Girls Basketball:

Hustling into the small gym on Nov. 19, freshman Claire Sirmon had endured three days of girls basketball tryouts, running laps, scrimmaging against her fellow teammates, and dribbling nonstop. Now, finally, Coach Robin Kansky gave her the good news she’d been waiting for: She was on varsity as a freshman.

“I had to be calm about it, but I’d worked hard and hoped for it for a long time. Afterwards, I called my mom and everything; I was so excited,” Sirmon said.

From their first loss 43-49 against Lake City, the three freshmen, four juniors, and three seniors making up the varsity team have completely turned around their momentum, a little over a week later, and are establishing their dominance on the court, especially in their final game against Thomas Jefferson, in which they only allowed the opposing team to score four points total in the second half of the game.

Freshman Alli Hallberg dominated play during the Dec. 5 match, scoring 22 of the team’s overall points and helping bring the team to a 68-56 victory against Richland. The team struggled during the first three quarters of the game, and only managed to pull ahead in the electrifying fourth quarter.

“We were getting a lot of fouls and people weren’t moving their feet, and overall we needed to play better defense. We were kind of slacking. But in the fourth quarter, we started playing a lot more as a team. We started connecting passes, and more than anything we worked off each other’s energy,” senior Caroline Siderius said.

From the first sounding of the buzzer, it was clear that the Panthers were running circles around the Lady Cadets on Dec. 6. Senior Ali Sealby scored 25 of the team’s winning 77-24 score, with help from senior Amira Chandler as well, who scored 13 of the team’s points.

‘Yesterday, my team shared the ball with me,” Hallberg said. “So today was my day to share. The assists are just as good.”

-Kiana Wilson, Opinion Editor

Bowling:

On Dec. 4, the bowlers absorbed a disappointing loss to Moses Lake, 1966-1926, balancing their record at 2-2.

“It was really close,” WHS Coach Jay Young said. “It was just back and forth, it was really really exciting but we didn’t win.”

Juniors Brianna Saylor and Courtney Archer were high scorers, with scores of 180 and 191, respectively.

On Dec. 2, the team had a huge win over Sunnyside, 2051-1377. Young had predicted that this match would be a win the previous week.

“We had some sweet scores, so that was a good day,” Young said.

The high scorers were Courtney Archer, with 191 and 193, freshman Nicole Archer with a 203, sophomore Delaney Yant with 217, and junior Brianna Saylor with 205 and 245.

The bowling team came away victorious from its match against West Valley on Nov. 25, winning 1933-1717. High scorers were senior Bethany Symonds, with a score of 180, junior Jaylah Young, with a score of 188, and senior Danielle Fabian, with a score of 189.

Courtney Archer is still out with a leg injury, but Yant has stepped in and is a promising bowler, Young said.

Young predicts a win over Sunnyside, but thinks that Moses Lake will be tougher.

The team is working on spare shooting and their Baker game, which is a game where individual bowlers take turns playing frames in one game, adding a team component to the sport.

“We need to improve on that a little, and spares, spares, spares,” Young said. “Strikes are loud, [but] spares win games.”

-Evie Hyde, Sports Editor

Wrestling:

The Wenatchee High School wrestlers had a successful tournament on Saturday that revealed the team’s strength and potential. The team competed at the Bob Mars Classic in Kennewick that hosted 16 teams.

“We had a very good tournament that revealed we have a lot of potential for the rest of the season,” Head Coach Ed Valdez said. “Veteran wrestlers did very well with the younger inexperienced wrestlers showed great promise. I think we wrestled very well with a lot of room for improvement.”

Senior Kole Davis won a championship at 195. He triumphed with three takedowns and he won with a score of 7-5 over senior Colton DeLeon of Kamiakin. Junior Eric Briley placed fifth at 138 and senior Drake Lewis took sixth place at 126.

Upcoming events will include the first meeting between Wenatchee and West Valley Dec. 11 at WHS. Varsity begins at 7 p.m. Dec.12, the team will wrestle Gig Harbor High in Silverdale. Dec. 13, the team competes in a 16-team dual meet tournament in Silverdale as well.

-Jordan Gonzalez, Staff Reporter

Boys Swim:

Last week the boys swim and dive team traveled to Moses Lake to compete at an invitational that kicked off the season. On Dec. 4, the boys battled it out with seven other teams to place second overall, out-touched by the Moses Lake team by a half point.

“We lost to Moses Lake by only .5 of a point, which is actually a really good show of our strength this year since we are usually mauled by them at Districts,” WHS Coach James Elwyn said.

Standout swimmers were Jared Vargas in the 200 individual medley, who qualified for State in that event with a time of 2:02.53.

“I was very surprised because it didn’t feel good at all,” junior Jared Vargas said, “It’s one out of the way I guess. Now I don’t have to swim that until State.”

Freshman Braden Dilly also had a standout meet with a time of 51.72 in the 100 free, and 1:54.52 in the 200 free.

“I think that the times that Braden swam are probably some of the fastest freshman times since Chris Cushman,” Elwyn said.

As for the rest of the team, they performed very well and are showing their potential at being a great group of swimmers, with a possibility at taking the District title at the end of the season.

“Our freshman class has a lot more depth than we first thought, and they are a very talented and hard working group of guys,” senior captain Justin Pringle said, “We need to get a better team cheer, but our team chemistry is good, and everyone is excited as we may be able to pull an upset over Moses Lake.”

The boys’ next meet takes place at Eastmont on Dec. 11, and the swimmers are very positive about their odds.

“We’re gonna black out the sunshine,” Vargas said.

-Jessica Wierzbicki, Staff Reporter