Saturday was a busy day for Clark County high school sports.
The Prairie volleyball team joined the Camas girls cross country team as state championship squads from Clark County.
And swimmers Monica Bottelberghe of Columbia River and Julia Sanders of Hockinson joined Camas cross country runner Alexa Efraimson as the county’s individual state champions.
And four other teams remain alive in their pursuit of state titles: Camas football, La Center football, Camas girls soccer and Columbia River girls soccer.
And while The Columbian had several reporters in the field, received help from other publications and chased down other stories via the phone, it is inevitable that some things may have slipped through the cracks in our reporting from Saturday.
So I’ll do my best to fill in those cracks.
Camas cross country, again
It wasn’t an official high school event, as the prep cross country season in Washington ended last week. But it’s still worth reporting on the exploits of the Camas girls cross country team Saturday at the Nike Cross Nationals regional cross country meet in Boise.
Camas’ Alexa Efraimson placed third overall in the regional meet in 17:42 to earn a berth to the Nike Cross Nationals on Dec. 1 at Portland Meadows race track. It was a clean sweep by Washington runners as Amy-Eloise Neal of Glacier Peak High School won the race in 17:29, and Katie Knight of Spokane’s North Central High was second in 17:40.
The Camas girls team, competing under the club team name Team Camas, placed second behind Pantalones Rapidos, the club team name for Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene High, earning the Papermakers a team berth at nationals.
Camas placed five of its runners in the top 45 overall in the 128-runner field — Alissa Pudlitzke (13th, 18:48), Megan Napier (29th, 19:20), Maddie Woodson (36th, 19:27) and Camille Parsons (45th, 19:34).
Girls soccer at state
Columbia River’s pursuit of its second state title in four years will continue Friday at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup. The Chieftains face Liberty of Renton at 2 p.m. in a Class 3A semifinal.
Camas will face Issaquah at 8 p.m. Friday in a 4A semifinal at Sparks.
Football playoffs
The football season in Clark County lives on with Camas at 4A and La Center at 1A.
And local fans won’t have to travel far to watch their teams play.
Camas will play at Doc Harris Stadium against Federal Way, while La Center will meet Mount Baker of Deming most likely at District Stadium in Battle Ground.
The default start time for state games is 1 p.m. Saturday, unless the participants agree on another time.
The official start time of the games will be announced Monday.
Volleyball
Congratulations to the Prairie volleyball team on capturing its first state championship since winning the 4A title in 1998.
Columbia River left Lacey without any hardware, losing two of three matches.
But the WIAA should consider giving the Chieftains an “A For Effort” award. All three of River’s matches went five sets.
River beat Seattle Prep in the first round 18-25, 25-22, 25-10, 23-25, 15-9, lost to North Thurston in the quarterfinals 28-26, 23-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-8, then fell to Glacier Peak in the fifth-place semifinal 25-12, 25-20, 13-25, 22-25, 15-7.
That’s 15 sets.
In four matches on the way to winning its state title, Prairie only played 14 sets. In the entire 3A tournament, only Seattle Prep (16 sets in four matches) played more.
Winter time
The winter sports season gets rolling this week, literally.
Winter sports teams can begin practice Monday, although some teams will wait until Tuesday because today is a holiday. The first day of winter competition is Nov. 26.
That is, except for girls bowling. Practices started two weeks ago and the first regular-season matches begin on Wednesday.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at (360) 735-4538 or email at tim.martinez@columbian.com
