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Kelsey Moser
leads top-ranked Colton with
18.7 points per game and is the team's
second-leading rebounder.
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic
file |
This season, the league got just two state berths, but
with defending champion Colton (21-1) and 2009 runner-up St. John-Endicott
(20-3) returning to the SunDome, the other 14 teams in the field are still
looking up.
"You look at the state placers the last three, four
years and our district has done extremely well," said Clark Vining, coach of
top-ranked Colton. "Our league gets you ready for state. This year, we're
leaving some teams home that would probably trophy."
"We do know that Colton and St. John are the two best
teams," said Ben Addink, coach of third-ranked Almira/Coulee-Hartline
(20-3), whose team had the unenviable task of drawing St. John-Endicott in
Wednesday's opening round for the second consecutive year.
"You'd like to see the teams you believe to be the
better teams playing each other later in the week," Addink continued, "but
the nice thing is we get to test ourselves against the benchmark in the
state."
There's no question that teams from that league are
indeed the standard by which other 1B teams can measure themselves. Last
season's 1-2 finish was the second straight showing for that league, with
Garfield-Palouse knocking off Colton in 2008.
Despite their clear favored status, neither coach is
taking anything for granted, particularly SJE coach Bob Clements, given his
opening-round pairing and a potential second-round match-up with
fifth-ranked Sunnyside Christian
(18-4).
Standing in Colton's way could be a possible semifinal
pairing with Hunters (21-4), which was seventh in '09, or undefeated Neah
Bay (21-0).
"Everybody's there for a good reason. If you start
looking past someone, you're going to get nipped," Clements said, adding
that he welcomes the impending challenges.
"I'd rather play good teams," he continued. "If you
want to be a championship team, you might as well play good teams and earn
your way in."
Both Colton and St. John-Endicott lost some key players
off last seasons squads, but both also returns several important pieces.
The top-ranked Wildcats feature 5-foot-9 post Kelsey
Moser, their leading scorer (18.7 points per game) and second-leading
rebounder, 5-9 guard Mollie Kramer (10.4 ppg, 8.4 rebounds per game), 5-6
guard Haley Moser (14.8 ppg), point guard Mikayla Nygreen (4.5 assists per
game) and McKenzie Heaslet (10.0 ppg).
St. John-Endicott, which handed Colton its lone loss a
few weeks ago, returns just two starters, but features a balanced offense
led by 5-10 post Kelly Van Lith (13.6
ppg), 5-8 guard Kelsey Simon (12.4 ppg)
and 5-7 Alli Winters (11.7).
"Any time you get to state, you see nothing but good
teams," Vining said. "We're ready to go."
