Sports Briefs
Published 10:13 am Thursday, August 7, 2008
Lynnwood’s Santiago wins junior golf title
Kimberly Santiago, 14, of Lynnwood, won the girls 14-15 age group at the Washington Junior Golf Association state championship that ended on Aug. 1 at Spokane Country Club.
Santiago’s three-day score of 235 was three strokes ahead of Anna Bourland of Bainbridge Island.
Ricky McDonald, 17, of Edmonds, finished third in the boys 16-17 age group. McDonald’s three-day score of 215, included a final round of four-under par 68 that pushed him up to third.
E-W graduate Forrest signs with Sounders
Forrest, who also played for the University of Washington, scored 16 goals for the Huskies on his way to being named Pac 10 Player of the Year his junior year. The forward also was the conference’s leading goal scorer in his senior season before being sidelined with a stress fracture in his left foot.
“After a tremendous 16-goal junior season, he was a highly regarded forward,” said Seattle coach Brian Schmetzer. The unfortunate injury (stress fracture) that cost him the majority of his senior season and much of the MLS preseason allowed us to be in a position to sign a quality young striker.”
The Sounders next home game is August 15 at Starfire against the Puerto Rico Islanders. Tickets are $13 in advance through www.ticketmaster.com and $15 at the gate. The game on August 15 is the first of seven straight home games to end the Sounders final USL regular season.
New turf at Everett Memorial Stadium
At long last, the playing surface on Everett Memorial Stadium’s football field has been replaced.
This summer workers removed worn-out AstroTurf and replaced it with another artificial material called Sprinturf.
Similar to the well-known FieldTurf surfaces, the Sprinturf will be ready when high school football practice begins Aug. 20.
Everett Memorial is the home football field for the district’s three high schools: Cascade, Everett and Jackson. Everett High’s gridiron team practices in the stadium. It’s also used for prep soccer.
The AstroTurf needed to go, Everett School District athletic director Robert Polk said: “That was here for 12 years and we got every inch out of it. I don’t think we could have milked it any longer.”
In recent years the deteriorated turf was more abrasive and increasingly less desirable for athletes, Polk said.
“It was becoming more and more evident that it was becoming too slick. Kids’ feet were sliding out from under them on cuts,” he said.
The turf replacement is part of a renovation project that cost $762,000 before sales tax, district facilities and planning construction coordinator Hal Beumel said in an e-mail response.
Workers are also replacing the track that surrounds the turf field, and they adjusted a retaining wall on the northwest end to fix an issue that affected the start area for boys 110-meter hurdle races during track season, said Polk.
Most of the money for the improvements came from a reserve replacement fund set up in 1997, Beumel said.
District coaches whose teams use the stadium are excited about the changes, Polk said.
Unlike the old turf, the previous track wasn’t in bad shape and could have lasted several more years, Polk said. But the district decided it was best to do both projects now.
“It just made sense to shut the whole thing down one time, do it all in one summer and get it over with,” said Polk.
Installation of the new track is scheduled to start next week and finish by Aug. 18. Other stadium improvements are in the works. The district plans to remodel restrooms and concession areas by April 2009, Polk said.
