It was a relatively quiet graduation week on the Liberty Bell High School campus, with only junior high basketball games scheduled on the home court. The basketball and wrestling teams, meanwhile, traveled to Oroville for competition.
The Lady Lions swarmed the Hornets, 54-26, as junior Jadyn Mitchell chalked up a triple-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. She added 4 steals to her effort and led a balanced scoring attack that included 10 points each from senior Sammy Curtis and junior Caitlyn Cooley.
• Cumulative scoring through 4 games: Jadyn Mitchell 60, Sammy Curtis 47, Madi Surface 43, Caitlyn Cooley 22, Ruby McCarthy 20, Shae Taylor 19, Liv Aspholm 7, Sandra Hernandez 4.
The Oroville boys returned the favor with a 61-34 win over the visiting Mountain Lions. Senior Nolan Falcon-George was the only Lion in double figures with 14 points. Senior Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega and freshman Kyler Mitchell each dropped 8 points through the hoop, and sophomore Riley Lidey added 7.
• Cumulative scoring through 4 games: Nolan Falcon-George 41, Tyler Darwood 32, Dusty Patterson 30, Riley Lidey 26, Isaiah Stoothoff 21, Kyler Mitchell 16, Lucaas Gonzalez-Ortega 15, Sawyer Crandall 11, Eli Neitlich 6, Grey Patterson 4.
The girls advanced to 3-1 on the season, the boys fell to an even 2-2. Liberty Bell traveled to Manson on Tuesday (June 8). Bridgeport makes the trip up the Methow River on Thursday (June 10) for games in the Liberty Bell gym. The Mountain Lions head for Moses Lake Christian on Friday (June 11).
Wrestling
The road is where the Mountain Lion grapplers find themselves for the entire season, and rather limited in numbers. Seniors Alex Tareski and Bodie Paul, along with junior Noah Holston and sophomore Mariah Salas, make up the contingent this year.
Trips to Chelan and Oroville so far have provided some encouraging highlights. Assistant coach Marc Tareski noted that both Paul and Holston have yet to be beaten, Holston pinning all five of his opponents so far. At 4-0, Paul has pinned three of his opponents, winning his first match at Oroville in a 4-2 struggle, but following that up with a win by pin later in the day last Saturday.
Alex Tareski went 2-0 at Chelan, winning by pin in the first match and managing a slim 1-0 win in the second. He had a difficult day at Oroville, dropping all three of his matches.
Salas, Liberty Bell’s sole female wrestler, split her two Oroville matches. Results from Chelan were unavailable.
Liberty Bell heads for Ephrata on Tuesday, Lake Roosevelt this Wednesday (June 9) and then on to Tonasket Saturday (June 12) to close out the season.
Lion tracks
• Senior Dusty Patterson is headed for Montana State University where, in addition to his undergrad studies, will be continuing his baseball pursuits in the university’s non-NCAA affiliated club baseball team. Patterson was named the Claude Watkins Award winner for 2021, an award voted on by the Liberty Bell faculty, recognizing scholarship, athletics and community citizenship.
• Wrestler and football multi-position man Bodie Paul and three-sport athlete Madison Surface (volleyball, basketball and softball) were tabbed as the Senior Athletes of the year. Eleven Liberty Bell athletes earned Scholar Athlete awards.
• Word has come in from the Nordic Team that 2020 Liberty Bell graduate Walker Hall has transferred from Dartmouth to Utah, where he will join another Mountain Lion, Novie McCabe (also a 2020 Liberty Bell grad) on the Utes’ Nordic ski team.
• Derek Alumbaugh, Liberty Bell 2017, closes out his college baseball career at St. Martin’s University in Lacey this month after two years at Skagit Valley College, a summer in Alaska and the foibles of last year’s lost season. We’ll be featuring Alumbaugh’s adventures in an upcoming issue.
