Good Tuesday morning. We’re going to talk some wrestling for you this morning. Mount Si High School’s team hosts Inglemoor tonight at 7:00 at MSHS, but we have some news from last Thursday’s match for you now.
The Wildcats took care of Skyline 48-33 at home in Mount Si’s gymnasium. Braedon Haynie (138) and Brody Belaire (152) headlined the Wildcat wins in this one, as both pinned their Spartan opponents to take match wins. Brody Sauvage (220) also posted a pin in his match, taking that contest as well. The feature match, though, did not go Mount Si’s way, as Spencer Marenco was doubled up 10-5 in his 160 lb. battle with Skyline’s Jacob Inton.
Mount Si competed in this past Saturday’s Olympic Duals over in Bremerton, but results for that meet are not available as the TrackWrestling.com website, which this tournament used to formulate brackets and results, suffered a crash on Saturday and was not working in time for them to utilize it for results.
Also this morning:
CHS finishes fourth at Bonney Lake tourney: Paced by weight class wins from Freddy Reid (170) and Caleb Lay (195), the Cedarcrest wrestlers took fourth as a team in the Bonney Lake tournament this past Saturday. Full results for this event also are not available as this tournament, too, was impacted by the aforementioned TrackWrestling glitch. Lay beat teammate Matt Weinert (195) for the title while Evan Reid (126) also took second in his weight class. And the day was also good for the Red Wolves girls.
There are five girls wrestling for Cedarcrest this winter and one of them made the finals in her JV bracket. Jessica Wonder (120) took second in that weight class; the sophomore is among the five young ladies competing on the mat this season. Fellow sophomores Olivia Sipes (130) and Abbi Link (125) along with freshmen Abby Varday (145) and Olivia Hillestad (135) are also participating this season. The five will be competing in various girls’ meets this winter in addition to some of the regular boys’ meets. We’ll have full coverage of them for you and also include them in our Athlete of the Week segments when the girls are up for the nod; the next of these will be in two weeks.
Local boy makes finals at club meet: Valley youngster Emmett Whitaker made it all the way to the finals of his division on Sunday at the Northwest Ultimate youth tournament. Whitaker, competing in the 12U Novice 98 lbs. division, rolled into the finals but fell to opponent Adriano Perez in that title match. Whitaker, competing for the Snoqualmie Valley Wrestling Club, a feeder program for Mount Si High School’s wrestling program, looked to rebound in the second-place match but again fell to opponent Koi Calhoun, from Pierce County, in that match. Whitaker ended up third and was the lone SVWC competitor of the four that competed in the Sunday event at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Bremerton to place. The others that competed were Leo Whitaker, Max Hendricks and Dean McCann. A congrats to all of them on their efforts this past weekend.
To the ice we go.
Hockey
Gross’ highlight-reel assist aids Seattle win: We neglected to mention this to you until now, but the Seattle Junior Totems last Thursday scored a 4-3 win over their I-5 rival Bellingham Blazers in a Western States Hockey League game at home in Mountlake Terrace, and a Valleyite’s highlight-reel play was part of the deciding goal.
Snoqualmie’s Cam Gross assisted on the game-winning goal in the third period by teammate Dominik Basek. But it’s how Gross, a Mount Si High School grad, assisted that tally which is earning the rave reviews. Gross fed a no-look “drop” pass to Basek who then proceeded to fire it past the Blazer goalie and into the back of the net for the goal which ended up being the game-winner. The league’s Twitter feed picked up the highlight and it now has over 1,200 views and a number of re-tweets, including from us on our Twitter feed @snovalleysports.
The team is 14-5-1-2 (wins, losses, overtime wins and overtime losses) on the season and has 46 points, good for second in the WSHL’s Northwest Division. They meet Bellingham on Friday up in Whatcom County before returning home Saturday to meet the Bremerton-based West Sound Admirals. As for Gross, the assist was his seventh of the season, but he also has eight goals, which put him in the middle of the pack in both offensive categories on his team.
Mount Si’s Mariner ticket fundraiser is on for next spring, plus our Athletes of the Week for 12-12
Good Monday morning. Athletes of the Week on deck, but we have some news from Mount Si High School’s baseball program.
The Wildcats have launched their Seattle Mariners ticket fundraiser for the upcoming 2019 season for those of you wanting to buy tickets to give as holiday gifts. The “Mount Si Night” that has been designated as the game the program will be selling tickets for is earlier than in past seasons. It will be on April 14 of next year when the Mariners host the Houston Astros. It is a Saturday night, convenient for families with children. The game starts at 6:10 p.m. at Safeco Field in downtown Seattle.
As was the case last season, the Wildcats will be selling tickets in two seating sections – on both the 100 and 300 levels. The 100 level tickets will be in sections 116-118, down the first base line, while the 300 level seats will be in sections 335-340, along the third base line. The 100 level seats will sell for $40 each while the 300 level ones go for $25 per seat. All tickets purchased are guaranteed to be together, so families purchasing multiple seats will be sitting together in these sections.
The game also includes a promotion – fans will receive Mariner military-style caps as it is Salute to Armed Forces Night, so if you have family or friends in the military, this might be worth purchasing tickets for them to attend the game.
As many of you know, the Mariners will be a new-look team in 2019, as many new young stars seek to replace those who have departed this offseason, such as ace pitcher James Paxton or second baseman Robinson Cano. That said, there’s still at this point plenty of recognizable faces on the club, such as pitcher Felix Hernandez, third baseman Kyle Seager or outfielder Mitch Haniger. So this M’s team, while it’s not expected to contend, will be facing a team in Houston that is expected to be among the best in the American League in 2019, so the opportunity to see the Mariners perhaps pick up a great win that night should be worthy of your attention.
Tickets are now being sold on Mount Si’s baseball website, which is at right in our news links. More information will be available there as well. As has been the case in the past, the ticket fundraiser is the mechanism that is used to guarantee the Wildcat baseball program a game at the stadium.
They will be hosting that game next spring on April 7, a Sunday – also different from past seasons – against Edmonds-Woodway. Last spring’s game, against West Seattle, was a Mount Si win and provided a special memory for one of their players – then-senior Will Scott, who will be playing next spring at Colorado School of Mines, hit a home run becoming the first Wildcat player to ever do that in the approximate 10-year history of the games at Safeco for Mount Si. So if you want local kids to have the same opportunities to create lifelong memories such as that, then you need to purchase those tickets today to help keep this tradition alive for your local high school’s baseball program.
With that, now to our Athletes of the Week. Girls as we have our first ladies’ selections from winter sports.
MOUNT SI – We head to gymnastics this week and recognize senior Sidney Aspinall. Aspinall won the beam event and finished third in the all-around at the Wildcats’ season-opening meet last Thursday at Issaquah High School, competing against both the Eagles and Woodinville Falcons. Aspinall scored 34.4 on the all-around and finished tied for first in that beam with a Lake Washington High School gymnast, scoring 9.05 in that event. Aspinall and her Wildcat team open their home schedule this Thursday night against Bothell at 7:00 at Mount Si High School.
CEDARCREST – With the basketball team being the lone girls’ sport in the winter for the Red Wolves, we begin the first of probably five or six recognitions for players from coach Brad Knowles’ team this season today with a shoutout to sophomore Sidra Griffin. Griffin is filling in for top player Jaylin Yowell while she recovers from a knee injury suffered during the Cedarcrest loss to Snohomish November 30. Last Friday, Griffin scored 13 points and also played solid defense for the Red Wolves in their 43-34 win over former Cascade Conference rival Cedar Park Christian. CHS hosts Arlington tomorrow night as they return to Wesco play.