(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)
Baylee Sobosky knocked in four runs for the Cougars against LRS. (Brandon Hansen photo)
Baylee Sobosky slammed a three-run homer in the bottom of the second and the rout was on as Chewelah notched an 11-2 victory over Lind-Ritzville/Sprague in the first round of the District 7 2B softball tournament on Tuesday.
Sobosky finished with four RBI. More
(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)
Johnny Larson makes a throw to first base during Chewelah’s semifinal district game against Colfax on Saturday in Medical Lake. (Brandon Hansen photo)
Three baseball teams from the Northeast 2B league will continue post-season play at the regional level this weekend, but Chewelah will not be one of them. The Cougars lost a pair of one-run games at Medical Lake last Saturday to Colfax and Northwest Christian that ended their 16-game winning streak and their 2019 season.
Chewelah southpaw Andrew Sweat threw six innings in the opening game, scattered three Colfax hits, struck out 11 Bulldog batters, and allowed no earned runs……..but lost the game. Cougar infield errors were responsible for all three Colfax runs when ground balls that should have been outs were bobbled, leading to a 3-2 loss. More
(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)
Most of the time, the students at Bradley’s Taekwondo on Main Ave. in Chewelah are practicing in class. This Saturday, however, they’ll be able to get a little competitive with their annual Spring Tournament beginning at 11 a.m.
“It is a great event to let the kids see kind of what a national competition is like,” chief instructor Sandra Bradley said. “It is on a much smaller level and it helps the students see that it’s not so scary to compete.”
The tournament will take between four and five hours, depending on how many entries there are. The tournament will be open to any local martial arts competitor, regardless of school. More
(BRIAN HARTING/Chewelah Golf Coach)
Monday’s 1A/2B/1B district golf tournament at Meadowwood Golf Course in Liberty Lake saw the Chewelah Cougars perform well. Better than well, the girls team was the top 2B school in the combined classification format. Chewelah was tied for third place with nearly 2A school Deer Park with a team score of 53.5.
Avery Arnold finished in sixth place with a combined sub-district and district score of 208. Becca Bennett, who also plays softball for the Cougars, finished 17th with a total of 235. Both qualified for the State 2B Golf Tournament at Tumwater Valley Golf Course to represent Chewelah. Alison Brashler finished 19th with a score of 239 and Jayci Earl was 20th with a score of 244. Earl and Brashler qualified to be state alternates, with Earl qualifying after a two-hole playoff for the last spot. They’ll make the trip to Tumwater as well as this is the 25th year in a row that Chewelah has sent players to the golf tournament. More
(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)
Chewelah golf could be sending multiple athletes to the state tournament later in May. (File photo)
It is crunch time for the Chewelah golf team as they’re in Liberty Lake today playing in the District 7 1A/2B/1B tournament with a trip to state on the line. Lakeside and Colville appear to be the top teams in the tourney after last week’s subdistrict tournament was a battle of 44 girls from 16 different schools in Deer Park. Now traveling south even more, the Cougars’ Avery Arnold comes in as the No. 2 golfer in the NE 2B league with a stroke average of 98 for the girls, and teammate Becca Bennett is No. 3 with a 100 stroke average for 18 holes.
“Avery’s season scoring average has dropped four to five shots per round from last year,” Chewelah coach Brian Harting said.
Harting said that she didn’t reach her true low score at sub-districts so districts could have her doing much better score-wise. More
(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)
The Cougars boys tennis team finished an undefeated league season. (Courtesy photo)
The Cougar boys tennis team completed an undefeated league season last week with a win over Davenport. Josh Grooms and Juston Hyden won singles matches against the Gorillas. Grooms defeated Tylere Grooms in straight sets, winning the first by a 6-2 score and the second 6-4 in the number one singles match. Hyden goose-egged the number two singles match by scores of 6-0 and 6-0 over Kade Smith.
In the girls division, Hailey Crise was the winner of the number two singles encounter, skunking Mackenzie Bramor by twin 6-0 scores. Jenny Kiefer then defeated Samantha McLaughlin in straight sets, 6-1 and 6-0. Karlee DesAutel lost the number one singles match to Kylena Edwards, 6-1 and 6-3. More
(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)
Heading into last Tuesday’s district championship game, Colville was on the edge of doing something great. They hadn’t won a district title since Nirvana was highlighting the radio playcharts, and they knew exactly what they needed to do against league champ Freeman.
“We knew that we needed to stop [League MVP] Jace Phelan at the plate,” Colville coach Blake Sjordal said. “The previous game we played against them, he was responsible for five of the six runs when we lost in the bottom of the seventh. He did the same thing to Deer Park later on. We knew if we limited him at the plate, they would have a tough time scoring.” More
(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)
Andrew Sweat helps raise cattle that he shows at the NE Washington Fair. We assume since he grew up on a farm he is probably missing a few fingers from horrible accidents so he is kind of like Three-Finger Brown. (Brandon Hansen photo.
Don’t let the blistering dial-up internet in Chewelah fool you, this town is still very much a throwback to a simpler time. The one constant thread from a bygone era of black and white photos and the modern age has been baseball. It is America’s older sport and rich with history and legendary players that were probably maimed in a mining accident somewhere.
Chewelah’s baseball team this year has put in a historic season. They won the league title, rather handily, and are on a 16-game winning streak. If this were the 1920s, Chewelah’s speakeasy’s would be abuzz with talk about how they might even be able to beat teams from the mythical western side of the state. It is the Cougars first time in the 2Bs, dropping down from the 1As and so far the change has been a windfall of league titles for the school in Fool’s Prairie.
It’s small-school baseball and it’s something to behold. Chewelah feels right at home playing against schools located in wheat fields, timber country and probably old mining towns. Not big schools like Colville which have fancy moving cranes over their timber mills.
This Saturday, Chewelah will play Colfax (the pride of Whitman County) at 12:30 at Medical Lake High School (the pride of the West Plains) with a chance to advance to the district championship game. The top three teams from districts will advance to the state regionals and hopefully historic Wheeler Field (they have urinals in the dugouts!) in Centralia for the state final four. More
(GENO LUDWIG/Chewelah Independent)
Becca Bennett was a unique member of the Chewelah golf team as she also is playing softball for the Cougars. (Brandon Hansen photo)
The Chewelah girls’ golf team won the 2019 Northeast B League championship last week at the Stoneridge Golf Course after winning all of the season’s four conference matches. The Cougar girls won the final match with a team total of 413. They also learned this week that they were named the 2B Academic State Champions with a team GPA of 3.705
At the league championship meet, Avery Arnold led the girls with a second place score of 91, shooting a 42 on the front nine and 49 coming back to the clubhouse. More
(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)
Lily Kirry won three events at Sub-Districts in Ritzville (Brandon Cline photos)
The Chewelah girls placed third as a team at NE 2B Sub-districts, while the boys were eighth in Ritzville on Tuesday.
On the girls side for Chewelah, Lilly Kirry won the 100-meter hurdles (15.17) and 300-meter hurdles with a season best 45.96. She was also first in the 200-meter run (26.55), while Keelin Middlesworth was eighth (29.01) in the 200.
In the girls shot put, Milayna Hartill was third with a throw of 30-11.25. She was joined by teammate Haven Rainer in fifth (30-1.25) and Natalie Rose-Sheppard in sixth (29-6.75). More