A special season completed in GSL track

You could sense from the beginning of this Greater Spokane League track season that it could be something special.

But it wasn’t until last weekend’s memorable performances at Star Track XXII in Pasco, how special it was.

From the 74 medals brought home by GSL 4A and 3A athletes, to the 13 individual state titles and the second-place team finishes of Rogers’ girls and Mead’s boys, it was a meet to rival any in league history for total group effort.

“I think back to my comments before the season,” said thoughtful and erudite Shadle Park coach Ivan Corley. “I say it every year, but the gap, if there is such a thing, is narrowing from the top teams to the middle teams to the lower teams. There’s no such thing as a lower team. You have to show up and compete every week.”

He traces that to the quality of coaches, whose enthusiasm, knowledge and energy have helped promote their sport, encouraged large turnouts and enabled more schools to rival the Mead juggernauts that for so many years have been among the state leaders.

It paid off at state where the GSL served notice with last weekend’s nine 4A individual titles in 18 girls events and two more in boys events by Mead’s Evan Garber.

Rogers, led by Becca Noble and Emily Dahl, won five. Shadle Park, Mead, Mt. Spokane and Lewis and Clark had titles as well.

Every GSL school had a hand in the total 56 medals, divided evenly among boys and girls and a roughly 75 percent success ratio of competitors to placers.

“We knew the people coming back were going to do well,” said Rogers girls coach Chris Caviness. “It seemed to me by the time they came to state they had put themselves in position to do just that.”

No one personified it more than Dahl, the Pirate hurdler whose times dropped substantially over the final two weeks of the season, or Shadle’s Catie Schuetzle, a three-event placer and surprising long jump titlist.

“Our hurdle coach said he saw it coming,” said Caviness, of Dahl’s dip into the 14 second range for 100 meters and who dropped two seconds in the 300s.

She ran 14.74 in the former at state and 44.66 in the latter, just .01 shy of her school record best.

“I knew she could probably do 45, but going into the 44s into the state meet and holding it was probably a little more than we planned on.”

Schuetzle had a near two-foot personal best 18-8¼ long jump for the state title. It may have surprised her, but not Corley.

“She said, ‘Mr. Corley, I wasn’t expecting that,’ and I said, ‘you know what, maybe not you, but from the coaches it was (expected).’ I knew she had potential and talent,” said Corley. “it was a matter of when it was going to arrive. Trust me, we wanted her to get to state this year in the worst way.”

Nothing the irrepressible Noble does surprises anyone any more. She won the 200 and 400, placed in the 100 and rallied the Pirates to a 1,600 relay victory.

Her Silky Sullivan-like charges from behind to win the relay has become the stuff of legend.

“One thing that helped her is pretty much all season long that’s the way she had to run the relay,” said Caviness. “Becca’s OK with that. She kind of analyzes where she’s at and what she has to do and when she gets it in her mind she thinks she can get them, has that extra gear.”

It left Rogers nine points behind Curtis for the state title.

“That’s kind of where we thought we’d be,” said Caviness. “To have a finish like that at the end of the state meet was most satisfying and exhilarating.”

Mt. Spokane’s Megan O’Reilly repeated as 3,200 champion, Mead’s Corissa Hutchinson added a discus title to the shot put championship she won two years ago as a freshman, and Briann January high jumped a career best 3,200 for the other GSL titles.

Garber capped his amazing Mead distance career with 1,600 and 3,200 titles to go with last fall’s state cross country crown. Mead finished 14 points behind Inglemoor for the team title, leaving fans wondering what might have been had injured Laef Barnes been able to compete.

All three 3A GSL schools had medalists earning a total of 18. West Valley’s Rashad Toussaint won his second triple jump championship, increasing his school record to 49-2¼ which is among the state’s top-12 all-time. Cheney hurdler Katie Kimball won the 300 meter title.

“It was exceptional,” said Corley. “This was an exceptional year.”

The spring’s biggest surprise

Southridge of Kennewick won its first state championship in a boys sport by defeating Kentwood 6-4 in Monday’s State 4A baseball title game at Yakima County Stadium.

Lonnie Lechelt hit a solo home run and pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-hit relief to earn the win. Lechelt also hit a three-run homer in a semifinal win against Lake Washington.

The Suns (19-9) had been fortunate to qualify for the Final Four, winning a pair of one-run games during May 24 state openers at Avista Stadium. North Central led Southridge 3-1 with two outs in the seventh inning, but sophomore Chad Arnold hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer to force extra innings. The Suns won 4-3 in the eighth.

The semifinals and final had been relocated to Yakima because of heavy rain in Everett.

The 3A tourney was also shifted to Yakima. In the championship game, Issaquah (22-4) defeated Columbia River of Vancouver 8-2.

The lost art of bunting

Bunting is a staple of fastpitch softball, but the two top teams in the GSL struggled with its execution in regional and state play. Not just in getting bunts down, but in keeping kids healthy.

Mead almost lost pitcher Kim Watson to a chipped thumb and torn ligament on her right thumb suffered trying to squeeze home a run in the state-clinching regional win over Pasco. As it was, Watson was able to pitch at the state tournament, albeit in a cast. She could not, however, hit, putting a major dent in the Panthers’ offense.

One person who tried to take up some of the slack was second baseman Tiffany Wilkinson, a senior whose improvement over the course of the season was cited by Mead coaches as being instrumental in the team’s success.

But Wilkinson, one of the league’s best bunters, went down in the state tournament during the Panthers’ loser-out 1-0 win over Olympia. Trying to bunt for a hit, Wilkinson was hit on a finger, which swelled immediately, needed stitches and knocked her out of the rest of the tourney.

The University Titans weren’t immune to the disease either. Mandy Daniels, who broke her left thumb sliding prior to regionals, tried to help her team during a 1-0 loss to Eastlake by bunting during a pinch-hitting appearance.

Nice idea, but Eastlake pitcher Caitlin Noble threw Daniels a screwball that broke in on her other thumb. After the foul ball, Daniels stepped out of the box, shook her hand and tried again. Later that evening, she was in the St. Joseph Hospital emergency room until 1 a.m. having minor surgery on the thumb. The next day she was walking around with both thumbs in casts, looking like the Fonz.