2022: The Year in Sports

From record-setting efforts and league championships to a state title — and then a national one – for a certain track relay team, Sequim’s 2022 year in sports was packed with plenty of highlights and milestones.

Here is a recap of the year in local sports, by season:

Winter

Local sports media icon Scooter Chapman announced his retirement in January. Chapman, a former Sequim Gazette columnist (2003-2012), broadcasted sports games for Newsradio KONP for 70 years. Chapman is a member of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s Hall of Fame.

Sequim’s girls basketball squad ended a 14-game losing streak to their rivals with a 60-55 win over Port Angeles on Jan. 11 — ending the Roughriders’ 31-game Olympic League win streak in the process. Under first-year coach Joclin Julmist, the Wolves tied PA for the league title with a 13-1 mark and finished 19-5 overall, qualifying for the regional round of the state 2A tournament.

Sequim High sophomore Colby Ellefson broke school records in both 200- and 500-meter freestyle events at a district meet in early February. He later improved his 500 free time at the state 2A meet (5:17.16).

Sequim High senior Alex Schmadeke placed fifth in the floor exercise at the state 2A gymnastics meet in February. She qualified for the prep final in all four disciplines: floor, bars, vault and balance beam. Teammate Susannah Sharp also qualified for the state tourney (vault).

SHS wrestler Petra Bernsten earned a pair of wins at MatClassic in February, and teammate Cayden Beauregard also qualified for his first state tourney.

SHS senior Madison McKeown placed 14th at the state 1A/2A bowling prep finals on Feb. 5 in University Place.

Backed by local prep stars Hope Glasser (Sequim) and Millie Long (Port Angeles), Peninsula College’s women’s basketball team nearly took the NWAC title in early March. The Pirates came within a few seconds of the crown before falling to Lower Columbia 76-75, on a last-second shot.

Photo by Jay Cline/Peninsula College Former Sequim high star Hope Glasser looks to attack the basket in the NWAC tournament semi-final as Peninsula College takes on Clackamas in Everett on March 26.

Later in the spring, Greg Glasser, who led the Sequim High School’s boys basketball program for a record 15 seasons and amassed 175 victories from 2007-08 to 2021-22, stepped down. Craig Brooks, former Gig Harbor boys hoops head coach, took over for Glasser.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Conor Dowley Sequim High head coach Greg Glasser, center, talks to Isaiah Moore, left, and Erik Christiansen during a timeout in the Wolves’ 51-46 win over North Mason in January 2020.

Spring

Sequim High’s 4×400 relay team of Kaitlyn Bloomenrader, Eve Mavy, Riley Pyeatt and Hi’ilei Robinson raced to a championship at the state 2A track and field meet on May 28, then to a national title in June. The quartet won the Emerging Elite division at the 2022 Nike Outdoor Nationals at the University of Oregon’s heralded Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on June 18. Their 4:03.22 time eclipsed a field of teams from California, Arizona, Virginia and Colorado.

Nike video / Sequim’s Riley Pyeatt celebrates with her teammates, from left, Eve Mavy, Hi’ilei Robinson and Bloomenrader after winning the women’s 4x400 emerging athlete championship at the Nike Nationals held in Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore., this weekend.

Pyeatt raced to an 800-meter title and two other top-five finishes (400, 1600) at the state 2A track and field meet, where Sequim’s girls placed fifth. Teammate Jolene Vaara was third in the high jump and Rileigh Van Dyken was eighth in the pole vault. Sequim’s boys tied for 20th, led by Mirek Skov’s third place finish in the pole vault, along with strong finishes from brother combo Adrian and Andrew Brown.

SHS golfing ace Ben Sweet nearly took a 2A title to cap his prep career, finishing second in a playoff to Zach Miller of White River in the 2A golf finals in Olympic on May 24. Along with teammate Dominic Riccobene’s 15th place finish, Sequim took fifth place as a team at the finals. The boys went undefeated and won the Olympic League title, running their league match winning streak to 60. Sequim’s girls went 8-1, with senior Hannah Wagner earning a state berth (she placed 24th).

Sequim High’s boys soccer team punched their ticket to the state 2A tourney, edged by Burlington-Edison 2-1 in the opening round. The Wolves finished 12-7. All-Olympic League first-team players Aidan Henninger and Brandon Wagner signed on to play in college, with Henninger at NCAA Division III Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, and Wagner at nearby powerhouse Peninsula College.

Tennis aces Garrett Little and Kendall Hastings both earned a spot on the medal stand at the 2A state tournaments, with Little, a sophomore, going 3-1 — his only loss to eventual champ Josh Chou — and placing third, and Hastings, a junior going 2-2 and placing eighth.

The SHS fastpitch team earned a berth in the 2A state tournament, going 1-2 and finishing 14-10 overall. Named all-Olympic League first team players were catcher Christy Grubb, infielders Hannah Bates and Addie Smith, and outfielder Lily Fili.

Dave Ditlefsen ended a 14-year tenure as Sequim High athletic director following his announcement in June. Since his first season as athletic director for Sequim High in 2008-2009, the Wolves amassed 38 outright or shares of Olympic League titles, eight district crowns, 11 individual state titles and three team state championships (fastpitch, 2011; girls tennis, 2019; boys track and field, 2019).

Summer

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell Runners break from the starting line of the 2022 North Olympic Discovery marathon at 7 Cedars Resort in Blyn on June 5.

Port Townsend’s John Mauro won the North Olympic Discovery Marathon’s full marathon, while Melissa Melough of Seattle won the women’s title and placed second overall, on June 5. Seattle’s Joe Skovron won the half-marathon and Savanna Steffen of Silverdale took the women’s half-marathon.

Local wrestling supporters brought collegiate/international wrestling champ Gene Mills to the Olympic Peninsula for a week-long camp in July.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell Former collegiate, national and world wrestling champion Gene Mills, right, demonstrates a move with Sumner’s Cody Miller at a summer camp in Sequim in July.

In August, father-son duo Chuck and Phil Milliman appeared on HBO’s “Real Sports” for their gold medal-winning ways at the 2022 National Senior Games.

Fall

Junior Taryn Johnson set the Sequim High School girls soccer career goals mark (of 41, previously held by Brittany Gates) with a five-goal explosion against North Mason on Oct. 6. An all-Olympic League first team selection, she finished the season with 25, with 51 goals overall.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell / Taryn Johnson, center, and teammates — joined by Sequim Junior Soccer players — are introduced before their Olympic League match-up with North Mason on Oct. 6. Johnson set the SHS girls soccer program’s record for career goals.

Sequim’s girls soccer squad went 9-7 and qualified for the West Central District tourney and went 1-1, falling just short of a state berth.

Sequim High’s volleyball squad came within one set of a state tourney berth as league rival North Kitsap edged the Wolves in the West Central District consolation final in five sets to end SHS’s season. The Wolves finished 13-7 overall. Senior Kendall Hastings capped an outstanding prep career with the Olympic League’s Offensive MVP award. She was joined on the all-league team by Jolene Vaara and Arianna Stovall.

Sequim High’s girls swimming team saw their 4×400 relay place 13th at the state 2A meet. The team’s 200 medley relay competed at state as well, and freshman Annie Ellefson qualified for state in two individual events (200 free, 100 breaststroke).

SHS’s Kaitlyn Bloomenrader was SHS’s top finisher at the state 2A cross country meet, placing 49th overall. The Wolves placed fifth at districts and qualified for the state meet as a team, taking 15th overall. Owen Randall was the lone Sequim boy to qualify for the state meet.

Sequim High junior Garrett Little swept through the singles tennis bracket at the West Central District tournament to claim the championship. A third place state 2A finisher in 2022, he’ll have a chance to better that at the state tourney in May 2023.

Sequim Gazette photo by Michael Dashiell Sequim’s Aiden Gockerell leaps to a first down in the first half of the Wolves’ Olympic League opener against Bainbridge on Sept. 16.

Sequim High’s football team struggled in 2022 with two wins, but one of them came in spectacular fashion: a 36-32 win over rival Port Angeles on a touchdown pass from Lars Wiker to Toppy Robideau with 20 seconds left. Aiden Gockerell posted big games on both sides of the ball and was named an all-Olympic League first team player at both running back and defensive back. Teammate Ayden Holland was named a first team offensive lineman.

Former Sequim High soccer standout Claire Henninger started in goal for the Western Washington University’s women’s soccer team that won the NCAA Division II title, knocking off previously undefeated (and top-ranked) West Chester (Pa.) 2-1 in early December.

Sequim TC members (from left) Hi’ilei Robinson, Riley Pyeatt, Eve Mavy and Kaitlyn Bloomenrader celebrate a Emerging Elite championship at the 2022 Nike Outdoor Nationals at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on June 18. Submitted photo