Rivals renewed: Beetles, Pak get early look at each other

YAKIMA, Wash. — It won’t take long to have a look at the new-look American Legion baseball teams in the Valley.

The Yakima Valley Pepsi Pak will host the Yakima Pepsi Beetles in a non-league doubleheader today at Carlon Park. The first game is set to start at 5 p.m.

With no tune-up games available before their Central Washington League openers in less than a week, the two rivals decided this would be a good time to get on the field together.

“We had some games with Walla Walla canceled because of their graduation dates and that left us with nothing until league starts,” said Pak coach Mike Archer. “I think both of us would get tired of practicing.”

 

Yakima Valley, which edged Twin City by a game for last year’s CWL title, opens a four-game series with the Titans on Tuesday. The Beetles start league play even sooner, opening a series with Wenatchee on Sunday.

Admission is free for today’s games.

The Paks’ new crew returns just five players from a 39-16 team that not only broke the Tri-Cities’ seven-year stranglehold on the league championship but added a super regional title and reached the state semifinals.

Archer does have two key returners on the pitching staff in D.J. Smith, who was 9-3 last summer, and three-year veteran Lukas Hinton. Also back are second baseman Tyler Gallaway, outfielder Kurt Lindemann and pitcher Steven Wagar.

These were important ingredients a year ago that helped fuel the Paks’ late-season peak, which included a 14-game win streak in July. Yakima Valley won its last 11 league games to beat Twin City to the finish line.

In the Beetles’ second season under the direction of Mike Moore, six players return from a 25-34 campaign in 2010 that saw Yakima place fourth in league and rally its way into the state’s final eight.

 

Third-year veteran Will Scott anchors an infield that includes returnees Jens Jensen, Markus McClurkin and catcher Nick Lombardi. Outfielder Damon Lybeck and pitcher Michael Woodkey are also back, and added experience will come with the return to the program of outfielder-pitcher Jordan Cameron.

Moore’s team last year got valuable postseason experience by recovering from an 18-0 first-round regional loss to oust Bellevue and the Spokane Blue Devils the next day to reach the state finals.

This season’s Central Washington League is down to six teams with the departure of the Pasco Sun Devils, who will still field two junior teams.

Twin City, Kennewick, Hanford, Wenatchee, Yakima and Yakima Valley — in a six-team league for the first time since 2001 — will feature 20 conference games for each team.

Yakima and Yakima Valley, who will conclude their league seasons with their annual four-game series in mid-July, faced each other six times last summer and the Pak won all six.

 

 

Yakima Valley Pepsi Pak

Head coach: Mike Archer, 28th season.

2010 record: 19-5 league, 39-16 season.

Name School Position

T.J. Finn Prosser OF-C-P

Tyler Gallaway West Valley INF

Andrew Gonzalez Selah INF-P

Steven Hillier West Valley C

Lukas Hinton West Valley INF-P

Trevor Hunter West Valley OF-P

Hugo Lemus East Valley INF-P

Kurt Lindemann Selah OF

Cody McDonald West Valley OF

Jacob Nell West Valley INF

Allen Noble Selah OF-C

Nate Sorensen Kittitas INF-P

D.J. Smith Ellensburg C-P

Steven Wagar West Valley OF-INF-P

Michael Wyatt Ellensburg OF-INF-P

 

Yakima Pepsi Beetles

Head coach: Mike Moore, 2nd season (4th overall).

2010 record: 10-12 league, 25-34 season.

Name School Position

Zach Alexander Davis OF-C

La Vonte Allen Davis OF-INF-P

Jordan Cameron East Valley OF-P

Trenton Dupree Davis OF-P

Nathan Giles Naches Valley INF

Hunter Hanson East Valley INF-P

Jens Jensen Davis INF-P

Nick Lombardi Eisenhower OF-C-P

Damon Lybeck Davis OF

Markus McClurkin Davis INF

Avery Mottet Davis P

Trent Mottice Grandview P

John Piper Toppenish OF-INF

Jacob Sanders Davis OF-P

Eric Sauve Grandview OF-INF

Will Scott Eisenhower INF

Michael Woodkey Eisenhower P

CWU football to return to national television this fall

YAKIMA, Wash. — You know you’ve hit the big time when your football game gets TV timeouts.

Central Washington University can look forward to that bonus this fall when the team’s season opener is televised by CBS College Sports.

The Wildcats’ Great Northwest Athletic Conference opener at Humboldt State has been moved to Sept. 8, a Thursday, to accommodate the national broadcast.

Kickoff at the Redwood Bowl will be 5 p.m.

Central Washington has appeared on CBS College Sports before and with winning results, defeating Minnesota Duluth 13-10 during the 2009 season, which saw the Wildcats set a school record with 12 wins and reach the NCAA Division II national quarterfinals.

The Central Washington-Humboldt State game, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 10 in Arcata, Calif., is part of a six-game Division II television package on CBS College Sports.

This will be the sixth year of Division II and CBS Sports Network’s partnership to provide Division II schools live national television exposure for their football and basketball programs.

Central Washington’s 10-game schedule next season begins on Sept. 2 at home against Texas A&M-Kingsville.

Generational Gap: Gap2Gap a family affair for Lichts

You could say the Yakima Greenway introduced Hamilton Licht to Yakima. And that, in a way, Hamilton Licht introduced the Greenway to Yakima.

He certainly introduced it to his family and every new branch on that tree.

 

Says oldest son Jake, 31, “We absolutely grew up with it.”

Hamilton was in the race from the outset, having been the driving force behind its inception. He recruited his wife, Carol, and then when the Junior Gap2Gap became a reality the kids joined in, followed by their friends.

These days, with the kids now all grown up, their spouses or significant others are .

“Let’s just say they’re strongly encouraged to take part,” son Jesse Licht, 27, says wryly.

For this Saturday’s 27th annual race the family team — the “Lichtity Splits” — will include Jesse’s wife, Molly Tollefson, and Jake’s girlfriend, Eva Dizon, on the two running portions; Jake doing the mountain bike and road cycling legs; and Hamilton, 63, doing the river stage in a solo kayak. Jesse plans to do the race as an Ironman for the first time.

The boys’ sister, Jennifer Alexander, competed in the Junior Gap2Gap and later competed on the family team in the adult race; so did her husband, Ryan, making the trip to Yakima from their Minnesota home two years ago just in time to weather 93-degree heat for his 10K run portion of the sun-baked 2009 race.

The boys’ earliest Gap2Gap memories were of waiting a hundred yards or so before the finish line, espying runners’ race numbers and calling them in on walkie-talkies to their father — who, having already done his job as his team’s canoe/kayak competitor — was handling the public-address announcements at the finish line.

 

“We’d be giving him the numbers so he could look up what team they were on, what they’d done in previous races, all of that stuff,” says Jake, 31. “He always tried to emphasize that, to personalize it and make the experience that much more special for everyone. I don’t know of many races where they do that.”

• • • •

They do it at the Gap2Gap because, well, like Jake, Molly and Jesse, the race is Hamilton Licht’s baby.

Chronologically, the Greenway was already here in 1984 when Licht, a Chicago-area native who had completed his post-medical school education at prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., came to the Pacific Northwest looking for a place to begin his career.

But there was no Gap2Gap Relay, the event that helped cement the Greenway’s place in Yakima’s collective consciousness, until a friend driving Licht through Yakima pointed out the river and mentioned the fledgling park-and-path creation alongside it.

That struck a chord — and a memory — with Licht.

 

While he had been at Johns Hopkins, Licht recalls, as “kind of an escape, a friend introduced me to some canoe races in Petersburg (Virginia). The whole town turned out for these races. It was just a wonderful community event — people would come out and camp for the duration, and there was a festival that went along with it, community breakfasts, crafts and the whole thing.”

When his friend pointed out the Greenway, still in its infancy, Licht began to imagine a similar race-related festival in Yakima. His first thought was a canoe race on the Yakima River, but by the early 1980s multi-stage races were the rage throughout the Northwest. The Ski to Sea, from Mount Baker to Bellingham, had been around for a decade and had spawned other multi-stage races, like the Pole Pedal Paddle in Bend and the Ridge to River in Wenatchee.

John Svendsen, who owned an alpine sports store in Yakima, suggested a similar multi-stage race in Yakima, including a mountain-bike leg.

“I’d never heard of mountain bikes,” Licht says. “I thought it was a crazy idea, but we started the first race. For the first three years we did everything — we did all the T-shirts and printed up and sold the tickets, shot the gun at the start of the race. It was pretty crazy.

“We gradually got a committee together, obviously.”

A good thing, too, considering that by the early 1990s the Gap2Gap’s popularity was at a peak, drawing about 180 teams plus the Ironman (solo) competitors.

• • • •

Licht hasn’t missed a Gap2Gap since it started, making him one of several race veterans — including Ernie Brennecke and Jim Ennis, captains of rival teams that annually challenge one another for the title — for whom the race is not to be missed.

For years, in addition to announcing the finishing Iron and team competitors, Licht would emcee the awards presentation wearing a lemon-yellow tuxedo (a gag 40th birthday gift), and as always embellishing each introduction with his encyclopedic knowledge of the race and its entrants.

“He’s very passionate about the Greenway and he started the Gap2Gap as a way to showcase the Greenway,” Carol Licht says. “So the race for him is a wonderful opportunity to watch people using the Greenway in the ways he hoped they would. “

And, of course, he made sure his family was right there beside him in that endeavor.

“My dad definitely has a reputation for that,” says Jesse, who goes on to recall the time Hamilton took his daughter Jennifer, then in middle school, out kayaking. “He promised her there was nothing to worry about and she wouldn’t flip, and she was very nervous. She ended up upside in the water. She came out OK, probably scarred for life.”

Jesse’s facetious tone was clearly one of a sort of gallows humor, similar to the way Carol Licht refers to the two-person kayak she and her husband rode in the 2010 Gap2Gap as “the divorce boat.”

This year, Hamilton will be using a one-man kayak. Carol, who laughs that “I rarely am coerced into doing the race,” will be there, but only as a cheering supporter and as a transition-area support crew for Jesse’s Ironman effort.

“She’s tired of it,” Hamilton says, then adds with a laugh, “with me. She says I take it far too seriously, and it’s just not pleasant.”

The two-person kayak he bought before last year’s race, he said, “was a really slow boat. We placed in the lower third of the boats, maybe close to last. So I was blaming the boat, saying we had a really slow boat, and my wife personalized that and thought I was saying she was the reason we had the slow boat.”

However slow the kayak might have been, the Lichts still won the family division by more than an hour.

“That’s one thing I really remember,” Carol says. “Hamilton was just, ‘Dig! Dig! Get that paddle in the water! Work, work!’ He’s really driving, and it turns out we won the category by more than an hour.”

This year, with Jake’s girlfriend joining the team, Lichtity Split will have to end its two-year run as winners of the Ron Riehl Memorial Award, which goes to the top family team in honor of the late dentist who was a staunch Gap2Gap supporter and canoeing enthusiast.

But while Lichtity Split will be hard-pressed to win in the open team category, Jake Licht says winning isn’t the biggest thing.

“Ultimately,” Jake says, “it is much more important to all of us to get my mom out there, and to get Eva out there.

“It’s a family thing.”

Gap2Gap has been the springboard to some special accomplishments

Sean Cleary had never been an athlete before he was talked into doing the Gap2Gap Relay by a friend who, Cleary says, “told me we could do the whole thing in Ironman fashion. That person backed out two weeks before the race, and I trained one week for it.

“But I survived it.”

Cleary, an oncologist at North Star Lodge, had never ridden either of the bicycle (mountain-bike or road) courses and was quite inexperienced as a river paddler.

“So I wrecked on the downhill on the mountain bike, then I got a flat tire on the mountain bike,” Cleary recalls with a self-deprecating chuckle. “On the kayak, I’d rented a tiny little sit-on-top red plastic kayak, and went down the river basically hugging it most of the way.”

He made it down the river to Sarg Hubbard Park, though, and did fine on the road bike and run legs. Cleary finished the race — and, unknowingly, started a racing career.

In addition to competing in the Gap2Gap several times — “I always got curtailed by flat tires,” he says — Cleary also began doing triathlons, each time pushing his limits a bit further, faster and longer.

Now Cleary is an accomplished Ironman triathlete who has competed in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships three times.

The Gap2Gap’s 27-year history is full of stories like that, competitors for whom G2G either happened early in their competitive careers or, as in Cleary’s case, led to even greater exploits.

In 1996, the Junior Gap2Gap “Iron Kid” winner in the 11-12 age group was an 11-year-old from Wenatchee named Tyler Farrar. A year later, he won it again.

Now he’s one of the world’s top professional bicyclists.

Farrar has become one of premier road-race sprinters in the world, a household name in Europe — where cycling superstars have the same cachet as Major League baseball players do in this country — as a veteran of the Tour de France and a two-time stage winner of the Giro d’Italia (the Tour of Italy).

Another Junior Gap2Gap veteran of note is Kevin Blount, a distance-running star at Eisenhower and Central Washington University who has finished third twice (2009 and 2011) in 500-runner fields at the Yakima River Canyon Marathon.

Blount’s first “major” victory? First place in the Gap2Gap “Iron Kid” 13-14 age class in 1998.

Budget has ‘Heart of the Cascades’ beating strongly

The completion of an $8 million, three-year, multi-phase land acquisition dubbed “the Heart of the Cascades” by its proponents became reality last Thursday when the 2011-13 Capital Budget included $42 million in funding for Washington Wildlife Recreation Program (WWRP) projects.

The result didn’t entirely cover all of the projects approved for funding by the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, the bipartisan coalition that created the WWRP more than two decades ago. The $42 million was far less than the $70 million the program had received in the current biennium.

But it was closer to the $50 million in WWRP funding called for in the state House’s original budget than the Senate budget’s $20 million.

“This was a good outcome from our perspective, because there was so much tension about the capital budget this year and the debt limit,” said Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife regional director Jeff Tayer, whose agency will now be another large step closer to erasing the public-and-private checkerboard ownership in areas critical to wildlife management.

“As it came out was fantastic, and it will finish that Bald Mountain acquisition.”

The Heart of the Cascades moniker refers to the six-by-six-mile area north and east of State Route 410, including areas known to locals as Bald Mountain, Rock Creek, Canteen Flats and Gold Creek.

The $2.75 million in WWRP funds that will go to the project will enable the WDFW to put toward the final purchase some $2.2 million in federal funds left over from a 2008 grant related to Endangered Species Act conservation funding. Had the WWRP money not come through in this budget cycle, that federal grant would have expired.

The nearly $5 million in combined moneys will complete the sale of 16 one-mile squares in that Bald Mountain/Rock Creek area, including the repayment of $2.3 million to The Nature Conservancy, which paid that much last year to Plum Creek Timber Co. to help WDFW meet the second purchase deadline of the three-year process.

Several other Central Washington projects also received WWRP funding in the Capital Budget, including:

• Middle Fork Ahtanum trailhead and trail, $275,271 to develop two to four miles of a non-motorized trail and trailhead in the Ahtanum State Forest.

• $1.89 million to allow the Department of Natural Resources to buy 1,120 acres that will become part of the Klickitat Canyon Natural Resources Conservation Area, providing habitat for sandhill cranes, Mardon skipper butterflies and six rare plant populations.

• Trout Lake Meadow restoration, a $145,500 grant to the DNR that will restore meadows at the Trout Lake Natural Area Preserve in Klickitat County.

• $685,857 going to the Columbia Land Trust in that same Trout Lake area, to buy a voluntary land preservation agreement prohibiting further development of 215 acres of the Schmid farm in the Trout Lake valley.

Phillips: Sometimes good-ol’-camping camping is needed

Every now and then I get an urge to go camping. No, not in a motorhome, not in a camp trailer. Camping camping — with a tent, sleeping bag, cooking over the fire, the whole nine yards.

Not that I am opposed to sleeping in a bed with a solid roof over my head when I am out to enjoy the out-doors. In fact, I prefer it and do it fre-quently. But some-times sleeping in a camper feels like cheating just a little.

Like many of you, my fondest memories of camping trips are from my youth, when the family spent the night in a canvas tent, slept on the ground without the benefits of a foam pad or air mattress, and, for the most part, successfully cooked over our very own hand-built fire.

As a kid, those family camping trips were adventures. So what if there were a few rocks or tree roots under the tent floor right where you laid your sleeping bag. So what if a few bugs and ashes from the fire dropped into your fried eggs. So what if one of your shoes drying on a rock right next to the campfire somehow slipped into the red hot embers and melted like the witch in the Wizard of Oz. It was all fun, right?

Over the years I have camped in just about every type of situation. I’ve camped at high elevations and next to roaring rivers. I’ve camped in the sage brush, among the rattlesnakes and scorpions. And I’ve camped in the deep, dark forest, with who knows what kind of predators creeping around close by. I’ve camped on the snow, in the rain, and in huge wind storms where I feared for my life as I heard trees creaking and breaking nearby.

I’ve camped in giant state park campgrounds with strangers in tents all around me, and I have camped in spots where, with a little imagination, it was easy to believe no man had ever camped before.

Just for the record, I prefer the latter.

I’ve camped with four grown men and a couple of boys in a tent made for three at the most. And I have camped all by myself in a giant tent that would sleep six adults with maybe a kid or two stuck in the corners.

Again, I prefer the latter. Especially when you are with a bunch of hunters who have been hunting hard for days and haven’t seen a shower in a week.

I don’t camp nearly as much as I used to. With age comes some wisdom and the flames of desire burn not quite so hot. Even with an accumulation of camping gear including waterproof tents, four-inch foam pads, sleeping bags that will keep you warm to 20 below zero, and cook stoves suited to make the finest of meals, I find myself not nearly as motivated to go camping as I was in my younger years.

But every now and again the urge to get out there and breathe the pine-scented air and feel the heat from a campfire becomes almost overwhelming.

There is just something about watching a fire burn, hearing the pitch pop and seeing the glowing ashes rising into a night sky darker than any you’ll ever see in the city.

Fresh-caught trout fried in a pan over an open fire never tasted so good. And even the best ballpark franks can’t hold a candle to a hotdog cooked over a campfire on a stick.

Sleeping in the cool mountain air, listening to the breeze blow through the high branches of the evergreens produces some of the very best sleep, if you ask me. Even with the unmistakable lump of a pinecone under your back.

And waking up to the sound of a flowing creek, with the jays squawking in the distance and the first rays of morning sun hitting the tent top, somehow just makes you feel more alive.

If the weather would cooperate just in the slightest, I’d be off. My stuff is ready. I am ready. The urge to go camping has arrived.

Outdoors: What’s Happening

Fishing derby backs Ranger footballers …

The 10th annual Ranger Football Fishing Derby, created to help pay the fees for Naches Valley football players attending football camp at Eastern Oregon University, is set for Saturday at Clear Lake.

More than 1,500 trout will be released into the lake by state fish biologists the previous day. The stocked fish will include six fish specially tagged as money winners — one worth $1,000, another worth $500 and five worth $100 each. Derby tickets ($20) can be purchased that day at the boat launch or in advance by calling coach Ty Kime at 509-653-2343.

The Eastern Oregon football camp is in July, and the 10 years of the derby the proceeds have sent more than 400 players to camp with little or no cost to the players or their families.

 

… and another derby set in Kittitas County

Kids 14 and under can plan ahead for June 11 (a week from Saturday) and the 21st annual Kids Fishing Derby, put on at Lavender Lake near Easton by the Cle Elum Ranger District and the Cascade Field and Stream Club.

The derby coincides with National Fishing and Boating Week. Registration opens at 6:30 a.m., with the derby running 7 to 10 a.m. A fishing license isn’t required to participate, and there is no entry fee.

Derby sponsors will award prizes to the child in each age category (5 and under, 6-8, 9-11, and 12-14) who catch the largest fish and the first fish caught, and to the anglers who catch the largest trout and non-trout overall. Participants will receive a gift bag at registration (until they run out, so be early).

For more info, call the Cle Elum Ranger District at 509-852-1068.

 

Agencies to tackle large-fire simulation

Representatives from city, county, state and federal agencies will participate in a large fire decision-making simulation Wednesdays at the West Valley Fire and Rescue administrative offices on Zier Road.

Fire managers chose the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest’s Naches Ranger District because it is a microcosm of the challenges firefighters face in Central Washington and across the West, where often many agencies develop suppression strategies for a fire threatening several communities.

Firefighting strategies, firefighter and public safety, shortages of resources, and cooperation between multiple jurisdictions will all be put to the simulated test on the “fire,” which will be depicted with Google Earth technology.

“The decision-making process needs to happen now, before smoke is in the air,” said Mike Starkovich, fire management officer for the Naches district.

 

BIRD ALERT

A visiting birder from west of the Cascades saw two or three Franklin’s gulls (a bird that breeds in the wet parts of the prairie) on the north side of the Toppenish National Wildlife Refuge last week.

He also saw many California and ring-billed gulls in the flooded fields between the refuge headquarters and Lateral C Road. The Franklin’s gull breeds mainly in Canada’s Prairie Provinces, Montana, the Dakotas, and western Minnesota. They generally stick to the eastern part of Montana but sometimes wander west after the breeding season.

A pair of prairie falcons, a medium-sized falcon of western North America, were reported nesting at Painted Rocks, along Highway 12 on the way to the Gleed. The nest is at the highest section of the cliffs, and can be spotted with a lot of white-wash around it. This has historically been a good place to also see white-throated swifts, which nest in the rocks.

On the east side of Lateral C road in the field before Toppenish creek a male bobolink was spotted actively displaying and singing in flight over the field and eventually flew over the road and then back again to land on a tall clump of dried grass. This distinctive bird of open grasslands should become easier to see in the coming weeks as bobolinks set up their breeding territories. Also in this area were calling sora, common snipe, and beautiful male yellow-headed blackbirds, as well as all six swallow species.

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

— Kerry L. Turley

 

ON THE CALENDAR

THIS MORNING: The Cascadians’ Tuesdays will be led by Maurine Peck up Dog Mountain. The group will meet at 8 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot and carpool from there. Beginning next Tuesday, with the days getting longer, the group’s meeting time will move up to 7:30 a.m.

TONIGHT: The Mount Adams Cycling Club’s Tuesday night ride leaves YAC Fitness in Terrace Heights at 6 p.m. for a ride of between 24 and 30 miles.

WEDNESDAY: Riders on Mount Adams Cycling’s weekly Naches Loop ride will begin from the SunTides Golf Course parking lot at 6 p.m.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies group will do a hike from the Rimrock Dam/Rimrock Village area to the airstrip. For meeting time and place, call Bob Braden at 509-453-1633.

THURSDAY: Chinook Cycling’s weekly Cowiche Canyon mountain-bike trail riders will meet at the canyon’s Scenic Drive trailhead at 6 p.m. For more info, call Jeff at Revolution Cycles at 509-452-0063.

THURSDAY: Beginners and newcomers to the Mount Adams Cycling Club will head out for an easy cruise along the Greenway at 6 p.m., leaving from the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart parking lot. Go online to www.mountadamscycling.org for more information on the club.

MONDAY: Riders in Chinook Cycling’s easy 15-mile Mellow Monday ride will take off from Wide Hollow Elementary (Nob Hill and 72nd) at 5:30 p.m. For more on club events, go to www.chinookcycling.com.

Final Valley track and field leaders

FINAL VALLEY LEADERS

BOYS
100 — Logan Olney (Zillah) 11.02, Sungyoung Lee (Ellensburg) 11.12, Kerry Duffy (La Salle) 11.15, Branden Seymour (La Salle) 11.23, Isaac Anderson (Prosser) 11.27, Isaac Messenger (Goldendale) 11.30, Kennen Pilot (Prosser) 11.38, Austin Wagner (Davis) 11.40. Hand timed: Jacob Oswalt (Granger) 10.8, Duffy 10.9.
200 — Dimitri Mandapat (Eisenhower) 22.15, Logan Olney (Zillah) 22.18, Kerry Duffy (La Salle) 22.63, Austin Wagner (Davis) 22.72, Sungyoung Lee (Ellensburg) 22.73, Mike Esparza (Eisenhower) 22.83, Jorge Ramirez (Sunnyside) 23.20, Branden Seymour (La Salle) 23.24.
400 — Dimitri Mandapat (Eisenhower) 49.55, Francisco Villegas (Toppenish) 50.52, Kerry Duffy (La Salle) 50.65, Ignacio Ibarra (Wapato) 51.45, Drew Schreiber (Eisenhower) 51.59, Sungyoung Lee (Ellensburg) 52.06, Emelio Gonzales (Toppenish) 52.45, Nate Van Tuinen (Riverside Christian) 52.84.
800 — Zach Walker (Ellensburg) 1:58.17, Chase Mears (West Valley) 1:58.46, Timothy Cummings (Eisenhower) 1:58.94, Alberto Melchor (Davis) 1:59.21, Scott Thomas (Zillah) 2:01.26, Marco Moreno (West Valley) 2:02.93, Jeffrey Ott (Ellensburg) 2:03.36, Gabriel Garcia (Eisenhower) 2:03.67.
1,600 — Timothy Cummings (Eisenhower) 4:18.50, Alberto Melchor (Davis) 4:22.25, Jeffrey Ott (Ellensburg) 4:25.61, Jaziel Rodriguez (Eisenhower) 4:29.41, Juan Reynoso (Sunnyside) 4:31.48, German Silva (Eisenhower) 4:31.57, Joseph Matheson (West Valley) 4:32.98, Santos Vargas (Eisenhower) 4:34.40.
3,200 — Santos Vargas (Eisenhower) 9:23.34, Jaziel Rodriguez (Eisenhower) 9:23.90, Jeffrey Ott (Ellensburg) 9:28.23, Juan Reynoso (Sunnyside) 9:52.20, German Silva (Eisenhower) 9:57.01, Kyle Chapman (Eisenhower) 10:00.99, Chase Mears (West Valley) 10:01.11, Alberto Melchor (Davis) 10:02.24.
110 hurdles — Derek Byrne (Riverside Christian) 15.12, Jorge Ramirez (Sunnyside) 15.70, Carl Tilton (Kittitas) 16.01, Mike Troianello (La Salle) 16.10, Jeremy Oram (West Valley) 16.27, David Whitmore (Naches Valley) 16.27, Henry Matai (Lyle-Wishram) 16.29, Omar Manzo (Toppenish) 16.50. Hand timed: Matai 15.9, Whitmore 16.0.
300 hurdles — Derek Byrne (Riverside Christian) 39.67, Jeremy Oram (West Valley) 40.92, Jorge Ramirez (Sunnyside) 41.40, Jaime De La Torre (Wapato) 41.43, Brady Conway (Goldendale) 41.89, Austin Lynn (Davis) 42.14, Carl Tilton (Kittitas) 42.16.
4×100 — Prosser (Isaac Anderson, James Wildman, Sterling Clark, Kennen Pilot) 43.43, Eisenhower 43.62, Zillah 44.07, East Valley 45.10, Davis 45.19, Cle Elum 45.23, Selah 45.24, Goldendale 45.37.
4×400 — Eisenhower (Drew Schreiber, Mike Esparza, Timothy Cummings, Dimitri Mandapat) 3:24.93, Toppenish 3:27.83, Zillah 3:28.48, Prosser 3:29.58, Kittitas 3:32.62, Ellensburg 3:34.76, La Salle 3:35.34, West Valley 3:36.04.
Shot — Jake Calaghan (Naches Valley) 53-10, Ivan Macias (Toppenish) 50-4, Matt Hatchell (Naches Valley) 47-10 1/2, James Shumate (Wapato) 47-1 1/2, Zachary Marko (Highland) 46-6, Oliver Devlin (West Valley) 46-4 1/4, Luis DeLeon (Eisenhower) 46-3 1/2, Brenden Barela (East Valley) 45-3.
Discus — James Shumate (Wapato) 151-3, Braydon Ross (Goldendale) 147-1, Oliver Devlin (West Valley) 138-5, Felipe Rangel (Wapato) 137-10, Josiah Meadows (Naches Valley) 137-2, Abel Soto (Eisenhower) 134-10, Jake Calaghan (Naches Valley) 133-5, Caleb Keys (Klickitat) 132-10.
Javelin — Derek Byrne (Riverside Christian) 192-10, Jacobe Valenzuela (East Valley) 184-1, Eric Amaro (Sunnyside) 178-7, Fernando Valencia (Riverside Christian) 168-8, Miguel Guzman (Sunnyside) 167-6, Jason Easter (Eisenhower) 163-11, Greg Moore (Prosser) 162-2, Rodolfo Cruz (Prosser) 158-0.
High jump — Cody Allen Russell (Ellensburg) 6-2, Michael Newman (Cle Elum) 6-0, Tyler Enfield (West Valley) 5-10, Tanner Urlacher (Eisenhower) 5-10, Austin Lynn (Davis) 5-10, Kevin Blair (West Valley) 5-10, Cameron Rath (Selah) 5-10, Eduardo Salmeron (Sunnyside) 5-10, Brady Conway (Goldendale) 5-10.
Long jump — Kyle Gartrell (Riverside Christian) 22-10 1/2, Derek Byrne (Riverside Christian) 22-3 3/4, Justin Ferrari (West Valley) 21-8, Eduardo Salmeron (Sunnyside) 21-0, Isaac Messenger (Goldendale) 20-8 1/4, Matt Bennett (Ellensburg) 20-7, Dominic Garza (Prosser) 20-7, Angel Rodriguez (Zillah) 20-2.
Triple jump — Kyle Gartrell (Riverside Christian) 46-1 3/4, Nate Van Tuinen (Riverside Christian) 44-1 1/2, Eduardo Salmeron (Sunnyside) 42-4, Noe Gutierrez (Mabton) 41-8 1/2, Brady Conway (Goldendale) 41-0, Dominic Garza (Prosser) 41-0, Sergio Lugo (Sunnyside) 40-9, Isaac Messenger (Goldendale) 40-6 1/2.
Pole vault — Marcus Schooley (Davis) 15-6, Joseph Keeton (Eisenhower) 14-0, Zane Irvine (West Valley) 14-0, Kyle Gartrell (Riverside Christian) 14-0, Jacob Hino (Eisenhower) 13-9, Ignacio Ibarra (Wapato) 13-6, Tyler Hakala (Highland) 13-0, Ryan Rice (Sunnyside) 12-6, Isaac Anderson (Prosser) 12-6.

GIRLS
100 — Chantel Jaeger (West Valley) 12.00, Shannon Bland (Ellensburg) 12.55, Angie Zuniga (Toppenish) 12.57, Marlee Rees (Prosser) 12.58, Tracey Bautista (Davis) 12.76, Lindsay Burns (West Valley) 12.85, Marisa Broersma (Sunnyside) 12.92, Lucia Walle (Toppenish) 13.08. Hand timed: Taylor Wicht (Selah) 12.8.
200 — Chantel Jaeger (West Valley) 24.36, Angie Zuniga (Toppenish) 25.80, Shannon Bland (Ellensburg) 26.06, Lindsay Burns (West Valley) 26.10, Tracey Bautista (Davis) 26.17, Lucia Walle (Toppenish) 26.70, Lizzie Blanchard (Eisenhower) 26.73, Taylor Wicht (Selah) 26.73.
400 — Lindsay Burns (West Valley) 55.74, Amber Reiber (Selah) 58.89, Shannon Bland (Ellensburg) 59.77, Marisa Broersma (Sunnyside) 59.94, Chantel Jaeger (West Valley) 59.99, Rachel Freeman (Eisenhower) 1:00.03, Madison Moore (Prosser) 1:00.46, McKenzie Graf (Ellensburg) 1:02.00.
800 — Kaitlin Kaluzny (Davis) 2:20.93, Jaden Gjestrum (West Valley) 2:21.79, Mayra Chavez (Eisenhower) 2:22.07, Sydney Allen (Davis) 2:24.28, Valerie Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 2:25.73, Tiffany Tate (Ellensburg) 2:28.78, Yasi Mohsenian (East Valley) 2:30.5h, Charlie Fiander (Wapato) 2:31.27.
1,600 — Mayra Chavez (Eisenhower) 5:07.24, Kaitlin Kaluzny (Davis) 5:16.67, Berenice Penaloza (Eisenhower) 5:21.89c, Yasi Mohsenian (East Valley) 5:22.00, Sammi Jo Blodgett (Wapato) 5:23.60, Valerie Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 5:26.50, Sydney Allen (Davis) 5:29.38, Elise Tello (Eisenhower) 5:33.10.
3,200 — Berenice Penaloza (Eisenhower) 11:03.94, Mayra Chavez (Eisenhower) 11:04.36, Elise Tello (Eisenhower) 11:29.87, Yasi Mohsenian (East Valley) 11:42.87, Kaitlin Kaluzny (Davis) 11:53.05, Valerie Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 12:01.05, Sammi Jo Blodgett (Wapato) 12:01.06, Emily Gerardi (Davis) 12:15.75.
100 hurdles — Leticia Campos (Wapato) 16.40, Akaisha Charlton (Ellensburg) 16.50, Samantha Brewer (Klickitat) 16.82, Destiny Sanford (Eisenhower) 17.05, Beth Wise (Zillah) 17.27, Liz Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 17.33, Katherine Bravo (Eisenhower) 17.37, Bethany Imperial (Riverside Christian) 17.45.
300 hurdles — Madison Moore (Prosser) 45.88, Katherine Bravo (Eisenhower) 46.46, Liz Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 47.47, Bethany Imperial (Riverside Christian) 47.79, Leticia Campos (Wapato) 48.74, Regine Standley (La Salle) 49.35, Kaisa Hall (Ellensburg) 49.71, Akaisha Charlton (Ellensburg) 50.56. Hand timed: Campos 47.9.
4×100 — Toppenish (Lucia Walle, Sarah Guel, Angela Chavez, Angie Zuniga) 49.55, West Valley 50.03, Prosser 50.07, Davis 50.75, Selah 50.92, Ellensburg 51.59, Eisenhower 51.77, Sunnyside 52.15, La Salle 52.8h.
4×200 — West Valley (Mikele Cluff, Lindsay Burns, Ashley Packard, Chantel Jaeger) 1:44.12, Prosser 1:45.08, Toppenish 1:46.48, Davis 1:48.19, Selah 1:49.28, La Salle 1:52.2h, Kittitas 1:52.8h, Zillah 1:53.6h.
4×400 — West Valley (Ashley Packard, Chantel Jaeger, Jaden Gjestrum, Lindsay Burns) 3:56.81, Ellensburg 4:08.19, Eisenhower 4:08.32, Prosser 4:17.34, Toppenish 4:19.5h, Sunnyside 4:19.85, Davis 4:19.99, Kittitas 4:21.70.
Shot — Tamara Jones (Prosser) 39-2, Ewieona Williams (Eisenhower) 38-1 1/4, Kelsie Taylor (Naches Valley) 36-5, Kaitlin Quirk (Ellensburg) 36-3, Hunter Roberts (Riverside Christian) 35-1, Sadie Shattuck (Goldendale) 33-8 1/4, Krissy Yarnell (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 32-9 1/4, Fenisha Williams (Davis) 32-9, Ashley Sabin (Kittitas) 32-9.
Discus — Ewieona Williams (Eisenhower) 118-10, Kaitlin Quirk (Ellensburg) 114-11, Carrie Johnston (Eisenhower) 114-4, Lexus Bogardus (Naches Valley) 113-8, Claire Goins (Eisenhower) 112-5, Katelynn Clinton (Bickleton) 110-5, Jessica Farris (Naches Valley) 107-5, Kelsie Taylor (Naches Valley) 107-0.
Javelin — Kelsie Taylor (Naches Valley) 142-10, Brooke Brown (Eisenhower) 128-6, Erika Wilson (Selah) 117-11, Jessica Farris (Naches Valley) 109-11, Janell Dufault (La Salle) 109-9, Deanna Avalos (La Salle) 106-11, Madelyn Sattler (Selah) 106-6, Mellissa Amaro (Sunnyside) 106-2.
High jump — Samantha Brewer (Klickitat) 5-2, Michelle Weeks (Selah) 5-1, Carly Quirk (Ellensburg) 5-0, Kelcie Russell (Ellensburg) 5-0, Katelynn Clinton (Bickleton) 5-0, Kendall Platsman (Sunnyside) 5-0, Ava Tolcacher (Prosser) 5-0, Kendra Staymates (Riverside Christian) 4-10, Adriana Ramos (Grandview) 4-10, Kayla Dexter (Selah) 4-10, Jamie Venema (Bickleton) 4-10, Cicily Wilson (Eisenhower) 4-10.
Long jump — Lindsay Burns (West Valley) 18-2 1/2, Marlee Rees (Prosser) 17-5, Bethany Imperial (Riverside Christian) 16-7 1/2, Kailee Wood (Selah) 16-6 1/4, Samantha Herzog (East Valley) 16-6, Samantha Brewer (Klickitat) 16-5 1/4, Liz Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 16-0, Andrea Keffeler (Goldendale) 16-0.
Triple jump — Bethany Imperial (Riverside Christian) 36-1 3/4, Leticia Campos (Wapato) 35-5, Kelly Snyder (Naches Valley) 34-9, Samantha Brewer (Klickitat) 34-6 3/4, Liz Vogt (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 34-4 3/4, Fanny Schneider (Bickleton) 33-1, Casey Guilland (Eisenhower) 32-8, Erica Clerf (Kittitas) 32-7 3/4.
Pole vault — Maria Suarez (Eisenhower) 10-3, Cicily Wilson (Eisenhower) 9-6, Linnea Phillips (West Valley) 9-6, Madison Moore (Prosser) 9-6, Colleen Newell (La Salle) 9-6, Jamie Venema (Bickleton) 9-0, Kendra Gartrell (Riverside Christian) 9-0, Krissy Yarnell (Trout Lake-Glenwood) 8-6, Taylor Wicht (Selah) 8-6, Brianna Mares (Eisenhower) 8-6, Serena Streich (West Valley) 8-6.

NOTE: In events shorter than 400 meters, the top eight times listed are with automatic timing only. Other notable hand times (add .24 for comparison) are listed separately. Send additions or corrections to sspruill@yakimaherald.com

Twice the speed for WV’s Jaeger

Jaeger’s sprint sweep leads West Valley girls to third ||

TACOMA, Wash. — There was no panic in Chantel Jaeger’s mind, even though her desperate spot seemed to scream for it.

Not when you have her experience.

And not when you have her ascending power.

Left behind by several superior starters in the Class 3A 100-meter dash final Saturday afternoon, West Valley’s senior sprint ace was a distant fourth when the field had half the race done.

PHOTO GALLERY Click here for more photos from this event. SPACER Click here for information on purchasing photos.

Surely Jaeger must have been thinking, well, there’s always the 200 and I’m better in that race anyway.

“Actually, I was thinking I still had another gear and the girls ahead of me looked like they were holding on,” she said. “I’ve been in this situation before, playing catch-up, maybe I can still get this.”

And that’s exactly what happened, stunning the big state-meet crowd, which always rises in unison for the sprint finals, and most of all the three girls she overhauled in the final 30 meters.

Juanita’s Alanna Coker was the last to yield and did so right at the line as Jaeger’s fierce lean stopped the clock at 12.25 seconds. Coker hit 12.28.

It was a thin margin but Jaeger knew she got it, punctuating the thrilling comeback with a fist pump. Seconds later she put both hands to her face, fully realizing what she had just done.

“I had faith that I could finish strong, but I was shocked,” she said. “It seemed unbelievable.”

And she was just beginning.

Now additionally empowered to chase down the 200 title she originally felt was closer to her grasp, Jaeger trounced the half-lap field three hours later, winning by nearly a full second in 24.36.

Jaeger’s sprint sweep kicked in 20 points to West Valley’s team effort, which resulted in a third-place trophy on the final day of the 4A, 3A and 2A state track and field championships at Mt. Tahoma High School.

What Jaeger provided in peak performance, sophomore Lindsay Burns matched in courage and grit.

Hindered by a quadriceps strain that got worse with each race, and on a leg she clearly favored in the meet-ending race, Burns nonetheless placed third in the 400 and helped West Valley finish fifth in the 4×200 and third in the 4×400.

“It wasn’t like a huge pain but a dull sort of feeling,” she said after a gutty 400 run of 56.88, very respectable considering the circumstances and just .55 from the win. “I just couldn’t get it to loosen up. I’m really not disappointed with the time, I just wish the leg felt a little better.”

In the 4×400, West Valley switched up its order moving Burns to second and Jaeger to anchor, hoping to take some pressure off the sophomore’s ailing leg. With teammates Ashley Packard and Jaden Gjestrum, the foursome clocked a solid 3:58.10.

Those six points pushed WV’s final total to 41 for third place — one spot up from last year — behind team champ Holy Names and runner-up Kamiakin.

The Rams started the day in the 4×200 with Jaeger, Burns and Packard joining Mikele Cluff to run a season-best 1:44.12 in fifth.

For Jaeger, that was the warm-up for her individual events and she sensed something special was going to happen. Maybe not twice, but after placing second, third, fifth and sixth in four previous sprint finals here it was time, she felt, to win one.

And then with her first shot in the 100, Jaeger sees the backs of three other sprinters. And plenty of room in between.

“I’ve had worse starts. This one was decent,” she smiled. “I wasn’t going to give up because I’ve had so many races like that. I knew I would finish strong because I’m more of a 200 runner. I just so proud of that finish.”

There was no such drama in the 200, which is an ideal showcase for her speed and strength. Once a perfectly executed turn cleared the field, Jaeger was all alone.

There was even time for a smile at the finish.

“Winning the 100 was a huge confidence booster and it helped me relax,” said the Montana State signee. “Finishing like that, with a nice lead, is not what I expected. But I came off the corner and thought, OK, it’s time to go. I have energy and I’m not tired.

“At the end it felt so good I just smiled.”

2A, 4A track: Zuniga snags four more medals

TACOMA, Wash. — Angie Zuniga didn’t just want to bring home medals in all four of her events at the Class 2A state track and field championships. She’s done that before.

This time, she decided, the stakes were going up.

And so the times came down.

The Toppenish junior made another huge haul of hardware on Saturday, placing in the 100- and 200-meter finals and anchoring the Wildcats to big finishes in the 4×100 and 4×200 as the three-day meet wrapped up at Mt. Tahoma High School.

PHOTO GALLERY Click here for more photos from this event. SPACER Click here for information on purchasing photos.

But ramping up the effort from last year’s quadruple, Zuniga brought Top-Hi home to second place in the 4×100 with a school-record time and set a career best in the 200.

Seniors Lucia Walle and Angela Chavez and sophomore Sarah Guel joined forces with Zuniga in the one-lap relay to clock 49.55 seconds — the eighth best in Valley history and best ever for a local CWAC school.

When Zuniga dipped to the line in lane 7 she thought that it was for third, but Bellingham was five lanes away and they finished with the same exact time.

A closer examination of the photo finish showed Zuniga by a nose, giving Toppenish second behind North Kitsap’s meet-record 48.49.

“I even told our team we were third so that was great news to get second,” said Zuniga, whose career total of state medals now stands at 10. “Last year we were third so this is better and the time was way better.”

Prosser’s girls 4×200 matched that runner-up finish, breaking the school record for the third week in a row.

The all-underclassmen crew of sophomore Kolby Childers and juniors Madison Moore, Becca Niemeyer and Marlee Rees clocked 1:45.08 — also the Valley’s fastest ever for a CWAC school.

Zuniga’s workhorse effort earned her state medals in the 100 (sixth) and 200 (fifth) for the third year in a row. While her 200 finish marked the fourth time Zuniga has placed fifth in an individual sprint, her time of

25.80 erased any disappoint-ment.

“I haven’t PRed for two years in the 200 (her previous best was 25.88 in 2009) so that was a relief,” said Zuniga, who started her day helping Top-Hi place seventh in the 4×200. “It’s a little bittersweet doing all these events because it’s so tiring. But then I look back and I’m glad I did it.”

 

Moore had a busy state meet as well, placing seventh in Friday’s pole vault and in Saturday’s 300 hurdles to go with her leadoff effort on the 4×200.

Ellensburg scooped up four medals on Saturday with seniors Zach Walker (boys 800) and Kaitlin Quirk (girls discus) matching sixth-place finishes. Three-sport standout Shannon Bland, also a senior, placed seventh behind Zuniga in both the 100 and 200.

CLASS 4A

Slowed by injury, Schooley 2nd

Marcus Schooley’s charge for a state title in the pole vault took a big jolt just as it got started early Saturday morning.

That’s not to say he didn’t push the event right to the end, but a tweaked back at the opening height played a role in the Davis senior being state runner-up for the second year in a row.

Schooley managed to clear 14 feet, 6 inches, the same as Woodinville junior Austin Sodorff, but a number of misses at lower heights broke the tie in favor of Sodorff.

“I feel like I should have done better, but I did something to my lower back on my first jump (at 13-6) and it feels like a pulled muscle or something,” he said. “I just tried to deal with it and do the best I could, but it was tough to be that close.”

 

Last year Schooley wasn’t unhappy at all with second place since he cleared a career-best 15-0 doing it. But this year, having bumped his Valley record to a state-leading 15-6, second at 14-6 unquestionably stung.

“There were a few jumps that were good technically and things seemed OK,” explained Schooley, who along with the 15 other vaulters had to wait through an overnight delay because of Friday’s rain and start Saturday morning at 8:30. “But on other jumps it hurt a lot. That’s why I had way too many earlier misses.”

Eisenhower earned its best finishes of the meet with a pair of sevenths on Saturday.

Senior Dimitri Mandapat took home his second boys 400 medal in three years, clocking 50.17, and sophomore Brooke Brown threw the girls javelin 127-3. Brown was the top 10th-grader in the field.

Next Page »