Blackhawks, Cardinals wrestlers compete at state

CHENEY HIGH SCHOOL

Boys swimming

One Blackhawk swimmer qualified for state 3A competition Feb. 20-21 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Sophomore Carson Bentley earned the single Eastern Washington allocation to state in the 100-yard breaststroke with a first- place finish at the District 6 meet Feb. 6-7 at Richland High School. Bentley turned in a time of 1 minute, 39/100ths of a second, setting a new meet record in the event by 32/100ths of a second.

At state, Bentley missed the A Finals in the event by about 1.5 seconds, but turned in a prelim time of 1:00.97 qualifying him for the B Final. His finals time of 59:98 earned him a 10th-place finish overall.

Boys Wrestling

The Blackhawks advanced nine wrestlers from District 6 competition to Mat Classic XXXVII at the Tacoma Dome, Feb. 19-20. Of those, three reached the podium: Cooper French, Kaden Rasmussen and Wyatt Wells, with all nine advancing to Day 2 of competition.

Wells reached the highest podium step, placing third at 215 pounds with a 9-5 decision of Foueti Unga of Lincoln High School (Tacoma). Rasmussen lost to Isaiah Ramirez of GSL 3A foe University by technical fall to place fourth at 157 pounds while French sixth after a loss to the Titan’s Jaxson Leffler at 190 pounds.

“His (French) losses were to the third, fourth and fifth place wrestlers,” head coach Brian Skaff said. “Cooper wrestled as well as he has in his career as a Blackhawk and did it at the right time.”

Also competing at state were Aiden Carr, Mason Bridges, Chazz Gray, Hank Ghering, Ethan Guske and Macade Munro. After losses on day two, all battled to advance through the consolation brackets but coming up short of a medal — with seniors Carr, Guske and Bridges wrestling their final matches for the Blackhawks.

“All have had great careers and we are so proud of them,” Skaff said. “But they did their jobs and scored points which helped Cheney to a 11th place team finish.”

Cheney finished with 115 points. District 6 champion Hermiston (Ore.) emerged as the state champion as well, 61.5 points ahead of second-place University.

Girls Wrestling

The Blackhawk girls advanced 13 wrestlers from districts to Mat Classic XXXVII including three state placers from last year: Jalisca Holmgren, Jennifer Tian and Paige McGee.

At the Tacoma Dome, five of the 13 made it to the medal podium: Addison Lathrop, Holmgren, Tian, McGee and Skylar Buckner. McGee and Holmgren both earned fourth-place finishes, with Buckner sixth, Tian seventh and Lathrop eighth.

Holmgren won her first three matches at 125 pounds before losing to eventual state runner-up Olivia Engel of Kelso in the semifinals. In the match for third and fourth she lost via fall to Shelton’s Adell Anderson.

McGee also won her first three matches at 135. In the semis, she lost via fall to Walla Walla’s Kylie Whitaker. In the match for third and fourth, she lost via fall to Ridgeline’s Zoe Grishko.

At 145, Buckner lost a 10-2 major decision to Auburn-Mountainview’s Hayden Roth to finish sixth. Tian pinned Everett’s Lucy Dalseg for seventh at 120 while Lathrop lost via fall to Jayanna Ivory of Gig Harbor to finish eighth at 115.

Cheney tied Everett for seventh place with 119.5 points, the highest finish for the three 3A GSL schools at state. Kelso emerged as state champion, with Hermiston (Ore.) runner-up.

MEDICAL LAKE HIGH SCHOOL

Boys basketball

After finishing second in the Northeast A League standings to Lakeside, losing twice to the Eagles in the regular season, the Cardinals got a measure of revenge on the regular-season champions in the playoffs.

Medical Lake got 15 points from 6-foot-4-inch sophomore forward Grant Moffat and outscored Lakeside 18-11 in the fourth quarter to knock off the Eagles 62-49 in the District 6 championship game and advance to the crossover tournament with District 5 for a berth to the 1A state tournament.

Unfortunately, the Cardinals came up short against the South Central Athletic Conference’s fifth-place Wapato, who earned District 5’s third-seed with an upset of third-seeded Chelan. The Wolves outscored Medical Lake 22-9 in the fourth quarter enroute to a 72-59 win, with Moffat leading the Cardinals with 22 points while Owen Moffat added 16.

Medical Lake ended its season at 14-9 overall.

Girls basketball

The NEA third-seeded Cardinals made a good run at advancing in the playoffs and a shot at the 1A state tournament. Medical Lake knocked off fourth-seeded Riverside 63-30 in the District 6 opening round.

Needing a win over second-seeded Colville to advance to crossover competition with District 5, the Cardinals couldn’t quite close a six-point gap in the fourth quarter, losing 39-36 to the Crimson Hawks to finish the season at 6-15.

Gymnastics

Dylan Stoltz turned in a 9.40 in the floor exercise on Day 2 of competition to claim third-place in the state 1A/2A /3A state meet Feb. 19-21 at Sammamish High School. The sophomore was in a five-way tie for ninth heading into the second day of competition, and bettered her score by one-10th of a point to reach the podium.

Stolz also advanced to second-day competition in the bars, placing 15th.

Junior Makalia McKenney made the finals in the floor exercise. One of the five tied with Stoltz on Day 1, McKenney turned in a Day-2 score of 9.150 for eighth place.

Stoltz placed fifth and McKenney placed 87th in Friday’s all-around event out of 140 girls in the competition, helping Medical Lake to a 20th-place team finish.

Boys wrestling

Nine Cardinals advanced out of district’s to Mat Classic XXVII: Abelino Feliciano, Abram Kane, Bewiller Paul, James Oliver, Liam Horn, Markus Bowman, Mason Pierce, Robert Carson and Walker Hays.

Oliver was the only wrestler to made the medal stand, placing third at 126. He won his first two matches before losing a 17-16 decision in the quarterfinals to eventual 1A state runner-up Michael Bustos of Wapato.

In the consolation round, Oliver notched three straight wins to advance to the medal match against Elma’s Aidyn Johnson, winning in a second period pin for third.

Girls wrestling

Angelica Bowman was the only Cardinal girls wrestler to advance to state at the Tacoma Dome, losing both her matches at 105.