Everett, Wash.
Published: Thursday, January 1, 2009

Puget Sound also had good sports news

By Scott M. Johnson
Herald Writer

 Don't try to tell Derek Jones that 2008 was a forgettable year in local sports. The Washington State University freshman doesn't want to hear it, not after leading the Snohomish High School baseball team to an historic season.

Monroe wrestler Josh Heinzer, Everett soccer player Valerie Stahl, Snohomish swimmer Garren Riechel, Jackson swimmer Amber McDermott, Monroe javelin thrower Kelsey Brennan, Everett hurdler J Hopkins and Kamiak golfer Reid Martin might also have a hard time looking back on the past year with disappointment.

They were all among many local athletes who won state titles in 2008, a year that had plenty of heartache in the Puget Sound but also saw countless good news in the sports world.

The University of Washington not only won a national title in women's cross country but also had a Cy Young winner (the San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum), an Olympic gold medalist (soccer player Hope Solo) and one of the NBA's budding young superstars (the Portland Trail Blazers' Brandon Roy).

UW basketball player Jon Brockman, a Snohomish High School product, led the Pac-10 in rebounding and entered the current season as a candidate for national player of the year.

Seattle Pacific won a national title in women's soccer, the Washington State University men's basketball team went to the Sweet 16, and Central Washington University had one of Division II's top football programs and its best players (quarterback Mike Reilly, a runner-up for the Harlon Hill trophy).

But perhaps the most heart-warming sports stories of 2008 were the ones that involved athletes who didn't necessarily win championships.

There was the April afternoon when a pair of Central Washington University softball players named Liz Wallace and Mallory Holtman carried an opponent around the bases after Western Oregon's Sara Tucholsky tore a knee ligament after hitting a home run.

There was the emotional goodbye of longtime Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren a couple weeks ago and the inspirational comeback of UW football player Juan Garcia from a serious foot injury.

And then there was Lyndy Davis.

The Monroe High sophomore was one of only a few Snohomish County natives to have her name in Sports Illustrated in 2008, joining the likes of people like Brockman, Cleveland Indians star Grady Sizemore (Cascade High) and Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable (Snohomish High).

Davis was in SI not because of what she accomplished but because of what she didn't.

Davis finished ninth in the 3,200-meter run at the 4A state track meet last spring, but she received an eighth-place medal after winner Nicole Cochran of Bellarmine was disqualified for running out of her lane.

According to the SI story, videotapes showed that the violation was actually made by another Bellarmine runner, not by Cochran, and yet the disqualification stood as the runners took the medal stand.

The second-place finisher, Shadle Park's Andrea Nelson, gave her state champion medal to Cochran in a form of protest. Each of the other seven placers passed her medal forward. That left Monroe's Davis as the only runner without a medal.

But Cochran repaid the favor, giving Davis her fourth-place medal from the 1,600-meter run.

"It is a neat story," said Monroe track coach Dave Brekke earlier this week. "Stuff like that doesn't happen very often."

See, not all sports news was bad in 2008.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA