By Nathan Joyce
MaxPreps.com
The play-in games are complete. It's time for the state football playoffs, which begin this weekend.
Preliminary-round games around the state pared the field to 16 teams in each classification, leaving plenty of exciting matchups.
And what's more exciting than No. 1 vs. No. 2?
That's what you'll get in the first round of the Class 3A state tournament when No. 1 Lakes (10-0) travels to No. 2 Skyline (10-0) Saturday at 1 p.m.
How does No. 1 play No. 2 in the first round, you ask? When the state added a preliminary round earlier in the decade, it had to pool several districts' berths together to create a 32-team format. As a result, teams often don't come out of their district with a true seed.
Lakes of Lakewood beat Issaquah 42-14 in its preliminary-round game and took a No. 3 seed into state. In a perfect world, an undefeated league champion who won a postseason game would be a No. 1 seed.
Skyline of Sammamish beat Bonney Lake 42-7 to take a top seed, and the right to host the game, into state.
Skyline began the season with a 6-0 upset of Bellevue, which had won five of the last six Class 3A state titles, and has been rolling teams all season. The average winning score for Skyline is 35.9-5.4. Jake Heaps leads the team with 1,843 yards passing, throwing 22 touchdowns to just three interceptions. Skyline won the Class 4A state title in 2005 before dropping down when the state reclassified in 2006.
Lakes has been similarly dominating, winning by nearly 35 points per game.
"I grew up playing youth football for Skyline," Lakes quarterback Calvin Schmidtke told the Tacoma News Tribune. "It's going to be a tough game, playing them at their house. I'm pretty excited about it."
Cross Country: Mead Extends Spokane Dynasty
The Mead Panthers extended Spokane's domination of the boys state crosscountry meet - but just barely.
Mead won the 20th straight state title for Spokane, and 13th title for itself, holding off Gig Harbor 108-112 for the Class 4A title. Gig Harbor's Miles Unterreiner won the individual title.
It was the first state title in five years for Mead.
The Gig Harbor girls repeated as Class 4A champs. Another Spokane runner, Andrea Nelson of Shadle Park, won the individual title.
North Central of Spokane repeated as the Class 3A boys champs in dominating fashion. The Indians won by one of the widest margin in state-meet history, 36-110.
In the Class 2A girls race, sophomore Ruby Roberts, with the second-best time of the day (18:39), won the first state title for Kingston, a school which opened its doors in September.
For complete state results, click here.
Basketball: Casto Back at Ferris
DeAngelo Casto, the 6-foot-8 forward who led Ferris to theClass 4A state basketball title in March, has re-enrolled at the Spokane school.
Casto had transferred to state-power Franklin of Seattle over the summer.
Questions regarding his eligibility are still unanswered.
Volleyball: Can Mead Win No. 5?
The state volleyball tournaments kick off this week, and the big question is, can anybody beat Mead?
The Panthers of Spokane became the first school to win four-straight state titles last year, and they are just as dominating this year. Mead has lost only once this year, and that came in an elite tournament in California.
The biggest threat to top-ranked Mead's domination appearsto be Kentwood.The Conquerors are undefeated and No. 2 in the state coaches' poll. Mead beat Kentwood in five games in the state quarterfinals last year.
The two teams could meet in the state title match as they are on opposite sides of the bracket.
Bishop Blanchet of Seattle is looking to repeat in the Class 3A tourney.
Swimming: Sophomore Breaks State Record
Skyline's Andie Taylor, a sophomore who has already qualified in two events at the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials, broke an 18-year old state record in the 200 freestyle.
Taylor swam the 200 free in 1:48.51 to beat the 1989 record of Mercer Island's Megan Oesting (1:48.52).
Taylor, who won the 200 and 500 free at state last year, almost didn't compete in high school this year so should could train for the Olympics.
"It was fun last year and the whole state thing was really exciting, so I thought I'd try again," Taylor told the Seattle Times. "This is way louder [than club swimming], and there's a lot more cheers."
The state swim meets are this week. The meet runs Thursday through Saturday the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
This and That
The state soccer tournaments kick off this week. The first round and quarterfinals will be played by Sunday. ... Molley Freed scored a hat trick as Chief Sealth beat Franklin 5-0 to snap a losing streak believed to be 10 years old, the SeattleTimes reported.
