Reflecting on a memorable 2002

Published 9:50 am Friday, February 22, 2008

Looking back on the year 2002, sports fans have a wealth of memories to reflect on. Here is a brief recap of some of the most memorable personalities and teams that made headlines this past year:

Jackson wraps up at Class 4A state swimming meet

FEDERAL WAY— The Jackson boys swim team experienced some highs and lows at the Class 4A state swimming and diving championships Feb. 15-16.

The Timberwolves matched up with five other Wesco 4A schools in the consolation final of the 200 medley relay. A strong effort that appeared to be good enough for second place in the heat and 10th place overall, was erased when Jackson was disqualified for having a swimmer leave the starting blocks too soon.

Matt Warren took sixth in the 100-yard backstroke and placed 14th place in the consolation heat of the 50 freestyle.

The only other Jackson swimmer to go into a final heat was Peter Mullins. He finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:00.14. His brother, Andrew, took 14th place overall in the same event.

The Jackson 400 freestyle relay team of Chris Tracy, Ryan Wang, Peter Mullins and Warren closed out the meet with a 16th place finish.

ATM girls play well at state tourney

Even though Archbishop Murphy lost two of three games at the 2002 Class 1A state girls basketball tournament, coach Bill Kelley and his players left Yakima feeling good about how they played and optimistic about the future.

A team that had no seniors may have come of age at the Yakima SunDome.

In a first-round game against a team that beat them at last year’s state tournament, the Wildcats exacted a little payback by defeating Columbia (Burbank) 56-54.

The victory sent Archbishop Murphy into a quarterfinal matchup with Brewster, which the Bears won 75-43.

The loss then sent Archbishop Murphy into a loser-out game with Toledo and at first it appeared the Wildcats were going to suffer the same fate that befell them against Brewster.

The Wildcats, however, rallied in the second half and cut the lead to seven points at one juncture of the fourth quarter. But the Indians eventually regrouped, finishing out the game strong with a decisive 85-65 victory.

His team’s performance at the 2002 tournament has Kelley thinking about a possible state title.

“We’re definitely moving into that top (tier),” he said. “Challenging for a state championship, everyone on the team is pretty focused on that.

“It was a great season. I think they really finished strong and played one of our best games. It (Toledo game) was the highest scoring game in the 1A tournament. That’s a real accomplishment.”

Jackson’s Chambers selects Washington

Craig Chambers decided that there was no point in waiting to realize a dream he’s had since he was a little kid.

So the Jackson three-sport star called University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel and verbally committed to the Huskies on May 19.

Though Chambers was only a junior at the time, and letter of intent day was nine months away, the highly-recruited 6-foot-41/2, 185-pound wide receiver has never doubted where he wanted to play.

He’s been hooked on the Huskies since his brother, Lake Stevens graduate Richie Chambers, played there from 1990-94, the final two years as a starting linebacker.

“It’s not necessarily following his footsteps,” said Chambers, who said he was told by the UW that he committed earlier than any football player in school history. “I want to make my own footsteps. I didn’t go there just because of my brother. I’m going there because that’s where I want to play.”

Chambers, who possesses a rare combination of size and speed, has been compared to 6-foot-4 UW receiver Reggie Williams, who was selected the Pac-10’s top freshman. Chambers won all-area honors for football and basketball, and is one of the state’s top sprinters. He was the only sophomore in the Class 3A state 100-meter final last spring. An ankle injury sidelined him for the second half of his junior track season. Chambers has run a 4.4-second 40-yard dash. His personal best in the 100 meters is 10.8 seconds.

Nuro finishes fifth in the 800 finals

TACOMA — Corey Nuro was giving it everything he had.

Through the first lap of the Class 4A 800-meter finals, the Jackson senior was stuck towards the back of the pack in about seventh place.

Nuro made his move with about 300 meters to go.

“I kept saying, “Get on your toes. It’s your senior year. You have to go,’ ” Nuro said.

A part of Nuro wanted to shut down with almost every step.

“But every time I’d lean back for a second and say, ‘Get on your toes’ again. ‘You’ve got to go. You have no races after this,’” Nuro said.

The prerace favorites, Curtis’ Courtney Jaworski and Shelton’s Alex McClary, were locked in close battle for first place that Jaworski eventually won by little more than 2/10th of a second.

The battle for fifth, sixth and seventh would be even closer.

Nuro and two other runners crossed the finish line at virtually the same moment, which led to some uncertainty as Nuro didn’t know if his extra efforts down the stretch had paid off.

But when the results were finally announced, Nuro ended up taking fifth place with a personal best time of 1:55.71.

Jaworski’s time of 1:50.50 was a meet record and the third fastest high school time in the event in state history.

“I can’t complain,” Nuro said of his fifth-place finish. “That race was fast. That was a crazy race.”

Nuro’s teammate Brandon Myers wrapped up his season with a solid performance in the high jump. The Jackson junior cleared 6 feet, 3 inches, which was good enough for sixth place.

Evan Wirkkala concluded his high-school career with a tough 3,200 race. The Jackson senior tore a calf muscle in the race.

“It was very unfortunate to have that happen at the state meet,” Hruschka said.

Wirkkala advanced to state in cross country and in track for the last three years.

“He’s been the most consistent runner for the last three years,” Hruschka said.

Caleb Knox ran a personal best time in the 1,600, a race many said had the deepest field in the country, according to Hruschka.

While Myers and Knox will be back at Jackson next year, Nuro plans to continue his track and cross country career at Clark Community College in Vancouver, Wash. He then wants to transfer to a Division I school.

Jackson swim team fares well

FEDERAL WAY — The often heard cry “Wait ‘til next year” is an apt description for the Jackson girls swim team after the 2002 Class 4A state swimming and diving championships.

A pair of freshmen and a sophomore advanced to the consolation finals in five individual events, as did two relay teams in the Nov. 14-15 meet at the King County Aquatic Center.

The Timberwolves finished 25th overall, scoring 23 points.

Jackson put up some solid times during the preliminaries, according to coach Drew Whorley.

“They came in and were charged by the environment. We had awesome swims, pretty much best times all the way around,” he said. “The relays swam great and it got us into a position where they can score points. That’s the first step to learning how to swim at this level, putting yourself in a position to score points.”

With this year’s experience, Whorley is hoping to come back next year and score a few more points.

“It’s an exciting time for us,” he said. “Of all the relay swims we had and all the individual swims … there’s not one senior in this group. We’re a really young team. I feel great about the future.”

Freshmen Amber Pleasant and sophomore Emily Rogers each advanced to two consolation finals. Pleasant took 13th in the 50 and 100 freestyles, while Rogers placed 13th in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley relay. Freshman Laura Menard was 16th in the 500 freestyle.

ATM girls finish third at state

TACOMA — Less than 24 hours after losing a heartbreaking semifinal game, the Archbishop Thomas Murphy girls soccer team rebounded with a lopsided victory over Brewster to take home a third-place plaque for the second straight year.

Senior Lindsay Shandera scored two goals, while younger sister Danielle and Kat Taylor each added one goal, to lead the Wildcats to a 4-0 victory over the Bears in the third-fourth place Class 1A/B state tournament game Nov. 23 at Curtis High School.

Archbishop Murphy was still recovering from the previous night’s semifinal loss to Cedar Park Christian.

The defending champion Eagles, who later went on to defeat Bellevue Christian in the championship game, defeated the Wildcats 2-1 in a shootout to advance to the finals.

Archbishop Murphy trailed 1-0 late in the game before Taylor scored the tying goal with about nine minutes to go.

“We got it back and we had some chances, some really close ones and they did too,” said Wildcats coach Pat Jack. “I thought our keeper (Lindsay Krell) played the best game I’ve ever seen her play. She was really on. Actually, they all played their best games.”

After no goals were scored in the two sudden-death overtime periods, the two teams then went to the shootout. Cedar Park Christian made all five of their penalty kicks, while the Wildcats made four of five.

Archbishop Murphy was noticeably flat to start the first half against Brewster. The Wildcats outshot the Bears 16-0 but the score was still tied at 0 when halftime arrived.

Six minutes into the half, Krell stopped Brewster’s first serious scoring threat when she came out and grabbed a crossing pass in front of the goal.

At the other end of the field, Taylor beat her defender and scored an unassisted goal to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead at the 51-minute mark. Lindsay Shandera quickly followed with a pair of goals and Danielle Shandera then closed out the scoring with a goal.

“We knew that we just had to come back and be ready and play hard,” Lindsay Shandera said. “We knew that we could have had that game last night, so we just wanted to show … that we were the team that could have won last night.

“We came out to win and we did play our hardest. We weren’t going to let that loss affect anything.”

With the game well in hand, Jack was able to play all of the Wildcats’ subs, giving them some playing time at the state level.

Jack is hoping they’ll remember the experience.

“I think they see what the intensity is at this level,” she said.

Wildcats win Class 1A football title

TACOMA — You can point to several reasons why the Archbishop Thomas Murphy Wildcats are the Class 1A state high school football champions.

During a trying week for his family, junior running back Jevon Butler responded with one of his best games of the season, rushing for a Class 1A title game record 227 yards on 26 carries and scoring a pair of touchdowns. Butler’s mother suffered a heart attack earlier in the week.

Then there was the play of senior quarterback Axel Wolff, who flawlessly executed an offense that amassed a record 466 yards on the ground against a Royal defense that didn’t allow any team to score more than one touchdown during the regular season.

No play was more significant, however, than Wolff’s lone pass in the game, a 25-yard touchdown to split end Ian Telge with 1:01 left in the second quarter that gave the Wildcats a two touchdown lead heading into halftime.

Archbishop Murphy coach Terry Ennis can’t forget the effort of his defense. A high-powered Royal offense that averaged more than 56 points a game during the regular season was limited to two touchdowns by the stingy Wildcat defense.

But were he to hand out game balls, Ennis would have to order them in bulk because as far as he is concerned, Archbishop Murphy’s 35-14 victory over Royal in the Class 1A Gridiron Classic Dec. 7 in the Tacoma Dome was a total team effort.

“It’s the greatest experience to work this hard and get something like this,” Wolff said. “We didn’t just show up here … we worked hard every day. When your work pays off, it just makes the victory so much sweeter.”

Wolff’s sentiments were shared by many players and their coach.

“There were some kids that did some things they hadn’t done all year,” Ennis said. “We said, ‘Hey, if there’s a fumble out there, somebody’s got to be ready to get on it.’ We had a linebacker playing for the first time … these were kids working hard. That’s what I’m really excited about.

“I went into this one saying we don’t want to be embarrassed because that’s a great football team and our kids just played hard.”

The Wildcats came into their first-ever championship game as an underdog in most observers’ estimation. Royal, who won state titles in 1996 and 2000, had 18 seniors on its roster compared to Archbishop Murphy’s five. This was only the second varsity season and third overall for the Wildcats.

Before the Wildcats could even start to prepare for the top-ranked Knights, they had to deal with the news that Feneda Butler, the mother of Jevon and J.T. Butler, had suffered a heart attack on Monday, two days after Archbishop Murphy’s semifinal victory over Cascade Christian.

Emotionally, it’s been a difficult couple of weeks for many of the Wildcats, who also were coping with the death of the father of a classmate many players know well. Another boy’s father had some chest pains.

“I think we just kind of supported each other in a lot of ways,” Ennis said.

Ennis couldn’t say enough about his defense’s effort. Royal was limited to 34 yards on the ground, which may have been the most significant statistic of the day.

“They couldn’t keep us off balance running and passing,” Ennis said. “The kids did a super job stopping the run … we didn’t really believe that we were going to do that. That helps us just to be able to be more confident with our pass defense.”

“This was about some kids that played great defense. There’s no way we should have held this team to 14 points, except a whole bunch of guys did everything they could on every single play.”