Knights athletes have state meet covered

East Valley heavyweights have the Knights well-represented in Friday and Saturday State 3A track meets.

A dozen athletes in individual events and four relay teams have 11 events covered in boys and 10 in girls meets, giving them at least one trophy opportunity and maybe two.

“We should be right there, I think,” said boys coach Dave McCarty, whose Knights were close to a top four finish last year. “I don’t remember the last time I went to a state meet and sat down and figured out how many points we could get.”

Anthony Laborin is among the state’s best 3A sprinters after winning the 200 in an impressive 22.0 and finishing second at 49.63 at 400 meters during last weekend’s regional meet in Richland.

Nick Atwood was second in a season best 9:25.37 at 3,200 meters and third in the 1,600, events where he has top-three potential.

Thrower Tyler Jolley, although afflicted with hives, is one of the state’s top four shot putters and discus throwers and is another of the Knights’ potential points scorers at state in Pasco.

EV’s girls’ hopes rest heavily on Eleaya Schuerch, whose long and triple jumps rank high in state, and shot put-discus thrower Lyndzie Johnson.

“We told our girls that our goal is to get in the top three,” said girls coach Shane Toy.

But it will take help from the rest of the Knights qualifiers to get the 30 to 40 points it will likely take to trophy.

“We have to have outstanding performances to get there,” Toy said. “But you never know how things will unfold at state.”

Also during last weekend’s 3A and 4A regional competition, West Valley’s Arton Toussaint won the triple jump, Alyssa Wold and Melissa Mauro finished one-two in the high jump and Brittiny Almy was second with a 17-foot long jump.

University’s Dana McClendon won the shot put, her school record 43-6 ½ now the second best state mark, and was second in the discus. Katie Hawkins won the pole vault at 11-0.

Nate Thompson was discus champ, and Wes Nolen finished second in the javelin.

Central Valley’s Derek Schuh was second in the open 400 and as part of the Bears’ 1,600 relay team, and Anna Layman qualified in two events, finishing second at 800 meters.

Softball streak ends

University coach Jon Schuh had plenty to say but still was at a loss for words to, explain the end of the Titans run of consecutive softball state appearances.

After struggling to beat Big Nine No. 4 entry Walla Walla 5-4 on Friday with a last-inning rally, the Titans lost 8-7 in a nine-inning international tiebreaker semifinal with Mt. Spokane and were eliminated by Shadle Park 8-3 on Saturday.

Both Saturday losses came after the Titans held late-inning leads.

“The stars were not aligned,” Schuh could only surmise. “As (assistant coach Don Owen) always says, there are some things you can’t control.”

The Titans have never finished lower than second in 15 Greater Spokane League fastpitch seasons and had gone to 10 straight 4A state tournaments.

It was something of a rite of passage for the seniors, said Schuh, and also a means of closure for him each season.

As of Monday, no such closure was forthcoming.

“I’m struggling,” he said. “What we did all year to get there, we didn’t do once we were there.”

A team that had been playing its best ball while winning district on Tuesday, had inconsistent pitching and inexplicable defensive lapses a few days later. Schuh didn’t know why other than perhaps the pressure of expectations placed on them because of the program’s success.

U-Hi had favorable regional bracketing for another such trip to Tacoma. The Titans were on the tourney side where all other teams had at least six losses.

But things went awry from the outset.

An afternoon thunderstorm pushed back the original 6 p.m. start on Friday. As a result, instead of four fields, games were played on two. The Titans sat around until well after 10 p.m. to play Walla Walla and the game ended after midnight.

University trailed at one point 4-0 because of errors and needed a come-through by the bottom of the batting order to complete the comeback.

“With all that, I thought, ‘Holy cow, we can do this,’” said Schuh.

The next day, however, leads of 3-1 in the third and 6-3 in the fifth vanished against Mt. Spokane in the game for state. Still, the Titans led 7-6 in the ninth and the Wildcats were down to their final out. A close play at first base on a throw from right fielder Amanda Hickman to Riki Schiermeister, scored the winning two runs.

“I honestly felt (the batter) was out,” said Schuh. “All I could say to the girls is we were a bang-bang play away from state.”

The Titans later led Shadle 3-1 into the sixth inning before that game got away and four seniors, Tonya Schnibbe, Alex Marquard, Mandy Mikelson and Theresa Tveit were denied their third state trips.

“The girls took it extremely hard,” said Schuh. “Seeing the look in their eyes bothered me.”

But he drew on a boxing analogy, saying that if a fighter doesn’t win by a knockout and goes to the scorekeepers, the outcome can be out of a fighter’s hands.

“We had an opportunity to do it ourselves (qualify for state) and we didn’t,” he said.

Eleven returning players have a chance to start the streak anew.

Casebier to state

East Valley junior Jessica Casebier qualified third from the region to this weekend’s State 3A girls tennis tournament in Seattle.

She’ll play her first match at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the University of Washington’s Nordstrom Tennis Center.

A pair of Freeman doubles teams, Danny Mathews and Andy Nonnenmacher in boys, Bree Riddle and Rebekah Stranberg in girls will play at the Yakima Tennis Club in State 1A/B.

State track in Cheney

Freeman and Valley Christian track athletes will be in Cheney for State 2A, 1A and B track meets beginning today.

The Scotties have advanced a total of 18 individuals and four relays to the 1A meet for boys and girls meets.

Leading the boys are 2004 discus champion Andrew Wilkerson, district triple qualifier Chris Davis in two sprints and the long jump, Chad Monson in the distances and Greg Emtman, the 800 district champ.

Key girls qualifiers are 800-1,600 district champion Maeve Sayres, jumper Jessie DePell and high jump district champion Leah Willard.

Valley Christian has eight qualifiers to Class B led by four-event star Erica Hattamer, a two-event district 200-400 sprint champion and relay runner, 400 runner Justin McNamara and freshman 1,600 runner Jeff Pope.