Good Saturday morning. We have plenty of baseball for you on this Saturday but we begin with some track and field and a Valley athlete is going out a champion.
In his final college race, the University of Washington’s Joe Waskom won the NCAA men’s Division I national championship last night in the 1500 meter distance track competition, clocking three minutes, 39.48 seconds to earn his second national title at that distance as a collegian; he previously won the title in 2022. The senior, from Snoqualmie and a 2018 Mount Si High School alumnus, recorded the fifth straight national crown in that race for a UW men’s distance runner. The race took place down at Hayward Field in Eugene, where the NCAA national championship meet is taking place.
A congratulations to Joe from us here. The runner-up in the race was from the UW’s hated rival the University of Oregon, so the victory for Waskom was probably especially sweet for him, his teammates and fans of the Husky program, a tremendous achievement that should see the squad continue to be able to attract quality runners moving forward based on this success.
Now to baseball.
Ex-Mount Si coach wins in return to old campus
It might have felt like just a routine game for former Mount Si coach Elliott Cribby, but the ex-Wildcat baseball coach returned to Snoqualmie last night coaching a game for the first time since he resigned his Mount Si position in 2012 to embark on what has now been a dozen-year college coaching career, which continues to this day as he is currently on the staff over at Central Washington University.
While the Mount Si High School campus looks significantly different than the one he left behind in 2012 when he moved on to his first college coaching job, Cribby returned and delivered a win for his DubSea Fish Sticks in a 13-5 blowout of the Northwest Honkers in Pacific International League college summer action. Cameron Padron went 0-3 with an RBI for the Honkers; the Cedarcrest HS alum and veteran Honker first baseman is one of two Valleyites on the roster this season; the other is Mount Si grad Alex Chamberlain, who did not play in last night’s game.
A six-run third put this one away for DubSea as they picked up their first league win of the season. NWH dropped to 7-3 overall on the summer campaign, still a solid start for coach Martin Lawrence and his guys.
Elsewhere in college summer action:
Wenatchee takes win north of the border: Wenatchee’s AppleSox enjoyed a nice team-bonding experience yesterday morning on the Black Ball Ferry between Port Angeles and Victoria, BC, Canada, and that team unity came in handy last night as they needed 12 innings to outlast the Victoria HarbourCats 3-2 at Royal Athletic Park in downtown Victoria in the opener of a West Coast League weekend series.
Outfielder Aidan Dougherty, he of Snoqualmie and a 2022 Mount Si HS alum, was 0-4 in this one for Wenatchee, dropping his average to .346 on the young season. The teams resume play tonight in the British Columbia capital. Dougherty played this spring for Linn-Benton CC in Oregon.
Youth baseball: Mount Si’s Davis leads A’s to win
Mount Si High School’s Taylor Davis powered the Sammamish-based Washington A’s Showcase 18U squad last night, going 2-3 with a run scored, as the A’s handled Reality Sports 5-1 at the Cam Christian weekend tournament down at Auburn High School. Two other Wildcats played in the game for the A’s – Owen Krasowski was 0-1 with two walks, and Avery Procter was 1-2 with a walk and also pitched an inning striking out one with no decision. The team continues play in the event today.
Also last night:
Kirkland Merchants 16U 8, Elevate Northwest Lampitt 5 (game one, doubleheader): Kirkland swept a doubleheader from the Woodinville-based Elevate at Woodinville High School, winning this game and the nightcap 13-5. Mount Si’s J.D. Tenhulzen played in just the opener of the pair for the Merchants, going 0-2 with a walk and run scored.
FCA 6, Bellevue Dragons 18U Elite 3: Woodinville-based FCA doubled up the Dragons at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue. Mount Si’s Will Gregory and Jones Kasperson both went 1-3 with an RBI each for the Dragons, while fellow Wildcat Tucker Koval was 1-2 with a walk. Rounding out the Dragon Mount Si contingent, Drew Hossfeld was 0-2 with a walk.
Shoreline Royals 4, VeloTech 16U 2: Despite a strong performance from Mount Si’s Jimmy Pratapas, the Sammamish-based Velo got doubled up on the road in north Seattle last night by the host Royals. Pratapas was 2-3 with a run scored pacing Velo in the contest.
Boys of Summer 15U 10, Seattle Wave 2: At Edmonds-Woodway High School, Bellevue-based Boys got a nice performance from Mount Si’s Blake Helman in a road win over the Wave. Helman went 1-3 with a run scored and RBI pacing BoS. Teammate and fellow ‘Cat Kainoa Keith was 0-1.
News: Outgoing Mount Si AD heading north
Outgoing Mount Si High School athletic director Chris Hill has found his next stop as a high school athletic director. Hill has been named the new athletic and activity director for the Sultan School District in Snohomish County, and will oversee athletic programs at both the middle and high school levels in that fast-growing district. Sultan High School for the next Washington high school classification cycle barely made it into the 2A classification, but was denied full membership by the Kingco Conference, forcing their teams into a hybrid scheduling model within their existing league, the Emerald Sound Conference, in order to have access to postseason playoffs. The decisions regarding Sultan’s athletic future have met with criticism from some in the high school sports community, but Hill’s arrival with his familiarity and relationships with Kingco leaders may help Sultan attain stronger relations with that league that could lead down the road to full membership.
Hill has been the Mount Si athletic director since the summer of 2020, but his hiring, which came amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdowns of high schools and their athletic programs, was not without its challenges; the lack of public notification about the hire by the Snoqualmie Valley School District and subsequent opportunities for parents and the community to meet him due to the pandemic gathering restrictions ultimately led to a rough introductory first meeting for him with parents in January of 2021 as high school sports were in the process of restarting. Hill’s tenure ended up being relatively successful with respect to the number of teams that made state postseason at Mount Si during his time here, including the two state titles won this school year by boys’ basketball and boys’ soccer.
Mount Si earlier this spring named his successor – Wildcat track and field coach and longtime Mount Si support staff member Jordan Sauvage was appointed as the new athletic director, and she will start her duties in that position upon the end of this school year. Hill will start his new duties in Sultan at that same time.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 