Thursday, Apr. 24, 2008

Picking apart my Invite picks

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

Gosh, how time has flown this week.

Y’know, I meant to pan my Pasco Invite picks the day after, but Sunday became Monday, which became Tuesday ... you know the drill.

But hey, I know if I don’t hold myself accountable, one of you will.

My pick Kinsley Ojukwu, Union. Dud! Selah’s Brett Blanshan came out of sprinting hibernation to upset Prosser’s Cade Wandling in the final. Ojukwu was a distant ninth and later scratched out of the 200 final with an injury. However, my “darkhorse” pick -- Marco Martinez of Toppenish -- took third.

200

My pick Nycole Griffin, Benson. Dude! Griffin dominated the final, winning by almost a full half-second over Wandling. My darkhorse, Brad Wall of Evergreen (Vancouver), took fifth, so not bad with my first two picks there.

400

My pick Case Parker, East Valley (Spokane). Dud! Hey, Parker did take second, getting nipped by nine-hundredths by Colton Dunn of Hockinson.

800

My pick Tim Kessler, sr., Jesuit (Portland). Dud! Geesh. He didn’t even make the podium. At least I did have the winner (Brad Whitley of Central Valley) among my contenders. That makes me 3 of 4 there.

1600

My pick Ryan Prentice, Mount Rainier. Dude! Furious kick makes my pick come to fruition.

3200

My pick Joey Bywater, Lake Stevens. Dude! Ibid from previous pick. And my darkhorse, CV’s Jayson Taylor, took fifth.

110H

My pick Sean Harris, Kent-Meridian. Dud! Though not by much -- Harris lost by two-hundredths to North Central’s David Butler in one of the day’s best races.

300H

My pick Nick Cassleman, Pullman. Dud! Bellingham’s Logan Darling roared to victory by more than a second over Cassleman.

4x100 and 4x400

My pick Benson. Well, I can’t rate this one, since Benson scratched out of both races. That doesn’t count, does it? At least Richland, my darkhorse in the 4x400, made the podium.

Distance medley

My pick Lake Stevens. Dud! Roosevelt won, edging out my darkhorse pick (Southridge) by half a second, with Lake Stevens third. I have only one thing to say. Roosevelt won?!?

High jump

My pick Jason Feser, Kamiakin. Dud! Jason didn’t get over 6-4 and barely made the podium. Roosevelt’s Amin Tufa overcame tendinitis in his right knee to pull out the win.

Pole vault

My pick Jake Baertlein, Jesuit. Dud! Although heck, he and Carter Nell of Eastmont both cleared 15 feet, with Nell winning on fewer misses. And my darkhorse, Mead’s Keith Webber, took fourth.

Long jump

My pick Ryan Bowen, Lewiston. Dud! Either he was a no-show or couldn’t get a legal jump. Ouch!

Triple jump

My pick Ojukwu. Dud! Not sure if he injured himself here -- he did place third in the event. My darkhorse, Richland’s Jonathon Miller, jumped a season best 44-1 3/4 to get fourth.

Shot put

My pick Andrey Levkiv, Hazen. Dude! Finally, back in the dude column -- although he struggled and barely beat Moses Lake’s Tad Harman by an inch.

Discus

My pick Cody Hays, Lewiston. Dude! OK, this is making me feel a little better. Two in a row I got right.

Javelin

My pick Joe Zimmerman, Lewis & Clark. Dude! Wahoo ... a clean sweep of the throws salvages my boys picks. And my darkhorse, Spencer Hadley of Connell, took fifth.

Girls

100

My pick Charnay Combs, Rainier Beach. Dud! Should have had faith in Ki-Be’s Whitney Leavitt, who looks so much stronger than when I last saw her at the Invite a year ago. At least my darkhorse (if you want to call Eastmont’s Morgan Clem that) came through with a second-place finish.

200

My pick Kayla Smith, Benson. Dude! When those Benson kids run, they know how to win. And my darkhorse, Tacoma Baptist’s Amber Finley, made the podium in seventh.

400

My pick Eleanor Siler, Lewis & Clark. Dude! She won a great race over Bellarmine Prep’s Kelly Jacka.

800

My pick Lisa Olander, West Valley (Yakima). Dud! Olander still isn’t 100 percent from a strained groin muscle, and against the likes of Bellarmine’s Nicole Cochran, she didn’t stand a chance. Erps.

1600

My pick Andrea Nelson, Shadle Park. Dud! A pesky freshman, Baylee Mires of Mead, held Nelson off for the victory. At least my darkhorse, Hockinson’s Shannon Porter, took third.

3200

My pick Adrienne McGuirk, Jesuit. Dud! Heck, I didn’t even pick the right Redmond girl among my contenders. Sarah Lord showed me a thing or two, repeating as Invite champ -- her teammate, Devin McMahon, placed third, just behind McGuirk.

100H

My pick Galia Deitz, Richland. Dud! But not by much -- Deitz was a tenth of a second behind Shaquana Logan of Bellarmine Prep in another of the day’s top races.

Speaking of the 100 hurdles, I like how Southridge’s Chelsea Bourque shrugged off a poor prelim -- she barely made the finals by two-hundredths of a second and drew Lane 10 for the finals, where she could scrape an elbow on the concrete stands -- to place third.

“I knew I had a bad lane, so I wasn’t expecting to make the top three. I was just wanted to medal,” Bourque said. “I was smiling when I finished. I knew I’d given everything I had.”

300H

My pick Logan. Dud! Logan pulled up lame in the final, and Kamiakin’s Olivia Johnston ran a season-best 45.37 to hold off Ashley Stabl of little ol’ Tekoa-Oakesdale/Rosalia and Deitz.

4x100

My pick Bellarmine. Dude! It wasn’t even that close. And like I thought, my darkhorse (Rainier Beach) sandbagged its entry time and finished third.

4x400

My pick Shadle Park. Dude! I liked Dave Trimmer’s thoughts on my choice -- Duh!

Distance medley

My pick Jesuit. Dude! My homer tendencies finally paid off with a win for my alma mater.

High jump

My pick Kelly McNamee, Ferris. Dude! No Herald jinx for our Saturday morning feature subject as she cleared 5-10 for the third time in her career. And Taymussa Miller of Hanford, my darkhorse for the second straight year, cleared 5-6 for the first time to place third and get the school record.

Pole vault

My pick Jessica Christian, Richland. Dude! Made a good run at 12-2, which would have been a career best. She’ll get it by year’s end. And my darkhorse, Morgan Dunning of East Valley (Spokane), took fifth.

Long jump

My pick Kayla Smith, Benson. Dud! The girls really struggled with the wind -- the winner, Erin Smith, only went 17-4 1/2, and eighth-place Shallyn Jackson of Richland jumped only 16-6. And my darkhorse, Kira Lewis of West Valley (Yakima), really struggled -- I think her final mark of 10-7 was a bailout and her only legal jump.

Triple jump

My pick Katie Davis, Ferris. Dud! Another pesky freshman who doesn’t know her place jumped up and took the title -- Kathleen Mulligan of Mount Rainier. Darkhorse pick Katharine Lotze of Kiona-Benton learned a valuable lesson in the prelims -- she had a 35-foot jump turn into a foul when she exited the pit in front of her landing spot. She ended up not getting a legal mark. She won’t make that mistake again.

Shot put

My pick Anna Albrecht, Pullman. Dude! This was a definite no-brainer.

Discus

My pick Ashley Kenney, West Valley (Spokane). Dude! She ended up winning by more than 10 feet. And my darkhorse, Morgan Keys of Bellingham, ended up sixth.

Javelin

My pick Courtney Kirkwood, Othello. Dude! A perfect 6-for-6 with the throws -- though once again, this one was a no-brainer. And how about darkhorse pick Richelle Stewart of Kamiakin taking fourth? A surprise 3A state qualifier a year ago, she could make some serious noise this year.

Final result? Got 16 of 34 correct, just under 50 percent. Eh. And with my darkhorses? Also got 16 onto the podium out of 36. That’s not too shabby -- usually my darkhorses stumble big-time.

And hey, the mail link was fixed so people can e-mail me questions for the blog. Got a couple this week, so let’s get cracking.

The first e-mail comes from Rob in Kennewick, and it touches upon the Invite: I am just reading your preview of the Pasco Invite ... a couple days after the event naturally! I notice in many of the events you note that there aren’t a lot of the top performers in the state for many of the events. I don’t know much about track, but I know the Invite has a long proud history. Is the shine of this event starting to fade, with not having the state’s best here for many of the events?

Rob, I think the biggest problem this year was timing. The Invite was a week later in the schedule than it usually falls, and it ended up conflicting with the Eason Invite, another top meet that takes place in Snohomish and attracted a lot of top teams. Of course, the Eason gets cancelled because of snow while Pasco went off without a drop of rain, so go figure.

Every year, Pasco attracts all the eastside studs and the meet has its perennials from the westside -- Rainier Beach and Bellarmine Prep, for instance -- as well as individuals who want to gauge themselves against the state’s best.

As LC’s Eleanor Siler, winner of the Invite 400, put it, “I’m just happy to have run a good race against major competition.” It’s a confidence builder just five weeks before the state meet.

But for many westside schools, it’s a budget question -- bus over to Pasco for the day, maybe come over Friday so my athletes have the best chance at success ... that all costs money.

Or for some athletes, Pasco doesn’t fall on the right week for their training schedules. It usually comes the week after the Arcadia (Calif.) Invitational, perhaps the premier West Coast meet. A lot of top distance runners trek down there, and to then go up against a top-notch Invite field is too much to ask of their bodies.

What’ll be interesting to see is next year, when Pasco no longer hosts the 4A/3A state meet, if some of the athletes who in the past would make the trip to get a dress rehearsal of the state facility, don’t make it this time. My guess is that most still will, because the Invite will still be one of the top meets.

Michael from Kennewick writes in: I had the pleasure of watching Tyler Thompson and the University of Portland Pilots last Friday. Tyler was head and shoulders above most Pilots at the plate and my overall impression was that there are a lot of Tri-City baseball players who could play at that level, some even now. So, the question is why don’t more local kids attract attention from college baseball coaches?

That’s a question I’ve also pondered from time to time. The quality of baseball around here is clearly top-notch -- witness the state titles at both the high school and Legion levels won by area teams lately. My guess is that this just has been a hidden corner of the baseball world, and it’s only now getting discovered. Northwest college coaches are wising up to the talent this area produces.

Look at UW with players such as Jorden Merry and Kyle Conley ... WSU with Travis Coulter ... UP with Thompson ... Gonzaga with Jeremy Stumetz and Bryan Winston, among others ... Oregon State with Jorge Reyes and Lonnie Lechelt ... plus don’t forget the likes of Jeremy Bonderman and Travis Buck in the majors and Jason Repko and Travis Mattair in the minor leagues.

James in Yakima has a simple question: How is the Spokane teams taking the loss of one berth to the state and reduced entries in the regional 4A? Will all the 3A teams be in the regionals?

Well, to answer the second part of your question first, no, all 3A teams will not make it to regionals. One Columbia Basin Big Nine team and one Greater Spokane team will be left out of regionals.

As far as the 4As are concerned, the GSL schools did not like getting reduced berths into the regional fields, but since the CBBN holds an 11-6 advantage in schools, the GSL didn’t get much of a choice.

In years in which the eastside gets three state berths, the regional berths will be split 6-2 in favor of the CBBN. When the eastside gets four state berths, the split is 5-3.

In football, the splits are 4-2 when there are three state berths and 5-3 with four state berths.

According to Moses Lake AD Loren Sandhop, the CBBN secretary, the GSL schools had asked for additional entries in cross country -- a sport they traditionally dominate, especially on the boys side -- and for a pigtail match in wrestling for their third-place district finisher to wrestle the CBBN’s No. 6 for a spot in the main draw in the three-state-berth years. That got shot down.

The brackets are set up now so that the CBBN always will get one team or one individual through to the 4A state tournament in every sport -- not necessarily the league or district champion, though.

The way it’s looking now, the eastside will get four 4A berths for the 2008-09 school year and three berths for the 2009-10 year.

And with Shadle Park winning its appeal and staying 3A, the eastside 3As should get two berths each year of the two-year cycle.

Finally, here are this week’s statewide baseball rankings. Richland dropped a spot back to No. 2 in 4A this week, as did Kiona-Benton in 1A. Southridge slipped into the 3A rankings at No. 10.

Til next time ...