From the Sidelines

Pirate boys take second at sub-region, both Pirate girls win championships, Mustangs prepare for first meet.

Has any high school wrestling program in recent memory been as dominant as Orting this year? The Cardinals walked away with yesterday’s 1A sub-regional boys tournament at Vashon, scoring 419.5 points almost 2 1/2 times second-place Vashon’s 168.

Orting had 17 wrestlers in the finals and won 10 individual championships. Five of the finals featured two Cardinals and only two of the 14 weight classes did not include at least one Orting wrestler.

Each competing school could enter two wrestlers in each weight class.

It’s hard to compete against that kind of power and talent, but the Pirates sent four to the finals, two in the weights where Orting didn’t reach the finals, and captured two firsts and two seconds.

Sam Chapman, 112 pounds, decisioned Dillon Stiles, Orting, 8-0. Geran Webb, 215, pinned Gregory Seylor, Cascade Christian, in 27 seconds.

At 140 Brady Maris, Orting, scored a 13-1 major decision over Pirate Dominik Stemer; and at 160 Port Townsend’s Brett Johnson pinned Vashon’s Elliot Ellingsen.

Vashon’s two girl grapplers couldn’t have done better at the 3A/2A/1A sub-regional at Eatonville.

Madeline Wolczko, 119, entered as the number-two seed and defeated Electra Duclos, Steilacoom, for the championship with a 13-2 major decision.

Iris Spring, top seed at 125, took her championship with a 8-2 decision over North Mason’s Patricia Costello.

The two-girl Pirate team took fourth place in the three-division tournament.

Next Saturday the wrestlers try to qualify for State. The boys compete in the Regional Tournament at Bellevue Christian and the girls at Emerald Ridge.

While the high-schoolers approach the climax of their season, the middle-schoolers are just starting. After practicing since Jan. 19, the McMurray Mustangs host Mountain View tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 8. The meet starts at 3:45 p.m.

The Mustangs have four home meets this season. After March 11 wrestling aficionados will have to wait until late fall for more wrestling on the Island.

Varsity: Vashon 59, Auburn Adventist 42

JV: Auburn Adventist 37, Vashon 23

Auburn Adventist Academy is a 1A-size private school that plays an independent schedule. The Falcons do not belong to a league or participate in post-season play but are competitive with most 1A girls’ teams.

Last night our Pirate girls took control of the game quickly, opening up a 23-6 first quarter lead. That 17-point margin proved to be the winning difference. After the Pirates opened up a 53-28 gap at the end of the third period, coach Henry Porter sent in the reserves to finish the game.

One of the biggest cheers of the night came when 5-2 sophomore Marya Munsey, who usually gets very limited varsity playing time, sank a basket late in the fourth quarter. The Vashon bench came to their feet and the sparse crowd erupted.

Elisa Wendt led the Pirates with 15 points. Chrissy Swope had 12 and Charlotte Kehoe had 10.

Elizabeth Downs led the visitors with 27.

Auburn Adventist   6   7  15  14   42

Vashon                   23  12 18   6    59

Pressure from Kiki Means causes this shot by Auburn Adventist's Kat Eun to go awry.

Vashon’s JV held their own against the Falcons for the early going but fell behind and couldn’t catch up after the swing players left at the end of the third quarter to prepare for the varsity game.

Jazmine Acosta, right, steals a Falcon pass after teammate Avalon Koenig causes Sarah Pierce, 54, to rush her throw.

The Pirates have two more regular-season games: Tuesday, Feb. 9 at Charles Wright, and Tuesday, Feb. 16 at home with Life Christian.

Pirate senior players and cheer leaders and their parents will be honored between games on Feb. 16.

It looks like the Pirate basketball games went as expected last night. I didn’t get to the games, but from the stats it looks like the boys built up their usual big lead then sat the starters and let the reserves finish the game.

The Pirate girls still can’t get past Seattle Christian’s strong team. Tomorrow (Thursday) the girls host Auburn Adventist in a non-league game. This one was changed from early in the season and is the last non-counting game this season.

JV plays at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity at 7 p.m. This is the last chance to see the JV girls play in the same gym as the varsity.

In case you’re still looking at an old schedule, note that the Life Christian games are changed to Feb. 16 at Life Christian. The change was made to accomodate Life Christian’s playoff schedule. They are a 2B team and their playoffs start a week earlier than our 1A playoffs.

Reserve Saturday for the boys wrestling sub-regional tournament in the Pirate gym. Check the school Web site or the sports hotline for starting time. Our two Pirate girl wrestlers will be at Eatonville for their sub-regional.

And wrestling fans should find time to get to McMurray on Monday for the first Mustang meet starting at 3:45 p.m. The Mustangs also host on Feb. 26, March 2 and March 11.

Mustang girls basketball is home on Feb. 11 and 22 and March 4, 8 and 18.

Ferry reminder: WSF says the Hiyu will be on the south end run for the rest of this week, so if you’re going to Charles Wright for the basketball games on Friday, plan accordingly.

Matt Amick gets off a shot early in the game.

The Pirates we know and love are back. After the slow starts at Cascade Christian, our Vashon teams both came out running in last night’s home games against Orting. The boys won 56-35 and the girls followed with a 63-28 rout of the Cardinals.

The Pirate boys took their time and established their game, pulling ahead to a 13-11 lead in the first quarter and leading 26-21 at the half. John Gage tallied the first eight points for Vashon with three field goals and two free throws resulting from fouls on two of those shots.

Quinn Holert puts up a last-second shot as the first half ends.

The Pirates opened the third quarter with a 14-point run before the Cardinals could find the hoop.

John Gage shoots for two and is fouled in the process.

Gage tallied 31 points before Coach Andy Sears sat the starters and finished the game with reserves.

Orting    11  10   5   9    35

Vashon 13  13  17  13   56

The Pirate girls wait to take the floor for warmups.

Vashon’s girls took care of business quickly. The Pirates put up 10 points before the Cardinals scored and led 14-5 after the first eight minutes.

A 15-2 second quarter put Vashon up 29-7 at the half, giving the Pirates one more point than they allowed the visitors for the whole game.

Chrissy Swope guards an Orting player in the third quarter.

The home team led 52-16 after three quarters. The fourth quarter was a chance for the reserves to show their stuff.

Orting      5    2    9   12    28

Vashon  14  15  23  11     63

Cat Amick pressures an Orting player late in the game.

Orting 46, Vashon 27

As expected, the  number-one-ranked wrestling team in the state defeated Vashon last night. But with five returning state champions, four from the visitors and one from the Pirates, fans were treated to some outstanding wrestling between 13 JV and 13 varsity matches.

The varsity matches took very little time, 10 of them ended in first round pins, nine in less than a minute. Pirate Elliot Elllingsen, 160, needed almost two full rounds to pin Arthur Fretter.

Elliot Ellingsen, in green, works toward a pin of Arthur Fretter.

Cardinal Dylan Styles went the distance to defeat Madeline Wolczko 10-1.

The most exciting match featured 171-pounders Tucker Lazare of Vashon and Orting’s Keegan Norris. Trailing 10-8 as the clock ticked down, Lazare put Norris on his back. The referee signaled a pin as the buzzer sounded, but the timekeeper ruled the clock had expired before the pin. Tucker was awarded a near fall for three points and an 11-10 victory.

Geran Webb’s 20-second pin of Cardinal Josh Teu Teu was only the second fastest pin of the night. Drew Templeman pinned Pirate John Michael Monroe in 11 seconds in the varsity opener at 125 pounds.

Graeme Britz is on the way to a 52-second pin of Jake Owen in the 130-pound match.

Other Pirate winners were Graeme Britz at 130 pounds and Sam Chapman at 112.

Sam Chapman, 112, gives Orting's Austin Dodson a close-up look at the Vashon wrestling mat.

Although team scores are not kept for JV matches, Pirate wrestlers dominated the 13 JV matches.

Varsity: Orting 46, Vashon 27

113: double ff; 112: Chapman (V) p Dodson; 119: Styles (O) d Wolczko 10-1; 125: Templeman (O) p Monroe; 130: Britz (V) p Owen; 135: Mann (O) p Stemer; 140: Maris (O) p Thomas; 145: Shattuck (O) p Steneker; 152: Veltri (O) p Mandl; 160: Elllingsen (V) p Fretter; 171: Lazare (V) d Norris 11-10; 189: Meeks (O) p Easton; 215: Webb (V) p Teu Teu; 275: Barnes (O) p Jovanovich.

Both Vashon High basketball teams got wake up calls last night. The Cascade Christian Cougars pounced on the visiting Pirates and didn’t let go until they had won.

The games were similar in that Cascade Christian jumped to an early lead and built a big enough margin that Vashon fell just short of catching up. Neither Vashon boys nor girls ever had a lead.

Kelly Costello runs into traffic.

The Cougar girls led 13-3 after one quarter and made that lead hold up the rest of the game. Vashon out-scored the Cougars in the second third quarters and cut the margin to three points for most of the fourth period.

Then some very strange foul calls had five Pirates fouled out, four in the final minute and a half, and a sixth player ejected, leaving Vashon with only four players on the floor for the final whistle. The resulting free throws allowed the Cougars to increase the final margin from three to nine, 45-36.

Kiki Means tries to keep control of the ball while tangled up with a Cougar player

The Pirate boys spotted the Cougars a 33-15 half time margin before playing the hosts even in the third period. Early in the fourth period the margin reached 20 points before Vashon closed it to four with less than two minutes remaining.

The Cougars were almost perfect with free throws as the Pirates fouled to try to get the ball back, resulting in a final score of Cascade Christian 60, Vashon 45.

Quinn Holert guards a Cascade Christian player.

Friday the Pirates host Orting. Boys play at 5:30 p.m., girls at 7 p.m.

Last night was senior night for the Pirate wrestling team and, appropriately, the four Pirate seniors scored three pins and a technical fall to clinch a 38-27 win for Vashon over visiting Cascade Christian.

Senior Graeme Britz, 130 pounds, pinned Cougar David Thompson in the third round. Tucker Lazare, 189, pinned Nick Willhoite in the first round and Geran Webb, 215, made short work of Nick Willhoite, putting him on his back in only 39 seconds.

Tucker Lazare, in green, works over Nick Willhoite on the way to a pin.

Going in to the final match at 119 pounds, Vashon led 33-27. If Cascade’s Daniel Suggs could pin Sam Chapman the team score would be tied and the Cougars would on the tie-breaker. All Chapman had to do was avoid being pinned for the Pirates to win.

But “Slam” was not content to do the minimum. The only point he allowed Suggs was an escape when Chapman opted for both wrestlers standing on a re-start. Meanwhile the Pirate senior ran off 17 points for a technical fall and five team points.

The wrestlers have one more home match, next Thursday, Jan. 28, against top-ranked Orting.

Pirate Anthony Sawyer pins his Cougar opponent in an exciting JV match.

Pirate boys and girls dominated Charles Wright tonight. Final scores were almost identical: girls – Vashon 64, Charles 26; boys – Vashon 64, Charles Wright 24.

The Pirate girls ran off 19 unanswered points from near the end of the first quarter to near the end of the second quarter and led 29-12 at halftime.

Sophie Nespor knocks the ball away from a Charles Wright player in a display of Vashon's tight defense.

The boys led 47-13 at the half. With a 30-point lead in the second period, coach Andy Sears began playing the reserves. The fourth quarter was almost all Pirate reserves.

The Pirates play Chimacum at home Friday, starting the second half of the season. The boys play first at 5:30 p.m. followed by the girls at 7 p.m.

After yesterday’s big boys basketball win over King’s it’s back to the Nisqually League for the Pirates. Pirate fans have a lot to look forward to the rest of this month.

I’m only listing the home games here. If you can travel with the teams, check the high school Web site for time and location of away games.

Basketball is home tomorrow, Jan. 20, Jan. 22 and Jan. 29. Get there early if you want a seat for the boys game. In fact, plan to watch both games, the girls are ranked top-10 in the News Tribune rankings and I think they could be a sleeper team at state.

Wear green and gold and join the Green Tide, if you can find a seat.

Wrestling is home the next two Thursdays, Jan. 21 and 28. From recent results it looks like the coaches are doing their usual good job of preparing the squad to peak for the post-season. Vashon hosts the sub-regional tournament on Saturday, Feb. 6.

And don’t forget the Mustangs. McMurray wrestling and girls basketball starts Feb. 8.

The Pirate JV didn’t have any miracles to pull out like their varsity teammates did. Steilacoom’s JV took control early and went on to win 49-27.

The Pirates were even with the Sentinels, 6-6, in the second quarter and outscored them 10-7 in the fourth quarter, but Steilacoom’s 21-5 third period sealed the Pirates’ fate.

Ben Reoux gets off a pass in the first quarter.

Daniel Ridgeway, 45, fights for a defensive rebound.

Nick Fox-Edele, 4, puts up a shot in the fourth quarter