Harriers send both teams to districts/Golfers take home second/Spikers get home court

Published 7:00 am Saturday, October 21, 2006

Bevan Taylor, Emily Farrar place in top ten at Metro meet.

On a wet and cold day at Lower Woodland Park in Seattle, the Bainbridge cross country teams made a solid showing at the Metro League championship meet on Thursday.

The boys and girls teams finished fifth, which pleased head coach Dean Tarbill.

“I’m very happy with where we are at right now,” he said. “We’re peaking at the right time and we are running hard.”

For the boys, Bevan Taylor finished fifth with a time of 16:23, five seconds slower than his course record set at the Fort Worden Invite Oct. 7. But he was far behind Seattle Prep’s Max O’Donoghue-McDonald, who set a new Metro League record with his time of 15:22 – 1:25 ahead of Nathan Hale’s Abdi Hassan.

“He’s certainly in the mix of the top echelon of the Metro League,” Tarbill said. “Hopefully he’ll keep improving and get to state.”

Max Welch was 16th with a time of 17:14, while Ian Shiach was 29th with a time of 18:03.

Matt Tetlow finished 35th with a time of 18:27, while Theo Hunt and Willie Wenzlau finished 38th and 39th with a time of 18:36 and 18:37 respectively.

Freshman Ian Layton, filling in for another runner, placed 46th with a time of 19:21 to round out the scoring.

Tarbill said there was an issue with one of the Bainbridge runners exchanging elbows with another runner during the race. Both were disqualified, but they will still be able to move on to districts.

For the girls, Emily Farrar was the top finisher with her seventh- place finish of 20:19.

Callie McKenzie was right behind her, finishing ninth with a time of 20:23.

“She’s been the surprise of the year,” Tarbill said. “She’s really done well. She’s peaking at the right time.”

Annie Taylor was 28th with a time of 21:26, while Emelie VanVleet was 40th with a mark of 22:29.

Mattie Molskness placed 42nd with a time of 23:00, while Molly O’Keefe was 43rd with a time of 23:22.

Another freshman fill-in, Sylvia Stellnacher, was 51st with a time of 25:06.

The 3A Sea-King District 2 meet is next Thursday at Lower Woodland Field.

Golfers take home second

When Bainbridge girls golf coach Steve Nielsen got the call over the walkie-talkie, he said he did have a flashback to last year’s tournament.

“They said ‘put the Bainbridge coach on,’” Nielsen said. “I said, ‘oh my gosh, somebody’s hurt or somebody’s broken a rule.’”

Instead, it was to let him know that freshman Anna Borland had aced the 10th hole at the Metro League tournament Thursday at Jefferson Park in Seattle.

The freshman shot a two day score of 172, good enough to finish seventh and qualify for the district tournament.

“That was neat,” Nielsen said. “That’s all the kids talked about all the way home.”

Katie Saucer placed third with a two day score of 151.

Katrina Hegge of Seattle Prep finished with a two day score of 137 for first place, while Kristin Tan of Holy Names was second.

Melanie Trygg finished sixth with a two day score of 170, while Ryan Nottingham was 17th with a two day score of 186.

Rebecca Sharar and Peyton Lunzer missed the cut for districts.

The Spartans finished with a total score of 601, good for second place.

Holy Names was first with a score of 619.

“It’s disappointing,” Nielsen said. “Everybody was disappointed.

“But Holy Names had battled us every time that we played this year,” he continued. “Some of their players who haven’t shot that well had career rounds. You gotta tip your hat to them.”

Saucier, Trygg, Bourland and Nottingham move on to the 3A Sea-King District 2 tournament in May.

The boys tied for second with Seattle Prep for second with 385 points. O’Dea took the team title with 411 points.

“The strength of play in the Metro League this year is a lot better than we anticipated,” Jamie Neill said. “O’Dea was the better golf team this year.”

Neil placed sixth in the tournament with a two day score of 142.

He was in a three way tie for first after the first round.

“I had a real good chance of winning, but I played real bad on the front nine,” Neill said. “I still had a chance to win on the back nine and I let it slide.

“I can’t say there’s next year, but there is districts and there is state. I’ll make my mark there.”

Kyle Hurt tied for seventh with a score of 149.

Peter Leslie was 11th with a score of 152, while Sean Leonard was 18th with a score of 157.

Jack Seidl was tied for 21st with a score of 158.

The boys play at River Bend in Kent in the 3A Sea-King District 2 tournament on Monday.

Spikers get home court

The Bainbridge volleyball team got to say goodbye to four seniors on Wednesday as they played their last home game in the regular season.

Hannah Stuart, Marijke Schwarz-Smith, Ally Post and Lindsey Bratonia went out with a win against Lakeside, as the Spartans defeated the Lions by the scores of 25-11, 25-11 and 25-18.

Stuart said a lot was racing through her mind while she was out on the court. She is the only one who has been on varsity all four years as a starter.

“It just felt different,” she said. “I felt nostalgic.

“It was really fun,” Stuart continued. “I’m going to miss these girls.”

Bainbridge took a 2-0 lead on kills by Stuart and Kelcey Dunaway and didn’t look back, as Lakeside committed numerous errors.

The Spartans scored the last two points on Lion errors.

The second game was more of the same, as Bainbridge took the lead at 4-3 on a Lakeside kill that went long.

The Lions fought back to get as close as 12-10, but Dunaway scored two kills to put the Spartans ahead.

With Bainbridge subbing liberally in the third game, Lakeside traded the lead with them several times as both teams made errors.

But the Spartans went ahead for good on three straight Lion errors. Schwarz-Smith put away a kill on match point for the sweep.

“We got all teary when our names were announced (at the beginning),” the three-year varsity starter said. “The beginning of the game was really hard, but we got into a really nice rhythm.”

Head coach Julie Miller said the foursome will be missed.

“I love them all,” she said. “I feel like I’ve had Marijke and Hannah (on my team) forever.”

The Spartans won’t get to repeat as Mountain Division champs (their five game loss to Bishop Blanchet last Friday relegated them to second place), but as the second seed, they get the honor of hosting a playoff game.

Next Thursday, Bainbridge hosts the winner of the third seed from the Sound Division (currently West Seattle) and the winner of the first round game on Monday between the fourth seed from the Mountain Division and the fifth seed from the Sound (currently Seattle Prep and Chief Sealth, respectively.)

Most of the team didn’t hear about it until that evening.

“I think we’ll have the homecourt advantage and hopefully get some more fans to come,” Stuart said.

Schwarz-Smith agreed.

“That’s going to be really fun,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll get a good crowd.”

The second round game starts at 5:30 p.m., with the winner to face Bainbridge at 7:30 p.m.

The semifinals and finals of the Metro Tournament start at 11 a.m. next Saturday at West Seattle High School.