Wildcats’ softball team heads to state
May 23, 2012
The Mount Si High School softball team is heading to state this year, but the path getting there included two polar opposite days in the 2012 Sea-King District Softball Tournament.
The Wildcats faced off against West Seattle at the Lower Woodland Park ballfields May 16 and came away with a 10-0 win.
By Michele Mihalovich Freshman Paige Wetherbee, with the Mount Si High School softball team, lets go after a windup in the third inning against Lake Washington High School during the 2012 Sea-King District Softball Tournament on May 17 in Seattle.
That win put the team up against Seattle Metro’s undefeated Bainbridge High School.
The Wildcats delivered the Bainbridge Spartans’ first loss of the year, 6-3.
The second day of tournament play on May 17 did not go so well for the Wildcats.
Mount Si lost, 8-6, against Lake Washington, and then 8-2 against Liberty High School.
The losses won’t prevent Mount Si from going to the State 3A Softball Championship beginning May 25 at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey, but it will affect who they go up against.
The draw, held May 20, pits Mount Si (17-6) against Kamiakin (22-0) in the first matchup at noon May 25.
The last time these two played in March, the Kamiakin Braves won, 13-2.
Mount Si Gymnastics Academy opens with competitive finishers
May 23, 2012
Contributed Ginger Judge shows off some of the honors she has won.
The Mount Si Gymnastics Academy is barely a month old. Most gyms would still be finding their footing. MSGA is not most gyms.
Last month, it sent 13 girls to compete in the United States Association of Gymnastics Washington State Meet — a once-a-year, multiweekend spectacular with hundreds of girls competing at multiple levels of difficulty.
Led by coach Penny Loan, MSGA’s gymnasts returned with fourth- to 12th-place ranks, finishing in the top 50 percent of their age group.
Mount Si softball team rallies for sidelined senior
May 23, 2012
Two unrelated, preseason concussions sidelined Maura Murphy’s senior year with Mount Si High School’s softball team, and now her teammates are dedicating the remaining season to honor her.
Murphy, 18, made the varsity team her freshman year as a shortstop/second baseman, impressing her teammates and coach ever since.
Maura Murphy
“She’s a real leader for this team, both on and off the field,” head coach Larry White said. “Everyone who meets her just falls in love with her.”
Murphy signed on with The George Washington University in D.C. on a softball scholarship, which now could be in jeopardy, White said.
His voice cracked and he held back tears when he said, “She’s like a daughter to me. I’d hate to have to see her softball career end like this.”
Heartbreaking end to promising season
May 23, 2012
The Mount Si High School baseball season came to an abrupt and shockingly premature end at the regional final in Centralia May 19.
The team won a hard-fought battle during the opening game against Peninsula, 2-1, but then lost the next round against Kelso, 5-2.
The first game was no easy win, coach Elliot Cribby said.
“All year long we’ve had long, close games facing good defensive teams,” he said. “Peninsula was another good game against a good team.”
Cribby said no one was too worried about the match up against Kelso. The team had an overall 18-7 season, verses the Wildcats’ 20-4 record.
“We had Reece Karalus on the mound, who’s been doing good all season. And we figured, we’re good. We got this,” he said.
But Kelso scored four runs in the first inning.
First playoff trip ends quickly for Mount Si lacrosse team
May 17, 2012
UPDATED: 12:44 p.m. May 17.
It was like watching a baby taking three steps before falling on his rump: The trip was short, the end painful, but you know this amazing journey is just the beginning.
The Mount Si Lacrosse team lost, 7-3, to the Three Rivers Coyotes from Richland in the Wildcat squad’s first playoff game in its three-year history.
Juanita stuns Mount Si soccer team into an early offseason
May 10, 2012
By Calder Productions Mount Si High School’s Davis Karaica, right, battles for a ball against Juanita High School’s Jon Ellis on May 7. Karaica scored one of Mount Si’s two goals in a 3-2 loss to the visiting Rebels.
It’s over.
Ahead 2-0 in the first half, the Mount Si High School Wildcats’ boys soccer team surrendered momentum at the edge of halftime and never quite got it back.
The team who finished a point short from an outright berth to state gave up a goal with seconds left before the break and watched as Juanita mounted a second-half comeback to win, 3-2, in Snoqualmie.
Local students take second place at state mountain biking race
May 10, 2012
Game day looks and feels a little different to coach Phil Therrein and his crew of 18 student athletes.
“Nobody sits on the sidelines,” he said. “Everybody races on race day.”
Therrein, the coach of an Eastside composite competitive high school mountain biking team since the Washington High School Cycling League’s inception two years ago, said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
The team took second place overall out of 19 teams at the Washougal MX Challenge on April 15 in Washougal.
Contributed Eastside Composite team member Silas Harrison navigates a curve in the trail during the Washougal MX Challenge on April 15 in Washougal, Wash.
Members of the team include four Mount Si High School students, as well as athletes from Issaquah, Skyline and Mercer Island high schools.
The Mount Si students are freshmen Nate Lewiston, Nick Larson, Joe Steenvroode and sophomore Boone Hapke.
Hapke finished the sophomore boys race in 58 minutes, 38 seconds, while Steenvroode, Lewiston and Larson finished the freshmen boys race in 47:48, 56:07 and 1:02:05, respectively.
First playoff game ever looms for lacrosse team
May 10, 2012
They say you never forget your first time.
If so, May 12 will remain a milestone for the Mount Si Lacrosse team regardless of how their game ends.
The three-year-old team will play its first playoff game that day against either Garfield or Three Rivers at home.
Game time will be posted at www.mountsilacrosse.org.
By Greg Farrar Beau Bachand, Mount Si High School midfielder, scores a goal against Roland Deex of Liberty High School during the third quarter for a 5-0 lead on the way to the Wildcats’ 11-3 lacrosse victory May 2.
The playoff berth crowns a terrific season for Mount Si. They won two combined games in their first two seasons. This year they have won 10 of 13.
“The season was a great success,” head coach Woodroe Kiser wrote in an email. “Our goal this season was to get to the playoffs so it was a success. We have a new goal now of winning this playoff game.”
Mount Si’s rise from winless in year one to playoff hosts in year three has caught the attention of other teams, Kiser wrote.
Mount Si soccer preps for showdown against Mercer Island team
May 2, 2012
By Calder Productions Mount Si High School’s Erik Stai (right) jumps for the header against Interlake High School April 27. A win against Bellevue and a game at Mercer Island in the last game of the regular season would give Mount Si the 2012 KingCo Conference title. Kickoff at Mercer Island High School is at 7:30 p.m. May 4.
Mount Si High School Wildcats’ head coach Darren Brown, a self-described soccer junkie, has coached in and played in his share of big games.
Few, at least in his mind, reach the size and importance of the contest unfolding May 4 on Mercer Island, where his Wildcats might just snatch the KingCo Conference title from under the Islanders’ noses.
A win against Bellevue High School on May 1, and a win against the Islanders, would give Mount Si an identical record to the league-leading Islanders: 10 wins, two losses, two ties.
Mount Si baseball team tops Liberty, 4-2, in rain-soaked game
May 2, 2012
The baseball weather gods parted storm clouds just long enough for Mount Si and Liberty high schools to face off for the second time this season, ending in a Wildcat 4-2 win and a torrential downpour.
The pregame rain forced the conference matchup to be moved from the soggy Mount Si field to the Patriots’ turf ballfield in Renton. But the home-field advantage didn’t help the Patriots, who lost to Mount Si a second time this year on April 25.
It wasn’t until the second inning that any runs went up on the board.
By Greg Farrar Carson Breshears, Mount Si High School sophomore, grounds out in the fifth inning against Liberty, but earns an sacrifice RBI by scoring teammate junior Joey Cotto from third base. The Wildcats’ 4-0 lead held up for a 4-2 win April 25.
Patriots pitcher George Suddock walked Daniel Besmer and Wildcat Trevor Taylor hit a single. Evan Johnson got a good piece of the ball, but it was caught and Taylor was tagged out at second. The hit did allow Besmer to cross home for the Wildcats’ first run.
Zach Usselman took first base after Suddock’s pitch hit him in the back. He stole second base while Ryan Atkinson was at bat, and he ran home for a second Wildcats’ run when Atkinson hit deep into right field.
Joey Cotto’s hit bounced to the Patriots’ third baseman, who tossed him out at first, for Mount Si’s third out.
At the top of the third, Trevor Lane struck out Liberty batter Kyler Rose, and then right fielder Taylor made short work of the rest of the inning, catching an out-of-bounds pop up by Nick Short, and a hit by Garret Hughes.
Liberty held the Wildcats to only one more run in the bottom of the third inning.
