CV basketball off to slow start

What did last week’s Greater Spokane League basketball start reveal?

“That we’ve got two losses,” said Central Valley boys coach Rick Sloan. “We’ve got to go get better and play with the guys we have.”

The Bears, second in state last year, are short-handed because of injury and illness and winless in league as a result. This year’s GSL players appear more physically mature and newcomers will add an impact.

Freeman transfer DeAngelo Casto showed by his debut why Ferris was favored to win the GSL. The Saxons got off to an impressive start with 62-51 and 70-48 wins over Mead and Central Valley, two teams figured to be among the league’s top four. CV’s other loss came to Shadle Park, another title contender.

Casto had a triple-double in points, rebounds and blocked shots (14 by Ferris count) against the Panthers and scored 18 points and added 12 rebounds despite foul trouble against CV.

Ferris had different scoring leaders in each win. Jared Karstetter averaged 16 points with a high of 22, Shawn Stockton averaged 15.5 and Casto 15.0, each with 18-point bests, for the week. Seven Saxons made timely contributions.

“We’ve gotten much better at taking care of the ball and sharing the ball,” said coach Don Van Lierop.

Last year’s fifth-place State 3A placing North Central got off to a 2-0 start and junior Nick Rijon scored a total of 35 points. Rogers’ Scotty Livengood, with 57 in two games, unofficially moved into eighth among career GSL point producers.

“The week also showed that Lewis and Clark and University’s girls have considerable firepower. The teams averaged 75.0 and 74.0 per game respectively for the week.

LC won 75-71 in overtime over U-Hi in the first of what likely will be another memorable year each time the two get together.

There were a couple notable individual efforts besides the usual standouts. Rogers’ Denisha Whitehead laid 28 points on unbeaten Mead and U-Hi’s Dara Zack scored 21 and 20 in her two games.

Runners come close

Ferris’ Cameron Quackenbush, running at the Nike Team Nationals, and Central Valley’s Tylor Thatcher, came close to qualifying for this weekend’s Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships.

Quackenbush was fifth overall for the third-place Saxons and third fastest West Region runner at the NTN in Portland. Top two West finishers qualified for Foot Locker. His time of 16 minutes, 44.6 seconds was 2 seconds away from a Foot Locker trip.

Thatcher, running at the Foot Locker West Regional in Walnut, Calif., finished 14th at 16:25 in the boys seeded race. Top eight placers advanced to Saturday’s national in San Diego.

Thatcher was the highest of eight local placers among 193 finishers of the seeded race. CV teammate Sean Coyle was 33rd and North Central junior Steve Hicks 46th.

Colville’s Justin Rose and NC’s Andy Kimpel were champions of age group races. Rose was fastest of 315 juniors, winning his flight in 16:41. Shadle’s Dan Renz placed eighth in the second flight.

Kimpel timed 16:48, winning among 288 placing sophomores. Indians teammate Leon Dean (17:16) was fifth in that flight and University’s Anthony Brown (17:05) was fifth in the other sophomore race.

Gonzaga Prep’s Theresa Hailey (20:08) and NC’s Mary Graesser (20:15) finished second and fourth respectively in the senior girls race. Northwest Christian’s Lisa Vandenburg ran 19:56 for third in the freshman girls race.

Best local girls times came in the seeded race where Shadle Park freshman Andrea Nelson was 42nd in 19:43 and Mead’s Nikki Codd was 48th in 19:53.

Bridgetown XC Club from Pennsylvania won the Nike Team Nationals with 126 points. Spokane XC Club (Ferris) scored 162 and Mead XC Club was fifth at 187.

Mead’s Kelly Lynch finished ninth, Kelvin Daratha 11tth and Dylan Hatcher 18th. Ferris’s David Hickerson was 16th.

Stags flex muscles

Deer Park’s freshmen wrestlers opened eyes during post-season last year.

A year more seasoned and stronger, the Stags roared past such worthies as Great Northern League neighbor Riverside and Greater Spokane League Mead for an easy win at its own Invitational tournament.

Last year Deer Park finished ninth. This year the Stags had four champions among six finalists and three third place finishers to score 247.5 points and win by 58.5.