. Alicia Ceccacci of Columbia River had a 9.825 on Friday and followed with a 9.775 Saturday.

Saturday’s competition was for the top 10 in the four individual events, determined by Friday’s competition.

Dinsmore, who finished second in the all-around on Friday, placed in all four individual events. She was third on the beam and floor exercises and fifth on bars.

April Mims of Central Valley, fifth in the 4A all-around, placed in three individual events. She was third on bars, eighth on floor and ninth in vault.

Teammate Emily Roberts was ninth in floor exercises and Amber Baines of North Central was 10th.

Overlooked on Friday was Kolbie Pearsall of Lewis and Clark. She finished seventh on the beam.

Sehome won its 24th team title on Friday, and third in a row. Newport of Bellevue has won both 3A/2A titles since the state meet was split two years ago and has five state titles overall. Kent-Meridian’s title in 1986 was the only won not won by this year’s two champions since the WIAA sanctioned gymnastics in 1974.

Prior to the WIAA there were five invitational tournaments where the winner was recognized as the state champion. Shadle Park won in 1970, Inglemoor won in 1969, ‘71 and ‘72. Sehome won the last won in 1973, the first of 13 straight championships.

Homecoming for Orth

First-year Royal City coach Ben Orth returned to the scene of his earlier successes.

Orth was a three-time state placer while at Lakeside High and eventually a national NAIA collegiate placer at Central Washington University., He brought 11 Knights to Mat Classic and they placed fifth in the State A/B tournament.

“I thoroughly enjoy it,” said Orth, “and a neat transition. You chase your dream, then you help kids chase their dream.”

Orth admits that he borrowed his style from Eagles coach Scott Jones.

“His style is intense and fun,” said Orth. “I emulate him, basically.”

A weighty matter

Freeman seventh-place 135-pound A/B finisher Chris Fulkerson had a logical reason he didn’t wrestle well in his first consolation match on Saturday.

“I was a little bit tired,” he said. “I had to run for an hour and a half before.”

Fulkerson was 5.8 pounds overweight and spent the morning running off 2.2 pounds so he would be eligible to continue in the tournament.

He made weight, won his final match by pin and earned his first medal in three Mat Classic tries.

Focus

With 24 mats squeezed into a checkerboard layout on the floor of the Tacoma Dome, Mat Classic is easily the most hectic and noisy experience of any high school wrestler’s life.

But for Grandview’s Antonio Avalos, only the hectic part applies. Deaf since birth, the junior athlete competed in his first state championships.

“We wondered all week how he would handle this, but I’ll tell you what, I wish I felt as comfortable here as he does,” Grandview coach Jeff Sevigny said of the tight surroundings in the Dome. “Antonio can hear a high-pitched whistle, but crowd noise is just a background hum. He can get confused sometimes with a whistle on another mat, but he handled it great.”

Chiefs are kings

Three-time state placer Jaime Garza admitted he’s at a loss to explain why year after year, Moses Lake runs roughshod over the competition in the postseason.

“It’s unreal,” Garza said. “It seems like every year this happens, and I don’t know why. I wish I knew the secret.”

Chiefs coach Ron Seibel said there’s no secret formula. He just turns up the intensity about the same time you finally hang the calendar you received as a Christmas gift.

“We’ve gone two-a-days ever since Jan. 15 hit,” said Seibel, whose team won back-to-back State 3A titles after winning the 1997 4A regional title and finishing second at state.

“Mornings are all conditioning, then at night, we work really hard on our intensity drills. It’s really paid off.”

The Chiefs, back up in the 4A ranks, won their 15th state championship overall in a walk.

Courage

Forks High School’s Mike Hirsch, participating in his first Mat Classic, did so with only one leg.

Almost six years ago, on a trip to the doctor for a football injury, it was discovered that Hirsch had advanced stages of bone cancer above his right knee.

At age 12, Hirsch chose to have his leg amputated above the knee instead of having a stainless-steel knee joint inserted. An active person such as Hirsch would have worn out the steel and he wanted to hunt and fish with his dad.

Hirsch, who underwent chemotherapy before and after the amputation of his leg, was eliminated with a 1-2 record yesterday in Class 2A, at 112 pounds. His season ended with a 4-1 loss to Gilbert Lopez of Newport.

Hirsch wears a prosthesis at school, but the rules of wrestling make him remove it.