South looking to rise
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 9, 2004
The number remains fresh in their minds.
Seven.
That’s how many state berths wrestlers from the Western Conference South Division secured out of a possible 56 at the 2003 Class 4A Region I meet.
“I think we’ll get more berths (this year),” said Everett coach Mark Ryder, who will have 15 wrestlers competing in the Region I meet Friday and Saturday at Tahoma High School. “I don’t know how much more. We had some tough kids last year that didn’t get through. I thought we’d get more through last year from other schools.”
Everett was responsible for four of last year’s seven South Division berths. The North Division took 22 state spots and the South Puget Sound League’s North Division captured 27 in a region that is arguably the state’s toughest. Lake Stevens is currently ranked second behind No. 1 Heritage in the WashingtonPreps.com poll. SPSL schools Enumclaw (fourth), Auburn (sixth) and Tahoma (seventh) are all ranked in the top 10. WashingtonPreps.com refers to Region I as “insanely tough.”
“We’re getting a lot tougher,” said Everett heavyweight Phil Jordan, who needed just 54 seconds to pin his opponent in the South’s 275 title bout.
Fourteen more trips to Tahoma will be earned starting at 7 p.m. today at Snohomish High School. The South Division’s fourth-place finishers from each of the 14 weight classes compete against the fifth-place wrestlers from the North Division to fill out the Region I brackets.
Whitlock takes the road less traveled to regionals: Spencer Whitlock, a Snohomish senior, came into the Wesco North subregional as the No. 1 seed at 189 pounds, but lost a 15-11 decision to Marysville-Pilchuck’s Brandon Weiser in his opening bout Friday. Whitlock came back to earn the North’s No. 3 seed by winning six straight matches, capping the run with a 12-6 decision over Tyler Hawley of Stanwood on Saturday.
“The last few days just proved to me that wrestling is all mental,” Whitlock said. “When you know any match could be your last, it puts the pressure on and you just have to fight through it.”
Long road to perfection: Ellie Frahm is enjoying the Archbishop Murphy girls basketball team’s undefeated season as much as anyone. One of just two seniors on the team, Frahm has suffered two serious knee injuries that have wiped out a significant portion of her high school basketball career.
“I was extremely nervous at the beginning of the season,” said Frahm, a 5-foot-9 senior forward and team captain. “I didn’t want to get hurt for the third year in a row.”
Frahm tore the medial collateral ligament in her left knee the summer before her sophomore year. With her knee never feeling quite right, she suffered the same injury late in her junior season, which she spent playing on the junior-varsity team.
“It was quite horrifying,” Frahm said of the second injury. “… I heard the exact same snap and knew I had done it again. I was crying, but I was only crying because I knew I did it again – not really because it hurt, though it did hurt.”
Local players receive All-American nominations: Meadowdale girls basketball players Anne Martin and Quinn Brewe have been nominated for the McDonald’s All-American Game. Jackson’s Emilee Eisinger, Lake Stevens’ Katie Holloway and Monroe’s Chelsey Zimmerman also were nominated. Chris Faidley of King’s was nominated for the boys game. The final teams are to be announced later this month. The games will be played March 31 in Oklahoma City.
Wrestling coaches honored: Brian Farmer of Oak Harbor and Kevin Judkins of Snohomish were selected co-coaches of the year by their Western Conference North Division peers. In the South Division, Kamiak’s Dan Hanika was named head coach of the year and Jim Smith of Kamiak was selected as the top assistant. Mike Braaten of Evergreen Middle School in Everett was honored as the top middle school coach.
Northwest 1A and B to combine: Current Northwest B League schools Darrington, Mount Vernon Christian, Orcas Island and Shoreline Christian will join Northwest 1A schools Concrete, Coupeville, Friday Harbor and La Conner to make up what will be known as the Northwest A/B League. The Class B teams would split off for postseason play. The change takes place at the start of the 2004-05 school year.
Football coaches allowed to call timeouts: The National Federation of State High School Associations voted recently to allow high school coaches to call timeouts. The change will be followed by all schools in the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which uses national federation guidelines. Previously, only players could call timeouts. To request a timeout, coaches must step on the field and be clearly visible to an official.
Herald writer Bob Mortenson contributed to this report.
