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The Ballard High School cheer team overcame adversity to finish third at the Jan. 23 WIAA State Cheer Championships.
The Beavers had the fifth-highest score out of 51 schools but were awarded third-place because they competed in a difficult division.
Three days before the championships, the cheer team suffered an injury to a key member, requiring a reworking of its routine, coach NancyEllen Elster said.
It wasn't the only obstacle Ballard had to overcome this year. Since this fall, the junior varsity cheer coach was fired, the tumbling coach was a no-show and Elster's co-coach quit, she said.
Despite the setbacks, the team did awesome, Elster said.
"The team this year has been amazing in terms of great attitude and focus," she said. "The kids have been one of the most cohesive squads we've had."
She said the members of the cheer team all pushed themselves to uphold the Ballard cheer tradition, which has been very good in the decade Elster has been coaching.
In the past nine years, Ballard has never finished below third in state. The team has won the state title twice and placed fifth in nationals during that time.
Work to widen the South Spokane Street Viaduct – the 60-year-old elevated roadway that connects I-5 to the West Seattle Bridge—will continue this weekend. Crews will again close two ramps leading to West Seattle:
· The northbound I-5 off-ramp leading to the West Seattle Bridge.
· The ramp from Columbian Way (from Beacon Hill) leading to the West Seattle Bridge.
These ramps will be closed from 10:00 p.m., Friday, January 29, until 5:00 a.m., Monday, February 1. In case of rain, crews may reschedule some of the work for the following weekend.
You can download the detour map at the link above.
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) will detour traffic on surface streets through the south of downtown area using the route shown on the map shown above and available for download. Drivers should expect congestion on I-5 near the Spokane Street Viaduct and in the SODO area Friday night through early Monday morning. This phase of the project should have minimal disruptions for King County Metro Transit bus service, but there could be delays if there is traffic congestion.
Seattle Department of Transportation crews will be making repairs on the Ballard Bridge this week and next week.
The southbound right lane will be closed in order to make guard rail repairs from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 as well as Feb. 1 through Feb. 3.
Motorists should slow down and use caution when passing the work zones.
The Magnolia Bridge will also be undergoing work to make expansion joint repairs on those days.
The bridge will be down to one lane in each direction from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The schedule is subject to change in the event that other unplanned, urgent needs arise.
The Ballard High School girls basketball team's woes from its scoreless overtime period five days earlier seemed to carry into its Jan. 27 matchup with Eastlake.
The Beavers came out flat and found themselves behind 25-8 after one quarter. Eastlake went on to win 60-38.
Junior Morgan Bailess led Ballard in scoring for the first time this season with 10 points. Senior Kayla Wenger finished with nine.
The loss puts the Beavers at 1-10 in KingCo and 3-12 overall with five games remaining in the season.
Ballard has now lost five in a row, its longest losing streak since dropping five to open the season.
The Beavers face Lake Washington, a team that beat them 42-29 in their first meeting, at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 29 at Ballard High School.
After the Ballard High School boys swim team's meet last week, coach Leo Jaeger wondered if the Beavers had one more great meet in them. They did.
Ballard dropped Lake Washington 112-68 by winning eight of the 12 events Jan. 26 in its final meet of the season.
Ballard's 200-yard relay team of Anders Weiberg, Caleb Jaeger, Alex Larson and Sam Hall placed first with a time of 1:53.60.
The 400-yard relay team of Larson, Hall, Jaeger and David Larson also took first in 3:45.27.
Philip Anderson won the 200-yard freestyle for the Beavers in 2:15.88.
Ballard's Jean-Luc LeClair took first in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:22.53.
In addition to his relay victories, Jaeger won the 100-yard fly and the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:01.74 and 1:10.98 respectively.
David Larson placed first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 6:10.83.
Weiberg won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:09.8.
The Ballard swim team will compete in the All KingCo Championships next week.
Coach Leo Jaeger said Hall, Jaeger and Alex Larson are the biggest contenders for Ballard in the District 4A Championships.
Nearly 90 people attended Amanda Knox's fundraiser Wednesday night, Jan. 27, held at the Comedy Underground in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood. Tickets were $50, and raffle tickets were sold, to raise money for Knox's appeal process which follows her Dec. 4 guilty verdict for murdering her college roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy Nov. 1, 2007. Money raised goes to www.amandaknoxdefensedfund.org.
Five stand-up comedians performed for free, including event organizer and host, Renee Perrault, a friend of Amanda's father, Curt, and his former co-worker at Macy's Corporation. Several raffle prizes were awarded. At the event's conclusion, Curt and Amanda's mother Edda Mellas briefly thanked the crowd.
The comedians' topics varied but none made reference to Amanda or the trial. Many family members were sprinkled in the audience as well as supporters from Amanda's West Seattle neighborhood. One audience member said he came from Connecticut to offer his support.
Slightly more than three months ago, a fire started at the Green Bean Coffee House burned down the Eleanor Roosevelt Building and damaged the neighboring Taproot Theatre.
Audiences will be returning to the theater at 204 N. 85th St. for the first time since the arson that necessitated its gutting when Taproot previews C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce" Jan. 27.
"It's pretty darn extraordinary," said Scott Nolte, Taproot Theatre's producing artistic director. "We're going to do a show, and it's near miraculous."
Nolte said 99.9 percent of the public areas of Taproot are complete.
The box office and concessions areas were remodeled and rearranged. Workers were pulling plastic off the theater's seats and wiping them down hours before audiences would be arriving.
The first goal was to get the theater ready to go, Nolte said. Taproot's basement still needs a lot of work and remains unused except for the dressing rooms, he said.
During the three months the Taproot Theatre building was unusable, it put on a Christmas show at North Seattle Community College and its other operations, such as the touring Road Company, continued with little disruption seen by the public.
Sharpshooting Jayson Kjenstad's 22 points and an unrelenting transition game sent Class 2B SeaTac League South second place Evergreen Lutheran past visiting Tacoma Baptist 58-54 on Saturday, January 23.
The Eagles raised their league won-loss record to 5-3 and overall record to 6-10.
"Even though they had momentum at the end, we hung on," said Eagle head coach Dave Habeck. "I'm proud of the boys."
Sophomore Jayson Kjenstadt's field goal with 43 seconds left in the fourth quarter extended an Evergeen Lutheran lead to 56-49, but the Eagles had to sweat out a Tacoma Baptist three-point goal and a Crusader regulation field goal that closed the gap to 56-54 with 10 seconds remaining.
Sam Shannon dispelled any final doubts of the outcome by calmly swishing home two charity tosses with 0.4 seconds showing for the final score.
Evergreen Lutheran campaigned hard to erase a 10-2 Tacoma Baptist first quarter blitz. Shannon sandwiched two three-point goals around a Stevie Lawrence three-pointer. Roland Wedde's driving lay in brought the running Eagles to a 13-10 lead after one quarter.
Ice cold shooting chilled the hopes of the Evergreen Lutheran girls basketball team at its Winterfest celebration on Saturday, January 23.
Capitalizing on this weakness and scrapping for long rebounds, Tacoma Baptist won the battle of unbeaten Class 2B SeaTac League South powers to emerge with a 53-43 victory.
With the win, the Crusaders raise their records to 8-0 league and 14-2 overall. The Eagles stand at 5-1 and 9-4 with one league game to be played before a rematch at Tacoma Baptist on Friday, January 29.
"Our 22 per cent shooting didn't help us," Evergreen Lutheran head coach Jeff Kurbis stated. "We played hard and were beating them up and down the court. They got too many of the loose balls at unfortunate times for us. The free throws were the difference, but the Crusaders were better than us tonight."
In addition to the sub par field goal shooting percentage, Evergreen Lutheran shot only 8-for-18 from the free throw line.
