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February 19, 2012
On the sidelines: The perfect story
The Washougal boys basketball team's 13-point come from behind victory capped off an exciting weekend of hoops, gymnastics, swimming and wrestling.
The Washougal boys basketball team's 13-point come from behind victory capped off an exciting weekend of hoops, gymnastics, swimming and wrestling.
Prairie is the class of the 3A Greater St. Helens girls basketball league, but Camas remains a close rival. The Falcons defeated the Papermakers 59-42 Friday, at Fort Vancouver High School, to win their 14th district championship in the past 15 seasons. Camas was the only team to stop the streak in 2010. Since then, Prairie has won the last six contests between these two teams. It was no different Friday. The Falcons gained a 12-5 advantage out of the gate, before the Papermakers got back within two points before the end of the first quarter. Brenna Khaw nailed a huge 3-pointer and Jenka Stiasna brought down a big rebound, drew a foul and made both shots from the free-throw line. Camas would not get any closer. Prairie put together an 18-4 scoring drive in the second quarter before Kendra Preuninger hit a 3-pointer for Camas before halftime. The Falcons opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run. By the fourth quarter, they led by 20.
Eighteen finalists propelled the Papermaker boys swimmers to their third straight district championship trophy Saturday, at Kelso High School. Camas generated 406 points to squash the competition in the seven-team meet. Mountain View was second with 248 points. "I'll remember everything about this meet,' said senior Lucas Ulmer. "We had so many kids in the consolations and the finals. The amount of kids that made it this far really surprised me."
Five Camas Papermakers and two Washougal Panthers will have the opportunity to wrestle for a state medal Friday and Saturday, at Mat Classic XXIV inside the Tacoma Dome. Tyler Weiss settled for second place at 132 pounds in the 3A regional tournament last weekend at Bonney Lake High School. Weiss looked good in victories over David Boone of Auburn Mountainview and David Griffith of Capital, but Dillon Harris of Yelm got the best of him in the finals by the score of 2-0. "It was a great match for Tyler against the number-one ranked wrestler in the state," said Camas head coach Glenn Hartman. "He only gave up one take down and hung with that guy the whole time. He was really disappointed, but I think he learned a lot from that loss."
Little Camas has eight high school athletes who are ready for the big time. On National Signing Day Wednesday, Emily Ainsworth, Austin Barr, Kamari Brown, Michael Koceja, John Payne, Mikaela Searight and Jonathan Warner scribbled their signatures to commit to colleges all over the country. After the Camas football team reached the state semifinals at the Tacoma Dome for the first time in school history, Warner decided to follow in his father Curt Warner's footsteps to Penn State University. Curt Warner is a member of the Penn State Hall of Fame who had a successful NFL career as a running back for the Seattle Seahawks. "I want to take all that I learned here in Camas with me and help start a new legacy at Penn State," said the younger Warner. "I put a lot of hard work into this year. I'm not just going to stop working now. I still got a lot of goals to reach for."
The Washington High School Cycling League offers a mountain biking program for Camas and Washougal high school students to ride locally and compete against riders from all over the state. In the league's inaugural season in 2011, the Clark County Mudslingers captured second place out of 14 total teams in the state. The 10 riders from Camas, Washougal and Vancouver formed the largest team in the league. This spring, there will be three teams from Southwest Washington blazing the trails. The first one is a Camas High School specific club led by Camas Bike and Sport owner Ed Fischer and his staff. The other two are composite teams based out of Vancouver and Woodland. The league will have its first race at the Washougal Motocross Park on Sunday, April 15. Fischer said he hopes this race generates enough interest to create a team in Washougal. In the meantime, anybody from the high school is welcome to join the Vancouver composite team.
High school wrestlers in Washington have begun to travel the road that could lead them to glory at the Tacoma Dome.
The best part about being on the sidelines is watching the teams and the athletes you cover accomplish some pretty amazing things. You get to ask them questions, tap into their emitions and share their stories.
The Camas boys and girls basketball teams took their fans on a roller coaster ride Friday night, at Prairie. After taking just a few steps past the half court line, Trent Johnson delivered a 3-point package through the net as the halftime buzzer sounded to give the Papermakers the lead and the momentum heading in the locker room at halftime. "I knew it had a chance, but you never expect a shot like that to go in," Johnson said. "I missed my first three shots from behind the 3-point line, so when that one went in, I kind of got in a zone." Johnson didn't miss from behind the arc the rest of the night. He wore out the basket with five more threes, on way to a team-leading 22 points. But Prairie"s defensive press and transition offense humbled the Papermakers down the stretch.
