community6 l November 13, 2013 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

6

By Neil Pierson

Like the city of Sammamish, the families who are part of the Discovery Elementary School community are ethnically diverse.

The school, which has an enrollment of about 630, is comprised of nearly 50 percent minorities, and more than 40 percent of the student body is of Asian heritage.

That seemingly made Discovery the perfect place for an ethnic food festival, and there was a huge turnout Nov. 6 when the school hosted its free “Taste of Discovery” event.

“Last year we took a break from it because no one was avail-able to chair the event,” said Becky Callahan, the mother of a Discovery first-grader. “This year, we were like, ‘That’s kind of lame that it didn’t happen last year. We need to bring it back.’”

The school’s PTA spearheaded the food festival, with Callahan and fellow parent Catherine Campbell doing much of the planning.

Callahan said the initial idea was to host “Taste of Discovery” in the spring, but plans changed because “we thought it would be better to have around the holi-days, because a lot of people are looking for recipes for parties, that sort of thing.”

Campbell, who has a son in kindergarten and a daughter in fourth grade at Discovery, said people were quick to volunteer. More than 15 tables were set up for the event, with a wide variety of foods like cupcakes, barbecued chicken, seafood pancakes, corn chowder and pumpkin pie dip.

“There were definitely a ton of people who wanted to bring a different taste from all the differ-ent cultures that are represented

in the Sammamish community,” Campbell said.

“We were pretty much open to whatever people wanted to bring in,” Callahan added, “but we were trying to emphasize something that is culturally or traditionally a big hit.”

More than 100 students and parents filled the school’s gym-nasium for the event, and partici-pation went beyond the simple taste test.

In one corner of the room, Skyline High School junior Katie Gibian helped youngsters make edible eagles – Discovery’s mas-cot – using Oreo cookies, marsh-mallows, shredded coconut and chocolate chips.

Campbell’s daughter, Sydnee, had a huge crowd surrounding her table as she frosted dozens of mini cupcakes that she’d baked with her own hands.

Callahan made several dishes, including black bean brownies, and found the event to be a great

way of highlighting outside-the-box approaches to healthy eating.

“I have a picky eater at home, and finding creative ways to get kids to eat healthy food is impor-tant,” she said.

“It’s also, I think, really impor-tant to emphasize to children

early on the significance of their food choices. Having a healthy diet and nutrition is really impor-tant to me as an adult … and it can be fun. It doesn’t have to be boring, boiled vegetables.”

Campbell’s son, Nathan, helped his grandmother make meatballs that were served at the event.

“Nathan thinks he’s going to be the next MasterChef Junior,” she said, referring to the televised cooking competition that began airing this year.

Discovery students, parents share food and fun

Discovery Elementary fourth-grader Sydnee Campbell frosts mini cupcakes that she made for classmates and par-ents.

Photos by Neil PiersonDiscovery Elementary parent Dave Smith serves Texas smoked barbecue chicken drumettes at the Nov. 6 Taste of Discovery event.

Dee Camp and her daughter Caroline serve up “Texas caviar,” a dish of corn chips and beans, during the Nov. 6 Taste of Discovery event.

Discovery Elementary first-grader Elvin Li enjoys an apple wedge covered with pumpkin pie dip.

Students at Taste of Discovery were able to construct their own eagles out of Oreo cook-ies, marshmallows, coconut and chocolate chips.

SPORTS8 l November 13, 2013 SAMMAMISH REVIEW

8

By Neil Pierson

The Eastlake High School cross country teams capped their 2013 seasons with a pair of ninth-place finishes Nov. 9 at the Class 4A state champion-ships.

Running on the rolling hills of Pasco’s Sun Willows Golf Course, Eastlake senior captain Kyle Suver paced the Wolves in the boys team standings. Suver finished 49th in 16 minutes, 17.1 seconds, helping his team score 215 points.

Gig Harbor, one of the top-ranked teams in the country, scored 37 points to easily win the boys championship. Redmond, Central Valley and Garfield also won team trophies.

On the girls’ side, Eastlake senior Anastasia Kosykh finished in 19:15.05, good for 38th place. The Wolves scored 227 points to edge rival Skyline by 18 points.

Bellarmine Prep was the 4A girls champion, followed by Camas, Tahoma and Central Valley.

Skyline’s girls, which were making their first state appear-ance in eight seasons, scored 245 points to place 10th out of 16

squads in attendance.Sophomore Maizy Brewer won

an 11th-place medal, clocking in at 18:27.90, and senior teammate Alex Daugherty finished 27th (19:03.71).

Bi-District championship

The Eastlake and Skyline squads reached Pasco on the strength of top-five performances at the District 1/2 champion-ships, held Nov. 4 at Lake Sammamish State Park.

In the girls race, Eastlake and Skyline finished neck-and-neck, with the Wolves scoring 130 points to edge the Spartans (135) for second place.

Eastlake coach Troy Anderson said each of his seven runners had good outings, which was a concern after high winds postponed the bi-district race by two days and forced a change in venue.

“We told the kids, you’re just as fit,” Anderson said. “Location is location. You’re all running the same race, and let’s just get through to next week.”

Kosykh led the Wolves with a ninth-place time of 18:44.2, closely followed by fellow senior Devon Bortfeld in 10th place

(18:47.7).Kosykh was a standout runner

as a freshman, when she finished second in the state in 17:50.2. A

stress fracture in her back kept her off the course for much of the next two seasons, but she earned some redemption as a senior.

She didn’t come close to repli-cating her sub-18 time, but posted a season-best mark at Lake Sammamish.

“It took a while to get back, but I think it just made me stronger and made me realize how much I love doing this,” Kosykh said.

Bortfeld, who went on to place 44th at state, said the Wolves were able to stick together and push each other through the race, which was key on a course that proved deceptively slow. The ground was flat, but also excep-tionally muddy.

“The pack went out really fast, and our coach told us at the very beginning that there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of movement after that first mile,” Bortfeld said. “So we had to go at it from the start, basically, and kind of maintain that position.”

Eastlake’s other scorers were senior Nicole Stinnett (31st, 19:36.1), sophomore Kirsten Flindt (34th, 19:41.1) and junior Olivia Latham (49th, 20:03.2).

Eastlake boys, girls place 9th at state cross country

By Neil Pierson

When the Skyline and Eastlake volleyball teams met in a regular-season match Oct. 21, Skyline let down its guard and nearly let Eastlake back into contention.

When the rival programs met again Nov. 5 in the KingCo Conference tournament with a berth into the Class 4A state tournament at stake, the Spartans didn’t let history repeat itself.

Second-seeded Skyline con-trolled the match from start to finish, and sewed up its third consecutive state appearance with a 25-17, 25-11, 25-17 sweep of the sixth-seeded Wolves at the Skyline gymnasium.

In the teams’ previous meet-ing, Skyline soared to a 2-0 lead before Eastlake rallied and forced a fourth set. But in the rematch, the Spartans kept their game faces on and pulled away after trailing midway through the third set.

“The third game has always been a bit of a struggle for us, and so we knew that we’ve got to come out of the gate and do our job, because we knew that these guys were not going to go quietly,” Spartans head coach Callie Wesson said. “We definitely needed to come out and play

our game, and keep ourselves pumped up, and that’s what we did.”

Skyline (14-2) set the tone for the match by winning nine of the first 10 points in the first set. Senior outside hitter Crystal Anderson dominated early, pro-ducing eight of her match-high 12 kills.

Eastlake (9-7) struggled to for-mulate a consistent attack, and the Spartans’ sisterhood of Molly and Katy Mounsey caused head-aches for the Wolves at the net, combining for five blocks.

The Wolves entered the match on a high after rallying from two sets down for a 3-2 win against Issaquah in the Nov. 2 tourney opener.

Against Issaquah, the Wolves got big efforts from hitters Ellie Woerner (13 kills, six blocks), Jordan Dahl (16 kills) and Brooke Randall (10 kills). The offense also got a jumpstart from set-ters McKenna Hawksford and Christine Borges, who combined to dish out 52 assists.

However, the Wolves missed chances against Skyline, striking several hits out of bounds, into the net and into the Spartans’ blockers. And other chances were negated by Emily Anne Owen, the Spartans’ senior libero

who earned the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award.

Owen didn’t have big numbers against Eastlake, finishing with 10 digs, but her on-court pres-ence throughout the season has been invaluable for Wesson.

“There’s plays that, normally, other teams would be done,” the coach said, “and she keeps it alive for us and gives us another opportunity, which is definitely key to getting rid of the ball and giving us points.”

Owen said it was “awesome” to earn the nod as KingCo’s top defender.

“It’s obviously a huge honor, but my teammates push me hard in practice, and that’s why I’m good,” she said.

The Spartans broke free from an early deadlock in the second set, winning 20 of the last 26 points. Two big serving runs – the first from Molly Mounsey, the second from Anderson – sparked Skyline, which also used a short-set attack through the middle to devastating success.

Molly Mounsey collected most of her 11 kills through the short sets of Meghan Wedeking (15 assists) and Katy Valencia (16 assists).

In the third set, Eastlake

played better and built a 10-5 lead, but the Wolves’ momen-tum slowly unraveled through a

series of hitting errors and Molly

Spartans volleyball locks up Wolves, 4A state berth

Photo by Neil PiersonEastlake’s Caleb Olson and Skyline’s Joey Nakao sprint to the finish at the Nov. 4 bi-district cross-country championships. Olson edged Nakao for 36th place by one-tenth of a second.

See COUNTRY, Page 9

Photo by Greg FarrarBrianna Hodges (left) and Crystal Anderson, Skyline High School seniors, return an Eastlake volley during the first set of their KingCo 4A volleyball tournament championship match.

See VOLLEY, Page 9