By Josh Suman, Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer

Interlake senior Nikita Waghani capped her prep career with a 10th place finish in the 3A girls race, the highest individual finish of a local competitor.

Waghani ran 19 minutes, 00.57 seconds and was just more than a second off a ninth place finish as the only competitor for the Saints at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco. Her career as a member of the Saints ended with her second best finish in a state competition, after only an eighth place run in Class 2A in 2011, and four consecutive trips to the biggest meet of the year.

Bellevue took a complete team and was paced by the 25th place finish of sophomore Camille Moore, who ran a personal best time of 19:24.92.

Casey Jacobson finished 52nd in 20:00.29 and Claire Wendle (94), Elizabeth Andrews (86), Katherine Penner (85), Sophie French (70) and Grace Sheeran (67) all finished inside the top-100 for Bellevue as well.

Lakeside junior Andrea Masterson finished in 17:50.83 to beat out teammate Sophie Cantine for the individual title and Glacier Peak, helped by four top-25 finishes, won the team scoring just in front of the Lions.

Beauchamp, Doran run for Interlake boys

Interlake had a pair of competitors in the 3A boys race and each finished inside the top-40.

Sophomore Luke Beauchamp ran 16:07.18 for the Saints to finish 28th and junior Alex Doran ran 16:18.65, finishing 39th.

Anderson Tanner, a junior from North Central, out-kicked defending 3A individual champion and Sea-King winner Joe Hardy of Seattle Prep to take the boys race.

Anna Kimura, Lianna Sutich, Brigid Mackey, CC Hagen, Anna Moody, Pia Salgado, Cyssi Ngo, Shannon Cassady and Crystal Ma are all swimming at State this weekend! Come out and cheer them on!!

Prelims:  Friday, November 15th 6:15pm @ KCAC in Federal Way

Finals:  Saturday, November 16th 6:30pm @ KCAC in Federal Way

by JOSH SUMAN,  Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer 
posted Oct 25, 2013

by JOSH SUMAN,  Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer 


Interlake troika leads boys to title

Throughout the season, the Interlake boys have relied on a top-three they considered among the best in the conference, district and possibly state.

Thursday at Lake Sammamish State Park in the 2A/3A KingCo Meet, their faith was proven warranted once again as sophomore Luke Beauchamp, junior Alex Doran and senior Kyle Van Draanen each finished in the top-eight to give the Saints the league championship just in front of Liberty, a feat the program had not accomplished since the 1989 season (the second of back-to-back titles for the Saints).

Beauchamp's time of 16 minutes, 11.67 seconds was a personal record and good enough for a fifth place finish.

Doran ran 16:27.71, also a personal record, to finish seventh and Van Draanen's 16:36.49 was good enough for an eighth place finish.

Two other teams, Lake Washington and Liberty, had two finishers in the top-six, but neither was able to keep their number three runner in the top-10 to get past the Saints in the team scoring.

Bellevue's Kyle Pratt was the highest individual finisher from any of the three district schools competing, ending his race in 16:10.03 to finish fourth.

Graham Wendle was 13th and Jacob Feinman 14th for the Wolverines, who were fourth in the team scoring and along with the Saints will send a full team to next week's Sea-King District Meet.

Sophomore William Oden was 16th and senior Joseph Pooley 17th for Interlake. Sophomore Thomas Glouner was 20th for Bellevue.

Bellevue girls second

On the girls side, Liberty used four top-10 finishers to take the team scoring in front of Bellevue, and also won the individual title as freshman Brigette Takeuchi won in 18 minutes, 49.23 seconds.

Bellevue sophomore Katherine Penner was third in 19:01.55 to lead three Wolverines in the top-15.

Sophomore Camille Moore was 13th in a personal record time of 19:43.92 and teammate Casey Jacobson was right behind in 14th in 19:54.31.

Interlake's Nikita Waghani was eighth in 19:28.25 and senior Annie Davis finished 19th for the Saints in 20:16.42.

Sammamish's Rachel Roberts was 24th.

KingCo qualifiers will be back at Lake Sammamish State Park Oct. 31 for the Sea-King District Meet, where top Metro competitors will be on hand to compete for four team spots and 20 individual slots to the state meet in Pasco.

Bellevue sophomore Haley Barthel was second in 21:17.55 to lead four top-15 finishers from the team in the girls JV race.

Senior Annabeth Rodriguez ran 21:28.62 to finish fourth while juniors Nirja Trivedi and Serena Harber were 10th and 11th respectively.

Morgan Maring's personal record 21:55.61 was good enough for a 13th place finish for the Wolverines and Samantha Yap was 17th in 22:29.34.

Interlake's Samantha Dimmer ran 22:00.37 to earn a personal record and finish 14th and senior Mira Liu was 19th for the Saints in 22:45.03 in JV.

by JOSH SUMAN,  Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer 
Oct 24, 2013 

When Ben Singleton came out for the Interlake golf team his freshman year, he wanted to get closer to the game he had played most of his life while contributing to one of the top programs in the state.

He realized that dream earlier this week, playing for the Saints in the 3A KingCo Medalist Tournament, but it took a little longer than he originally anticipated.

Over the past three years, as the Saints were busy winning conference, district and state titles, Singleton was not among them.

His freshman year, with a deep group returning that would go on to win the 2A state title, he barely missed the cut for one of the team's open spots.

"He would make 90 percent of the golf teams in the area," head coach Scott Marcum said. "He was a good golfer, we were just so deep he was the odd man out."

He missed the tryouts his sophomore year and as a junior, failed to turn in his paperwork on time, holding him out of tryouts for the first day. That meant he took the lowest score carded by a player trying out that day (per Interlake tryout policy) and even after he got clearance to play, was unable to dig himself out of the hole to make the final cut for the team.

"The numbers just didn't add up," he said. "I was just barely off."

Three years of missed opportunities would send many athletes looking for another opportunity, especially in a sport like golf where coaches, courses and clubs are not exclusive to those on the prep squad.

But for Singleton, missing out for a third time only increased his hunger for that validation.

"It wasn't like I was going to quit, or that I hated the Interlake golf team," he said. "It made me want it more."

Rather than packing away his now three-year-old dream of golfing for the Saints, Singleton armed himself with a new set of clubs and headed north to train with an uncle and a golf pro he works with in Skagit County.

For the two days leading up to the tryout for this year's squad, Singleton, his uncle and the golf pro worked meticulously on his game, fine tuning the details they knew could help him earn his place.

When the tryouts came around, despite the fact his family does not live in the Tam O'Shanter community and he cannot play the unique and difficult private course except during practices with Interlake, Singleton led the tryout by more than two dozen strokes, finally earning his roster spot.

"It was awfully fun to make it," he said. "I was definitely happy."

Marcum said despite not making the team for three years, Singleton was a seamless fit with this year's group, many of whom were crucial in making sure he had all the details in order this time around. He played in all seven regular season matches for the Saints before winning a two-day battle with a teammate for the sixth and final spot from the team to the KingCo Medalist Tournament, where district spots were on the line.

After building a substantial lead over his teammate during the first day and a half of the qualifying, Singleton watched it melt away as he headed to the final three holes with his season and brief Interlake career on the line.

"That was the worst day I've had in a long time," he said with a laugh. "It was not an easy win."

But as he had throughout his three years at Interlake, Singleton persevered, winning the final spot and playing with his team in the medalist tournament, which the Saints won to keep their winning streak and string of three straight team state championships alive.

While he didn't make the cut to continue to the district tournament, Singleton said there have been no shortage of life-lessons during his four years.

He hopes to study Horticulture or landscape design in college and is looking at the possibility of studying at Western Washington University, with an eye on transferring to Washington State and hopes to keep golfing competitively all the while.

Wherever he ends up, he knows can look to his past for inspiration, regardless of the circumstances.

"Perseverance will get you anywhere," he said. "Just keep going."

by JOSH SUMAN,  Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer

When state title trophies are handed out in the spring, the Interlake Saints will be there to defend their title.

Junior Grant Cole fired a 68 at Snohomish Golf Course to edge out Bainbridge sophomore Sam Warkentin by one stroke and lead his team to its third straight team scoring championship at the Sea-King District golf tournament, well in front of second place Blanchet.

Cole's 33 on the back nine was the lowest nine-hole score for the tournament, matched only by teammate and third place finisher Andy Liu, playing in his final district tournament for the Saints and looking for a fourth consecutive team title in the spring.

Liu shot 70 for Interlake and Colin Joy, another senior, finished at 76 in a tie for 10th with Bellevue's Trevor Lohman.

Chandler Hawk finished in a five-way tie for 12th at 77 and will also head to state in the spring for the Wolverines, which were fifth in the team scoring.

Bellevue's Radleigh Ang and Interlake junior Sam Fisher did not make the cut to state, both shooting 80 to tie for the final spot before losing in a playoff.

Interlake won state championships in each of its past three seasons, the first two coming in Class 2A and the most recent title in 3A last year behind the second place finish of Patrick Sato, who lost out on the individual title in a playoff.

The 3A boys state golf tournament is May 28 and 29 at Tri-Mountain Golf Course in Ridgefield.