Islanders football falls to Liberty in league opener

The Mercer Island football team faced its first league loss last week, falling 51-13 to Liberty of Issaquah.

In the first quarter, the Islanders gave up 23 unanswered points, as Liberty quarterback Trey Wheeler threw for two touchdowns. The first was a 1-yard pass to Chandler Jenkins and the second was a 26-yard throw to Peter Wiggum. Both were followed by scoring kicks from Dean Byron. Later in the first quarter, Jenkins made another end zone trip following a 20-yard run. The Patriots capitalized on their chances, making a two-point conversion play before the end of the first quarter.

In the second 12 minutes, the Islanders made their debut on the scoreboard for the night, but only after another two touchdowns from the Patriots. Wheeler threw a 7-yard pass to Jake Bainton before Jenkins ran for 55 yards to up the score 37-0. Mercer Island quarterback Jeff Lindquist made a 2-yard run of this own in the second quarter, followed by a kick from Alex Wood to give the Islanders 7 points. Heading into halftime, the score was 37-7.

In the third quarter, Liberty’s Jay Chakravarty had two touchdown runs, the first an 11-yard run and the second a 3-yard sprint to the end zone. Mercer Island’s Kurtis Rosengreen answered with an 81-yard run in the third quarter to give the Islanders 13 points heading into the fourth quarter.

The defensive lines on each side held both teams to zero in the last minutes of the game for a 51-13 final score.

Cross country takes on Issaquah, Garfield

Members of the Mercer Island cross country team traveled to Lincoln Park for a 3.1-mile race against Issaquah and Garfield High Schools on Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the Islanders boys team fared well against the men’s field of 119 runners. Junior Nick Ford finished fifth overall with a time of 16 minutes and 41 seconds. Senior captain James Kashima finished in 17:03 for ninth place, and Wil Clausen was just moments behind in 10th place with a time of 17:04. Rounding out the top 20 in the boys race for the Islanders was Leo Phillips in 11th with a time of 17:20, Robbie Frankel in 15th at 17:46 and Andy Wingerson in 18th with a time of 17:58. The fastest boys time was 16:20, run by Kevin LeMond of Issaquah.

The Islander girls team finished with seven runners in the top 10 overall, and sophomore Lindsay Benster had the team’s best time with a second-place finish of 19:37.

In fifth place was senior Molly O’Callahan earning a time of 19:44, followed by teammate Stephanie Pedreira in seventh at 21:13, Gabrielle Goyette in eighth at 21:19, Zoe Spranger in ninth with a time of 21:32 and freshman Julia Davis in 10th place at 21:40. Sophomore Carly Andersen finished 11th with a time of 21:43. The fastest girls time was 19:11 by Anna Dailey of Garfield High School.

The next cross country meet will be on Sept. 30 at Marymoor Park against Bellevue, Bothell, Ballard, Skyline and Interlake in a 3A/4A KingCo league face off. A full list of the cross country meet results can be found at www.athletic.net/crosscountry/School.aspx?SchoolID=410.