SEATTLE – Alex Wipf of Edmonds and Laura Follis of Mill Creek captured top honors among Snohomish County climbers at the 21st annual Big Climb for Leukemia on March 18 at the Columbia Center in Seattle.
Wipf, 17, placed first among local men by scaling the 1,311 steps in 8 minutes, 51 seconds. Follis, 43, reached the 73rd-floor finish line in 11:32, first among local women.
The annual event, one of fewer than 150 competitive skyscraper climbs worldwide, brought more than 4,000 participants to Seattle to benefit The Leukemia &Lymphoma Society.
Sixteen-year-old Jacob Chek of Snohomish finished second among local males in 9:14. Camari Ferguson, 42, of Everett was second among Snohomish County females in 13:32.
Everett’s Anders Jacobsen, 82, was one of three octogenarian climbers to take part in the event, finishing in 24:21 in his eighth Big Climb for Leukemia.
“I hope to get better at this as I get older,” Jacobsen said in a press release.
A former logger, Jacobsen trains weekly in the eight-flight stairwell of Providence Hospital’s Colby Campus.
“At 82 you don’t go as fast as you did when you were younger,” Jacobsen said. “I took it two steps at a time for the first 10 flights then paced myself.”
Jesse Lucas Berg of Chicago was the men’s overall winner, finishing in 7:32. Georgia Sanz Daniel of Enumclaw, who earlier in the month scaled the same Columbia Center steps in 50 pounds of firefighting gear to win the women’s title at the Scott Firefighting Stairclimb, finished first overall among women in 9:53.
The climbers ranged in age from 8 to 82 and came from 19 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Canada, Italy and Belgium. The event is expected to raise more than $450,000.
Complete results are available at www.bigclimb.org.
Hockey
Junior Silvertips win North Sound title: The Junior Silvertips of the Everett Youth Hockey organization rallied from a two-goal deficit to win the North Puget Sound Hockey League Pee Wee C Division Championship on March 11 at the Kingsgate Ice Rink in Kirkland.
The Junior Silvertips trailed the Eagles of the Seattle Youth Hockey Association 2-0 after the first period but scored three unanswered goals in the second period en route to a 4-3 win.
Everett advanced to the championship game with a 5-0 victory over the Badgers of the SYHA in the semifinals. The Junior Silvertips finished the regular season 15-0-1 and earned byes through the first two rounds of the league playoffs.
The NPSHL includes teams from Tacoma, Bremerton, the Sno-King Hockey Association (Kirkland and Renton), the Seattle Junior Hockey Association (Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace) and Everett Youth Hockey. This was the first year of participation for a pee wee (ages 11-12) team from Everett.
Members of the Junior Silvertips were Luke Pickar of Lynnwood, Morgan Pearson of Mukilteo, Tim Manhardt of Stanwood, Brandon Cole of Granite Falls, Owin Ell of Marysville, Andrew Vavrousek of Marysville, Corey Young of Lake Stevens, Carson Reykdal of Everett, Brandon Dormaier of Everett, Jacob Skinnell of Everett, Saville Pickar of Lynnwood, Aaron Olsen of Everett, Thomas Lefotu of Lake Stevens, Dalton Carter of Darrington, Brett Nagel of Everett, Charlie Mandella of Granite Falls and Joe Carey of Marysville. Everett’s head coach was Paul Skinnell. He was assisted by Joe Manhardt and Jerry Pickar.
In recognition of its first NPSHL Championship, the team will be presented with a banner from the league to hang in the community ice rink at the Everett Events Center.
Curling
Team Washington wins U.S. Mixed Nationals: The Brady Clark Rink defeated Team California 9-5 last Saturday to win the 2007 U.S. Mixed National Curling Championship at the Grafton Curling Club in Grafton, N.D.
Brady Clark of Lynnwood and his wife, Cristin Clark, and lead Bev Walter of Seattle have won five of the past six mixed national titles and three straight. Joining them in the second position for this year’s title was Leon Romaniuk of Redmond.
Team Washington jumped out to an early lead with two points in the first end but California rallied and took a 4-2 lead with three points in the fourth end. Brady Clark scored five points over the next two ends to seal the victory.
Scores, standings and photos from the 2007 Mixed Nationals can be found at www.usacurl.org.
Basketball
Wolfpack win traveling league title: The Wolfpack girls basketball team avenged an earlier loss by defeating Skyline 38-36 to win the Puget Sound Traveling Leagues Winter Championship tournament on March 4 at Hidden River Middle School in Monroe.
Comprised of fifth- and sixth-grade girls from Mill Creek, the Wolfpack finished with a 15-1 league record – their sole loss a one-point decision to Skyline – and a 25-1 overall mark.
The Wolfpack also won the Snohomish Basketball Association’s Martin Luther King Tournament in February and the Washington Tournament Association’s Holiday Classic and Cold Turkey tournament in December.
Members of the Wolfpack were Kelli Kingma, Rachel Nies, Allie Weathersby, Becca Carnevale, Callie Bircher, Beth Carlson, Marie Michael Carroll, Anna Maher, and Anna Warriner. They were coached by Mark Bircher and Luther Weathersby.
Gymnastics
Leading Edge has winners in Oregon, Bellingham meets: Gymnasts from Everett’s Leading Edge Gymnastics Academy competed in meets in Oregon and Bellingham over the weekend of March 10-11.
Leading Edge teams returned from the Emerald Team Challenge held in Cottage Grove, Ore., with first-place trophies in levels 4 through 9.
Alexandra Carney of Everett recorded a personal best of 38.825 points in winning the all-around in the Level 4 junior division. Ashley Albrecht also recorded a personal best (38.675) to win the child B division. Alison Moses of Snohomish took first (38.450) in the junior A division, and Jennifer Erickson of Mukilteo placed first (37.375) in the senior division.
In level 5, Olga Yevsyugov of Everett placed first (38.725) in the senior division. In Level 6, Danielle Wilson of Marysville was first (38.200) in the junior division and Angelina McCright of Lynnwood finished on top (37.275) in the senior division. Jordan Widener of Snohomish finished first (38.625) in the Level 7 junior division.
Carah Solemsaas of Lake Stevens placed first (37.900) in the Level 8 child division, Gina Puccioof Redmond was first (37.900) in the junior division, and Samantha Jensen of Lake Stevens finished first (37.675) in the senior division. In Level 9, Kailie Ponto of Kenmore placed first (38.075) in the junior division and Alexa Archer of Lynnwood took first (36.725) in the senior division.
At the Mardi Gras Madness meet held in Bellingham, Megan Clark of Everett placed first (36.450) in the 13-year-old and up division of Level 5 and Kalona Tanielian of Stanwood finished first (36.300) in the 11-12 division of Level 4.
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