Swimmers take on state's best

In boy's swimming, the Ballard Beavers team finished in 17th place at the State Tournament for 4A schools on Feb. 16 at the King County Aquatic Center.

At least one swimmer from Ballard turned in a surprise performance. "The stunner of the meet continued to be Dylan Walker in the 50 free. During the preliminaries, he moved from 11th seed to third seed with a scorching time of 22.01, a huge drop in time for him," said head coach Thor Tyson.

Walker ended up second in the finals of the 50 free. His second place was the best by an individual from the Seattle 4A schools that include Ballard, Roosevelt and Garfield.

Perry Sharify was fourth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:57.69. Last year he was second in the event.

Sharify's 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke, where he placed third made him the high point scorer for Ballard.

Ballard coaches were pushing the relay team to start faster. The team was then disqualified for a false start.

"Not the best result for the team of Josh Jaeger, Ian Absher, Perry Sharify and Dylan Walker, but they were pushing the relay transfers to try and move up and sometimes that is the price to be paid when you take risks. All of the boys were okay with the result and were mostly happy that they had a chance to compete in the finals," said Tyson.

Boys conclude long season

The Ballard Beavers boys basketball team concluded its season on Feb. 8 against Redmond with a 52 - 42 win. Their overall record is 9-12 and they are 3-12 in the KingCo League. The Beavers started the year strong with wins over Ingraham, Bishop Blanchet, Lakeside and Woodinville before losing four league games. Ballard the rebounded by winning three of four games over Lindbergh, Chief Sealth and South West Roos from Australia.

Defensively, the Beavers are the best team in KingCo, averaging 46.2 points allowed.

The graduating seniors this year are: Joey Bolinger; Cameron Meratina; Jimmy Mirante; and Ben Wilson. The rest of the team includes: juniors Nolan Kozu, Berhanu Mekonnen, Dylan Peterson, Taylor Rausch, Lee Richardson, Eric Taylor; sophomores John Barnes and Kegan Lucas.

Assisting head coach Billy Rodgers this season were: Ron Newton; Steve Boyd; Marques Chinn; John Nygaard; Gary Smith; and Keven Wynkoop.

Future bright with freshmen gymnasts

This year's Ballard Beaver gymnastics team was full of young talent and two freshmen made it to the state championships on Feb. 15 and 16. Both gymnasts finished out of the top eight.

Taylor Stern qualified for state on bars with a sixth place finish at the Sea-King 4A District Championships. She was also 16th on floor, 13th on beam and 9th all around.

Eric Redmond went to state on the beam after taking seventh place at districts. Redmond was 17th on floor and 11th all round.

As a team, the Ballard Beavers gymnastics team finished in third place at districts with 164.500 points. Woodinville took top honors with180.600 points and Bothell was second at 176.650.

A week earlier the Beavers were third in the KingCo championships. "We set a school record with our high team score of 166.85 and qualified to the 4A District meet as a team for the first time in school history. We're in a tough district with two teams that consistently have the capability to win state, but we are steadily improving each year," said head coach Stephanie Gundel.

Five years ago, Ballard was 9th best out of 11 teams in KingCo. Gundel has great optimism with the two third place post season performances.

"We're looking forward to some strong years ahead with a great base returning for 2008 and 2009," said Gundel.

Scully best in KingCo

Ballard wrestler Owen Scully won the KingCo 4A sub-regional championship on Feb. 2. He defeated his Redmond opponent in the 215 pound category. Scully was 20-5 on the season. At the Class 4A Region II Tournament on Feb. 9, the Beavers tied for 15th place with Franklin. Both schools had 6 points.