Sports Roundup – Swimmers jump in, defeat state champs/Harriers send two to state/Spikers take playoff opener

Published 10:00 am Saturday, October 28, 2006

With a victory over Holy Names, Bainbridge moves to the postseason.

Even with a small group, the Holy Names Cougars are still the state champs and a formidable team.

The Bainbridge swim and dive team defeated them 96-83 Tuesday at the BAC on Senior Night, but head coach Greg Colby said the team isn’t quite where they want to be yet.

“I was a little bit disappointed because we’re targeting this as a meet where the kids would swim out of their minds at their last meet and it didn’t exactly work out the way I planned,” he said. “Even though we knew they wouldn’t be at full strength, it was still important for us to come out and beat the defending state champs.”

The win is their sixth straight and concludes their regular season at 9-2.

Only 15 Cougar swimmers and a diver showed due to several swimmers missing as they had not had the requisite 10 practices needed to compete.

The foursome of Isabel Williams, India Wade, Julie Pendleton and Tessa Griffin scored a state qualifying time of 1:58.93 in the 200 medley relay.

Pendleton and Wade scored state qualifying times in the 200 individual medley with marks of 2:18.47 and 2:18.61 respectively.

Griffin had a district qualifying time of 25:99 in the 50 freestyle.

Williams had a state qualifying time of 59.42 in the 100 butterfly and a time of 1:02.55 in the 100 backstroke.

Griffin and Beall were part of the 200 freestyle relay team, along with Gabbie Arens and April Isa, that scored a state qualifying time of 1:46.83.

Colby said the improvement of several swimmers has been important to their success this year.

He praised them as being “pretty consistent in the water” throughout the season.

“The state swimmers have been great,” Colby said. “We’ve stepped up and swam great relays this season. Isabel has come back real focused and been our most important point getter. Keziah has really stepped up into that anchor role and improved her mental toughness, which has improved her physical side.

“India has been swimming out of her head and Kristine (Valdez) made it to state in one event and is borderline (qualified) in four other events. I feel really good about this team.”

The Spartans competed in the Metro League meet yesterday.

They travel to Hec-Ed Pool on the University of Washington campus next Thursday and Friday to compete in the 3A Sea-King District 2 meet.

The 2A/3A state tournament is Nov. 10-11 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Harriers send two to state

The Metro League is a tough one to compete in for cross country, but when the 3A Kingco teams are added in, the road gets that much more difficult.

Bevan Taylor and Emily Farrar were the only two to make it to state for Bainbridge as both teams missed making the cut at the 3A Sea-King District 2 meet at Lower Woodland Field in Seattle.

Taylor placed seventh in the boys’ field with a time of 16:21.

The next highest finisher was Max Welch in 29th place with a time of 17:01.

The Spartan boys finished ninth overall with a score of 217 points.

Max O’Donoghue-McDonald of Seattle Prep won the district title, while the Panthers took the team title.

The top 25 runners and the top five teams for the boys move onto state.

For the girls, Farrar took 13th with a time of 19:55.

Callie McKenzie was 33rd with a time of 20:33.

Chelsea Burns of Holy Names was the district champion while Newport took the team title.

The Bainbridge girls were 10th.

The top 20 runners and the top four teams for the girls move onto state.

The 3A state meet is next Saturday at the Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco.

Spikers take playoff opener

With a playoff game at home, the Bainbridge volleyball team could sit back, relax and let their opponents deal with all the travel issues.

The Spartans swept Eastside Catholic by the scores of 25-19, 25-17 and 25-18 in the quarterfinals of the Metro League tournament Thursday at Paski Gymnasium.

Hannah Stuart led the team with 15 kills.

“They played really well tonight,” head coach Julie Miller said.

She also said that the Crusaders had to kill some time as they came early while their opponent, West Seattle, were late in getting to the island.

“They caught the 3:05 ferry, so they were here at 4 p.m.,” she said. “And West Seattle didn’t get here in time, so their game didn’t start until six. So they were here for two hours, and that’s really hard.”

Even with the long wait, Eastside Catholic gave Bainbridge problems.

The Spartans took the lead in the second game, but the Crusaders pulled themselves back within one after a Brittany Brown kill.

But Marijke Schwarz-Smith and Kelcey Dunaway scored kills to put Bainbridge up for good.

Hillary Grant scored an ace for the match point.

In the third game, the Spartans took the lead early on two Ally Post aces, but the Crusaders kept it close throughout.

But errors did Eastside in along with some quick hits by Bainbridge to keep the ball alive for the score.

Domin­ique Atherley scored the game point on a kill.

“There were some great scramble plays and great saves (during the third game),” Miller said. “It was pretty exciting.”

Even though the score was close, the Crusaders never got into the game, and Miller said their past experience with the team was a factor.

“We’ve lost the third game to them both times we played them,” she said. “This time we really wanted to focus all the way through, which was good.”

Bain­bridge plays Nathan Hale in the semifinals of the Metro tournament today at 11 a.m. at West Seattle High School.

If they win, they play in the championship at 6 p.m. against Bishop Blanchet, Seattle Prep or Ingraham.