‘Cats close out regular season

The Mount Si girls track team closed out their dual-meet season by defeating Liberty and Mercer Island in a four-way meet. Unfortunately, they lost to Issaquah. The wins and loss gives the team a final season record of five wins, two losses and a tie.

Nicole Remish won the 200- meter and placed third in the 100-meter for Mount Si. Jessie Oliver won the 300-meter hurdles in an excellent time of 48.3 seconds and Shannon Posey won the javelin, placed second in the discus and placed third in the shot put.

Tove Garhart won the pole vault and Devan Paulus placed second. The 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams both ran season-best times of 51.0 and 1:48.9, but placed second to Issaquah.

Monica Nelson high jumped four feet, eight inches to place third and Bethany Barrus had personal bests in the shot put and discus for the ‘Cats. The league meet is this week on Wednesday and Friday at Eastlake High School.

Boys team wraps up strong season

The Mount Si boys track team completed their regular season last week by finishing second in a quad meet at Issaquah High School. The boys defeated Mercer Island and Issaquah but came up a few points short of defeating Liberty.

Adam Rothgeb unleashed another superior performance by, as usual, winning both the 100 and 300-meter hurdle races. He also anchored the 4×100 relay team with teammates Brady Barry, Frank McLaughlin and Sean Bothell to win that event.

Rothgeb also ran the anchor leg of the 4×400 relay along with Dan Floyd, Joe Taklo and Max Nelson to take third in that event.

Alex Grazda continued a spectacular season with three wins in the javelin, discus and high jump. Senior Brad Allen won the 3,200 meter, lowering his personal best by a whopping 10 seconds to 10:29. Teammate and freshman Owen Strom continued his steady improvement by taking fourth.

Thomas Goble and Joe Taklo ran personal bests in the 800 with times of 2:04 and 2:05, respectively.

Barry, though slowed by injury, took second in the 100 meters while McLaughlin, running the 100 for the first time this season, finished third in 11.6 seconds. McLauglin also finished third in the 200 meter.

Zach Sumner set a personal best in both of his events, winning the pole vault with a jump of 11 feet and taking fifth in the javelin with a toss of 144 feet. In other throwing events, Kyle Meyers broke the 40 foot barrier for the first time to place fourth in the shot. His throw of 41 feet, one inch was a personal best. Cary Purchase placed fourth in the discus with a toss of 114 feet. Teammate Kirk Strandjord had an outstanding meet, gaining personal bests in all three throwing events highlighted by a 10 foot improvement in the discus to 110 feet.

Two get invite

Two Mount Si boys track team members competed in the prestigious Shoreline Invitational recently.

Alex Grazda finished fifth in a very strong field in the javelin with a solid toss of 171 feet, 8 1/2 inches. He concluded his meet with a third-place finish in the high jump with a leap of six feet. Grazda also earned all of the team’s eight points for the meet, continuing to show that he is one of the elite track athletes on the Eastside.

Erik Tierney competed in both the shot put and the discus. He threw the discus 126 feet, 4 inches and later threw the shot a distance of 43 feet, 8 1/2 inches.

Wildcats defeat Sammamish

The Mount Si girls’ golf team finished their regular season with a 252-283 win over Sammamish last week. Katie Somers once again led the Wildcats with a 1 over par 37 score for a medalist finish. Sophomore Jodie Smith had a hole-in-one on the par-3 sixth hole. She finished with a 56. Other scores were Becky Wada with a 48, Alyssa Bliven with a 54, Whitney Eand with a 57, Katie Stapleon with a 58, Gina Zanella with a 59 and Stephanie King with a 61.

JV girls dump Sammamish

The Mount Si JV girls tennis team defeated Sammamish last week 1 6-0. Winning their singles matches were Daisy Ponce, Cortney Becker, Rosie Lockie, Kelsey Wise, Leah Coffey, Dana Christenson, Mariah Stevens, Katie Woolsey, Lauren King, Sarah Swamy, Brittany Whims, Amber McCrory, Tana Thompson, Vivian Yang, Kendra Kinghorn and Carrie Cole.

‘Cats do well at tourney

The teams of Rosie Lockie/Kelsey Wise and Mariah Stevens/Katie Woolsey established a new school record for the girls JV tennis team in a tournament at Bellevue. Lockie and Wise placed third, only losing to the first-place team in a tie-breaker 7-9. Stevens and Woolsey placed fifth, only losing to the second-place team. Out of nine matches, the two teams lost only two.

Mount Si tennis heads into playoffs

The Mount Si girls tennis team played their final regular season match last Tuesday as they fell to Sammamish 7-2. The Wildcats’ lone victories were by No. 1 singles player Erika Strine, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over the Totems’ Jenni Liu; and the doubles unit of Nena Gonzalez and Kathryn McFarland, who won a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 decision over Sammamish’s Allie Mirude and Candas Hay.

For Gonzalez and McFarland, this streak has been all about improving as a unit.

“I think it’s kind of more [that] we helped each other, because in the beginning when we were playing we didn’t really talk and then toward the end we just started talking more and we started to focus more on where we’re hitting the ball instead of just kind of making it in,” said Gonzalez, a senior.

As for McFarland, a sophomore, her improved play has caught the attention of her coach, Sue Gallacher.

“Kathryn doesn’t have a lot of experience. Even now, this is her first varsity season, but she’s improved leaps and bounds just this last three [to] four weeks,” said Gallacher.

Gonzalez and McFarland will pair up as a doubles team for the Wildcats in the upcoming conference tournament. McFarland says the keys to success are the same ones they’ve had as of late.

“We’re going to keep talking and keep practicing,” McFarland said.

Joining Gonzalez and McFarland in the doubles competition for Mount Si will be the pair of Nicole Vanourek and Britta Safstrom. Competing in singles for the Wildcats will be their top two singles players, Strine and Alina Plavsky. Gallacher thinks Strine has a good chance to go to districts but it will be a tough road just to get there, even though Strine is seeded No. 4 in the draw.

‘Cats beat Bellevue

The Mount Si JV softball team traveled to Bellevue recently and walked away with a solid 19-0 victory. Mount Si splashed out nine hits with Sam Riley’s triple being the big bop. Amy Whitney batted 3-for-3 while Faith Hutcherson and Dennae Englund had two hits each. Lynnae McKiernan tossed a one hitter as the Wildcats held the Wolverines scoreless.

Mount Si downs Totems

The Wildcat JV softball team continued to roll as they beat visiting Sammamish 9-4 recently. Down early, the girls scored seven runs in the third inning as Amy Whitney’s stand-up triple started the scoring machine. Lynnae McKiernan and Sam Riley followed with run-scoring singles. Alicia Elmore and Kali Walker plated insurance runs in the fifth as McKiernan’s pitching picked up the save.

‘Cats come from behind

The Mount Si JV baseball team came from behind in the fifth inning, scoring six runs to upend the Islanders 9-6 at Si View park recently. Dane Fenton and Cory Lindberg each had a two-RBI single to key the fifth-inning scoring. Ryan Utesch survived a four-run seventh inning to earn the victory on the mound. He went all seven innings.

Chase Korsmo and Derk Aldrich each had an RBI in the game. Thomas Taylor had two hits and scored two runs. Ben Frieler, Kevin Sandin and Brian Olson each contributed a hit in the game.

JV defeats Bellevue

Chase Korsmo struck out 10 Bellevue batters en route to a 9-5 victory for the Mount Si JV baseball team. Korsmo led off the game with a single and then was thrown out at second trying to steal. Derek Aldrich then singled and went to second on a throwing error. With two outs, Thomas Taylor brought Aldrich home on a base hit. Kevin Sa