By Rick Anderson

For the Grays Harbor News Group

In part two of The Daily World’s top 10 sports stories of 2019 we take a look at five more stories from a memorable year, including Willapa Valley girls track team finding success at the state meet and the Aberdeen girls swim team adding to its impressive state-hardware total.

Prep Track & Field: Vikings soar

Willapa Valley, whose track program was seemingly jeopardized by the addition of softball and baseball as part of its combine with Pe Ell a few years ago, emerged as the area’s biggest success story at state in 2019.

Brooke Friese and Hallee Layman each won gold and silver medals as the Vikings earned a third-place state girls 2B team trophy. Friese cleared 11 feet to take the 2B pole vault, while Layman captured the girls discus with a mark of 128-3.

Twin Harborites harvested their customary share of state individual titles.

Hoquiam’s Tyara Straka won the Class 1A girls shot put at 41-10. North Beach’s Lorin Cox nabbed the girls 2B 100 meters in 12.91, while Raymond’s Kyra Gardner went 5-6 to take the girls 2B high jump.

Taholah continued its strong tradition in Class 1B throwing events, with Jauvon James-Juneau prevailing in the boys javelin (176-3).

Earlier in the spring, Aberdeen’s boys and Elma’s girls won the team titles at the Ray Ryan Memorial All-County Championships.

Hoquiam’s Gretchen Klein poses for a photo after winning the Washington State Women’s Golf Association Senior Amateur Tournament on Wednesday, July 24 in Walla Walla. (Submitted Photo)

Golf: Big win for Klein

Hoquiam resident Gretchen Klein has piled up an impressive women’s golf record in recent years.

Her greatest triumph came last summer when she captured the Washington State Women’s Golf Association Amateur title at Walla Walla.

A member of Grays Harbor Country Club, Klein fired rounds of 75-76-80 and holed a clutch putt on the final hole to hold off Michelle Hood of Sammamish by one stroke in a tourney restricted to members of private clubs. Klein thus hoisted the Ann Swanson Trophy, named in honor of the Grays Harbor native who is a member of numerous Northwest golf halls of fame.

At the high school level, Montesano’s girls won the 1A District IV team title and Monte’s Mylaina Parker nabbed the individual crown.

Auto Racing: Raymond teen sets record

Sixteen-year-old Devon Borden of Raymond made history at the Fred Brownfield Memorial Classic at Elma’s Grays Harbor Raceway.

By taking one of the main events in the sprint car extravaganza, Borden became the youngest-ever winner of a Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series event. The previous record-holder was current NASCAR stalwart Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Season champs at Grays Harbor Raceway included Hoquiam’s Tyler Sundstrom in the outlaw tuners classification, Montesano’s Scott Fritts (street stocks), Shelton’s Jay Cole (360 sprint cars) and Seabeck’s Kyler Moore (modifiers).

Veteran Oklahoma driver Daryn Pittman prevailed in the annual World of Outlaws main event at Elma.

Montesano’s Trace Ridgway, left, and Sam Winter celebrate during the Bulldogs’ state-playoff victory over Meridian on Nov. 16. Both were named the 1A Evergreen League co-MVPs for the 2019 season. (Photo by Shawn Donnelly)

Prep Football: Bulldogs dominate

Few area football teams in Harbor history dominated regular-season competition more than Montesano in 2019.

The Bulldogs outscored their opposition 609-93 in 12 contests this season. Through the opening round of state, their closest margin of victory was 35 points.

After breezing to the Evergreen 1A League title and blowing away King’s Way Christian, 58-14, in a district crossover contest, the Bulldogs handily disposed of frequent nemesis Meridian (also by a 58-14 count) in their opening state 1A test. League co-MVPs Trace Ridgway and Sam Winter combined for four touchdown passes in that contest.

But Winter — Monte’s standout receiver and defensive back — suffered a torn ACL knee ligament in the early stages of a state quarterfinal test against similarly unbeaten Deer Park. When a second-half comeback fell barely short, the Bulldogs were eliminated, 20-17.

Although several Twin Harbors teams qualified for some type of postseason play, the district crossover round was largely a disaster for area clubs.

Only Montesano and Evergreen runner-up Hoquiam survived that round. The Grizzlies bowed to Mount Baker, 36-21, in their state opener.

Members of the Aberdeen girls swim team perch on an Aberdeen fire truck to get a bird’s eye view of the sendoff rally for them Thursday morning as they head to the state tournament on Friday, Nov. 15. (Dee Anne Shaw photo)

Prep Girls Swimming: More titles for Bobcats

Perhaps the year’s best feel-good story was authored by Aberdeen senior swimmer Annika Eisele.

After swimming the first two meets of her sophomore season, Eisele was diagnosed with a slipped disk in her back — an injury that she was first told would be career-ending.

But Eisele’s rehabilitation work paid off when she took the state 2A 100-yard butterfly as a junior in 2018 — prevailing in a race so close that neither she nor her coaches initially were certain of the outcome.

She repeated in less dramatic fashion this fall, winning handily with a time of 57.65. With Anna Weber (in the 100 breaststroke) and the 200 medley relay team contributing second-place finishes, Aberdeen placed sixth at state as a team.

During the previous week, the Bobcats made a seventh consecutive district championship look easy. Mixing their traditional depth with first-place punch, they amassed 436 points to finish nearly 200 points ahead of runner-up Tumwater.

Honorable mention: Elma resident Paul Roberts won the standing long jump in the 70-74 age group at the World Senior Games. Team Evolution of Grays Harbor took its second consecutive team title in the World Association of Bench and Dead Lift Weightlifting Championships. Hoquiam native Perry Crowell IV was a member of the American team that captured the Pan American Bowling Confederation championships in Lima, Peru.