Mercer Island tennis coach Joyce Hedlund was nervous going into the district meet. The Islanders had just one doubles team for boys and girls on the Lower Woodland Park courts in Seattle. The girls team had only been playing together for less than a month and a half, with one freshman player. The boys team had just a week and a half to practice together prior to facing some of the best teams in the state.
High school coaches can only do so much to prepare their teams. Good scouting of opponents during the playoffs can mean the difference between winning a title and going home. The Mercer Island boys lacrosse team had a good scouting report on Issaquah during its state semifinal game, but the team could not execute the game plan. The result was a 10-4 loss and a premature trip to the offseason.
The Mercer Island boys soccer team should be weaker without team co-captain Keegan Tomita. He is a senior, starter and one of the best players in the state.
The Mercer Island girls lacrosse team earned its first playoff victory in four years on May 13 against Tacoma, 12-11. But a loss two days later to Bainbridge Island, 21-11, had a feeling of deja vu as the Spartans have ended the Islanders’ postseason dreams twice.
The Mercer Island High School boys and girls tennis programs sent two doubles teams to state last weekend and finished with the same result on both sides — second place.
For the second time in three years, the Mercer Island boys soccer team finished third in state. But the 4-0 victory over Lakeside during the consolation final on Saturday was overshadowed by the team’s overtime loss to Kennedy during the state semifinal game.
For the second consecutive season, the Mercer Island girls water polo team faced chief rival Newport during the state finals at the King County Aquatic Center. The Islanders finished second in state, but the road to that accomplishment was nothing like last year.
The Mount Baker Crew team had a good showing during the Northwest Regional Regatta in Vancouver, Wash., behind the power of eight Mercer Island residents. Two shells with Islanders among the crew will compete at the National Championship to be held in Ohio next month.
Mercer Island junior Bryce Borer kept going up this season. The pole vaulter’s success culminated with a jump over 15 feet on Friday, earning him a place on the state track and field championship’s highest podium.
Rain and wind couldn’t deter the Mercer Island boys golf team from its second-best finish at state in the program’s history as four Islander golfers combined to take third overall with 73 points.
One player was a surprise on the mound and the other exceeded his team’s highest expectations at the plate. One player threw a no-hitter and the other hit over .500. Both players admit that this year’s playoff appearance, only the second in a decade, was a team effort. But both seniors, Cullen Russell and Joey Scalzo, undeniably made the Islanders exciting again and gave the younger players a glimpse of what is possible.
Riding the elevator to the Safeco Field press box on May 27, I suggested to a glum Seattle Mariners team official that it just might be the night when the struggling club started a 20-game winning streak. As I’m known less for my prescience than my facetiousness, the official responded with something like: “Yeah, right.”
Yet, as the weekend series against Detroit dawned, the M’s — who had been winless during an infamous late-May stretch of seven games — were within 18 of fulfilling my prophecy.
Leroy Lutu and Laura Maruhashi achieved very different things this year in athletics. One guided the boys basketball program back to state prominence and an undefeated regular-season title. The other won the All-Around district title in gymnastics and helped the girls lacrosse program to the state semifinals in her fourth year playing the sport.
