Playing in their first 4A Kingco contest of the season in front of a raucous home crowd, the Redmond Mustangs lost a heartbreaker to the Newport Knights, 45-44, in a thrilling Crest Division showdown Friday night.
Senior Danny Poplawski bounced back from a tough performance last week and led the Overlake boys basketball team to its first win of the season Tuesday night at The Overlake School.
Poplawski, a 6-foot-3 forward, poured in 27 points as the Owls flew past the Evergreen Lutheran Eagles, 70-55, in a nonleague contest.
With the win, the Owls improved to 1-2 on the season.
The Bear Creek boys basketball team survived a big-time scare by Seattle Academy Tuesday night.
The Grizzlies fended off a furious fourth-quarter comeback by the Cardinals and pulled out a 52-48 nonleague victory at home.
Bear Creek led 37-22 after three quarters, but the Cardinals stormed back before clutch free-throw shooting late in the game enabled the Grizzlies to sneak away with the win.
The Bear Creek School boys basketball team contained Overlake sharp shooter Danny Poplawski during Saturday night’s 61-50 nonleague win as the Grizzlies beat the Owls in their season opener for the second straight time.
Last December, Bear Creek beat Overlake, 58-53, for the first time in school history.
Following the 2006-07 season, Redmond High School was in grave danger of losing its gymnastics program.
Having gone through its sixth coach since 1999, Athletic Director John Appelgate sent a desperate plea to a man who formerly coached his kids at Eastside Gymnastics Academy in Woodinville.
Powered by an offensive outburst, the Redmond High girls basketball team blasted the Juanita Rebels, 79-54, in its nonleague season opener on Tuesday.
A sure sign of a strong wrestling program is when 33 athletes show up for the first team practice, yet the coach isn’t happy with the turnout.
“We could use a few more bodies,” said head coach Paul Mullen. “A lot of them are bunched up in the same weights.”
While Mullen is hesitant to use the term “rebuilding,” the team graduated a slew of highly successful seniors off last year’s 9-1 team, from which a school-record four wrestlers made the 4A state championships.
Last year’s Redmond Mustangs girls basketball team went as far as they could possibly go without reaching the big dance – the Class 4A state tournament.
After losing early at the Sea-King District tournament, they rallied and won three straight loser-out games against Lake Washington, Roosevelt and Eastlake before finally succumbing to Skyview, 58-32, in the winner-to-state, loser-out pigtail game.
The Bear Creek School boys’ basketball team is back on the court, ready to deliver some big-time results.
“Our theme this year is B.I.G.,” said fourth-year coach Scott Moe, who, last season, guided the Grizzlies to a school-best 24-3 record and fifth-place finish at the Class 2B state tournament. “We want to act big, live big, play big. … First we want to become brothers in God, that’s big. And then secondly, on the last day of the season come March 7, we want them to still think that basketball is great, again big.
“We want to be big in everything we do.”
There’s no rest for the weary if you’re Redmond High swim coach Julie Barashkoff.
Just days after nearly reaching the pinnacle of high school swimming by placing third at the Class 4A state meet with her star-studded girls’ team, Barashkoff was at it again, guiding the boys’ squad, a large, young group full of boundless energy and high hopes.
With this fall being my first official prep season as a sports writer, I must admit that the task of keeping up with and establishing contacts for all 13 teams I had to cover this fall for the Redmond Reporter (which included Redmond High, Overlake and Bear Creek) seemed quite daunting.
But once the ball got rolling, it was extremely rewarding to make it out to games, meets and matches for all three programs and watch some of the state’s finest high school athletes achieve excellence.
The Redmond High girls’ swim team posted a phenomenal performance on the grandest of stages on Saturday.
Led by sophomore Heather Harper’s golden swim in the 100-yard breaststroke, the mighty Mustangs placed third in the team standings at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way with 148.5 points behind Garfield (157.5) and Jackson, which won the meet with 190 points.
A second-half flurry of goals by King’s put an end to the Overlake girls soccer team’s deepest run at the Class 1A state tournament since 2001, when they lost in the title game.
The Knights scored three second-half goals on the way to 3-0 win in a state quarterfinal matchup Friday night at King’s in Seattle. The Owls, who were ousted by King’s last fall, finished the 2008 campaign with a 14-7-1 record. King’s improved to 19-2 and will play in the state semifinals on Friday.
Going into Wednesday night’s Emerald City League Tournament finals at Sammamish High School against perennial powerhouse Seattle Academy, the Overlake Owls’ boys soccer team was riding a wave of confidence.
But Overlake’s nemesis Seattle Academy scored twice in the final three minutes and handed the high-flying Owls a 2-1 loss. Overlake had won five of six entering Wednesday’s game. The Owls’ only loss during that stretch: A 1-0 loss to the Cardinals back on Halloween.
The Overlake girls soccer team made the most of their long journey south for Tuesday’s Class 1A state opener.
After a two-and-half hour, 150-mile drive from Redmond to Kalama High School, located just off I-5 east of the Columbia River, the Owls blanked Columbia (White Salmon), 1-0, in wet and windy conditions.
Tim Lincecum, the baseball standout who led the Liberty High School Patriots to the 3A state baseball tournament in 2003, has won the National League’s Cy Young Award, as the best pitcher in baseball.
The Overlake girls soccer team posted two more shutouts during last week’s Class 1A Tri-District tournament, punching a ticket to the state tournament.
Just call them the fearsome foursome.
Going into Saturday’s Class 4A Sea-King District swim and dive meet at Juanita High Pool in Kirkland, the Redmond girls squad knew their strength was in the 200-yard medley relay.
After all, the combination of Becca Wyant, Heather Harper, Maureen Cardwell and Melodie Nagasawa, left the competition in their wake during last Friday’s preliminaries, winning the race in a rocket time of 1 minute, 50.66 seconds, nearly four seconds ahead of any other team.
Another race, another golden run for rising star Mack Young.
The Redmond High junior built upon his breakthrough victory at the boys cross-country bi-district championships on Nov. 1 with a thrilling, slam-dunk win at Saturday’s Class 4A state race.
After the first half ended in a 0-0 tie, the Owl scoring wave opened up in a big way with junior midfielder Devon Schmidt scoring an unassisted goal in the 49th minute. Malcolm Griffin then scored on an assist by Sky Tweedie-Yates in the 66th minute. Forward Hakan Yagiz scored his seventh goal of the season in the 72nd minute to cap the scoring. Yagiz is tied for fourth with Griffin in league scoring.
With another shutout on Tuesday, George Dolack finished second in the league with eight shutouts and 16 saves on the season.
The Owls (12-3-0) will get a bye in the opening round of the Emerald City League playoffs due to their second-place league finish behind Seattle Academy. Their first playoff game will be on Tuesday, Nov. 11 against an opponent and site to be determined.
SOCCER: Bear Creek teams lose playoff openers
The Bear Creek boys suffered a hard-fought loss to Mount Vernon Christian, 2-1, on Tuesday at home in the 2B/1B Tri-District playoffs.
Mount Vernon took the lead in the 18th minute, but the Grizzlies clamped down the Hurricane offense for the next 57 minutes but Mount Vernon Christian scored again to take a 2-0 lead with five minutes to play.
Bear Creek sophomore Tom Postings scored off of Kyle Blankenbeckler’s assist in the 78th minute to put the Grizzlies on the board.
The Grizzly boys (12-3-1) continue their playoff run on Thursday against Lopez Island after the Reporter’s deadline in a loser-out game.
The Grizzlies’ girls lost an overtime heartbreaker against Life Christian, 2-1, in their Tri-District tournament playoff opener at Life Christian School on Tuesday.
Jenny Price scored an unassisted goal for Bear Creek, but the Eagles’ Kristen Rue scored the equalizer on an assist from Karisa Konsmo to force overtime.
No goals were scored during the overtime period, so the playoff game had to be decided by a penalty-kick shootout which Life Christian won with four goals.
The Grizzly girls’ team (7-7-1) played again on Thursday after the Reporter’s deadline at Mount Vernon Christian.
