Girls Soccer:

With the aid of former JV player senior Taylor Butcherite, the Wenatchee High School girls soccer team won their first playoff game against Sunnyside 2-0, moving on to play Davis on Nov. 4.

Replacing senior Katie Grubb, who was taken out for the rest of the season due to an injury during a previous match against West Valley, Butcherite was moved up from the JV team. She scored both of the team’s goals against Sunnyside.

“We wanted a win against Sunnyside. We were unhappy with our performance Tuesday and wanted revenge,” senior Ali Sealby said.

The team’s final two games of the regular season ended in disappointing defeat, with a 1-2 loss against Sunnyside on Oct. 28. On senior night, the team’s final regular season game against Moses Lake, the team suffered a painful 0-6 loss against their long-time rivals.

“We played hard. It was a tough game and we knew that going in. Moses Lake is a strong team, and they just took their opportunities for shots… But overall it was a better game than the loss against Sunnyside. We kept the play fast,” senior Alexis Heuchert said.

Entering District playoffs, games are now single-elimination.

“If we lose, we’re done. A lot of us aren’t moving on to college level soccer, so for a lot of us, any one of these games could be the last game we play,” Sealby said.

-Kiana Wilson, Opinion Editor

Volleyball:

The Panther volleyball team is starting their road to State tomorrow against Eastmont for a berth into the District tournament. They will need to win the next three matches in order to make it all the way to State.

“If we want to make it to State, we need to work on staying persistent even after making mistakes; we can’t get down on ourselves,” senior Amira Chandler said.

Last week, The Panthers went .500, beating Sunnyside 3-0 and losing to Moses Lake 3-0.

“We started off great but slowly lost our energy. It’s something we definitely need to work on,” Chandler said.

Wenatchee finished the regular season fourth in league with a record of 6-6, claiming the opportunity to play a play-in game for the berth. Their cross-river rivals split the two games they played this season, with Wenatchee winning the first game 3-1 and Eastmont claiming the second game 3-1. If they win Tuesday’s game, they will play the winner of the Davis vs. Moses Lake game, and in the event that they win that game, the Panthers will be playing the loser of the West Valley vs. Eisenhower game.

-Daniel Arndt, Staff Reporter

Girls swim:

This weekend the swim team traveled all the way to Ellensburg at the Central Washington University pool to compete in the District meet. It was no surprise that the team were the front runners right from the start as they walked away with the district title, out-scoring the rest of the teams, even their district rival Richland, with a score of 528.

The Panthers made a statement at the meet while they placed first, and broke district and school records in more than one event. The team of junior Kayli Elwyn, junior Kayli Brown, sophomore Isabelle Dressel, and sophomore Jessica Wierzbicki started off the day setting a district record with a time of 1:50.69.

Junior Ali Brandt showed how strong she was as she tore apart a district record in the one meter dive that had been there since 2003. In doing that, she was also named the Big 9 diver of the year. Dressel, who came in as the top seed, got a school record and a district record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.34, where she just went under the time for All-American consideration. Wierzbicki showed no signs of weakness as she shattered the 100 butterfly district record from 1998, as well as her own school record set earlier in the year with a time of 56.20. She also broke a WHS school record set by Robin Davidson in 1993 (2:11.62) , with a time of 2:09.86, more than a second better than the previous record. For sophomore Rebecca Bay this meet wasn’t about breaking records but about qualifying for state. Bay qualified for the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:09.86.

“At the beginning of the year I didn’t think I could actually qualify,” Bay said. “After the first day at Districts I knew I could do it.”

Overall, the Panthers proved that they are well prepared for the State competition.

The Panthers have a week break, then are on the road to travel to Federal Way for State on Nov. 15.

-Lexi Rivera, Staff Reporter

Cross country:

Sprinting through long, muddy, grass for three miles is no runner’s cup of tea, but it didn’t stop senior Cole Christman from winning the District meet on Oct. 30 with a time of 15:36.20, followed by senior Austen Lane with a time of 15:48.20.

The boys cross country team took home second place as a team and qualified for State. Senior Justin Pringle, senior Garrett Britt, senior Drake Lewis, sophomore Moses Lurbur, and junior Carson Dillard all qualified to go on the State team, with junior Ethan Knutson and junior Jorden Hunsaker qualifying to go as athletes.

The girls team took a disappointing fourth place and did not qualify to go to State as a team. However, senior Raquel Thody qualified to go as an individual, placing eighth with a time of 19.53.91. This will be Thody’s third trip to State.

“I like having my team with me at races, but I get pretty moody and antsy close to the beginning of my race,” Thody said. “It [will be] nice to be able to just zone out and not worry about anything [at State].”

-Kirsten Walker, Staff Reporter