The year 2006 was one to remember for a young ski racer from Mercer Island, who is now taking the skills she acquired in the Cascade Mountains across the globe.
For the first time in five years the Mercer Island High School girls basketball team entered a tournament over winter break. The result was a third-place overall finish in its bracket, Georgia Gier setting a new school record for rebounds in a game, taking her game to the next level and the emergence of freshman guard Hannah Lilly, as she earned all-tournament honors.
There is nothing like a home-court advantage. That idea is taken to the extremes in high school basketball when the opponent has to travel 1,000 miles.
For most gymnastic teams in 3A KingCo the league schedule doesn’t really start until they face perennial powerhouse Issaquah. Both Mercer Island and Sammamish visited the team that has won the state title three of the past five years on Thursday, and both used the meet to measure where they stand.
What a difference a “year” makes.
The gymnasium at Newport High School Friday night felt more like a refrigerator than a basketball court thanks to on-going construction. But the Islanders were the ones who were cold on the hardwood this week as they dropped two in-league games.
Matt Schut’s jump shot following the opening tip between Mercer Island and Bellevue gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead. As a joke, the Mercer Island student body began chanting “It’s all over.” But the chant was prophetic as the Islander boys never trailed during the game, soundly defeating their biggest rival 47-36, and knocking the Wolverines out of the 3A KingCo title picture.
It wasn’t snowing in hell last Wednesday, but it was in Bellevue. The Mercer Island girls basketball game at Bellevue High School took place despite many school activities and game cancellations last week and the result was a rare Mercer Island 63-60 win over the Wolverines.
I dragged myself into work on Sunday afternoon. My heart was heavy from the Seahawks’ loss to the Bears, my mind full of “what ifs?” and my stomach full of pork rinds, spicy meatballs and bean dip. For some reason, close losses sometimes hurt more than a stomachache.
Senior Kristen Shibuya entered the Mercer Island High School gymnasium Thursday night, along with five other Islanders, for her final home meet of her career.
While the loss to Issaquah two weeks ago all but ended the Islanders’ shot at the 3A KingCo regular season title, the postseason tournaments still loom large and the team did a good job of getting back on track with a 45-30 victory over Bellevue Wednesday.
The Mercer Island boys swim team has dominated other Washington state teams for the past 14 months, including a 111-58 win over Bellevue Saturday at Mary Wayte Pool. The Islanders took it to another level Jan. 13 at the Albuquerque Academy Invitational, besting 14 other high school teams from the Western United States. The Islanders finished second to only the host team.
The Mercer Island girls basketball team made an emphatic statement that it is not among the cellar dwellers in 3A KingCo any more with a 74-30 drubbing of Sammamish Saturday night. But it is a long climb from the bottom to the top, as the team lost a close 47-44 game to Mount Si Friday and was blown out by Issaquah 66-51 on Jan. 17.
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