For much of its 33-year history, the Sunfair Invitational has been touted as the Northwest\'s largest single-day high school event. There\'s certainly no doubt of that since over 2,500 runners are expected at Franklin Park on Saturday.
In recent years the Northwest influence coming from outside Washington has become more and more with Flathead, Mont., emerging as the meet\'s dominant team in the depth-testing seven-flight scoring format.
The Braves are the defending Sunfair boys champs and they won the 2004 girls title. Last year, Thousand Oaks, Calif., edged Flathead for the girls crown.
But this year the distant visitors will face a formidable in-state foe in Gig Harbor\'s girls, who rank 13th in the nation and just won a big meet in Boise last week. The Tides won last year\'s state 4A title by a hefty 34 points and they return four of their top five.
On the boys side, two nationally ranked Spokane teams — Ferris and Mead — will be in California for the Stanford Invitational and Flathead will be gunning for a repeat.
As usual, Sunfair will be loaded with state-ranked teams. The girls field includes seven top-10 teams from the 4A class, five from 3A and five from 2A. The boys\' field will have six ranked 4A squads, four of the top six from 3A and three of the top four from 2A.
Kentwood\'s Michael Chinchar, a 4:12 miler who was third at Sunfair last year, faces a pair of stout regional challenges. Mike Armon of Coeur d\'Alene was the 2004 Idaho state champ, and Mitch Culley of Abbotsford won last year\'s British Columbia prep title.
Angela Shaw of Walnut Grove, British Columbia, will defend her girls title and Anna Stone of Coeur d\'Alene, who was third last year four seconds behind Shaw, also returns.
After the first six flights are contested concurrently with boys and girls, the seventh and final flights will be separate — the boys going at 3 p.m. followed by the girls at 3:30.
Selah\'s Franck
a special-teams star
With his slippery speed and wide vision, Selah\'s Jeremy Franck is a big-play threat whenever he touches the ball. So the Vikings are trying to get him the ball in all types of ways.
And he\'s delivering.
Franck is averaging 15.7 yards a touch via rushing, receiving, kickoff returns and punt returns for a hot team that has won three games in a row and is tied atop the CWAC with Prosser.
The 160-pound flash has been especially effective on punt returns with touchdowns against West Valley (78 yards), Grandview (75) and Ephrata (76).
The listed state record for touchdowns on punt returns in a season is six. That was set 24 years ago by Kittitas\' Joe Dawson.
Moore, Bruns near
top of national list
As they did last year, Prosser quarterback Kellen Moore and Cody Bruns, his favorite receiver, are near the top of the national prep leader boards.
Moore\'s 20 touchdown passes lead the nation, according to compiled research from a number of different Internet sites monitoring prep leaders. He also ranks fourth in passing yards-per-game at 355.5. (Herald-Republic and official Prosser team statistics both have Moore at 349.7 ypg, which would still rank third on the MaxPreps.com list.) His 73.7 percentage completion average is also tops among the 15 most prolific 15 passers.
Bruns\' 42 catches (for 738 yards) rank him second in total receptions behind Brian Langford of Pulaski Academy in Arkansas (43, 587).
Ellensburg\'s Randle Affholter\'s 342 passing average ranks sixth nationally.
Bellingham scrapped as state strack host
There appears to be more than one reason that the WIAA decided this week to move the Class 2A and 1A state track and field meets from Bellingham to Tacoma.
Last May the WIAA awarded the meets to Bellingham\'s Civic Stadium for 2007 and 2008 while the facility is undergoing a $6.9 million remodeling project. With apparently no guarentee the project will be completed by next spring, it\'s been reported that this uncertainly is the reason for the move.
But the Bellingham Herald is also reporting that the renovation isn\'t the problem but rather inadequate space for spectators to move and view certain field events.
With Civic\'s current track configuration there\'s a high possibility for congestion at the north end where the long jump, triple jump, pole vault and discus areas limit viewing and traffic. None of the renovation work is in that area.
Bellingham is scheduled to get the meets back in 2009 and 2010 but changes will have to be made to the congested area.
The Tacoma site is Mount Tahoma High School, which is hoping to lure the 4A and 3A state track meets in future years.
From the note file
For those attending tonight\'s Eisenhower-Moses Lake football game, plan on watching the quarterback not hand the ball off a good deal. Zach Gavin ranks fifth in the CBL\'s 4A Division in rushing with 403 yards for the seventh-ranked and unbeaten Cadets, and ML\'s Ben Waites ranks sixth with 310 yards. With his 514 passing yards, Gavin ranks second in total offense behind Pasco\'s Shayne Kelly. ... West Valley\'s Nick Plath leads the CBL 3A teams with five interceptions. He\'s also the Rams top receiver with 11 catches and three TDs. ... Kamiakin\'s Steve Gilbert has booted seven field goals, including three from 46, 41, and 34 yards in last week\'s 19-0 shutout of Southridge. ... A field goal was the difference in Connell\'s 31-29 win over Royal. Raul Farias hit a 32-yarder with three seconds left to end Royal\'s
31-game win streak. ... Now that Davis, Highline, Bremerton and Kiona-Benton have shed the multi-year losing streaks they entered the season with, Rogers of Spokane has assumed the state lead. The Pirates are 0-3 in the Greater Spokane League this season, getting outscored 122-41 in the process, and their streak is at 19. ... Couple of big rushing games last Friday: Squalicum senior Chad Clark ran 44 times for 370 yards in a 45-37 win over city rival
Sehome, and Lake Washington senior Justin Kim picked up a school-record 360 yards against Juanita.
Can you believe this national record?
Erin Martin of Temple City, Calif., scored 286 career goals in girls soccer between 1990 and 1993. Martin\'s junior tally of 93 goals ranks second on the nation\'s single-season list. She was a four-year star at Stanford and a 1996 All-American.
* Scott Spruill can be reached at
577-7686 or sspruill@yakima-herald.com.
Scott Sandsberry contributed to this report.