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Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 - Mason County Journal - Page B-1
Highdimbers still
seeking state berths
By ALEXANDRIA VALDEZ
alexandria@masoncounty com
The plan for every sports
team is to reach state, and
that's the case for the Shelton
High School swimming and
diving team. But as of Mon-
day, no Shelton swimmers or
divers had qualified.
"Our big goal for league is to
qualify more guys for districts
and get closer to state with
our swims and our relays,"
coach Chad Youngquist said.
"We are not in a position to
qualify for state right now and
we need to have some serious
drops. My big concern is that
we get more guys qualified for
districts and state."
The Highclimbers have sev-
eral opportunities in the next
two weeks to advance further
in the postseason.
Tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., the
swimmers will compete in the
3A Narrows League Swimming
Championship at Mount Taho-
ma High School in Tacoma.
The West Central District III
Swimming Championships will
be at 10 a.m. Feb. 12 and noon
Feb. 13 at Hazen High School
in Renton. The West Central
District III Diving Champion-
ships are hosted at 10:30 a.m.
Feb. 12 at Auburn Pool.
see SWIMMING, page B-9
Journal photo by Alexandria Valdez
Freshman Sam Womer warms up during practice at Shelton
High School. He qualified in two events for the league meet.
t
Journal photo by Alexandria Valdez
After coming off the bench last year, Shelton High School junior point guard Kyle Kimball is one of the
Climbers' leaders on the court. He's averaging 9.3 points per game, 5.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists.
Shelton junior point
guard runs the show
for the Highdimbers
By ALEXANDRIA VALDEZ
alexandria@masoncoun com
Every day at lunch as ninth
-graders, Tyler Giraldes and Kyle
Kimball lined up on opposite teams.
It didn't matter that they were
friends or what sport they played,
they wanted to beat each other.
"We'd go at each other," Giraldes
said. "I remember I would always
fight with him everyday, but we'd
always have the same math class
and then we would be friends again
... Everything was always com-
petitive, but it was great because it
kept each other motivated."
Kimball's competitive nature
and diligent work has catapulted
him into a leadership position on
the Shelton boys basketball team.
On the court, Kimball sees the
big picture. This year the 6-foot-2
junior point guard has seamless-
ly transitioned from making big
catches on the gridiron to sinking
shots on the court.
"His court vision is phenomenal,"
coach Derrick Pringle said. "He
sees stuff that I don't see. That's
one thing about a point guard that
I want to teach them, you want to
see everything. He doesn't look at
the score unless you give it to him;
he's looking at everyone else."
From an early age, Kimball
competed in as many sports as he
could. In high school, three domi-
nant sports emerged: football, bas-
ketball and baseball.
As a wide receiver and free safe-
ty, Kimball has to see and know
what is going on on the field.
"That's just the free safety spot,"
Kimball said. "You have to know
where everyofie is. You're the last
person to stop any touchdowns, so
it's just a big role."
Kimball started playing basket-
ball in Shelton the second half of
his freshman year ai%er transfer-
ring from Aberdeen. Last year, he
earned a spot on the varsity team.
He came off the bench and soaked
up information from the upper-
classmen.
When he returned, Pringle knew
he was getting a blue-collar worker.
"Some people get upset (when
they play bad), but he raises it to
another level," Pringle said. "A
see COURT, page B-9
By ALEXANDRIA VALDEZ
alexandria@masoncounb/ com
The growing pains finally paid
off for the girls bowling teams in
Mason County. Last year, North
Mason won only one match dur-
ing the season, but this year it
notched seven wins. Shelton was
winless last year, but this season
nabbed five wins.
Now the teams will continue
play when they compete at 9 a.m.
Saturday at the West Central
District 3 Tournament at Pacific
Lanes Bowling Center in Tacoma.
North Mason competed Friday
at the Olympic League/Sub Dis-
trict Championships at All Star
Lanes in Silverdale. The Bulldogs
finished second in their league
and fifth overall.
For only the second time in 10
years, coach Kristy Whitcher is
taking a full team to districts.
=With North Mason, we don't
have a bowling alley, so a lot of
them only bowl during their sea-
son," Whitcher said. "As I'm pre-
paring them through these three
months, I try to teach them the
mental part of the game. Bowling
can be rough on you."
The Bulldogs bowled three
games of 703, 761 and 750. In-
dividual averages were led by
Shaniya Brannon with 160, Jessi-
ca Colson with 140, Melanie Hall
with 148, Haven Hermsen with
144 and Rylie Mullins with 144.
Junior Melanie Hall said it
was a stressful day. At the start
of the season, the team's goal was
to make it to districts as a team.-
When they found out they all
made it, everyone felt relieved,
Hall said.
This year the team's biggest
change has been in its attitude.
"Last year we weren't really
together," Hall said. =We weren't
really together. There was a lot of
bickering and fighting. This year
we made sure we were going to be
a team. We actually grew togeth-
er and that helped a lot with the
wins."
see BOWLING, page B-8