Season’s endings fall short of hopes

It was a week when things didn’t go entirely as planned for Spokane Valley high school athletes and teams.

Last Tuesday, Central Valley’s bid for a football state playoff was short-circuited by a 10-7 double-overtime tiebreaker format, and on Saturday, University’s and East Valley’s hopes for a state volleyball berth fell one match short each. Meanwhile, cross country wasn’t without its heartache.

But there were also successes despite among the season-ending outcomes.

State cross country

Valley Christian distance runner Jeff Pope ran the race of his young career, improving a place to second in a stirring battle with long-time rival Matt Cronrath of Odessa.

The two runners raced back and forth before Cronrath pulled off a two-second victory.

“I worked my hardest and almost got him,” said Pope. “I’ve got another season.”

Pope said that last year as a sophomore and Bi-County champion, he had gotten stronger, but Cronrath upped his training.

“This year has been challenging to keep up with him,” Pope said. “We wanted to run together and help each other out. I started to go and he came with me.”

Central Valley’s boys, bidding to become state champions, ran afoul of injury at the wrong time of the year. But the Bears did bring home a fourth-place trophy.

Senior Bryce Aguilar, one of CV’s top two runners, competed despite an injury, but ran seventh for the team. That cost the team at least one place, but maybe more.

And the Bears girls league and regional champions, said coach Dennis McGuire, did not race well in placing fifth. Eden Lake and Madi Barnes were the GSL’s second- and third-highest finishers, but the rest of the Bears dropped a minute and more behind and finished well back.

CV ends victorious

In testimony to the strength of the Greater Spokane League football, seven of eight 4A teams won crossover games against the Columbia Basin League.

Central Valley (8-2) finished with a 28-13 victory over Eisenhower in a game between fourth-place finishers.

Brad Whitley rushed for 151 yards and a score, had five tackles, an interception and forced a fumble. Jeff Danielson, who had played little offense this year, scored twice.

“The win felt good,” said coach Rick Giampietri, “but I also felt empty inside because we might have had a shot at (beating) Wenatchee (for a state berth had they finished third).”

He said the score against the Cadets could have been 35-0.

“Their line was just average and we dominated time of possession,” he said.

University (6-4) beat Walla Walla 28-24 in a back-and-forth game between lsixth-place teams.

But East Valley (3-6), in its bid to reach state, was beaten 30-14 by Southridge, and Freeman was eliminated from 1A state consideration, 43-19 by Cashmere.

U-Hi, EV so close

University and East Valley came agonizingly close to state volleyball trips.

The Titans, who finished third in district by beating Shadle Park, couldn’t duplicate the task in regional and finished fourth for the second time in three years.

Unfortunately for the past three years, only three teams in each have advanced to 4A state.

U-Hi opened play with victory over Columbia Basin League runner-up Eisenhower. After losing to Mead in the semifinals, the Titans ousted Pasco before their season came to an end against the Highlanders.

East Valley reached the third-place 3A state qualifying game. The Knights survived an elimination match, beating Southridge in four games.

After losing to Kamiakin in the semifinals, EV and Mt. Spokane were evenly matched. But the Wildcats survived 25-23, 25-15, 22-25, 25-23.

Freeman, following a first-match win, was eliminated in the 1A regional.