Sports roundup: Districts near a close with state on the horizon

With district tournaments progressing, and nearly over, only half of Whatcom County’s prep boys and girls basketball teams are still playing. 

Local wrestlers are gearing up for the Mat Classic XXXV state wrestling tournament after regionals, and boys swimmers completed their district meets ahead of state.

Western Washington University’s basketball teams are nearing the final stretch of their Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedules, while track and field runners continue to break indoor records.

Here’s an overview of what you may have missed from the last week of winter sports.

Prep

Boys basketball

District tournaments have decimated the number of teams still playing by mid-February.

Lummi Nation has torn through the 1B Tri-District tournament, most recently beating Crescent 55-27 on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The top-seeded Blackhawks will face No. 5 Tulalip Heritage in the semifinals at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16 at Mount Vernon Christian High School.

Sehome and Bellingham were bounced from the 2A District 1 tournament after consolation quarterfinal games on Monday, Feb. 12, while Mount Baker was also eliminated last weekend.

Mount Baker lost to Nooksack Valley, 66-47, in the 1A District 1 consolation semifinal, ending its season with a 4-19 overall record. The Mountaineers will graduate two seniors ahead of next season.

Just five teams remain: Lynden Christian, Lynden, Nooksack Valley, Meridian and Lummi Nation. LC has already secured a regionals bid with its 1A District 1 championship victory on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Girls basketball

Six girls teams are still alive in Nooksack Valley, Lynden Christian, Meridian, Lynden, Sehome and Lummi Nation. NV is off to regionals following its 1A District 1 championship on Feb. 10.

Sehome survived a 2A District 1 consolation quarterfinal game on Feb. 13, while Squalicum was eliminated.

Blaine also had its season end in the 1A District 1 semifinals, losing 40-38 to Meridian on Feb. 10. The Borderites finished their season 10-12 overall, and they will lose four seniors to graduation.

Ferndale lost its first game of the 3A District 1 tournament, and the Golden Eagles were eliminated as a result. They lost 62-47 to Monroe on Thursday, Feb. 8 and will lose three seniors.

Lummi Nation most recently beat Evergreen Lutheran, 40-28, in the 1B Tri-District quarterfinals, moving on to a matchup with top-seeded Neah Bay at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16 at Mount Vernon Christian High School.

WWU

Track and field

Western track and field broke three more indoor program records at the Husky Classic in Seattle Feb. 9–10 at the Dempsey Indoor athletic facility on the University of Washington campus.

Senior Marian Ledesma broke the 800-meter run record with her time of 2:10.13 while junior Caitlyn Cheney clocked a new 60-meter dash record of 7.71 seconds.

The pair of records by the Vikings’ women’s runners came on Feb. 10, a day after junior Kevin McDermott shattered his third program record of the indoor season. McDermott ran the 3,000-meter run in 7:59.27 for his latest historic performance, just two weeks after resetting Western’s record books in the mile run and 5,000-meter run.

Western’s next meet will be the GNAC Indoor Championships at The Podium in Spokane Feb. 19–20 — its second-to-last meet before the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships March 8–9 in Pittsburg, Kansas. 

Men’s basketball

Western men’s basketball split its pair of home games Feb. 8 and 10, winning the first and dropping the second.

The Vikings beat Seattle Pacific, 80-76, on Feb. 8 but lost to MSU Billings, 88-83, two days later. Western (14-10, 6-7 GNAC) currently sits in fifth place in the league standings, narrowly inside the playoff picture.

In the most recent game, junior guard Will Wilson scored a team-high 22 points and added four assists and two steals. Junior guard Kai Johnson and redshirt freshman guard Tijan Saine each scored 16 points.

Johnson added six rebounds and three steals, while Saine finished with five assists. Senior forward Jonathan Ned stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists and four steals.

Western has just five games remaining in its regular season schedule, and the Vikings have their annual Alaskan road trip next. They will face Alaska Fairbanks at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15 before playing Alaska Anchorage at 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 17.

Women’s basketball

The Vikings tallied two wins last week on the road, maintaining their second-place spot in the GNAC standings. 

Western (19-4, 11-2 GNAC) beat Northwest Nazarene 91-84 in overtime on Feb. 8 before outlasting rival Central Washington, 69-60, on Feb. 10.

Junior guard Riley Dykstra had her best offensive game as a Viking in the latter victory, scoring a career-high 30 points (11-of-16 shooting) while adding two rebounds, four assists and a steal. Senior forward Brooke Walling finished with 15 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

The back-to-back wins got Western back on track after a disappointing loss to Alaska Anchorage on Feb. 3, which snapped its eight-game win streak. 

The Vikings’ next game will be against Saint Martin’s on Feb. 17 after Western Oregon forfeited its scheduled game against Western on Thursday, Feb. 15.

Connor J. Benintendi is CDN’s sports editor; reach him at connorbenintendi@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.