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Sports Notebook: Beard brothers impress at Mat Classic
2/25/2015 12:06:13 PM

By Mike Vlahovich
Splash Contributor

The brothers Beard did their jobs for the Bears in guiding Central Valley to a seventh place finish at the 4A State wrestling tournament during Mat Classic XXVII in Tacoma.

Blake Beard won his third straight state title shortly after Bryson Beard had secured CV's first title of the meet, held the last weekend in February. Meanwhile, sophomore Bridger Beard earned a medal in his first state trip.

"They wrestle like they practice," coach John Owen said of the elder Beards. "I think they wrestle as hard as a college wrestler does. They don't hold back."

Bryson won 3-2 in overtime for his title, after winning easily to get to the finals

Blake wrestled a tough opponent after breezing to the final and was the aggressor from the outset, Owen said. A second-period escape held up in the 1-0 triumph.

"They don't have a fear factor at the end of a match," Owen said. "They wrestle hard in the first period and they wrestle hard in the last period."

Bridger bounced back from a second-round defeat to place fourth.

"Here's a kid who never placed in the Inland Empire tournament," Owen said. While technically still learning, "what he makes up for his mistakes is he keeps going all the time. He's one of those guys who has learned how to win."

After finishing second in district and regional tournaments and winning six of seven matches in the first round at state, CV's second round and wrestle-back matches in the afternoon proved to be disastrous.

The team had aspirations of bringing home a trophy, but wound up seventh. The good news, however, is that only Blake Beard graduates from this year's state contingent.

Timing right for Bears
Timing was everything for Central Valley's boys basketball team, which became the Greater Spokane League's representative to the round of 16, which represents a berth in the regional round of the state basketball tournament.

The other three advancing teams from Eastern Washington came from the Mid-Columbia and Big Nine Conferences.

It was a wacky road the Bears (20-5) wound to get there, including four games they divided against rival University, three of them decided by a basket.

CV won the even numbered games, and that's what mattered most. The teams split during regular season, the Bears winning game two 48-45. In the district playoffs, the league co-champions lost a fourth quarter lead and game to the Titans 50-48.

But in sub-regional, they rallied from a huge deficit to nudge U-Hi 55-53, then beat Mead 54-51 to carry on. Such was life in the Greater Spokane League, where no team was dominant, the seventh-place Panthers became 4A district champions and second-seeded Bears were in a loser-out situation four straight games.

Over the course of district and sub-regional playoffs, season scoring leaders Michael Hannan and Cameron Tucker averaged 15.6 and 14.0 per game in five outings. Hannan had 24- and 25-point efforts and Tucker a 23-point night.

At press time, the Bears were scheduled to face Moses Lake Feb. 27, with a berth in the March 5-7 state tournament at the Tacoma Dome at stake. 

Carter comes through
Central Valley gymnast McKinzie Carter proved one of the best at her craft as the 2015 WIAA 4A State gymnastics meet bore out.

Carter finished second during individual events balance beam competition with a 9.3 score, just .025 points out of first, and was seventh at 9.475 during floor exercise.

The day before during team competition, Carter shared 12th all-around at 35.4.

She tied for second on beam, tied for seventh on floor exercise and placed 16th on vault.

Season ends for girls
Central Valley's girls basketball team came up two points short in their bid to advance beyond subregionals, bringing their 2014-15 season to a premature end.

The Bears lost 58-56 to Walla Walla in the game for a berth in the 4A state round of 16 teams.

The game was close, with the Bears taking a six-point lead into the final quarter, but unable to hold on over the final eight minutes and ended the season with a 19-5 record. It also brought to a close the record-setting career of Madison Hovren.

She became Central Valley and the Greater Spokane League's all-time leading scorer. Hovren finished this season with 517 points and a 21.6 average in 24 games overall.

Meanwhile, freshmen twins Lexie and Lacie Hull got their careers off to a fine start. Lexie finishing with 320 points and a 13.3 average, Lacie with 227 and a 9.5 average.


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