Richland High inducts 17 more into its sports Wall of Fame
Richland High School added 17 more inductees this week to the school’s Wall of Fame.
Bombers athletic director Mike Edwards hosted the event with the Richland High Athletic Booster Club, in an event held for the first time in a few years because of the COVID pandemic.
Edwards — who was inducted himself — told the crowd at Art Dawald Gym that the total of inductees now number 301.
The wall began in the early 1990s to recognize those who did well in representing the school in sports — athletes, coaches and administrators.
Here are the newest inductees:
Katie Andrus, a 2018 graduate who was an outstanding cross country runner.
Scott Artzer, a 2021 grad who starred in baseball, and is currently a member of the Corban University baseball squad.
Mason Brunson, another 2021 grad who also played baseball. He is now at Paradise Valley Community College in Arizona, playing baseball.
Hayden Crowley, a 2022 grad who excelled in soccer. Crowley is now a member of the University of Washington women’s soccer team.
Mike Edwards, who has been Richland High’s athletic director for 18 years, and plans to retire after this school year.
Ben Fewel, a 2021 grad who starred in both football and basketball. He’s now a wide receiver for the Georgetown University football team.
Alex Filkowski, a 2022 graduate who excelled on the boys swim team.
Cade Jensen, a 2018 grad who was a standout his senior year as quarterback of Richland’s football team.
Cameron Kallsen, a 2022 grad who was a standout pitcher on the Bombers baseball team.
Alaina Lacey, Class of 2019, who excelled in volleyball.
Mike Mills, who was Richland’s cross country coach for several years.
Kaylie Northrop, a 2020 grad who played softball and is now playing at Appalachian State.
Joey Pearson, another 2022 graduate who was a standout for the Bombers in baseball. The pitcher is now playing at Lower Columbia Community College in Longview.
Addison Pettit, a 2020 graduate who starred in softball and is playing at Bradley University.
Jim Qualheim, who was Richland’s long-time track and field coach and is, in fact, a Bombers alum, graduating in 1970.
Natalie Ruzauskas, a 2022 graduate who starred in both cross country and track. She now runs both at Eastern Washington University.
Joey Weissenfels, a 2022 graduate who was inducted onto the wall for baseball. He currently plays baseball for Spokane Community College.
Hockey
It’s already been a great week for the Tri-City Americans.
At the World Juniors in Nova Scotia — which started Monday and doesn’t end until Jan. 5 — Czechia is off to a 2-0 start.
Americans’ first-line goalie, Tomas Suchanek, has both wins for the Czechs in net. What’s more, he has an astounding three assists in the team’s first two games.
Ams teammate, center Adam Mechura, also has two assists for Czechia.
On Monday, Czechia beat Canada 5-2 as pool play began. Suchanek stopped 36 of 38 Canadian shots, and both he and Mechura each had assists.
On Tuesday, in a 9-0 win over Austria, Suchanek had the two assists and stopped all 8 Austrian shots. That was all they had for the game.
Mechura added an assist.
Meanwhile, the Americans themselves started post-Christmas Western Hockey League play on Tuesday with a 5-2 win over Everett in the Toyota Center.
Parker Bell scored two goals, while goalie Nick Avakyan stopped 30 of 32 Everett shots for the victory.
Jalen Luypen, the Chicago Blackhawks prospect that Tri-City received in an August trade with the Edmonton Oil Kings, scored a goal for his second in as many games since making his debut for the Ams.
And defenseman Lukas Dragicevic had an assist, increasing his consecutive game point streak to 25 on the season.
Tri-City is now 15-15-0-1 for 31 points, putting the Americans in sixth place in the Western Conference standings.
The Americans have three more games this week: Wednesday at Portland; Friday at Spokane; and the annual New Year’s Eve game on Saturday (6:05 p.m. start) at the Toyota Center.
Prep wrestling
Recent division winners at the Leonard Schutte Invitational in Othello on Dec. 10 included two champs from the host Huskies team that won the team title.
Junior Isaac Campos took the 113-pound title, while teammate Josue Solorio, a senior, won the 220-pound crown.
Other area champs included Southridge junior Jacob Chapa at 120, and Richland senior Saul Salinas at 126.
Host Connell won the team title at its own Connell Invitational on Dec. 10.
The Eagles had three individual champions: senior Jordan Mendez at 126 pounds, senior Nathan Chavez at 195, and junior Jackson Forsyth at 220.
Other local winners were Columbia-Burbank junior Carter Katz at 113 pounds; Kennewick sophomore Mark Kucheryaviy at 120; Columbia-Burbank senior Devin Boone at 132; Warden senior Angel Cruz at 138; Royal freshman Shea Stevenson at 145; and College Place junior Ethan Parker at 160.
Girls bowling
Southridge senior Aubrey Johnson set a school record recently when she rolled a 278 high score for the Suns’ girls bowling team in an MCC match.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
