State 2A soccer semifinals matches two teams from same conference

By John McDonald

Prep Editor

How tough is the North Cascades Conference in girls soccer?

Well, two of the final four teams in the Class 2A state tournament are from that league. Meridian and Sultan finished 1-2, respectively, in the NCC and have survived four postseason playoff games to reach the state semifinals. They will play each other for a fourth time this season at 10 a.m. Friday at Federal Way Stadium.

Meridian has defeated Sultan in all three meetings.

This is Meridian’s first trip to state since the conference was formed. Sultan is back in the semis for the first time since 1998. The Turks played in back-to-back championship games in ‘98 and ‘97, losing on both occasions.

In Class A/B, Archbishop Murphy is in the semis and will play Overlake at 4 p.m. Friday at Auburn Stadium. Overlake finished third in the ‘99 playoffs.

If the Wildcats can get by Overlake, they’ll play the Cedar Park Christian-Brewster winner in the final. Cedar Park Christian was the runnerup last season.

It’s official: The Edmonds School District has formally applied to the Northwest League for admittance of Lynnwood and Meadowdale for football only. The two Edmonds District schools, along with Shorecrest, are the only Western Conference schools classified 3A. All three played in the 4A Wesco South Division this season. All three schools currently have 3A student populations for next year as well.

Shorecrest also wishes to compete at the 3A level next season, but is leaning against applying to the Metro League or Kingco 3A, leaving the Northwest League as a stronger possibility. If the Edmonds District schools are accepted into the Northwest League, however, it would already have 10 members, the maximum for a nine-game schedule. Adding an 11th team would create scheduling problems.

Long time, no see: The Meadowdale boys cross country team went to state this fall for the first time since 1980, before any of the current team members were born. And they did it with no seniors and only two returning runners with district meet experience, coach Kris Maraveller said.

Singing swimmer: Kamiak freshman swimmer Katy Corbett performed the national anthem Saturday before the finals of the 4A state swimming and diving meet at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.