It’s going to be a big weekend for wrestlers, swimmer and divers, prep hoopsters and the college kids. Fortunately it’s still Wednesday and we can get a look at the big picture here.
I’m headed to Peninsula College here in a minute to catch the men’s and women’s doubleheader versus North Seattle. The P.C. women (9-3 in conference, 14-9 overall) start at 5 p.m. and take on a Storm team that is 4-8 in NWAACC play, 5-17 overall and out of the playoffs. The problem with a team like the Strom is that they have nothing to lose and probably wouldn’t mind playing spoiler, particularly against a Pirate team that won by 22 in Seattle on Jan. 19.
The Peninsula men (6-6 in conference, 9-14 overall) need this win big time. They lost by four points in a road trip to North Seattle earlier this season and have to have a W. The Storm has an identical 6-6, 9-14 mark. If Peter Stewart has his guys ready, expect a big Pirate win. If not, the playoffs look a little doubtful.
Sequim High School’s 200 medley relay team and a pair of divers compete at the state 2A meet starting Thursday in Federal Way. Ezra Perkins and Max Flock are the divers while Noe Calderon, Alex Skinner, Parker Steichen and Thomas Moores make up the 200 medley team. It’ s hard to predict exactly how they’ll fare and who the top teams will be since this is the first state 2A meet but the Interlake team sure looked good at the district meet last weekend.
Sequim’s girls basketball team wrapped up their first winless season in a long time. I don’t have any record of a winless team in the school’s history but our archives are limited here. Still, it seems the players grew a lot during the season and the six seniors on the squad got a decent send-off Tuesday night.
Sequim’s boys are still playing. They take on Klahowya Saturday night in Silverdale at 8 p.m. to figure out seeding for the West Central District playoffs. A win is big here; if they can top Andre Moore and the Eagles, Sequim hosts a playoff game against Eatonville on Feb. 28. If not, they have to travel to Steilacoom that same night. Both games are loser-out contests.
The Wolves need to be playing at their best after losing six of their last seven regular season games. They didn’t have top scorer Ary Webb for a stretch but he’s back in the fold and they have a chance to make a little noise at districts.
And then there are the wrestlers: Sequim has seven boys and one girl at MatClassic, the state wrestling tourney that gets underway Friday morning. If you’ve never been to MatClassic, you’re truly missing out on one of the most insane, thrilling, electrifying tournaments around. Dozens of matches going on at the same time, literally hundreds of storylines that seem made for the movies, tears, unbridled joy, the epitome (in most cases) of sportsmanship… this one’s worth sitting in a dome. Trust me.
Good luck to Sequim’s Taylor Gowdy, Nick Grinnell, Joe Hutchison, Anthony Drabek, Sarah Keltonic, Alex O’Donnell, Ethan Hinton and Thomas Gallagher. To Sequim fans making the trek Friday morning, I’ll see you there. Drive safe.