Volleyball - summer camps and tournaments

Now that spring sports are over, it's time to start looking at the various summer leagues, camps. and tournaments.

I spoke with head coach Kerri Molitor a few weeks ago about the upcoming summer activities for the Wildcat volleyball program. Their main camp will be here at OHHS! From July 21-23, Western Washington University Coaches will be at the high school for a camp that is open not just for the high school players, but for middle school girls as well. When asked what she is looking forward to most during camp, she said "Getting to know the players, seeing how they work together" and "trying out new positions to see what will best benefit the team". In preparation for camp, Coach Molitor is having practice every Tuesday and Thursday from 5-8pm.

I asked Coach what she, personally, hoped to gain from camp, she said she always learns new strategies and gains ideas. For the players, she's looking for the girls to improve their individual skills and transfer those skills to team play. She's looking for her team to be open-minded, willing to learn, willing to contribute to the team no matter what role, and most importantly, trust and respect the other girls on the team as well as the coaches.

In closing, Coach Molitor said she's very excited to work with the girls again, and the team overall has the potential to be very strong, but it will require dedication and integrity from everyone.

Smollack crowned state champ!

Mietra Smollack dug in deep and pulled off a win in the 1600 final at the state track meet in Pasco Saturday. In winning state, she also set a new personal best of 4:56.44, more than a second off the PR she set last week at districts. She finished more than a half-second before her neared competitor. This was in addition to her 2nd place finish in the 800m finals, finishing .06 seconds behind winner Nocole Cochran of Bellarmine. These two finishes has almost turned me into a Wazzu fan (at least in track)!

Other top-8 finishers were:
- Rodrick Rumble in the high jump, finishing 3rd with a height of 6'7", only an inch behind the winner.
- Donovan Hunt in the long jump, as mentioned in a previous post, 9 inches shorter than the champ. Donovan's only a sophomore, so I'm looking for a state champ title for him before he graduates. His jump was almost a foot further than the next soph in the standings.
- Boys 4x100 relay, finishing 6th with a time of 43.36. It was a tight race, with only a single second separating first place from 6th place.

Day 1 results from the State track meet

Donovan Hunt and Mietra Smollack both finished 2nd in their day 1 events, while the boys 4x100 relay finished 6th in prelims.

Here's the full list

Richard Chong - 110m hurdles prelim - 16th - 15.99
Donovan Hunt - Long Jump final- 2nd - 22-06
Carson McKole - 100m dash prelim- 12th - 12.90
Carson McKole - 200m dash prelim - 11th - 25.86
Mietra Smollack - 800m run prelim - 2nd - 2:13.15
Allison Duvenez - 300m hurdle prelim - 14th - 47.64

Relays
Boys 4x100 prelim - 6th - 43.36
Stephen Lewis, Bryce Schulle, Devante Young, Donovan Hunt

Boys 4x400 prelim - 15th - 3:33.19
Donovan Hunt, Rodrick Rumble, Rashaad Smith, Bryce Schulle

Girls 4x200 prelim - 13th - 1:49.14
Janessa Ramos, Krissy McGill, Hope Thompson, Carson McKole

Good luck everyone in today's events, some of which are the girls 1600 and boys high jump, where we have a good chance to produce state champions!

Middle school prelims

Last Thursday at Wildcat Memorial Stadium at Oak Harbor High School, local middle schools held their end-of-season preliminary track meet. The top 6 move on to the finals.

It started out as a sunny day, then a heavy overcast moved in, but by the end of the meet there were many sun breaks. I took over 1,000 photos during the meet, but after deleting the out-of-focus, off-center, and other photos with my errors in them, I wound up putting 331 imaged up on the photo site. You can find the photos at the link below. The photos are not labeled with a name or event, as I don't know everyone, so you'll just have to wade through them all to find yourself. Sorry.

http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/middleschool/MSTrackPrelims

Here are the OHMS and NWMS finalists as listed by the Clerk of Course let me know if I got anything wrong, especially spellings so I can correct it:

7th grade boys
110m hurdles – 1st Dzurkanin(DZ) – OH 18.60, 2nd Gilman – OH 18.93
100m dash – 4th Gilman 13.24, 5th, Hills – NW 13.52, 6th DZ 13.57
1600m run – 2nd Homola – OH 5:48, 3rd Kaltenback – OH 5:51, 5th Basaca – NW 5:54
4x100 relay – 1st OHMS 56.24, 3rd NWMS 58.96
400m dash – 5th Clemena – NW 1:07.67, 6th Homola 1:08.42
800m run – 5th Basaca 2:51
200m dash – Kurfis – NW 29.9
4x200 relay – 1st NWMS 2:03.32
Long Jump – 2nd Homola 12-11
High Jump – 2nd DZ 4-8
Shot Put – Sutherland – OH 20-8, 4th Dieter – OH 20-3/4
Discus – 4th Dieter – OH 54-7, 5th Knoll – NW 53-8
Javelin – Sutherland – 86’6”

7th grade girls
110m hurdles – 2nd Evangelista – OH 18.03, 6th Schneider – OH 20.03
100m dash – 1st Walker – NW 12.99, 4th Hall – NW 13.68, 6th Bobo – NW 13.91
1600m run – 3rd Rosen – NW 6:35, 5th White – OH 6:53
4x100 relay - NWMS
400m dash – 3rd Everett – NW 1:10.65, 4th Quinn – NW 1:11.0
800m run – Trisler – NW 2:53.44, Rosen 3:05.97
200m dash – 1st Walker 27.69, 2nd Bobo 29.36, 3rd Hall 29.83
4x200 relay – 1st NWMS 2:08.14, 4th OHMS 2:16.40
Long Jump – 1st Walker 13-2.5, 5th Evangelista 11-11, White – OH 11-8
High Jump – 3rd Wynn – OH 3-10
Shot Put – 2nd Rosen 25-5.25, 6th Counts – NW 23-6.5
Discus – Rosen 58-10, 3rd Hamamoto 52-10
Javelin – 6th Everett 61-5

8th grade boys
110m hurdles – 3rd Stratton – NW 17.75, 5th Burgoyne – OH 18.18
100m dash – 1st Miller – OH 11.64, 3rd Everett – NW 11.87, 4th Williams – NW 12.25, 5th Mack – OH 12.29
1600m run – 1st Reith – NW 5:11.68, 5th Schrum – OH 5:27.29
4x100 relay – 1st OHMS 49.54, 3rd NWMS 51.87
400m dash – 2nd Meet – OH 58.18, 6th Meyer – NW 1:03.47
800m run – No OH or NW finalists
200m dash – 1st Miller 24.00, 3rd Everett 25.09, 4th Willams 26.29, 6th Moore – NW 27.51
4x200 relay – 1st NWMS 1:52.17, 4th OHMS 1:55.00
Long Jump – 1st Mack – 17-6.5, 2nd Schrum 17-0.75, 4th Franssen – OH 16-5.5, Vail – NW 15-10.25
High Jump – 2nd Burgoyne 5-0, 4th Miller – OH 4-10
Shot Put – No OH or NW finalists
Discus - No OH or NW finalists
Javelin – 1st Reith 131-7, 4th Whitefoot – NW 119-5

8th grade girls
110m hurdles – 5th Bressler – NW 18.01
100m dash – 1st McKole – NW 13.34, 2nd Murphy – OH 13.37
1600m run – 5th Bain – OH 7:06.49
4x100 relay – 4th NWMS 58.22, 5th OHMS 59.00
400m dash – 6th Lonsdale – NW 1:11.58
800m run - No OH or NW finalists
200m dash – 1st McKole 27.87, 3rd Murphy 28.03, 6th Burleson – NW 29.97
4x200 relay – 4th NWMS 2:14.47, 5th OHMS 2:15.14
Long Jump – 2nd Murphy 13-5.75, 5th Peterschmidt – NW 12-3.75, 6th Anderson – NW 12-3
High Jump – 5th Peterschmidt 4-1
Shot Put – 5th Jackson (DJ) – NW 28-1.5
Discus – 3rd Carter – NW 67-11, 4th DJ 60-5
Javelin – 2nd Russell – OH 78-2.5

Oak Harbor Little League

I had the opportunity to go and take some photos at a couple of NWLL games on Wednesday May 21st.

The first game was the Mariners vs Dodgers, and the first Mariner batter swung at the first pitch and connected, sending him to first base. The Mariners were hot in the first inning, sending the leadoff batter all the way home and scoring, I think, 5 more runs in the bottom of the first.

I posted 30 photos of this game at http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/YouthSports/MarinersvDodgers

The other game was the Tigers and the As. I started taking pictures in the second inning. In the time I was watching there was some pretty decent pitching by both teams. I posted 32 images of that game.

The Tigers-As photos can be found here
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/YouthSports/TigersvAs

I did not get, nor even attempt to get a photo of each and every player. If you child is not there, it's not a slight, it's just that the camera wasn't pointed in his/her direction, the sun was interfereing, or I just screwed up and it was blurry.

Middle School track at Burlington-Edison HS

I braved the steady rain on Monday and took some photos at the middle school track meet in Burlington.

I'm still waiting on some results from the coaches, but did get the photos posted. You can find them at http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/middleschool/MSTrackatBE

One great performance I did witness was the NWMS 8th grade boys 4x100 relay. Coming into the final handoff, the NW boys were in 3rd place, and by quite a bit. Justin Everett got the handoff, caught up to the 2nd place boy (who was catching up quickly to the leader), and about 10 yards before the finish lit his afterburners and pulled out the win.

Talking with Coach Esvelt of OHMS at the meet, he seemed very pleased with the days' performances, especially considering the weather, and there should be a number of PRs to report on later.

High School Track - WESCO district meet

What a day for the Oak Harbor tracksters (and fieldsters, if that's a word!).

I've posted 91 photos covering both days at:
http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/highschool/WESCOdistrictmeet

When the meet opened on Wednesday, OH had, by my count, 16 athletes entered in individual events. 11 passed through to the finals, at 6 of those 11 are going to state in their individual events. It may not seem like a lot, but last year we only had 3 athletes in Pasco. The nine OH representatives are:

Carson McKole - 100, 200
Mietra Smollack - 800, 1600
Allison Duvenez - 300m hurdles
Richard Chong - 110m hurdles
Rodrick Rumble - high jump
Donovan Hunt - long jump

In addition, the following are going to state as members of relay teams
girls 4x200 - McKole, Smollack, Krissy McGill, Janessa Ramos
boys 4x100 - Hunt, Stephen Lewis, Bryce Schulle, Devante Young
boys 4x400 - Hunt, Rumble, Schulle, and Rashaad Smith.

In the finals, Oak Harbor was champion in 4 events. In the boys long jump, Donovan Hunt leaped a fraction over 22 feet for his win and Rodrick Rumble jumped 6 feet 4 inches. In the girls, Mietra (Rosie) Smollack was in the first place position on the podium 3 times. She won the 1600m run, setting a school, meet, and season best record of 4:57.56, she won the 800m run with a season best 2:14.98, and was a member of the winning 4x200m relay team.

Other personal records set during the finals were by Richard Chong in the 110 hurdles, Allison Duvenez in the 300m hurdles, Bryce Schulle in the 200m dash, Alex Nydam in the 1600m run, Doug Hughs in the javelin, Rodrick Rumble in the triple jump, Stephen Lewis in the 100, and Krissy McGill in the 400.

What's even better is that of all the athletes going to state, only 5 are seniors - Rumble, Smollack, McGill, Chong and Schulle, and 2 are freshmen - Duvenez and Ramos. The future is looking good for the Oak Harbor Track Team.

Good luck to everyone next weekend in Pasco!

Elementary School Track meet

I went to the All-city Elementary School Track Meet at North Whidbey Middle School Saturday morning, and what a beautiful day it was for track!

It wasn't a competitive meet, more of a get-away-from-in-front-of-the-TV type event, and it worked! Over 120 kids from the area elementary schools participated in high jump, long jump, javelin, softball throw, 800 meter run, sprint and hurdle races.

Each student got to attempt any event they wished in any order they wanted, and could take up to 3 attempts at each event if they so chose. Most did.

I took almost 500 images, of which over 200 of the best were posted to the site below:

http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/OakHarborSports/YouthSports/ElementaryTrack

For privacy, there are no names or school attached to any of the photos, so you have to scroll through them all to find photos of your child.

I did not attempt, and it was not possible to get, photos of every child in every event. For example, there are no photos of the sprint race and very few of the softball throw, mainly due to sun position. Also, there was only one photographer, and I could not be everywhere. If I missed your child, the only reason I did so is I was not pointing the camera in his/her direction when there was a photographic moment, or the photo was out of focus or otherwise of poor quality.

Enjoy the photos.

Photos available for purchase

In order to help cover my gas and equipment costs, starting this Saturday, all the photos will be placed on the pro side of Shutterfly.

You'll still be able to view individual photos and/or slideshows, but you won't be able to download any of the images.

Prints on quality photo paper can be ordered directly from Shutterfly using the available links.

If you order any image 5x7 or larger, I'll email you a digital copy of the image.

I enjoy taking photos of you and your children in action, but I just can't afford to give my work away any more. Not with prices going the way they are.

All-city Elementary School Track meet

There will be a track meet at North Whidbey MS this Saturday, May 17th. I'm sure Coach Ronning could use all the help he can get to make sure the meet goes smoothly. Come on out and support the future of Oak Harbor Sports.

WESCO track championships

It was a busy week for the Oak Harbor runners, jumpers, and throwers. They had a lot of athletes participating, and although as a team, didn't place as well as they might have liked, many individuals brought home some hardware and personal bests.

I think the most outstanding performance of the 2-day meet was the girls 4x200m relay. They were seeded very low, 8th out of 9 teams as they had no seeding time, but in a blaze of glory, the team of Janessa Ramos, Krissy McGill, Rosie Smollack, and Carson McKole ran a time of 1:48.11 and a first place finish.

For the boys, my pick for best performace is Alex Nydam. He ran the 3200m run in a time of 9:48.14. He finished 6th overall, but in doing so, cut over 30 seconds off his previous best, running a sub-10 minute 2 mile race for the first time.

Other winners were Smollack in the 800 and 1600, setting a season PR by over 2 seconds in the 1600, Carson McKole in the 100m dash, and Rodrick Rumble in the high jump.

Some other performance of note:

Ariel Brothers in the pole vault. Her previous best was 7'0", and she cleared 7'6" on Friday. She almost cleared 8'0", just brushing the pole off the standards.

Allison Duvenez in the 300m hurdles. Only a Freshman, she finished 3rd overall, dropping almost a full second off her best time.

Janessa Ramos in the long jump. Also a Freshman, she finished 5th overall.

Rashaad Smith in the 400m dash. Finished 7th overall, dropping almost half a second off his time.

Photos from day 2 are now posted at http://www.oakharborsports.shutterfly.com/.

WESCO track prelims at Snohomish HS

I posted some pics (actually, a LOT of pics) from the prelims Wednesday. In addition, there's a few videos as well. I posted Richard Chong and Alison Duvenez in the hurdles, Janessa Ramos in the long jump and Rodrick Rumble in the high jump.

You can find all the results, except, curiously, the girls 3200, at www.athletic.net

The videos are on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/oakharborwildcatfan

Final softball game of the year.

I was the last game of the season at the softball fields at Hillcrest Elementary Tuesday afternoon. Since it was the last game, each senior was introduced along with her parents. I was happy to see that every girl had at least one parent present, and most had both. That's a great showing by the parents for the early game time. I got there early enough that I got some photos of each of the seniors with their parents, and as a group out at the pitcher's mound.

While the game, and the season, did not go as planned, the girls seemed to be enjoying themselves and showed a lot of support for each other during the game.

You can find all 99 photos posted at http://www.oakharborsports.shutterfly.com/

Enjoy!

NWAC - Youth Swimming

I took the opportunity to go over to the pool Friday afternoon and take some swimming photos.

For those who think swimming is a relaxing sport, think again! It's one of the hardest sports, as you use ALL the muscles in your body. And, practice is not just in the pool. I watched the end of the senior practice, and after they got out of the pool, they were doing some weight work, including pull-ups and pushups, then were outside on the grass for some running.

I posted some pictures on the photo site, available for viewing or downloading.

http://www.oakharborsports.shutterfly.com