Girls Soccer:

To the shrill blow of the referee’s whistle, the battle began, and the Wenatchee High School girls soccer team was unprepared for the level of ferocity and determination Eastmont would bring to their rematch on Oct. 9, with aggressive elbows, sly feet to trip up other players, full-body struggles for the ball, and even the loss of senior Kate Thies to a second-degree sprained ankle for the remainder of the week.

“They wanted to beat us. They came out especially hard since we beat them on their home field last time, and we weren’t prepared for that. They got the first goal, and that set the mindset for the game,” freshman Allie Flynn said.

While halftime greeted the team with a losing score of 1-0, the girls turned the game around completely during the second half, with senior Katie Michkiosky pulling another hat trick out of the bag, scoring all three Wenatchee goals for a final score of 3-1.

“[Katie] is someone you can rely on. If you give her the ball, she does what she can do with it… She’s done a great job with her distribution of the ball, and she digs deep and gets the job done when she has to,” senior Katie Grubb said.

Equally aggressive was the girls’ pivotal game against Moses Lake on Oct. 7, their biggest competition in the league. Wenatchee held the winning score after the critical first goal scored by senior Baylee Fontaine up until the last 15 minutes of the game. When Moses Lake came back and scored to end the game tied, the teams went into overtime, and the double overtime, and with just 20 seconds left in overtime lost with a final score of 2-1.

“We started breaking down. It was such a long game, and it was so much pressure… [but] I’m a senior and I’ve played soccer for four years, and we’ve never beat Moses Lake or even come close to beating them, so being able to go into go into double overtime was an amazing feeling,” Grubb said.

-Kiana Wilson, Opinion Editor

Volleyball:

The Panthers have unexpectedly fallen to their cross-river rivals, the Eastmont Wildcats, a team that was almost out of playoff contention altogether. Wenatchee lost 3-1 after going on a three-win streak that included a very close five-game win against Moses Lake at home.

“We just didn’t have the energy to compete and didn’t stay persistent. When we made a mistake, we weren’t able to shake it off, and it just kept getting worse,” senior Amira Chandler said.

The Panthers are now third in league, with Moses Lake and Eastmont right on their tail. In order to have a chance to qualify for State, the Panthers must be at least second in league at the end of the regular season; while two games back from second place and with just five games left, the gap to make a comeback is slowly closing.

The Panthers play West Valley, which is ranked first in the league at home Oct. 16.

-Daniel Arndt, Staff Reporter

Girls Swim:

Swim is gaining incredible momentum as they are getting closer and closer to state. On Oct. 7 the Panthers made their way to Davis High School to face the two Yakima teams, Davis and Sunnyside, neither of which threatened the Panthers undefeated record. They beat Davis 137-36, and Sunnyside 120-55. So far, all the state qualifying times are by sophomores and freshmen, which makes the team young but still very strong and that dynamic will last for more than just this year.

“We have a great group of freshmen, they all work hard,” Head Coach James Elwyn said.

As of right now, the events that the Panthers have qualified for state in are the 200 yard medley, 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 200 butterfly, 100 breaststroke and the six meter dive.

-Lexi Rivera, Staff Reporter

Cross Country:

Senior Cole Christman placed second overall closely behind nationally-ranked Tanner Anderson with a time of 15:26.44. Christman placed second overall out of 196 other division one athletes. Sophomore Moses Lurbur also ran in the division 1. He placed 107 out of 196 running a 17:42.89. Christman and Lurbur were the only athletes from Wenatchee that ran in Division 1.

Junior Carson Dillard ran in the division two of athletes and placed 41 out of 116 running in 18:04.80. The boys team placed eighth overall out of 16 teams. Junior Ethan Knutson was close behind Dillard placing 47 out of 116. Knutson ran a 18:17.67.

The varsity girls ran in the division two and placed sixth overall out of 17 teams. Senior Raquel Thody placed eleventh out of 133 running a 20:48.99. Junior Savannah Brass was close behind placing 27th and running a 21:32.11.

“[Passing another runner is] fantastic. All you think of is that you know they know you’re coming because they can hear your breath. Then they give up and you pass them and it’s like yeah!” Brass said. “The last 400 meters is when I try to sprint. It feels like my legs and whole body is going to give out. I sing songs. My last song I sang was ‘It’s a Beautiful Life.’”

-Kirsten Walker