GSL’s final divisional wrestling tonight

A quartet of teams reprise roles in tonight’s final Greater Spokane League championship divisional wrestle-off at Central Valley.

University and East Valley are in the championship match for the third straight year. The two schools divided the previous two titles. Only one point separates them when scores of the previous two years are combined.

Central Valley and Clarkston wrestle for third and fourth for the third straight year. CV has won the last two by a combined 77-66 score.

When the GSL expanded to include Clarkston, West Valley and Cheney in 2002-03, the divisional concept was created for wrestling.

The same four schools have qualified for every championship playoff.

EV beat Clarkston 35-21 for the first title and U-Hi 37-21 in the second for three straight GSL championships.

U-Hi, which beat CV for third in the inaugural season, won last year over the Knights 36-19.

Wednesday night they qualified for the rubber match, East Valley with a stunningly easy 54-6 triumph over Clarkston and University 51-17 over CV.

EV’s Dan Michalski earned a second-period reversal and 2-1 victory over Wes Braun in a match between the GSL’s top 3A 189-pounders.

The match was one of two potential toss-ups. The other was at 112 pounds, but Clarkston’s competitor failed to make weight and forfeited.

Both wins were part of EV’s seven-win run and 33-0 lead that rendered the outcome academic.

Sonny Tran clinched victory with five matches remaining, an 8-6 win built on takedowns over Bantams veteran Alex Barham in another mild surprise.

He was out of gas at the end, blaming it on being too tense for the dual.

“My strongest part is on the bottom,” Tran said. “But when I wrestled throwers the gap is closed making the single a lot easier.”

In the night’s final contest, Skyler Schiller won in his first GSL varsity match, 9-6 over Lyle Draper who had lost just once in league.

“Really, just overall a lot of kids did a good job,” said coach Craig Hanson. “The biggest thing is I don’t see Clarkston enough so don’t know how to compare. It’s a good thing that we went tonight. It does help our (3A sub-regional) seeding meeting.”

By mutual agreement, the Titans and Bears rested their varsity regulars to save on match count so they could have full rosters for tonight. U-Hi’s better depth propelled it into the finals.

The Titans ease of division enabled them to use two full teams worth of wrestlers on varsity this year. Their seconds had a combined 22-12 league record and nine of them won against CV’s junior varsity, improving the overall mark to 31-14.

Included was Greg Mitchell, who is 5-0 in matches against GSL foes in weight classes between 160 and 171 pounds. Four others went to 3-1.

By contrast, Austen Szott and Tyler Peha, two of the Bears’ four winners, were the only CV wrestlers with a varsity GSL match.

West Valley finished with a 1-7 league dual record, losing 37-33 to Cheney. All six individual victories were either by juniors, sophomores or a freshman.

Sophomores Tim Pring, Justin Fiman, freshman Ryan Parsley and junior Tony Valente won by pins.

CV wins Thursday games

Central Valley basketball teams had a short turnaround. Playing for the second time in three days, the Bears boys and girls defeated Rogers Thursday night.

The boys (12-3, 6-2) needed a basket by Kevin Cameron with four seconds remaining to defeat Rogers 55-54. The girls (10-5, 6-2) pulled away in the third quarter for a 57-41 triumph.

Cameron had missed Tuesday’s game at Shadle Park because of a sprained toe, but scored eight points at hard-luck Rogers, including the game-winner. The Pirates have lost three recent games by a total of seven points.

Three Bears, Nick Ambrose (16 points), Matt Morgan (12) and Luke Clift (11) finished in double figures. Ambrose leads team scoring with a 12.1 average.

Heidi Heintz scored more than 20 points in a game for the seventh time this year and continues to lead the GSL with a 19.3 average.

Savannah Bowman (12) and Sarah Gehring (10) also finished in double figures.

Titans finish second

University’s gymnastics team placed second in the GSL, its highest league finish and best record since 1998.

The Titans were 13-2 overall and 8-1 in league following Thursday’s 159.125-152.75-144.9-144.175 victories over Lakeside, Mt. Spokane and Lewis and Clark.

Kayla McGahey (34.25), Brittany Mueller (31.55) and Tatiana Garcia (31.05) had three of the top five all-around scores. McGahey was second overall and won uneven bars and balance beam with identical 9.35 totals. Brenda Lampert won vault.

Finishing second were Mueller during floor exercise, Garcia on beam and Taylor Vold during vault. Monica Marmolejo took third on bars.

Central Valley, which lost 166.075 to 155.6, but beat Ferris and North Central, finished third at 13-3 and 7-2.

Courtney Sexton finished fourth all-around with a 32.7 average in four events.