Jackson High School guard Brett Kingma is the Washington Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association’s Class 4A Player of the Year.
Kingma, a senior who averages 30.1 points per game, is one of five players who were recently honored by WIBCA. The others are Kentridge’s Gary Bell (Mr. Basketball), Decatur’s Jerron Smith (3A Player of the Year), Clover Park’s Tana Pritchard (2A Player of the Year) and Nooksack Valley’s Kyle Impero (1A Player of the Year).
The University of Oregon-bound Kingma scored 41 points, including five 3-pointers, on Friday in state-ranked Jackson’s 80-69 4A District 1 championship game victory over Monroe in Mill Creek. It is the first district title in program history for Jackson, which is 21-2 this season and ranked fourth in 4A by the Tacoma News Tribune.
Hoping to add to its eight-game winning streak, Jackson plays a first-round state tournament game against fifth-ranked Auburn on Friday at Jackson High.
Neale to run in Brooks PR invite
Glacier Peak High state- and national-champion distance runner Amy-Eloise Neale is set to compete in the inaugural Brooks Sports PR Invitational, scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor. The competition will feature more than 120 elite high school athletes from 36 states and six events: 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, 400-meter dash, 800-meter run, 1-mile run and 2-mile run. Neale, a sophomore, is entered in the girls 1-mile race with a seeding time of 4 minutes, 52 seconds. For more info about the PR Invitational, go to http://bit.ly/gknCby.
Peterson inspires Vikes
On his way to second place in the 103-pound weight division in the 4A state wrestling tournament on Saturday, Lake Stevens High sophomore Jesse Peterson beat Mariner senior Dallas Parker in the semifinals. Peterson’s triumph over Parker was “probably the high point of the tournament for our team,” said Lake Stevens coach Brent Barnes, whose Vikings won the 4A team title Saturday night.
On Feb. 5 Peterson was knocked unconscious at the end of a district tournament championship match loss against Parker. Paramedics put Peterson on a backboard, loaded him into an ambulance and took him to a hospital.
Peterson recovered, qualified for state and won a 9-4 decision in his rematch against Parker. In the state final, Peterson lost 4-2 versus top-ranked Michael Nguyen of Evergreen.
Barnes was extremely proud of Peterson’s performance.
“To make it back, there’s got to be some fear involved in that for a 15-year old kid (like Peterson),” said Barnes. “And to be able to bounce back and get through last week (at the regional tournament) and then come here and have such a great weekend … it was an awesome, awesome weekend for Jesse.”
Granite Falls wrestlers get revenge
Senior Jon Poyner and junior Chris Jenkins both earned top-8 placings for Granite Falls in the 2A state wrestling tournament on Saturday. Poyner finished fifth in the 215-pound division and Jenkins was seventh in the 103-pound division. In their final match, respectively, Poyner and Jenkins beat Mt. Baker foes who defeated them a week earlier at the regional tournament.
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam and follow Cane on Twitter at MikeCaneHerald.
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