June 2014

By Gerardo Bolong

AUBURN - John F. Kennedy girls tennis players just missed qualifying for state after May 24 play at the Class 3A WCD/SWW bi-district tournament at Auburn Mountainview High School.

In singles, Maddie Lu outlasted Mallory Woolf of North Thurston in three rugged sets. Lu lost the first set, 6-4, before coming back to earn a 6-2 second set win. The third set provided many dramatic and tense moments as the match up went to a 6-6 draw. Gaining the upper hand early, the Kennedy Catholic athlete won a 7-3 tie breaker to move on to her next match.

Allie Barry of Peninsula then defeated Lu, in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, putting the KC player into the first alternate to state position. The five state qualifiers in order of finish from the first to the fifth spot were Akari Baba (Peninsula), Angelina Polina (Ft. Vancouver), Misa Takami (Hazen), Lauren Skelly (Columbia River) and Barry.

By Eric Mathison

The Highline School Board is expected on June 4 to send to the voters a $385 million bond measure that would fund the rebuilding of Highline High and Des Moines Elementary as well as build two new middle schools.

The bond measure would need a 60 percent approval margin on the Nov. 4 general election ballot to pass.

Highline High would be rebuilt on its current site while Des Moines Elementary would be built on South 240th Street in Zenith, instead of its current site near downtown Des Moines.

Administrators contemplated offering a much cheaper bond option that would not have included Highline High. But they concluded conditions at the high school, built in 1923, had deteriorated to the point where it needed to be replaced.

The two new middle schools would be constructed at the old Manhattan site in Burien and Glacier site in SeaTac. The district plans to move sixth graders into middle schools to help alleviate overcrowding in elementary schools.

Rachelle Navarro of Kennedy Catholic finished in a two-way tie for 16th place at the Class 3A girls tournament to lead all area higher classification state golfers this week.

Navarro shot a two-day total of 175 on the Lewis River course in Woodland. She played 18 holes each on Wednesday and Thursday.
JFK teammate Nikki Miller wound up in a four-way tie for 18th with her total of 176 strokes and Makenzie Milton of the Lancers finished in a four-way tie for 22nd with her 178 total.

Missing the first round cut of 94 to reach the second round from Kennedy Catholic were Lydia Hedge with a score of 104 and Addie Hedge with a 109 over 18 holes.

Ryan Sheardown of JFK finished in a seven-way tie for 18th place in the 3A boys tournament played on the Tri-Mountain course in Ridgefield.
Sheardown shot a 79 the first day and a 77 the second for a two-day total of 156.

Teammate Jake Ryerson wound up in a four-way tie for 34th place in the state, shooting two rounds of 80 for a total of 160.

By Gerardo Bolong

SPANAWAY - After two rounds of golf on the Lake Spanaway Golf Course, the Seattle Christian boys team drove, chipped and putted well enough to capture second place at the state Class 1A championship tournament that concluded on Thurs., May 29.

Woodland amassed 91.5 points to outdistance Seattle Christian's 63.
"Our goal at the beginning was to win state," said SCS coach Kerry Doss. "Other than that we accomplished all our goals, going 10-0 and 7-0 Nisqually League. We won the Chambers Bay Invitational, sub-district and tri-district. Overall, we had a really good team with four medalists. Luke (Doss) was the league MVP and Aaron McClelland was first team all league. Jake Ronish and Alex Hay were all league second team They may have felt more pressure today, but everybody performed admirably."

With only state singles qualifiers from the first day eligible to compete on Thursday, much depended upon Luke Doss and Aaron McClelland.

By Gerardo Bolong

With great joy and super confidence, the Seattle Christian girls Class 1A Tri-District softball champions prepared to embark for Richland for a Friday, May 30, opening round state tournament game.

At the 2014 Tri-District 1/2/3 championship game held at Janicki Fields in Sedro Wooley on May 24, the Nisqually League champions (14-3 overall) edged out Mt. Baker 8-7 in a back-and-forth battle.

Mt. Baker scored a run in the first inning and a trio of tallies in the third inning before a Seattle Christian four-spot tied the game at 4-4 after three complete innings. The Warriors from SeaTac edged ahead with a single run only to have Mt. Baker knock three more runs home.