Vikings, Eagles Wage War For Overall Honor

Garfield-Palouse and St. John-Endicott, which staged a great battle for the boys State B high school basketball championship, are doing the same thing on paper.

The Vikings and Eagles are tied for The Tacoma News Tribune all-sports trophy through the winter sports with 130 points. The duo is 25 points ahead of Wahkiakum.

Ritzville is fourth with 86 points, Valley Christian is sixth with 63 and St. George’s is 10th with 48. St. George’s won the last two honors for B schools.

Mead, which won nine all-sports honors for the largest classification, currently stands third. Snohomish has 116 points, Bethel 105 and Mead 104. Shadle Park is ninth with 65.

Ferris won the honor the last two years, sharing the first with Sehome to end Mead’s nine-year run. Shadle Park won the first big-school trophy in 1987-88.

In 2A, Lakeside is third with 106 points, two behind Mount Baker and 36 behind Omak. Riverside is eighth with 84 points, followed by Pullman with 69.

Washington-Oregon hoops

Courtney Ferguson of Mead and Christa Brossman of Pullman are the area representatives on the Washington team for the Northwest Shootout March 31 in Portland against senior all-stars from Oregon.

Oregon leads the girls series 5-1 and won last year 75-74.

The Oregon boys lead the series 6-1, with Washington’s victory coming last year, 84-78.

In the past, the game was played in the summer. The main sponsor, The Oregonian newspaper, wanted it moved to March this year in an attempt to increase interest.

The doubleheader at the Chiles Center on the campus of the University of Portland will begin at 6 p.m. with the girls game. The boys tipoff is set for 8 o’clock. Reserved seats are $8, general admission $6 and student tickets $5. Tickets may be ordered through TicketMaster.

All-state hoops

The Seattle Times picked Luke Ridnour of Blaine and Cathrine Kraayeveld of Lake Washington as its players of the year.

Past Seattle Times players of the year include Mead’s Stacy Clinesmith (1996); Rob Corckrum, Shadle Park (1990), and Mead’s Jeff Brown (1989).

The Times picked Jeremy Groth of Curlew and Wenchi Liu of St. George’s as its Class B Players of the Year and Christa Brossman of Pullman for 2A girls.

Groth was named to the Tacoma News Tribune’s all-state second team. Ridnour and Krayveeld were named players of the year.

Preps.com

Close to 10,000 fans at the Spokane Arena saw Jeremy Groth’s record-breaking layup.

But for those who weren’t there, it’s not too late to catch up.

A New York-based company called Sportscapsule is putting high school teams’ games on the Internet.

Schools, coaches or players who sign up for the service send videotapes of games to Sportscapsule, which puts the footage online. Various online graphics, sound effects and voiceovers allow family, friends or recruiters to craft individual highlight reels.

Groth’s school, Curlew, took advantage of the service. Groth broke the state boys scoring record on March 4, during the State B tournament.

For information call 1-888-899-5300 or go to www.sportscapsule.com.

Record breaker

The state scoring record isn’t the only one Groth broke this year. When he scored 41 points in the District 7B tournament, he erased the old best of 39.

The previous record holder was Springdale’s Wayne Gilman, now the coach at Ferris.