With district championships and state-playoff berths being awarded, it was a busy weekend of prep sports for some select teams in the Twin Harbors. Here’s a look at three local teams that competed for regional championships this past weekend.
PREP
SWIMMING
2A District IV Meet: Aberdeen wins sixth straight district title
For the sixth year in a row, the Aberdeen Bobcats can call themselves district champions as the Bobcats defeated all comers at the 2A District IV Championship Meet on Saturday at the Grays Harbor YMCA.
The Bobcats earned wins in three events and top three finishes in six other races to finish with 523 points, more than 200 points better than second-place Tumwater (303)
Aberdeen earned district titles in the 4×50 medley relay and the 4×50 freestyle relay while Mary Lang picked up a gold in the 1-meter dive.
Aberdeen’s freestyle relay team of Anna Weber, Camryn Cook, Katie Lewis and Melissa May posted a time of 1:47.89 to beat out the second-place Washougal team by approximately three seconds.
The 4×50 yard medley relay team consisting of May, Lewis, Annika Eisele and Kayleia Sias finished with a time of 1:56.61 to beat out a Black Hills team that finished in second with a time of 2:02.89.
Eisele, Sias, Cook and Weber nearly picked up another win when they took second in the 4×100 freestyle relay, posting a time of 4:03.90 to miss out on gold by about four seconds.
Lang’s dive attempts totaled 290.40 on the judge’s scorecards to give her the win over Tumwater’s Maddie Matychowiak, who posted a score of 280.20.
Bobcats swimmers will next set their sites on the state meet on Friday and Saturday in Federal Way.
PREP SOCCER
1A District IV Championship: King’s Way Christian 2, Montesano 0
For the better part of 70 minutes, the Montesano Bulldogs held the top-seeded King’s Way Christian in check, holding the Knights to a scoreless tie.
But standout Knights forward MacKenzie Ellerston took it upon herself to lead her team to their fourth consecutive district title game over the Bulldogs as KWC defeated Monte 2-0 in the WIAA 1A District IV Championship game on Saturday in Vancouver.
Ellerston took a pass at midfield, weaved her way around three Monte defenders and scored with approximately 10 minutes left in the game to give KWC (14-1-2) the 1-0 lead.
The Washington State commit school scored again five minutes later with Monte pushing numbers forward, looking for the equalizer.
“She is one heck of a player,” Monte head coach Fidel Sanchez said of Ellerston. “She’s their main scorer … and they’ve been on a tear.”
For the better part of the game, Monte held KWC scoreless, however, the scoreboard didn’t reflect what was happening on the field. The Knights controlled possession, and limited any offensive opportunities Monte could muster. The Bulldogs were limited to approximately three to four shots on target, according to Sanchez.
“Defensively we kept them in check,” he said. “The problem was we couldn’t keep the ball long enough to build any kind of threatening attack on them, and that was the frustrating part for us was we could not keep the ball as long as we wanted.”
Monte played the Overlake School in the first round of the state tournament Tuesday at Sammamish High School. The game was over too late to make this edition. For the latest information, go to thevidette.com.
PREP
VOLLEYBALL
2B District IV Championship: Kalama 3, Ocosta 0
Playing out of character, the Ocosta Wildcats settled for second place after losing the 2B District IV championship match to Kalama in straight sets on Saturday.
Ocosta struggled to get in sync on offense until halfway through the third set to lose by scores of 25-16, 25-12 and 25-22.
The loss marks Ocosta’s first defeat of the season.
“We didn’t hit the ball and we didn’t play our game,” said Ocosta head coach Barbra Rasmus. “We didn’t play our offensive game and I don’t know why that happened.”
The Wildcats got off to a slow start in the first few points in the opening set and quickly fell behind as the Chinooks found their rhythm.
Ocosta’s problems compounded in the second set, falling behind 12-3 while being plagued by hitting errors.
Rasmus said the passing was just a little bit off, causing the hitters to make adjustments on the fly.
“I didn’t think it was terrible. It wasn’t like it was flying off into Timbuktu, it just wasn’t getting to the setters and we had to scramble a lot,” she said.
On Kalama’s end, the back row did well to limit the kills from Ocosta in the first two sets. Kaylee Barnum put some hard shots over the net that she dug out and eventually returned.
Barnum had an unusually quiet night offensively with two kills. Layne Martin led the attack with four kills.
The beginning of the third set looked a lot like the first two sets until the Wildcats showed some late life. Ocosta started the set down 12-3 before stringing together five straight points to put some pressure on Kalama.
Ocosta assistant coach Erin Snider said improved passing finally allowed Ocosta to go on a late run.
“The passing improved halfway through the third set which made it easier to get some actual offense set up,”she said. “Once we could get our offense going we looked a lot better.
Ocosta found itself down by just one point with Barnum serving, but Kalama put an end to any comeback hopes with one last kill from Marlee Vickers allowing the Chinooks to lift the championship trophy while Wildcats players watched from the opposite side of the net.
Ocosta (17-1) will face Brewster in the first-round of the 2B State Tournament at 9:45 a.m. Thursday at the SunDome in Yakima.
