Bellevue 'sneakers' past Bainbridge

The BHS boys cross country team wound up with the short leg of the wishbone as Bellevue edged them out of a state berth at the District 2 meet Thursday at Seattle’s Lower Woodland Park.

The teams tied for fifth place, with the top five squads going on to state. But Bellevue’s sixth-place runner bettered Bainbridge’s to break the tie and edge the Spartans out of further team competition.

Coach Richard Christopher was anything but disappointed by his team’s performance.

“You can’t cut it any finer than that,” Christopher said. “You can’t ask for anything more.”

Three Spartan boys qualified for individual competition at the state meet, led by junior Nolan Amy, who finished sixth overall in 16:31. Seniors Tim Freeman 17:04 (16th) and Joey Tarbill 17:14 (20th) also claimed spots in the top 25 to advance.

Other finishers were Jason Rowley 17:36, Max Suffis (18:24), Colin O’Keefe (19:09) and Trubee Davison (19:31).

On the girls side, Bainbridge finished seventh out of 12 teams, with junior Rachel Belt finishing 19th in 20:47.

“The girls ran really well last week at the Metro championships. It just wasn’t their week,” assistant coach Mary Sue Silver said.

Freshman Erika Bergman finished second in 21:39, a personal best. Bea White (22:21), Meghan Colkitt (22:33), Lizzy Corbin (22:35), Kylie Dardis (23:03) and Kayley Turkheimer (24:46) also ran.

The Spartans’ four individual qualifiers wrap up the year at the state meet in Pasco next weekend.

“We can’t ask for anything more than what they accomplished this season,” Silver said. “The pride was definitely in the doing.”

Freshmen end on high note

The Spartan frosh gridders ended their season with a bang, battling to a 20-20 tie in a down-to-the-wire contest against Roosevelt Thursday.

“The freshmen learned to play high school football,” coach Sean Eaton said of a game that produced two Bainbridge injuries and some last-minute heroics from the fired-up Spartans.

Bainbridge came out strong, scoring the first touchdown on a run by Jake Hinton.

The second quarter was dominated by Roosevelt’s offense, which tallied 12 unanswered points before the the Spartans tied the game at 12-12 on a two-yard run from Austin Charvet.

With just a three minutes remaining, Roosevelt scored another touchdown from the 1-yard line – and dealt a heavy blow to the Spartans when starting quarterback and nose guard Chris North suffered a head and neck injury during the goal-line stand.

After emergency crews took North to the hospital – from which he was released in good condition a few hours later – the teams decided to play out the remaining three minutes.

Roosevelt scored on the two-point conversion, and proceeded to kick-off. Austin Charvet fielded the ball and rocketed down the sideline to begin the Spartans’ final march.

A series of hand-offs to Hinton took the team deep into Roosevelt territory. But injury struck again, when Hinton was tackled a couple yards from the end zone and went down with a hurt knee.

But the Spartans refused to give up. Punching the ball in on a run up the gut, Austin Charvet took the team within two points.

C.J. Hall followed with a sweep left, running in untouched to score the tie.

“The team was wild, the crowd was wild,” Eaton said. “We (finished) the game at a tie, but went away with a huge emotional win.”

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