CV’s Cobbs follows father

Like father, like son.

When Central Valley junior Evander Cobbs was named the outstanding boys athlete during last weekend’s 45th Jack Mooberry track meet he was simply following in the footsteps of his dad.

Harvey Cobbs, a three-sport athlete at Ferris, won the award as a sprinter in 1987 at the Rogers’ meet.

Evander earned his award as part of the Bears’ two-member winning long- and triple-jump relays and on the placing sprint medley relay.

In the triple jump, Cobbs bounded 45 feet, 11 ½ inches, one of the top four jumps in state prior to last weekend. He was joined by William Davis, who reached 44- ¼.

Central Valley’s boys were meet winners with 95 points, beating Mead (85), and North Central (73).

Last year, said one of the meet organizers, Lori Shauvin, Nikki Codd of Mead was the outstanding girls performer. An uncle, Bill Codd, was the 1967 winner.

“For the 50th,” said Shauvin, “we want to get the old athletes of the meet and record holders along with Tracy Walters and Gerry Lindgren.”

Records in the Lindgren Mile were set by both Jayson Taylor of CV at 4:25.5 in the boys and Mead freshman Baylee Mires at 5:07.9 in the girls, placing her among the state’s top four.

Other records included the Chewelah triple jump team of Liz Cobb (34-8) and Rebecca Johnstone (36-0) for a 70-8 total. Ferris’ Katie Davis jumped 36-5 ¾ for the individual mark. Mt. Spokane’s throwers’ relay ran 46.98 for the other record.

In the girls meet, Ferris beat Mead 92-86 and Kelly McNamee was outstanding female athlete. She high jumped 5-6 as part of the winning team and won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.5. In the preliminaries, McNamee timed 15.3, the second-fastest state time.

There were several other outstanding marks, including a state-best 57.69 400 by Lewis and Clark sprinter Eleanor Siler. In addition, the Panthers (Andrea Silver, Jazmine Redmon, Alexa Banaugh and Amanda Dahlstrom) ran 49.91 in the 400 and 1:44.65 in the 800 relays, placing them among the state’s top three.

Silver also shared the pole vault lead at 11-feet with East Valley’s Morgan Dunning.

Shadle Park (4:01.84), Gonzaga Prep (4:04.39) and Mt. Spokane (4:10.6) had 1,600 relay times putting them among the top four in the state.

Wildcats discus thrower Rachel Damiano reached 144-6, tops in the state, and Lindsey Snyder threw 131-4 in the javelin, second in the state.

In the boys meet, NC’s David Butler timed a state-best 14.64 in the high hurdles. CV equaled its season-best 3:24.72 in the 1,600 relay.

New coach for Cards

Wes Hobbs, former football coach at North Central, has been hired for the same post at Medical Lake, according to athletic director Chris Spring.

Hobbs coached seven seasons at NC with winning records in two of them. Overall, his teams went 19-42 from 1996-2002.

“I had time to reflect and my mind was still on football,” said Hobbs, who teaches at Cheney, but will be coaching at its rival. “I missed the coaching camaraderie and am real fortunate to have another opportunity to work with kids in that context. I kind of missed that chess match on Friday night.”

He replaces Rick Olson, who coached the Cardinals for three years, going 3-25, improving by a win each year.

Near perfect outing

While baseball talk has centered around pitching in the GSL, West Valley (9-1, 6-0) continues to run wild in the Great Northern League.

The Eagles outscored Riverside 38-2 in a doubleheader win as Andy Vennum came within a hit batter of a perfect game and also homered in game one.

WV has scored in double figures in all nine of its victories.

Bryan Peterson had a big day, driving in eight runs, his hits including a homer and double.

Nearly every Eagle in the lineup, including two other Petersons, cousin Tom and brother Mitch, mashed the ball and reached double-digits for base hits.

League unbeaten Pullman still waits in the wings.

Softball showdown

There is a virtual three-way tie for second place among 4A GSL softball teams vying for an automatic berth in the regional playoffs.

The jockeying begins this week, in particular between Central Valley and University (both 6-3). The district rivals play back-to-back in a Wednesday makeup at the Titans and Thursday at the Bears. Friday, CV plays host second-place, but 3A, North Central.

Mead (7-3) has beaten U-Hi and CV (6-3) beat the Panthers. All have lost to unbeaten Shadle Park (8-0) and NC (8-2).

The Titans’ prospects brightened with Friday’s 5-4 win over the Indians that salvaged a season split of one-run games.