Central in for stern test at Humboldt

• It has been six years and 34 conference games since Central Washington was defeated in GNAC play.

Bear in mind that the Wildcats competed in the now-defunct North Central Conference in 2006 and 2007, but their GNAC dominance is nonetheless notable.
The last team to beat CWU in a GNAC game? Western Washington, 28-21, in the 2004 Battle in Seattle.
The last coach to beat Central in the GNAC? Rob Smith, then at Western and now at Humboldt State, where the Wildcats will play Saturday night.
Both teams are unbeaten in the conference — Central at 3-0 and the Lumberjacks at 2-0.
CWU’s Blaine Bennett, meanwhile, was his usual candid self after last Saturday night’s 44-30 triumph at winless Simon Fraser, a game in which the Wildcats were tied 10-10 at halftime.
“We came out a little bit flat,” Bennett said via telephone after the game. “Offensively we weren’t playing with the kind of energy and tempo we’d been playing with and defensively we weren’t playing with the energy and tempo we’d been playing with.
“It was one of those halves you don’t like to see as a football coach, but they happen. You like to think you’ve prepared well for the game, but when we hit the field we were just a little bit flat. And give Simon Fraser credit — they did some nice things and kept us off balance.”
Most disturbing to Bennett were the 30 points and 459 offensive yards posted by the previously anemic Clan.
“It’s a huge concern,” he said. “It was very disappointing, but we’ll take a look at the video and see what kind of changes we need to make.”
CWU’s performance was not lost on national pollsters. The Wildcats moved up one spot to No. 21 in the Division II coach’s poll but dropped one spot to 12th in the D2Football.com rankings.
The regional rankings, which eventually determine the D-II playoff field,  are due out next week.
Bennett, en route to a 25-5 record at Central, has not lost when his team has been a decided favorite.
That said, the Wildcats will not be overwhelming favorites at Humboldt.

FROM THE QUOTE FILE
Jack Sikma, when asked to detail the advantages of a Sonic frontcourt that included himself (6-foot-11, 230 pounds), Lonnie Shelton (6-8 1/2, 245) and James Donaldson (7-2, 275):
“That front line would be effective at rushing the passer, too.”

State volleyball poll

Volleyball Coaches State Poll

Class 4A; 1. Richland; 2. Mead; 3. Jackson; 4. Puyallup; 5. Olympia; 6. Issaquah; 7. Woodinville; 8. Auburn Riverside; 9. Gig Harbor; 10. Bothell.
Class 3A: 1. Mt. Spokane; 2. Camas; 3. West Valley (Yakima); 4. Blanchet; 5. Kennedy; 6. Auburn Mountainview; 7. University; 8. Seattle Prep; 9. Enumclaw; 10. Prairie.
Class 2A: 1. Burlington-Edison; 2. Selah; 3. Pullman; 4. Fife; 5, Black Hills; 6. Lynden; 7. Archbishop Murphy; 8. Mark Morris; 9. Tumwater.
Class 1A: 1. King’s; 2. Chelan; 3. Cascade (Leavenworth); 4. La Salle; 5. Granger; 6. Onalaska’ 7. Cascade Christian; 8. Lakeside; 9. Royal; 10. Connell.
Class 2B: 1.Toutle Lake; 2. Bear Creek; 3.Darrington; 4.Colfax; 5. La Conner; 6. Riverside Christian; 7. Kittatas; 8.Northwest Christian (Spokane); 9. Reardan; 10. Napavine.
Class 1B: 1. Pomeroy; 2. Almira-Coulee-Hartline; 3. Trout Lake-Glenwood; 4. Tekoa-Oakesdale; 5. Christian Faith; 6. Colton; 7. Morton-White Pass; 8. Klickitat; 9. Lyle-Wishram; 10. Thorp.

Yakima River Canyon paragliding gallery

Paragliding an air-raising experience

ATOP BALDY BUTTE, Wash. — Flight doesn’t get more serene than this. There’s a few seconds of buffeting clatter as the elliptical-shaped chute inflates in the wind above you, followed by a short scamper — a few steps, just enough to ensure liftoff — and then … nothing. You are floating on air, subject only to the law of gravity.

And, thanks to that “wing” above you, even that law becomes negotiable.

PHOTO GALLERY

Click here for more photos from this event

That’s paragliding in a nutshell, and it’s what several dozen paraglider pilots from around the Pacific Northwest experienced, some of them several times, over this past weekend. They ascended into the sky from the top of Baldy Butte, overlooking the Yakima River Canyon between Selah and Ellensburg, and rode the wind and the thermal airlift to sweeping panoramic views the rest of us can only dream about.

One of those pilots was Patti Fujii, a graphic designer who knew nothing about paragliding until the moment 10 years ago when, while hiking near her hometown of Issaquah, she crested a bluff and got her first glimpse of “these wings in the sky.” She was so taken by the sight she immediately went about arranging a tandem flight.

“After I landed (at the end of that initial flight), I was smiling for the next six hours,” Fujii recalls. “Anything that makes you that happy, you’ve got to try it. Life’s too short.”

Paraglider flights, on the other hand, don’t have to be. On a good day at Baldy Butte — where, on summer days, “thermals” of upward-bound warm air can carry pilots thousands of feet into the sky — pilots can soar for hours over the same area, or ride the air currents as far as Ellensburg, Quincy or even Chelan.

“All paragliders,” says Kitsap County pilot Ken Sinclair, “want to go up, not down.”

Sinclair flies at Baldy Butte on a regular basis, largely because he has relatives in Selah. But like many west side paragliding enthusiasts, he’d gladly make the trip anyway.

“The great thing about this particular spot, as opposed to a lot of places on the west side, is that because of the thermal activity here, you have the possibility of getting really high up — to 12,000 feet, even — and therefore you have the possibility of doing a cross-country trip.”

David Norwood, 52, is a Wapato pastor who discovered paragliding while arranging tandem instructional flights for his wife and himself on their 25th wedding anniversary. That was three years ago, and the feeling so hooked Norwood that he’s taken more than 600 flights since.

“I was totally sold on it as a new avocation even before I went on the flight, because of my love of flighting and because I did enough research that I knew I would love it,” says Norwood, one of two local pilots — along with Bob Bunger of Yakima — who oversaw last weekend’s “Baldy Fly-In” event.

“The beautiful thing about paragliding is it’s affordable,” Norwood says. “Once you crack the nut of paying for your training and getting your gear, there really aren’t a lot of other expenses. You can do it. You can fly a lot if you can afford the time.”

A person can become a paraglider pilot — undergoing initial training (figure on about $1,500) and purchasing all of the necessary gear — for less than $7,000. The three expensive items are the “wing” ($3,000 to $4,500 new), a reserve parachute and a harness (each in the $800-$1,000 range), and buying them used can cut the cost in half.

Paragliding operates under Federal Air Regulation 103, which governs “ultralight vehicles” that, in the case of an unpowered flight vehicle such as a paraglider, weight less than 155 pounds. (The entire paraglider, including chute, harness and wing, tucks into a backpack that, when full, typically weighs no more than 70 pounds.) The guidelines are significantly less extensive and stringent than those regulating airplane pilots, Norwood says, “because we’re basically jumping off a cliff with a rag over our heads.”

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But that doesn’t mean paragliders don’t take seriously their sport — and their safety.

The vast majority of paragliders are members of the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA), and training can run from two dozen to four dozen flights — first in tandem, then solo while under radio supervision — depending on where and in what conditions each pilot is typically flying in. And paraglider pilots are constantly assessing conditions around the state, either online or in contact with each other, to decide what sites will offer good, safe flying and which ones should be avoided.

“When I started, my wife and I talked about what we expected the people to be like, and we both expected it to be the skateboarder, snowboarder, pants-around-the-knees kind of people. It’s 180 degrees the other way,” says pilot Randy Lettau, a mechanical engineer from North Bend. “These people are engineers, doctors, pilots, people with PhDs. They’re theoretical, they think things through.

“That’s why a lot of pilots are in the 30s, 40s, 50s — there’s problem-solving and advance planning involved. This isn’t some seat-of-the-pants thing.”

Playing fast and loose could be treacherous at a thermic site like Baldy Butte, where rising warm-air thermals are much more unpredictable than the “mechanical lift” of canyon winds pushing against the butte and accelerating up the slope.

“Baldy is a site that deserves as much respect as any (paragliding) site in the world, because it can be really big air,” Bunger says. “That’s why we do this Baldy Fly-In this late in the year, because we don’t want to introduce the site to newbies in mid-summer conditions (when) the air then is just way too violent. Wind isn’t too bad — granted, you don’t want 30 mph winds — but wind is predictable. Thermals aren’t.”

Anywhere there are thermals, those upward surges of warm air, there will be other areas of cooler air rushing downward to replace it. An experienced pilot will be able to gauge where the thermal lift is and be able to “core it,” — negotiating the wing into tight enough circles to follow the warm air upward.

“Just outside of that uplift,” Bunger explains, “is where that turbulence is. If you get out into that turbulence, half of your wing will collapse, fold up, wad up” … and then the pilot must maneuver the wing in such a way that it once again fills with wind and returns to smooth flight.

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Paragliding deaths are rare, most often caused by poor pilot judgment — very often simply deciding to fly in bad conditions. There are roughly 5,000 pilots in the United States, and USHPA recorded three paraglider deaths in 2009 and two in 2008; the worst year was nine in 2003, and on the other end of the spectrum was the three-season stretch between 1999 and 2001, when there were only two pilot fatalities.

Of the three 2009 paraglider deaths, one pilot landed in the ocean, became tangled in the chute lines and drowned; another died after launching on a day “most considered too strong and cross for flying,” according to USHPA; and the third was a pilot flying in thermals who, when problems occurred, didn’t deploy the reserve parachute in time.

Many pilots will never have to make the scary decision to “huck” — that is, to deploy a reserve parachute in mid-flight. Norwood hasn’t hucked a single time in his 600-plus flights, simply because most of the problems a paraglider pilot might encounter can be offset by calm reaction and proper response.

And on a day like like last Saturday, when thermals were minimal and pilots were sent aloft by the simple force of wind racing up the side of the butte, the idea of turbulence seemed like a concept from a distant world. It was a day for floating on air.

“When you’re paragliding,” says Sinclair, the pilot visiting from Kitsap County, “you could be unconscious and still get down all right. You might land in a tree, but you’ll get down just fine, with your wing over you.

“You’re not going to fall out of the sky.”

Instead, there you will be, suspended between land and cloud, enjoying a 360-degree panorama from the most magical viewpoint imaginable.

Oh … wow.

Riddle wins Late Model race, series points title

Owen Riddle of Naches capped a dominant season in fitting fashion Saturday night, winning his sixth Super Late Model Challenge Series race of the year to secure the points title and $8,000 in prize money at Yakima Speedway.

It was Riddle’s second straight Late Model title and third in four years at the Speedway and set him up as a strong contender in this weekend’s 23rd annual Fall Classic.

The track crowned two other season champions, Donnie Stevens in Bump to Pass and Clay Mears in Youth Hornets. Greg Gargett won the Hornets Dash for Cash race.

Riddle’s consistent season included nine top-five finishes in the 11-race series, which had a hefty prize fund backed a group of local businesses. Despite some difficulties in Saturday’s finale, Erick Hargraves finished second in season points followed by Ron Bemis and Mike Longton.

In the 100-lap Late Model race, Riddle took command over the final 20 laps with Kelly Mann finishing second and Owen’s brother, Tayler Riddle, coming up for third. It was a big day for the Riddles as Tayler ended up fifth overall in points while winning rookie of the year honors.

Stevens, who won five Bump to Pass main events this year to win the title on a tiebreaker, was third on Saturday behind winner Cody Denton and runner-up Allen Reid.

Tyler Thorndike won the Youth Hornets finale with season-champion Mears in third.

Fall Classic practice on Friday is open to the public. On Saturday and Sunday, gates open at 11 a.m. with racing at 1 p.m. The Sunday finale is a 200-lap Super Late Model event. For more information, go to www.yakimaspeedway.us.
SUPER LATE MODEL

Main event: Owen Riddle, Kelly Mann, Tayler Riddle, Randy Marshall Jr., Marcus Maggard, Christopher Kalsch, Mike Longton, Jason Fraser, Mike Zamora, Erick Hargraves. A dash: Longton, O. Riddle, Fraser. B dash: Zamora, Kalsch, Marshall, Hargraves. Fast time: Fraser 18.853.

HORNETS

Main event: Greg Gargett, Jeff Ball, Dave Peterson, Josh Washington, Kyle Wade, Michael Beck, Chris Kohler, Eric Coble, Reid Lundgren, Johhnie Raymond, Nathan Voyles, Chris Morrison, Julie Melville, Robert Patton. A dash: Gargett, Washington, Peterson, Kohler. B dash: Melville, Ball, Coble, Patton. Heat: Ball, Morrison, Raymond, Coble, Patton, Melville, Voyles. Fast time: Gargett 16.904.

YOUTH HORNETS

Main event: Tyler Thorndike, Ryan Trujillo, Clay Mears, Taylor Perrault, Tra Anderson, R.J. Morton, Andrew Stewart. A dash: Anderson, Mears, Thorndike. B dash: Perrault, Trujillo, Stewart. Heat: Mears, Perrault, Stewart, Morton, Thorndike, Trujillo. Fast time: Mears 17.501.

BUMP TO PASS

Main event: Cody Denton, Allen Reid, Donnie Stevens, Joe Stevens, Julie McAlpine, Ben Briggs, Wes Heigh, Kevin Harper, Peppie Rojas. A dash: D. Stevens, Denton, Rojas, Reid. B dash: Heigh, Briggs, Harper, McAlpine. Heat: McAlpine, Harper, Heigh, Chuck Strimiska. Fast time: D. Stevens 17.365.

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College Football

Kelly, Davis earn GNAC honors

SPOKANE — Central Washington senior Bryson Kelly and sophomore Sean Davis have been named the GNAC co-Offensive and Special Teams Players of the Week.

Kelly ran for a career-high 246 yards and four touchdowns in the Wildcats’ 44-30 victory over Simon Fraser on Saturday. His effort was 136 yards more than his career high, and marked the fifth-highest single-game rushing total in CWU history.

Kelly shared the Offensive Player of the Week award with Simon Fraser back Gabe Ephard, who racked up 222 yards. Kelly and Ephard became the first duo to run for 200 yards in the same game in GNAC history.

For Davis, it was his second consecutive special teams award with field goals of 26, 35, and 28 yards and five extra-points.

His 14 points tied a 36-year single-game school record for kick scoring. He remains a perfect 6-for-6 in field goal tries this season.

*****
College Soccer

Tomaso named co-player of week

SPOKANE — CWU junior forward Serena Tomaso has been named the GNAC women’s soccer co-player of the week.

Tomaso scored a goal and had two assists in a 3-0 victory over Western Oregon on Thursday, and recorded a hat trick in the Wildcats 4-2 win against Saint Martin’s on Saturday.

Tomaso shares the award with Montana State-Billings goalie Sabrina Granke-Bawab, who recorded two shutout wins last week.

Officers unite to fight poachers

YAKIMA, Wash. — On a Tuesday morning four weeks ago, Sampson Piel received a phone call from an Ahtanum resident who reported seeing three vehicles hauling what appeared to be a dead elk or two off the northern end of the Yakama reservation and into the west end of the Ahtanum.

Piel is an enforcement lieutenant with the Yakama Nation’s fish and wildlife program, and this being a Tuesday — a light day in the wildlife enforcement world, where everybody works ultra-long shifts on weekends — Piel had no officers on duty in the area. He immediately headed out toward Tampico … and did what he would have done anyway, even had he had a half-dozen officers ready to roll.

He called Morgan Grant, who happens to be an enforcement sergeant with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

That’s right: The tribal enforcement officer calling the nontribal enforcement officer. Happens all the time, and just as often it’s the flip side, Grant calling Piel.

They are on the same page.

The fact that their uniforms are different colors impedes their working relationship not one bit. Whether the situation involves nontribal or nonenrolled hunters and anglers breaking Yakama regulations, or tribal members breaking state laws, Grant and Piel — and their respective departments — routinely assist one another in hunting down and charging poachers and other wildlife lawbreakers.

“I probably talk to Sampson twice a week, if not more,” Grant says. “We understand it’s important to pool our resources. I think it’s a really good working relationship. In the law enforcement world, we’re partners.”

As it turned out, Grant was in a meeting he couldn’t leave that Tuesday, but WDFW enforcement Capt. Rich Mann and officer Skip Caton both headed out to Tampico in separate vehicles to back up Piel. The Yakama lieutenant was the first to spot one of the trucks involved in the possible poaching incident and made the stop, with both Caton and Mann arriving just minutes later. In the bed of the pickup were two elk heads and other wildlife parts.

No sooner had the three game wardens arrived than the pickup driver began declaring he was “a descendent” of an enrolled Yakama. Not the same thing. And Piel, upon determining they weren’t dealing with a tribal member, immediately ceded authority to the WDFW officers.

“As soon as he started yelling ‘I’m a descendent,’ I knew I have no jurisdiction over him. That’s why I handed him over to the state. Unless you’re an enrolled member of the Yakama Nation, you can’t exercise a treaty right.”

Piel, though, continued to assist the state officers’ investigation, which is expected to lead to charges being forwarded to the district attorney within the next few weeks — not just on the pickup driver carrying the elk parts, but on others involved in the poaching case.

It would be fair to say that Piel’s and Grant’s respective superiors, the ones with the political jobs, have had their share of differences over the years.

On one side you have a sovereign nation with treaty rights granted and assured more than a century-and-a-half ago. On the other side you have a state agency trying to manage wildlife resources while often having to mollify the concerns of hunters and anglers who don’t give a hoot about treaty rights and occasionally want to blame tribal hunters for every perceived ill in their wildlife world.

(I know whereof I speak. I get those telephone calls and e-mails, as I’m sure I will after this column.)

But the guys responsible for corralling poachers and other miscreants, whether tribal or non-tribal, are working together — tribal and non-tribal — to get them.

They’re the good guys. Regardless of the uniform color.

• Outdoors editor Scott Sandsberry can be reached at 509-577-7689 or ssandsberry@yakimaherald.com

9/28 What’s Happening

Inspectors stop boat with zebra mussels

Some solid work by inspectors at the Cle Elum Port of Entry prevented a potential contamination of invasive zebra mussels in Washington waters.

A commercial truck hauling a 57-foot boat contaminated with zebra mussels was inspected at the Cle Elum site by a Washington State Patrol commercial vehicle enforcement officer and a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officer.

They assessed the contamination and  sent the boat to be decontaminated at SeaView Marina in Bellingham.

Had the boat entered Washington waters and allowed zebra mussels to become established here, it could have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Zebra mussels and other water-based invasive species spread by attaching themselves to boats and other equipment, and once established in new waters will multiply quickly and threaten native fish and wildlife by consuming available food. They can also clog water-intake systems at power plants, irrigation districts and public water supplies.

State officials have been checking loads being hauled into Washington since 2006 and have found quagga and zebra mussels on more than 20 boats.

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Six Cascadians hike lengthy ‘Pass to Pass’

Six members of the Cascadians, including 72-year-old J.R. Phillips and 71-year-old Pat Sexton, hiked the roughly 29-mile stretch of Pacific Crest Trail from Chinook Pass to White Pass on Saturday.

The group did the one-day trek, which entailed roughly 4,100 feet of elevation gain (and 5,100 feet of elevation loss), in 12 hours and 28 minutes.

Along with Phillips and Sexton, the group included Phil Fischer, Greg Wallace, Suzanne De Busschere and Theresa Lorenz.

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Ellensburg riderwins equestrian title

Equestrian competitor Molly Slothower of Ellensburg, already a dressage champion at this summer’s Kittitas County Fair, added a state title two weeks ago at the Puyallup fairgrounds.

Slothower, who was also among the top placers in jumping at Puyallup, trains at Burkeridge Farms in Ellensburg under owner-trainer Mary Burke.

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BIRD ALERT

This is one of the few times of the year when numbers of gulls are seen in Yakima County away from the Columbia River because of the annual kokanee salmon “run” at Rimrock Lake, which attracts lots of fish-eating birds.

For the next few weeks, this run will continue to attract these birds in large numbers. This week, common mergansers, western grebes, great blue herons, ring-billed gulls, and California gulls were all noted feeding on the salmon.

A heavily watered pasture north of Highway 24 just east of Beane Road is attracting shorebirds, with killdeer, greater yellowlegs, pectoral sandpiper, Wilson’s snipe all being seen.

A Sunnyside resident noted an unusual gathering “all at once” in his back yard as American robins, bohemian waxwings, Townsend solitaires, American goldfinches and a spotted towhees all seemed attracted to his feeder, birdbath and sunflowers, and the berries on his Hawthorne tree.

Western scrub jays were observed this week in both Terrace Heights and Sunnyside — probably dispersing fall birds, as these areas are devoid of oaks. A common loon was spotted near the dam at Wenas Lake and a great egret was also hanging around, mostly working the shoreline.

There was a mini-migration of hawks for about 15 minutes at Raven Roost, including northern goshawk, Cooper’s hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, red-tailed hawks and a merlin.

The Larson Building still has a peregrine falcon hanging around. A Konnowac Pass resident noted a peregrine falcon circle slowly overhead, and also observed hundreds of violet-green swallows and 12 Vaux’s swifts at the same time.

Please call your bird sightings into the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 509-248-1963.

— Kerry L. Turley

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AROUND AND ABOUT

VOLUNTEER EFFORTS: Volunteers turned out in force at a number of outdoor sites on Saturday in recognition of National Public Lands Day. One of the many projects involving volunteer labor involved four-wheel-drive participants from Yakima/Kittitas Forest Watch erecting Yakima County Sheriff’s Office ORV Rules signs at the entrance of a few DNR areas, including the Ahtanum Sno-Park, Nasty Creek Corrals and the junction of Maloy and Audubon roads in the Wenas.

CHINOOK LIMITS: The daily limit on adult chinook was upped to two on the lower Columbia River from the mouth of the Lewis River to Bonneville Dam. The daily limit is six fish, of which up to two may be adult salmon or hatchery steelhead or one of each.  Any chinook, adipose fin clipped or not, may be retained.

FIRST CLAM DIG: The season’s first razor-clam dig is tentatively set for Oct. 7-10 on five ocean beaches, with Twin Harbors to open for all four days and Long Beach, Copalis, Mocrocks and Kalaloch to open Oct. 8-9 only. No digging will be allowed before noon on any of the five razor-clam beaches.

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ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The “Tuesdays” will head from White Pass on the Maintenance Shed Road and make their way to Sand Lake, a 6-miler with 1,100 feet of elevation gain. The group meets at 7:30 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and carpools from there. Bring a lunch and clothes for possible changes in the weather.

TODAY: The Mount Adams Cycling Club is having its fall membership meeting beginning at 6:15 p.m. at Round Table Pizza off 40th Avenue. For more information, call Carla Andringa at 509-972-8570.

WEDNESDAY: If you’re looking for that weekly Mount Adams Cycling Club loop ride to Naches, sorry. Last week was the last one of the season. Group rides will resume next spring.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ “Pokies” will hike the Coal Mine Trail in the Roslyn area, with leaders Jackie and Jim Hertel emphasizing the region’s historic coal-mining activities — including a miners memorial and looks at a brief history of mining in the area and relic mining equipment. Participants can choose between a two-mile round trip from Roslyn or a four-miler from Cle Elum to Roslyn. Bring your own lunch or eat at one of the town’s cafes. For meeting time and place, call the trip leaders at 509-469-4458.

SATURDAY: The Cascadians will also host hike to beautiful Colchuck Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, a 10-mile round trip with 2,200 feet of elevation gain. For meeting time and place, call Ted Gamlem at 509-697-5051.

New CC poll, Sunfair entries

Here’s the Week 4 state coaches cross country poll. Teams noted with an asterisk are entered in Saturday’s Sunfair Invitational at Franklin Park. Below the poll are other out-of-state Sunfair entries.

BOYS
Class 4A: 1, *Eisenhower; 2, Lewis & Clark; 3, Skyline; 4, *Auburn Riverside; 5, *Mead; 6, Jackson; 7, *Bellarmine; 8, Issaquah; 9, Ferris; 10, *Walla Walla.
Class 3A: 1, North Central; 2, *University; 3, *Kamiakin; 4, Seattle Prep; 5, Mt. Spokane; 6, Bellevue; 7, *Shadle Park; 8, Nathan Halle; 9, Mercer Island; 10, *Blanchet.
Class 2A: 1, *Sehome; 2, Mark Morris; 3, *Bellingham; 4, *Ellensburg; 5, Interlake; 6, Archbishop Murphy; 7, Lindbergh; 8, Squalicum; 9, Chehalis; 10, Lakewood.
Class 1A: 1, Port Townsend; 2, Nooksack Valley; 3, *Lakeside; 4, Colville; 5, La Center; 6, Lynden Christian; 7, Charles Wright; 8, *Meridian; 9, *Cashmere; 10, *Riverside.
Class 2B-1B: 1, *Northwest Christian (Lacey); 2, Republic; 3, Mossyrock; 4, Mt. Rainier Lutheran; 5, Tri-Cities Prep; 6, North Beach; 7, Northwest Christian (Spokane); 8, White Pass; 9, Waitsburg-Prescott; 10, St. John-Endicott.
GIRLS
Class 4A: 1, *Eisenhower; 2, *Bellarmine; 3, *Tahoma; 4, Skyline; 5, Stanwood; 6, Jackson; 7, Eastlake; 8, *Gig Harbor; 9, *Central Valley; 10, Redmond. Others: *Davis.
Class 3A: 1, *Glacier Peak; 2, *Shadle Park; 3, *Kamiakin; 4, Peninsula; 5, Lakeside; 6, Mt. Spokane; 7, Oak Harbor; 8, Prairie; 9, Enumclaw; 10, Camas.
Class 2A: 1, *Sehome; 2, *Kingston; 3, Lakewood; 4, Cheney; 5, *Bellingham; 6, *Ephrata; 7, Lindbergh; 8, *Cedarcrest; 9, Interlake; 10, Deer Park.
Class 1A: 1, Northwest; 2, *Lakeside; 3, Omak; 4, La Center; 5, Nooksack Valley; 6, King’s; 7, *Riverside; 8, Chelan; 9, *Meridian; 10, *Cashmere.
Class 2B-1B: 1, *Northwest Christian (Lacey); 2, White Pass; 3, Northwest Christian (Spokane); 4, St. George’s; 5, Crosspoint Academy.

Sunfair’s out-of-state entries:
Oregon: Jesuit, Canby, Lincoln, McMinnville, South Eugene, Franklin, Mountain View, Valley Catholic.
Idaho: Bishop Kelly, Twin Falls, Coeur D’Alene, Eagles, Post Falls, Vallivue.
Montana: Sentinel.
BC: Abbotsford.

For everything you want to know about Saturday’s big event, check out www.sunfairrun.com

DeGrazia gets 14th Bestball victory

YAKIMA, Wash. — After a four-year drought, Seattle’s Chris DeGrazia earned his 14th Central Washington Two-Man Bestball Tournament title on Sunday at SunTides Golf Course.

DeGrazia, teamed with Mike Hickok, roared back from a four-stroke deficit to record a 64 on Sunday and a two-stroke autumn victory over spring tournament champions Dusty Frontis and Corey DeGrood.

Lyn Dasso and Ivan Porcayo, who led after Saturday’s first round, finished third.

Ray Gallipo and Ward Jackson of Yakima finished fourth in the gross division.

Chris and George Adams, a father-son duo from Aurora, Ore., tied with Yakima’s Jeff Shaw and Bill Adkison for the net title with a score of 120. Steve Adams and Steve Stough finished one stroke behind.

FINAL RESULTS

Gross: 1, Chris DeGrazia-Mike Hickok 131; 2, Corey DeGrood-Dusty Frontis 133; 3, (tie) Lyn Dasso-Ivan Porcayo 134, Ray Gallipo-Ward Jackson 134, John Onstad-Shane Snell 134; 6, Bruce Hiatt-Bruce Steelman 135; 7, (tie) West Campbell-Robi Raab 136, Jeffrey Heil-Michael James Wise 136.

Net: 1, (tie) Chris Adams-George Adams 120, Bill Adkison-Jeff Shaw 120; 3, Steve Adams-Steve Stough 121; 4, (tie) John Borton-Alex Podruzny 123, Pete Christensen-Cliff Lewis 123; 6, Steve Rasmusson-Rob Woodey 124; 7, (tie) Rudy Gasparac-Don Wagoner 125, Rod Johnston-Dean Schuler 125.

AUTO RACING

Speedway results unavailable

Due to computer issues, the results from this weekend’s season championships at Yakima Speedway were not provided to the Yakima Herald-Republic in time for this edition.

They will run in the newspaper and at sportsyakima.com when they become available.

Pac-10 football looks talented, deep

SEATTLE — Suddenly, the Pac-10 Conference, 2010, looks something like it did in 2009. Remember the wacko, week-to-week competitiveness that produced the wildest Pac-10 in history?

Saturday, the team picked to finish seventh, California, took 14th-ranked Arizona to the wire. The team forecast eighth, UCLA, went to Austin as a 15-point underdog and handed seventh-ranked Texas its lunch. And the club selected ninth, Arizona State, ran up 31 first downs and 597 yards on fifth-rated Oregon in defeat.

What we learned

Reports of Rick Neuheisel’s demise were greatly exaggerated. After an 0-2 start, there were rumblings of a possible two-win season at UCLA and questions asked about whether the coach would survive.

Then the Bruins cold-cocked Texas with a running game that produced 264 yards.

Referring to Texas’ first-half turnovers that put UCLA in the lead, Neuheisel told the Los Angeles Times, “I told them at halftime that hope wasn’t how we were going to win this game. We weren’t going to hope for the clock to run out. We weren’t going to hope for them to keep making mistakes. I said, ‘Go out and fight and enjoy the fight.’ ”

They did. Said Bruins safety Tony Dye, “They were taken aback by our toughness. They thought we were a bunch of laid-back California kids.”

Maybe the Pistol offense really is that vexing to defenses. Not only did UCLA’s version flummox Texas, but Cal, a week after getting floored by the Nevada Pistol, held the dynamic non-Pistol Arizona offense to only 311 yards.

Darron Thomas is a work in progress. Yes, it’s hard to argue with the Oregon quarterback’s 19 of 33 for 260 yards against ASU. But the numbers are inflated by a couple of busts in the Sun Devils secondary that netted completions of 61 and 54 yards. Thomas threw several clothesline passes when he needed soft touch.

Oregon State’s pass rush is still MIA. The Beavers failed to sack Boise State’s Kellen Moore, and many of the defensive concerns are still there, as OSU is allowing 458 yards a game.

But they’ve been here before. OSU had its seventh consecutive non-winning September, yet given the elite level of competition, the Beavers might not be that far away.

This week

The headliner of four conference games is Stanford at Oregon, which no doubt remembers the underdog Cardinal’s 51-42 victory in 2009. Saturday, Stanford throttled Notre Dame, holding the Irish to 44 rushing yards and 14:31 time of possession over the last three quarters.

Times Players of the Week

Offense — Center Ryan Taylor, UCLA’s only player from Texas, keyed the Bruins’ crunching ground game, making the line calls and surviving a heat-induced absence for an IV.

Defense — UCLA LB Akeem Ayers had six tackles, including a sack, with a forced fumble and an interception against Texas.

Special teams — Stanford’s Nate Whitaker, who admitted he had extra motivation for Notre Dame after being a walk-on discouraged from the roster by former Irish coach Charlie Weis, had five field goals to help beat the Domers.

— Bud Withers/The Seattle Times

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