Sprague-Harrington’s successes among highlights

The convergence of talent and timing created a special year for the towns of Sprague and Harrington.

Falcons girls volleyball, basketball and tennis teams all won state championships for the high school combine, thanks in part to the creation of a new 1B classification and in part to the melding of quality athletes.

Not only were they exceptional in the sports they pursued, but, said Harrington principal Randy Behrens, they were good scholars as well.

During their careers, the seniors on these teams, eight from Harrington and five from Sprague, trophied nine times in various state tournaments.

All from Harrington, Natalie Deking was this year’s volleyball state MVP, Roni Jo Mielke was the state basketball MVP and played volleyball, and Jamie Larmer this spring won the 2B/1B state singles tennis championship in straight sets.

Larmer, an honors graduate, and junior Rachel Roberts, also from Harrington, played on all three championship teams.

Larmer and Mielke were among the volleyball kills and digs leaders, Deking was the setter. All could score in double figures in basketball, led primarily by Mielke and Deking.

Roberts was a member of the fourth-place tennis doubles finisher that helped win the team trophy.

Mielke, Harrington’s valedictorian and headed for Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Wash., where she will play basketball, opted for golf this spring where she finished 11th in state.

The new classification helped, but three team titles in 2006-07 is something everyone at Sprague-Harrington will remember in what, regardless of classification, was a memorable high school sports year.

When it culminated on Memorial Day weekend, Lewis and Clark doubles partners Lyndi Seidensticker and Erica Ehlo, who finished second for the team state champions, had played in two state finals apiece this season.

Seidensticker was instrumental in the Tigers’ second straight state basketball title as well as girls tennis championship. Ehlo was a standout for the Tigers’ second-place volleyball team.

Ehlo’s losses both came against Mead athletes. The Panthers won an unprecedented fourth straight 4A volleyball championship and Katrina Schwab and Britta Stime won the tennis doubles title.

All those team titles this spring were among the many recorded by area schools of all classifications during the three seasons (see Quick Hits). All told there were 21 team champions and 45 winners in individual sports.

Notable in 4A were Ferris’ third straight state cross country win and the Saxons’ unbeaten (and much talked about) basketball team; Shadle Park’s 28-1 softball season, shutting out every regional and state foe; Colfax’s seventh volleyball finals appearance in eight years; St. John-Endicott’s 1B football title, and Odessa’s boys nearly tripling the score of its nearest foe in State 1B track.

North Central’s move to 3A continues to be of benefit. The Indians won state in cross country, had an improbable third-place state finish in boys basketball, placed second in state boys track and fourth in softball.

There were individual heroics, too numerous to mention here, including an inspired postseason by Mead state shot put champion Ashley Hutchinson shortly after the death of her mother.

What can the 2007-08 seasons do to top it?