Kamiakin gymnasts, Hanford swimmers finish strong in state

The busiest weekend of high school winter sports happened this past weekend, with district basketball, state gymnastics, state boys swimming, and state wrestling.

We’re spending the next few days recapping as many highlights as we can, starting with swimming and gymnastics.

Later this week, Jack Anderson will talk to the Herald about what it’s like to have his Chiawana boys repeat as state 4A wrestling champions in Tacoma.

And we’ll recap this past weekend’s district basketball tournaments — leading with the Kamiakin boys taking down Mt. Spokane in the District 8 3A tournament championship in the Toyota Center.

State gymnastics

Kamiakin’s Amaya Gales finished second in the all-around event on Thursday, to help lead the Braves to a third-place team finish at the WIAA state gymnastics meet at Sammamish High School in Bellevue.

Kamiakin scored 176.425 points to finish third in the 1A/2A/3A meet, only placing behind team champion Lake Washington (185.725 points) and runnerup Sammamish (180.950).

Gales totaled an all-around score of 38.075, placing just behind all-around champion Laly Noriega of Lake Washington and her scored of 38.275.

In the individual events Thursday, Gales placed second in the vault (9.650), fourth in the bars (9.475), tied for sixth in a floor exercise (9.500), and 14th in the beam (9.450).

Teammate Rachel Harper contributed good points by tying for seventh in the vault (9.300) and tying for 27th in the floor (9.250).

Kamiakin’s Emily Larson tied for 11th in the beam (9.475) and finished 27th on the bars (8.650); while teammate Sophia Collins finished 23rd on the bars (8.800) and tied for 25th on the beam (9.225).

In the Friday individual events portion of the meet, Gales tied for first in the vault with Sammamish’s Aiko Hirai, with both scoring 9.725.

Larson placed seventh overall on the beam with a 9.275.

Boys swimming

Hanford freshman Andy Gelston finished fourth in two finals at the Class 4A WIAA boys state swimming and diving championships Saturday in Federal Way.

Gelston placed fourth in both the boys 500 meter freestyle and the 100 meter backstroke.

In the 500 meters, Gelston had the third-fastest time in the preliminaries at 4 minutes, 40.85 seconds, on Friday.

On Saturday, Gelston improved on that time in the finals, finishing the event in 4:39.70. Kamiak’s Vlad Gilszmer won the event in 4:30.91.

In the 100 backstroke, Gelston again was third-fastest in the prelims with a time of 52.00 seconds.

His time in Saturday’s finals was 52.59 for fourth. Wenatchee’s Connor Elwyn won the event in 49.53 seconds.

▪ In the 2A state meet, Prosser junior Coleman Wright garnered a sixth-place finish in the boys 200 intermediate with a time of 2 minutes, 2.11 seconds.

Wright also competed in the 500 freestyle final, placing seventh overall with a time of 4:58.43.

Notes

▪ The SWX team and myself are busy contacting area high school basketball players as we prepare for the third SWX Classic basketball event, set for Sunday, March 15, at Kamiakin High School.

The games pit some of the top Tri-City area boys and and girls against some of the top Yakima area players.

Girls game tips off at 4 p.m., while the boys game starts at 6:30 p.m. In between games, there will be a boys-girls 3-point field goal shooting contest.

The games will be televised live on SWX.

Proceeds from the event go to the YMCA of the Greater Tri-Cities and the Kamiakin High dance team.

▪ Former Tri-City American Connor Rankin finished the season as the second-leading scorer for the Mt. Royal College men’s hockey team with 26 points (7 goals, 19 assists). Mt. Royal went 19-12 this season, 18-10 in the Canada West Conference, and the team was eliminated in the Canada West quarterfinals.

Nolan Yaremko, another former Tri-City American, scored 5 goals and 6 assists this season for Mt. Royal.

▪ Freshman John Markillie (Hanford) was named to the All-New England Intercollegiate Men’s Swimming and Diving Association team this month.

Markillie competes for Maine Maritime University.

In a meet Jan. 28 against Husson, Markillie won the men’s 50 butterfly, as well as the 100 butterfly.

▪ Eastern Oregon University women’s wrestler Dempsi Talkington (River View) was named an All-American to the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association Championships, held Feb. 8 in Atlanta. Talkington finished seventh at 155 pounds in the event.

▪ Jansen Edmiston (Hermiston) is averaging 9.3 points, has 44 assists, 38 steals and 13 blocked shots this season for the Lewis-Clark State College women’s basketball team.

Teammate Madeline Weaver (College Place) averages 2.0 points a game for the Warriors, who are 18-8 overall, and 10-6 in the Frontier Conference.

In a 74-64 win over Providence College on Feb. 1, Edmiston led the Warriors with 18 points and 6 rebounds. Bailey Cartwright (Chiawana) led Providence with 17 points and 13 rebounds in the loss.

▪ Boise State University’s men’s basketball team is 10-6 in Mountain West Conference play as of Feb. 23, good enough to be tied for fourth among the 11-team conference standings. Leon Rice (Richland) is Boise State’s head coach. The Broncos have two regular-season games left before the conference tournament begins March 4 in Las Vegas.

▪ Kassen Hopkins (Connell) has been the leading scorer for the Willamette University women’s basketball team this season, averaging 11.1 points a game. Hopkins also grabs 4.3 rebounds a game for the 13-12 (7-9 conference) Bearcats.

▪ BYU’s Ellie Heiden Quackenbush (Kamiakin) ran the anchor leg for the winning women’s 4x400 relay team at the Boise State University Indoor Open on Feb. 7-8.

Quackenbush also finished sixth in the women’s 200 final with a time of 25.25 seconds.

In the women’s 3,000 meters, Emily Adams (Waitsburg) of Lewis-Clark State finished second with a time of 10 minutes, 27.55 seconds.

▪ Sam Colbray (Hermiston) defeated Oklahoma’s Anthony Montanona 7-5 at 174 pounds to help Iowa State’s wrestling team beat the Sooners 22-14 on Feb. 9. Colbray’s record is 13-7 this season. Iowa State competes in the Big 12 Championships on March 7-8.

▪ Former Prosser High quarterback Will Weinmann spent last fall at West Hills Coalinga junior college in California, where in nine games the freshman completed 62 of 108 passes for 630 yards. He had four TD passes against four interceptions for the 0-10 squad.