February 2012

When Thane Maudslien returns to swim for Kennedy Catholic next year, he will be gunning for two repeats -- and one "four-peat."

Maudslien was named as the Class 3A "Swimmer of the Year" after winning two events and he hopes to repeat that.

The Lancer senior sped to victory in the 100-yard butterfly for his third straight year and also won the 200 freestyle in his first season of competing in the stroke.

"I won the 100 fly for the third year in a row, and I look forward to swimming that next year, too, and getting a four-peat," Maudslien said.
Maudslien won the 200 free in a time of 1 minute, 38.79 seconds and took the 100 fly in 49.89 seconds.

"That was a best time for me in the 200 free, so I'm happy with that," Maudslien said.

Taking a close second in the 100 fly was Wilson's Chase Schell in 50.88.

"I knew it would be close," Maudslien said.

Maudslien's efforts help Kennedy Catholic to capture fifth place as a team in the 3A ranks. The Lancers scored 158 points behind the 311 of Lakeside (Seattle), the 300 score of Mercer Island, the 22.50 points of Bainbridge and the 168 of Liberty.

TACOMA - Mark down another monumental milestone for Mount Rainier.

Mixing power packed and finely finessed skills, the Mount Rainier gymnastics team set its third school record of the season on the way to the 2012 Class 4A team state gymnastics third place in the program's second season at this classification.

It was close encounters of the most suspenseful kind in which the Rams' depth of talent roster posted 177.675 points to trail only champion Mead (179.25) and runner up Woodinville (178.375) in the Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall Friday, Feb. 17.

"We're really excited," said Mount Rainier head coach Ali Kestle. "This was our highest for the year and another school record. We're a little disappointed, but we'll be back. It's only our second year at 4A and were only two points away from first place."

Improving nearly four points from their last school record as the 2012 West Central District III champions, the surging Rams capitalized on great improvement on the uneven parallel bars.

Extra hot shooting from the field powered the Seattle Christian girls basketball team to a Class 1A state regional berth from the 2012 Tri-District tournament in a 60-40 home court domination of Nooksack Valley on Thursday, February 16.

By shooting 46 per cent from the field (25-of-54) and limiting the Pioneers to just 19.6 per cent from field goal territory (11-of-56), the Warriors (15-9) will finish no worse than a sixth seed with a game remaining against Cedar Park Christian while Nooksack Valley (9-15) turned in its gear for the season.

SCS controlled the boards while holding NV to only 17 rebounds for the game as one key element of the victory along with a suffocating defensive effort.

For the greater part of this match up, the Warriors forced the Pioneers to circle their wagons inj a defensive position in attempts to hold off the attacking Seattle Christian team.

Seattle Christian's defense held Nooksack Valley to quarter scores of eight and seven en route to a 29-15 halftime advantage.

Friday, Feb. 17
Boys basketball
Kennedy 70, Foss 66
The Lancers scored a close victory over Foss Friday on their way to the West Central District Class 3A boys title.

Mt. Rainier 56, Kentwood 52
The Rams also posted a four-point win to get the 4A WCD tournament opened Friday.

Girls basketball
Mt. Rainier 68, Skyview 55
The Rams got started on their way to the West Central District 4A title with their win Friday.

Timberline 59, Kennedy 26
The Lancers lost by a big score in their WCD 3A action Friday.

Saturday, Feb. 18
Wrestling
Cal Woyvodich was the only Highline-area athlete to reach the state semifinals held at the Tacoma Dome, taking a 2-0 loss to Gabe Martinez of Quincy to miss out on the championship match.

Boys basketball
Kennedy 87, Lincoln 76
Kennedy Catholic won its semifinal against the perennially powerful Abes from Tacoma.

Olympia 63, Mt. Rainier 59
Mount Rainier got knocked into the third place game with Saturday's semifinal loss.

Foster 51, Fife 40
The Bulldogs won convincingly in 2A tournament play Saturday.

The Evergreen Wolverines took one on the chin from the Lindbergh Eagles in a West Central District III playoff game at Foss High School in Tacoma, Thursday night, February 16th. Final score was Evergreen 31, Lindbergh 55.

Evergreen had won the two previous conference games with Lindbergh but this is the playoffs. Could that cause an overconfident mindset before the game? “Always with teenagers.” Coach Tony White said. “I harped on that, I harped on that all day yesterday at practice. I told them it doesn’t matter what happened in the regular reason, what happened earlier. Whether we beat them twice or they beat us twice, none of that matters. It’s what happens tomorrow night on the court. Maybe it was in their head and they came out a little overconfident, over looked them a little bit.”

To start the game Lindbergh scored on the opening tip-off, and as they say, they never looked back. Evergreen finally scored their first basket with 3:03 left in the first quarter. It wasn’t for lack of effort, they hustled but they just weren’t in sync.

It's still all about the team.

Cody Miller's torrid, but steady, 27 points, 12 rebounds and three steals led a totally team oriented Seattle Christian boys basketball offense and defense in a 57-38 roping of the visiting Chimacum Cowboys in a quarterfinal round win of the 2012 1A Tri-District tournament on Tuesday, February 14.

With a berth in the state regional Hardwood Classic assured as one of the final four teams left in Tri-District, the District III No.1 seeded Warriors (17-3) will try to improve upon their tournament seeding with two additional games scheduled at Mountlake Terrace High School.

"We're playing good as a team," said Miller. "We found openings and just took our shots. On defense, we were getting up on their shooters to get hands in their faces. We wanted to give them no uncontested shots."

In the first quarter, the teams battled to four ties until two Cowboy three-pointers sandwiched around a Miller three turned a 13-11 disadvantage into a 17-15 Chimacum lead after one quarter.

The annual WestSide Awards sponsored by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce have been announced and Shannon Felix of Avalon Glass has shared the announcement. Atop the awards list are AmericanWest Bank, The Grove West Seattle Inn, Pete Spalding, and the West Seattle Garden Tour.

Here's the announcement:

The results are in! Thank you to all who submitted nominations for The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Program. From a pool of over 40 submissions, the committee has selected AmericanWest Bank (formerly Viking Bank) as the WestSide Business of the Year for 2011. Many nominators mentioned "friendly, personal, and professional" but it was AmericanWest Bank's community involvement and support of local non-profits that earned them the title. All the nominees represented the quality West Seattle businesses which make us proud, including: Mashiko, Ola Salon, Click! Design That Fits, Clementine Shoes, Max and Quinn's Atomic Boys, Link Apartments, Tony's Market, Nurturing Expressions, and Ventana Construction.

Press release from Tukwila Police:

On 2/19/12 at approximately 3:50pm, a Tukwila police officer on routine patrol observed a stolen vehicle traveling in the 14600 block of Tukwila International Blvd. The officer pulled in behind the vehicle, and the vehicle subsequently pulled into a motel in the 14400 block of TIB.

The officer exited his patrol vehicle and issued commands to the driver of the stolen vehicle, a 29-year-old-female from Seattle. The driver did not heed the officer’s commands and attempted to run over the officer.

The officer fired several shots at the driver. The suspect then fled northbound on TIB at a high rate of speed with officers in pursuit. As the suspect attempted to turn from northbound TIB to northbound SR 599, she lost control of the vehicle and collided with a citizen’s vehicle.

The suspect then fled on foot but was quickly apprehended by officers.

She was transported to Valley Medical Center to be treated for minor injuries and will be booked into jail; the cause of her injuries are unknown at this time.

A split SeaTac City Council spent much of their Valentine’s Day evening fighting over how often and for how long the public would be allowed to speak at council meetings.

Recently-selected Mayor Tony Anderson has proposed new administrative procedures he said would streamline council meetings.
Committee meetings have been replaced by study sessions attended by all council members two hours prior to the regular council sessions.
Previously, the public could speak at the committee meetings at the discretion of the individual committee chairs. However, public comment has been eliminated from the study sessions.

Anderson had also proposed that the length of public comments be reduced during regular council meetings.

Through a series of amendments, Councilman Rick Forschler managed to get most of the time restored.

Speaking time of three minutes per individual and 10 minutes per group of four or more was restored by a 6-1 vote.

Mayor Anderson, who had proposed 2 minutes and 5 minutes, voted no. He attended the meeting by phone. Deputy Mayor Mia Gregerson presided in his absence.

In 1952 I accepted an offer to manage this newspaper if I could also buy it someday. I had no money.

I was a trained electrician at Boeing before a neighbor mentioned
that there was a job opportunity in advertising and writing for the old Kent News Journal.

In high school a friend had told me he'd like to own and operate a small community newspaper. It was not on my bucket list.

I wanted to become the best ballplayer or the snazziest dresser so the girls would admire and hopefully love me.

A funny things happens to a man when he discovers his passion. Not
passion itself. I mean the passion for loving what you do.

With no particular training beyond holding a job at Meier & Frank, a Portland, Oregon department store, I worked as a copy boy in the ad dept. I did take a mail order advertising course; but I had no qualifications to own a newspaper. I had to learn as I went.

Everyone needs a break at some point. My break was a benevolent newspaper owner named John Muller.