Community Sports

Sports Beat: Gig Harbor swim team wins league title

The Gig Harbor girls swim and dive team (6-2, 6-0 South Sound Conference) hosted the Peninsula Seahawks for a dual meet on Oct. 10 and came away with a resounding 120-65 victory. Two days later, Gig Harbor defeated the North Thurston Rams 115-64 to win the South Sound Conference with a perfect league record.

Against the Seahawks, the Tides used their depth to win the competitive meet. Both teams achieved season-best times and a few races were decided by the blink of an eye.

200 freestyle thriller

Overall, the Tides won eight of 12 races versus the Seahawks, starting with the 200 medley relay.

The second race, the 200 freestyle, was expected to be a thriller between the Seahawks’ Kate Henkel and the Tides’ Ashlyn Pepich. It didn’t disappoint.

Seahawk and Tides swimmers enter the water at precisely the same time in their dual meet at the Gig Harbor pool. Photo by Bryce Carithers

Henkel leaped from the starting pad and held a .46 second advantage after the first length of the pool. Pepich pulled even at the 100 mark, as both athletes executed perfect flip turns to emerge from the water together for the final down-and-back. Backed by boisterous encouragement from full spectator sections, both swimmers churned to the finish. Henkel lunged to the wall just .13 seconds faster, 2:07.78 to 2:07.91 to win the race and even the meet.

The Tides then swept the top three spots in the 200 intermediate medley race, which combines the back stroke, breast stroke, butterfly and free style. Beau Ensminger showed her versatility to win in 2:24.60.

The 50 freestyle was the next event, as the speed burners took to the pool. The Tides’ Karina Yevstifieieva narrowly defeated Peninsula’s Lee Gjertson, 26.77 to 27.42.

Peninsula’s Post a top diver

The diving portion of the meet was next and featured one of the best divers in the state, Peninsula’s Makenna Post. Post exploded off the board, gaining the height necessary to perform dives with spins, twists and backward entries into the pool while hardly leaving a splash. Post completed two dives with 2.3 degrees of difficulty to earn a high score of 9.0 from one judge while showing the power and gracefulness of a conference champion.

The Tides’ best diver, Julia Davis, was athletic and performed well but Post was on point, winning the competition 2:45.00 to 2:13.80 as she looks ready to compete for a state title.

Gig Harbor’s Bridget Oates swam a lifetime best to win the 100 butterfly in 1:08.03. Then it was back to the freestylers. Henkel out-touched Yevstifieieva to win the 100 free by just .40 seconds, 58.95 to 59.35. Gig Harbor’s Jenna Nelson won the excruciating 500 free — swimming the length of the pool 10 times — in 5:55.88.

The versatile Oates won the 100 backstroke when she expertly spun from her back with a twist as the wall approached. She then instantly flip-turned and pushed off the wall while spinning again underwater to emerge on her back in perfect rhythm. The maneuver is as difficult as any in high school sports and must be seen to be truly appreciated.

Iron Woman

The Seahawks got an excellent effort from Gjertson in the 100 breaststroke to edge Gig Harbor swimmer and water polo star Alexis Tujo. In the race, Ensminger posted a district-qualifying time, which won her the Tides “Iron Woman” designation as the only Tide to qualify for districts in every event.

New Peninsula head coach Athena Petterson, who took over for the retired Tim Messersmith, was proud of her team’s efforts. So was Tides coach Mike Kelly, who has now won multiple SSC titles in a row.

Gig Harbor soccer avenges only league loss

The Gig Harbor soccer team (10-2-1, 10-1) dispatched the Capital Cougars 8-2 at home on Oct. 12, winning a rematch against the only league opponent to defeat the Tides this year. The Cougars won 1-0 on Sept. 19, but after watching the rematch it was hard to imagine how they did it.

The Tides’ Ella Gardner, Sara Ehler, Sophie Blake and Jocelyn Gregory form one of the best defensive lines in  the state. They are all seniors and the experience showed as they protected freshman goalie Emily Grennan, who was called up from the C team because of injuries to four other Tide goalies. If the youngster was nervous, it went away quickly as the aforementioned back line swarmed like wasps to anything threatening the goal.

The Tides’ Elizabeth Hayes scored early and then forward Elise Miller booted one from 30 yards out that went 2 inches under the cross bar for a 2-0 lead at the 28-minute mark. The hard-charging Hayes found the net again with a difficult left-foot goal from a tough angle. Then sophomore Sage Sturrock scored after a few nice dribble moves got her in the clear. By halftime it was 4-0, and the Cougars’ plan to sweep the Tides was wrecked.

Gig Harbor gave up a goal on a nice high shot over Grennan’s hands and another on a penalty kick. But Sophie Blake headed one in after a precise corner kick from Hayes. Freshman Claire Clevenger scored with a blast and then Ehler moved up from the defensive line on senior night to complete the scoring.

The Tides look to lock up a league title on at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, against the second-place Peninsula Seahawks at Roy Anderson Field.

Peninsula winning by blowout

Peninsula (9-2-1, 9-1-1 SSC) won their last four games by a combined score of 20-2.

The Seahawks have only given up six goals in 12 league games and are looking to avenge a 3-0 loss to the Tides on Sept. 26. Ella Conrad got the shutout for Gig Harbor in that game. With Conrad out with a thumb injury and several other goalies hurt, the Seahawks will look to apply the pressure. They could climb to within a half-game of the Tides with a victory Tuesday night.

Tides coach Katie Bennett is looking forward to the rematch and has plenty of respect for Kim Demianiw’s Seahawks.

“We just want to focus on us and play our game,” Bennett said. “The game is some of the best competition in the league and the girls have all grown up playing together, so we’re excited for it.”

Peninsula water polo remains unbeaten

The Peninsula (10-0) water polo team stayed undefeated with their second defeat of Gig Harbor this season. The Seahawks needed a comeback to beat the Tides 13-12 on Sept. 14. In the rematch, coach Carter Gilmore’s team blasted the Tides with shot after shot to win by a convincing score of 14-5.

Peninsula’s Dylan Bassler leaps to snag a shot versus Gig Harbor for the 10-0 Seahawks. Photo courtest Peninsula water polo

Peninsula was led in scoring by the hard-throwing Landon Gullum, with six points, and Henry Moore, with five points. The Seahawks got a fine defensive effort from goalie Dylan Bassler, who is one of the chief reasons that Peninsula is undefeated. With his long arms, wide shoulders and cat-like reflexes, Bassler recorded 10 blocks and four steals to give the Seahawks a season sweep over a talented Tides team.

With just four games left in the regular season, the Seahawks are ranked first in Division 2 West and are looking to place high enough in the D2 tournament to qualify for the state tournament. The top three teams will advance.

Football teams look to extend win streaks

Gig Harbor (5-1, 4-0) is back in action at 7 p.m. tonight, Oct. 13, for their Homecoming game against  North Thurston (2-4, 0-4) at Roy Anderson Field. The Tides are only one play away from being undefeated — they lost their opener 26-21 to Spanaway Lake on the game’s final play.

Since then, they have reeled off five straight wins with a productive offense that averages 30.1 points per game and a defense that is surrendering only 16.5 per outing.

Quarterback Benji Park has been getting deserved attention for directing the offense but the Tide offensive line deserves credit, too, as they have shown steady improvement. The Tide offense will get back a couple of speedsters against the Rams: wide receiver Ben Stevens has been out for two weeks and sensational sophomore D.J. Darling missed the last game due to injury.

The Peninsula Seahawks (3-3, 3-1) look to make it four straight wins when they face the Capital Cougars (3-3, 2-2) at Ingersoll Stadium in Olympia at 7 p.m. Oct. 13.

Peninsula has been getting fine quarterback play from junior Mana Smythe, who directs an offense averaging 41 points per game during the three-game win streak. Running back Connor Burton has found the end zone over 10 times in the streak running behind a physical offensive line. The defense has allowed just 14 points per game.

Gig Harbor, Peninsula eye volleyball playoff positioning

The Gig Harbor volleyball team (9-3, 7-2) climbed back into the hunt for the conference’s second playoff berth with a pair of wins against Yelm and River Ridge this week.

The Tides’ hopes received a boost when Peninsula (7-3, 6-2) had one of those nights in a loss to Central Kitsap (6-6, 3-5) on Oct. 12. The Seahawks defeated the Cougars in Silverdale on Sept. 14, but couldn’t complete the sweep.

North Thurston (10-0, 8-0) is the state’s top-ranked Class 3A team and owns victories over both local teams. The race for the No. 2 playoff seed may come down to a Nov. 1 match between the Tides and Seahawks. The Seahawks won the first contest between both schools in a 3-2 thriller at Gig Harbor.

Gig Harbor and River Ridge players compete in a recent match. Photo by Bryce Carithers