Healthy or not, Karlee Freeman conquered virtually all opposition throughout the year.
Seth Bridge and Taylor Rupe won state championships almost simultaneously.
A standout in track and volleyball, Raymond High School senior Freeman earned The Daily World’s 2017 Female Athlete of the Year award.
North Beach graduate Bridge — who won state championships in two different sports — and Montesano alum Rupe, a wrestling and football standout, shared the Male Athlete of the Year honor.
Montesano’s and Pe Ell-Willapa Valley’s state softball champions were selected as co-Teams of the Year.
Jason Barnum, who guided Ocosta’s softball team to its first-ever state tournament berth and a state semifinal appearance, was chosen as the Coach of the Year.
All awards were determined by past and present members of The Daily World sports staff. Past recipients of the athlete and coach of the year awards were ineligible for consideration.
Freeman began 2017 on the disabled list, recovering from reconstructive knee surgery. She actually served as a student manager of Raymond’s state-qualifying girls basketball team.
Although concern about the knee limited her participation in the hurdles (she had won the state 2B 100-meter hurdles in 2016), Freeman remained dominant in throwing events last spring.
But although she captured titles in the girls shot put and discus, she aggravated the knee injury during the District IV meet. That restricted her to two events at state.
The state’s all-classification leader in the discus, she limited herself to only standing throws at state and still won the event for the third successive year with a mark of 136-1 (some 23 feet below her meet record of the previous year).
With her condition slightly improved the following day, she uncorked a personal-best throw of 40-6 1/4 to take the girls shot put.
During the summer, she set a junior state record with a throw of 171-4 to win the National Junior Olympics discus championship. She was third nationally in the shot.
Freeman was also the leading hitter on a Raymond volleyball team that qualified for state.
She closed out the year by accepting a track scholarship from USC.
Bridge and Rupe, ironically, are former wrestling practice partners who once trained against each other in the Grays Harbor College wrestling room at what was then the South Shore Mall (now the Shoppes at Riverside Mall).
Both won state wrestling title at 285 pounds, at almost the same instant, in unconventional manners.
Locked in a scoreless tie with Connell’s Connor Deines in the Class 1A title match, Rupe was slammed into an off-mat scoreboard and struck his head on the concrete floor of the Tacoma Dome. Suffering a concussion, he was unable to continue and was awarded the state title by forfeit.
It was the second successive state wrestling championship for the Montesano senior.
Bridge won the 2B title by injury default when Toledo’s Dalton Yoder sustained a knee injury in the second round of the championship match. The North Beach senior was leading 2-1 at the time of the stoppage.
That proved to be the second of no fewer than four state championships Bridge earned during his high school career.
During the spring, he broke a 12-year-old meet record by winning the boys shot put with a throw of 56-5 1/4. He then repeated as state 2B discus champion with a mark of 173-2. His older brother Caleb had won the two previous state discus crowns.
Seth will join his brother on the men’s track team at Concordia University in Portland next spring.
Rupe had been a standout two-way lineman on Montesano’s unbeaten football team in the fall of 2016, earning Evergreen 1A League Defensive MVP honors and receiving recognition on some all-state teams.
He continued both of his specialties at Pacific Lutheran University.
Making the PLU football team as a defensive lineman, the 270-pound freshman played in eight games and was credited with 16 tackles and 2 1/2 sacks for the season. He is also competing in wrestling, a club sport at Pacific Lutheran.
Montesano’s softball team captured its ninth state softball championship. This, however, was something of a rarity for the Bulldogs in that they completed what could be termed as a Triple Crown — winning league, district and state titles.
Peaking in postseason (a Bulldog specialty under head coach Pat Pace), the Bulldogs avenged district and state losses to 2016 champion La Center.
Samantha Stanfield struck out 14 and Lindsay Pace homered as the Bulldogs blanked the Wildcats, 5-0, in the District IV championship game.
After downing Evergreen 1A League rival Hoquiam in the state 1A semifinals, Monte again faced La Center in the championship game.
This time, Stanfield pitched a two-hitter and Peyton Poler and Allyssa Gustafson drove in three runs apiece in an 8-2 triumph.
If anything, Pe Ell-Willapa Valley’s softball team was more dominant in its classication than Montesano. The Titans’ only loss for the season was to the Bulldogs.
The Pacific-Lewis County combine ran roughshod over its state opposition. The Titans outscored their state opponents, 65-6.
Sidney Pollard and Katelyn McGough drove in three runs apiece to back the pitching of Dakota Brooks in a 10-1 title-game win over Central League rival Napavine.
Ocosta’s softball team won only one game in Jason Barnum’s first year as head coach. The Wildcats improved the next couple of seasons, but still found themselves overmatched against the top teams from the powerful Central 2B League.
That largely changed in 2017. The Wildcats downed a couple of Central League foes — including perennial state power Adna for the first time — at district to earn their first-ever state berth.
They then downed Dayton and Kittitas to advance to the state semifinals. Unable to fully regroup from a lopsided semifinal loss to Pe Ell-Willapa Valley, they fell one win shy of a state trophy following an 8-6 loss to Northwest Christian of Colbert.
With most of their key players returning, the Wildcats are expected to be a state contender again next spring.
Barnum also coaches girls basketball at Ocosta. The Wildcats ended the 2017 portion of their season with a 7-2 record.
