issaquahpress022013

By Sebastian [email protected]

Tia Riley closed her gym-

nastics career on a major upswing, competing in three disciplines and set-ting personal bests in two.

The Liberty High School senior’s scores in floor and vault at the state meet in Tacoma surpassed all her marks in prep gymnastics, she said.

She did not qualify for fi-nals, but nobody could call her final meet a failure, not her coach who said that two minor mistakes kept Riley from the floor finals, nor Riley herself.

“I’m happy,” she said. “I’m glad I competed so well in my last meet.”

Coming into the Tacoma Dome, she had expecta-tions that went beyond the judges’ scores. She just wanted to have fun and live it up.

“I did not expect to do as well as I did,” she said.

On floor, she scored a 9.3. On vault, she scored an 8.775. On bars, she scored 6.55.

“Competition was definitely tougher than we expected,” she said. “In other years, I would have made it to finals with those scores, but this year has been way harder.”

Lori Copenhaver, head coach for Liberty gymnas-tics for the past 22 years, praised Riley.

“I was really proud of

SPORTS WednesdayFebruary 20, 2013B4

B4

By Lillian O’[email protected]

The local 4A wrestling programs were well-repre-sented at the 25th annual Mat Classic Feb. 15-16 where 14 area wrestlers battled the state’s top ath-letes for a chance to medal in high school’s biggest tournament.

After taking second at the Region 3 Tournament the weekend before, Skyline High School wrestlers filled eight of the 14 weight classes at the state cham-pionship. By the time the two-day tournament was about over, the excitement of having eight wrestlers make it to the final 16 had taken its toll on Gus Kiss’ vocal cords. By 2 p.m. Sat-urday, the Skyline coach’s voice was all but gone.

“We’re really proud of the fact that we brought eight kids and one alter-nate,” he said in an almost whisper. “It’s a culmination of hard work and dedica-tion, and it’s nice to see the end result.”

Just like he did in his run up to state, Skyline’s 220-pound wrestler, Sean McAlhaney, came from behind and swept the competition. Having lost his first bout to Brandon Champaco, of Spanaway Lake — who eventually finished four places behind McAlhaney — the Skyline senior pushed on and won his next five matches. He sealed the deal in the final battle for third place by pinning Lake Stevens’ Shaq Reed in 4:31.

“I’m stoked. When I first started wrestling this year, I was off to a terrible start. So, everything now is just like a blessing,” he said with a wide grin on his face. “I went 0-3 my first three matches, I was unseeded in KingCo, and I won KingCo and won regionals. And now, to

By Sebastian [email protected]

Her face was caked in sweat, her shoulders had mat burns and her nostrils were leaking red. And yet, Joanna Moreira could not stop smiling.

The Liberty High School wrestler had just defeated Angelica Vaschenko, from Franklin Pierce High School, in the second round of consolation at the state tourney in Taco-ma. The win, a 12-8 tussle of wills, assured that the

137-pound Patriot from São Paulo, Brazil, would finish better at state than in 2012.

“This is a big accom-plishment,” she said. “I

By Christina [email protected]

At the 2013 4A Boys State Swim and Dive Champion-ships, Issaquah High School coach Laura Halter wore a T-shirt with an illustration of purple-and-gold eagle wings on the back. Each feather in-cluded the name of one of her swimmers.

It proved to be an appropri-ate symbol, as it took each swimmer working together to help the Eagles take flight toward a fourth-place finish at state.

In order to excel in state competition, teams must string together solid relay results,

and Issaquah’s superb team-work was on full display at the King County Aquatic Center on Feb. 15-16.

The Eagles began the competition with a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The team of Ben Nussbaum, Austin Melody, Gabe Flor-sheim and Spencer McCulloh secured the finish with a time of 1 minute, 37.57 seconds.

In the thrilling 200 freestyle relay, the Eagles surprised ev-eryone but themselves on the way to a first-place finish with a time of 1:28.95. Issaquah won the same event last year, but after preliminaries, the Eagles were seeded fifth.

The relay team of Willy Mat-suda, Henry Pratt, Florsheim and McCulloh trailed through most of the heat. It wasn’t un-til the very last leg of the race that the Eagles took the lead and secured the win.

In what may have been the most exciting race of the

day, the Eagles held off state swimming power Kamiak High School, which led for most of the race.

As McCulloh emerged from the pool after swimming the anchor leg of the relay, cheers of excitement from Issaquah supporters roared through the stands, while the Issaquah swim team enthusiastically celebrated the win on the pool deck.

“Each team member couldn’t have done more for his team,” Pratt said. “Willy did exactly what he needed to do, Gabe did exactly what he needed to do, I did what I had to do and so did Spencer.”

For McCulloh, a senior, it was the perfect ending to his high school career.

“Oh my goodness, to go out like that, what else could you ask for?” he said. “First place in my favorite relay, my favorite event, it was so good. It was the perfect relay.”

In individual events, Is-saquah’s Melody and Flor-sheim each took home medals. Melody, a senior, placed sixth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:56.67, while Florsheim, a sophomore, took sixth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.29.

It was all about the team, though, as the Eagles excit-edly hoisted the fourth-place trophy at the end of the day.

“Some schools have a couple of hot shots, but we have a team, and there’s nothing else you can ask for,” Pratt said.

Skyline’s Max Levy goes out on topAfter two consecutive years

of second-place finishes, Sky-line High School senior Max Levy ended his career as the state’s 2013 4A 1-meter diving champion.

The gymnast-turned-diver,

Wrestlers end strong

at state

BY GREG FARRAR

Raymond Ha, Liberty High School senior, steps up out of the pool after repeating as 3A state champion in the 100-yard butterfly Feb. 16 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

FINAL STATEMENTAll area high school swimmers win team, individual state titles

See TITLES, Page B5 See WRESTLING, Page B5

BY GREG FARRAR

Tia Riley, Liberty High School senior, leaps during her floor rou-tine at the 3A state gymnastics championships in Tacoma.

Saving the best for last Joanna Moreira, Liberty High School sophomore, complete with nosebleed, is declared the 10-5 winner over Centralia’s Jenna Gillaspie in her first-round, 137-pound bout dur-ing the state 3A wrestling champion-ships Feb. 15 at the Tacoma Dome.

BY GREG FARRAR

Patriots’ wrestlers leave state battered, but better

See BATTERED, Page B5See GYMNAST, Page B5

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