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COMMUNITY 10 l January 29, 2014 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Neil Pierson

There are dozens of after-school clubs for Sammamish students – including ones for budding writers – but Niyathi Chakrapani saw a chance to form a club that was a little different.

Chakrapani, a junior at Skyline High School, has been writing “for as long as I can remember.” She earned a prestigious honor last spring as a silver medalist in poetry from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. More than 90,000 students from across the country submit entries, but only the top 1 percent are recognized.

She was among a group of win-ners that went to Carnegie Hall in New York City, and she inter-acted with celebrities like Usher and Sarah Jessica Parker.

But Chakrapani wanted to do more with her talent, and with the help of her mother, Ranjani, she formed the Sammamish Youth Writing Club at the start of the school year.

“I got involved in writing at a young age, and I was hoping that other kids would be able to get as

involved as I was when I was that age,” she said.

The club now boasts 80 mem-bers, with the usual turnout num-bering 30-40 every Tuesday at the Sammamish Library. The club is open to students ages 9-18, is free of charge, and offers a personal connection to writing that they might not get at school.

While Skyline students form a bulk of the membership, middle-

schoolers from Pine Lake, Beaver Lake and Pacific Cascade also attend, along with elementary-aged kids from Challenger, Endeavour and Cascade Ridge.

Sabrina Loos, a Skyline freshman, joined the club shortly after it formed and said it’s been fun

interacting with younger kids. She likes writing fantasy-based stories, and has been more dili-gent about her craft lately, writ-ing most every weekend.

“They keep me enthusiastic about writing, keep me wanting to write more and create more,” Loos said. “I used to not really write that much, but now they’re kind of pushing me to write more, because they want to read

Join the clubWhat: Sammamish Youth Writing ClubWhen: Tuesdays, 7-8 p.m.Where: Sammamish LibraryWho: Boys and girls ages 9-18

Next generation of writers sprout in newly-formed club

Contributed Skyline High School student Niyathi Chakrapani recruited members for the Sammamish Youth Writing Club at the city’s farmers market, where she advertised for three weeks before the club’s opening last fall.

See CLUB, Page 11

By Neil Pierson

The question of what constitutes a print has been an unsolved riddle in the art world for a while, and a new exhibit at Sammamish City Hall is attempting to address the issue.

The exhibit, “Crossing Boundaries,” officially opened at City Hall Jan. 21 and will be on display until April 25. The Sammamish Arts Commission, which coordinated the exhibit, will hold a reception and public conversation with the artists at 7 p.m. April 10.

Arts Commissioner Barbara Jirsa curated the exhibit, which encom-passes about 30 pieces on the first and second floors at city hall. The art includes several pieces created through traditional printmaking, and others that cross the boundary into

digital printing, also known as Giclée (pronounced zhee-clay).

All of the artists being featured are based in the Northwest, Jirsa said. They include Patti Warashina, Fay Jones, Barbara Robertson, Gene Gentry McMahon, Norie Sato, Robert Hardgrave, Roger Shimomura, John Constantine, Cheryll Leo-Gwin and Diane Divelbess.

Several printmaking instructors have also contrib-uted work, including Kim Van Someren, Lisa Hasegawa, Kerstin Graudins, Romson Bustillo and Rickie Wolfe.

“We’re just very pleased with this exhibit; the artists who are featured are ones with wonderful reputations,” Jirsa said.

“The work is really interest-ing to look at, but they’ll also be part of the verbal conversa-tion that will come in April. There’s been a lot of conversation among art-ists about what constitutes a print.”

Giclée, a term created by print-maker Jack Duganne in 1991, gener-

ally refers to any high-quality inkjet printing. It’s faster and easier than a traditional print, created by transfer-ring ink through a screen to paper,

New art exhibit invites critical thinking, conversation

Contributed photoRobert Hardgrave’s 2013 piece, ‘French Onion,’ is an example of digital art that is being featured in the ‘Crossing Boundaries’ exhibit at Sammamish City Hall.

Contributed photoBarbara Robertson’s 2012 work, ‘Loose Blue,’ is a 19-by-21-inch pigment print and acrylic paint-ing. It also features a bar code that can be scanned with a smart phone, and links viewers to music that accompanies the art.

See ART, Page 11

sports 12 l January 29, 2014 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

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By Neil Pierson

Marijke Vanderschaaf had one of her worst offensive games of the year when Eastlake lost to Inglemoor Jan. 18, but she returned to the court four days later and had perhaps her best game.

Vanderschaaf scored a season-high 24 points and pulled down 18 rebounds, leading the Lady Wolves to a 55-44 victory over visiting Garfield in a Class 4A KingCo Conference girls basket-ball game on Jan. 22.

In a 56-46 loss to Inglemoor, Vanderschaaf scored a season-low four points, nearly 11 points below her average. But the senior was unstoppable at times against Garfield, using her 6-foot-3 frame to score around the basket.

“I knew how to come back and do something, and be myself again,” Vanderschaaf said. “Everything we did on offense and defense – stop, score, stop – fueled me to just keep going.”

The win helped Eastlake (12-2 overall, 8-1 conference) maintain a one-game edge over Inglemoor for first place in the Crest Division. This week, the Wolves travel to Newport (7:30 p.m. Jan. 29) and to Woodinville (6:30 p.m. Jan. 31).

Head coach Sara Goldie felt Vanderschaaf’s 24 points were “quiet” because the Wolves didn’t pound the ball inside that

much against the Bulldogs’ zone defense.

Point guard Ellie Woerner was the only other Eastlake player in double-digit scoring with 10 points, but there were a lot of valuable contributions through-out the lineup that didn’t neces-sarily show up on the stat sheet.

Maybe the biggest key, Goldie said, was rotating defenders on Garfield star Juanita Agosto. The 5-7 freshman guard scored 23 points – right at her season aver-age – but had to work hard for them.

“We had to switch who we had guarding Juanita, because she is just good and she tires you out,” Goldie said. “To be able to keep kids on the floor, we would cycle somebody in and have somebody else kind of switch with the per-son who was guarding her.”

Eastlake led 14-8 after one quarter, and held Agosto to eight points in the first half. Vanderschaaf hit the offensive glass to score many of her 12 first-half points, and Woerner drained a half-court shot at the buzzer to give the Wolves a 25-17 lead.

The lead might have been bigger had Eastlake hit several open looks from 3-point range, but the shots weren’t falling. That changed a bit in the third quar-ter when senior guard Lauren Mittenthal came off the bench and sank consecutive threes for a

39-28 edge.“When she gets into it – when

she steps into her threes and she has it open – she can make them,” Vanderschaaf said of Mittenthal.

“She was in the flow of the game, she handles the ball really well under pressure, and she makes the defense work with her, so then she can get past them and have the open shot.”

On top of their perimeter shooting woes, the Wolves were only 12 of 26 (46 percent) from the free-throw line. Goldie said the game highlighted the rea-sons for playing strong defense, because even though the Wolves didn’t have a good shooting night, they kept a comfortable lead most of the game.

The coach singled out senior Rachel Lorentson as a prime example.

“Tonight she was frustrated walking out of here, but it was like she controlled the things she could,” Goldie said of Lorentson, who had eight points. “She had so many deflections, she hit the floor multiple times, great defense, she must have had a couple steals, some big rebounds.”

Eastlake led 39-30 going to the fourth quarter, and Garfield (6-8, 3-6) didn’t threaten until the final minute when missed free throws

File photo by Greg FarrarMarijke Vanderschaaf, pictured earlier this season, scored a season-high 24 points in a Jan. 18 victory over Garfield.

Eastlake girls power past Garfield

See EASTLAKE, Page 13

By Neil Pierson

Paul Jett, a senior, is one of the few Spartans who has reached an automatic qualifying time for the KingCo swimming championships. Jett did it against Issaquah by winning the 200 indi-vidual medley in 2:02.07 Jan. 23.

Jett said competing against “my really good friend” Ben Nussbaum, who finished second in 2:03.32, enhanced the victory.

“It was a fun race, just to race against people that I swim with year-round,” Jett said. “There was obviously a lot more enjoyment in that race, I guess. It was easier to push myself, so it felt better than all the other races today.”

Skyline, which closed its dual-meet season Jan. 28 against Newport, is trying to ramp up its performances in time for the KingCo championships, which are Feb. 7 at the University of Washington.

While Jett was swimming against the clock, brothers Keith and Ben Nussbaum were swim-

ming against each other. They don’t usually swim against each other in high-school meets, but an exception was made when the Issaquah High School seniors competed for the final time at Boehm Pool.

Keith got the best of Ben in their sibling rivalry, winning two individual events and beating his brother head-to-head in the 500-yard freestyle as Issaquah top-pled the Skyline Spartans, 116-69, in a Class 4A KingCo Conference dual meet.

“We usually never race in the same events for high school, so it was really interesting to finally race him in my last home meet of my high school career,” Keith said. “And it felt good to beat him for once.”

Keith Nussbaum had already qualified for February’s state championships in the 500 free-style, so it didn’t matter that he swam a relatively slow time of 5 minutes, 8.24 seconds, about 14 seconds shy of his best mark.

“Since I’m still kind of broken

down from being in full practice mode and not really rested at all, I am very happy with that time,”

he said.Keith Nussbaum swam for

Issaquah’s “B” team in the 200

medley relay, which likely ham-

Photo by Greg FarrarPaul Jett (left), Skyline High School senior, is one stroke ahead of Issaquah senior Ben Nussbaum at the end of their 200-yard individual medley race Jan. 23 at Boehm Pool.

Eagles sink Spartans

See SWIM, Page 13