Prep soccer–Heading off to state

Ellensburg edges Selah to claim first-ever state berth//

Ellensburg’s getting hot at just the right time while East Valley hasn’t cooled off at all.

As a result the chant now for both girls soccer teams is ‘On to state!’

Avenging two previous losses to North champion Selah, Ellensburg edged the Vikings 1-0 with a late goal in Tuesday’s CWAC district semifinals at Karl Graf Field.

“It’s quite a roll these kids are on right now,” said Ellensburg coach Glenn Weitz, whose team has won nine of its last 10. “We were 2-4 in league at one point but have really turned it around.”

South champion East Valley blanked Ephrata 2-0 in Tuesday’s other semifinal and will host Ellensburg in the district championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Both teams clinched berths in the Class 2A state tournament with Tuesday’s wins.

Weitz switched from two forwards to three in the second half against Selah and the move paid off in the scoreless battle. Freshman Hannah Hugo scored on a feed from senior Katelyn Ronning in the 68th minute.

Goalkeeper Lianne Day finished the shutout with 10 saves.

“Our defenders did a nice job marking their front people and our midfield was strong,” Weitz noted. “Going to state is a first for our program.”

Coming in with the North’s No. 3 seed, the Bulldogs (12-7) had to win a play-in game just to enter the district bracket, and did so 6-2 over Grandview, then outlasted Prosser 5-4 in a shootout in the first round.

At East Valley, senior Adrianna Jones scored her 26th goal in the 10th minute and senior Magaly Carrillo added a second-half goal as the Red Devils (15-2) advance to state for the sixth straight year.

Hollie Thierolf made four saves in the shutout for EV, which went 13-0 in conference play.

“It was a good effort, and we achieved our main goal of qualifying for state,” said EV coach Gary Mellick.

Selah is still alive for the CWAC’s third state berth. In Thursday’s loser-out matches, the Vikings will host Othello and Prosser will host Ephrata. The winners of those matches will meet Saturday at the higher seed for the final state berth.

Ellensburg 1, Selah 0

First half: No scoring.

Second half: 1, Ellensburg, Hannah Hugo (Katelyn Ronning), 68:00.

Saves: Lianne Day (E) 10, Courtney Cable (S) 5.

East Valley 2, Ephrata 0

First half: 1, EV, Adrianna Jones, 10:00.

Second half: 2, EV, Magaly Carrillo, 58:00.

Saves: Hollie Thierolf (EV) 4, Kayla Brissey (Eph) 8.

Ellensburg vs. Selah girls soccer photo gallery

This is a photo gallery from Tuesday’s CWAC district semifinal girls soccer match played at Selah High School. Photos by Sara Gettys/Yakima Herald-Republic

International Basketball League targets Yakima

Team would begin play in spring 2010//

Yakima is suddenly a popular spot again for minor-league basketball.

Coming on the heels of a proposed American Basketball Association team that plans to start play next month, the International Basketball League announced Tuesday that it intends to place a team in Yakima for the 2010 season.

IBL commissioner Mikal Duilio made the announcement in a news release, adding that more details about the franchise, including the venue, ownership group, staffing, and the schedule would be unveiled Friday.

The league is in negotiations to use the SunDome, although nothing has been finalized, according to Tuesday’s release.

The IBL, which Duilio founded in 2005, will be entering its sixth season. The league has teams in the United States, Canada, China and Japan.

The U.S. teams include franchises in Bellingham, Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, Wash., Vancouver, British Columbia, Beaverton, Ore., and Redmond, Ore.

IBL teams play 30 games — 15 home and 15 away — and the season runs from late April through the first week of July. Each team is required to take just one extended road trip, with the rest of the schedule filled with games against regional opponents in order to keep operating costs down, according to the release.

The league uses NBA rules with one notable exception — teams are allowed just one time out per quarter. That, according to the league Web site, produces fast-paced, high-scoring games, with teams averaging 126 points per game the past three seasons.

More information about the league can be found at www.iblhoopsonline.com.

Prep volleyball–Rams win 3A district title

Debora Aguilar served eight aces and Rachel Hanses put away 13 kills as West Valley captured the CBBN 3A district volleyball title with a sweep over Sunnyside on Tuesday.

The top-seeded Rams prevailed 25-4, 25-13, 25-9 on their home floor after Sunnyside had eliminated Hanford in a five-set victory.

The 3A regional tournament will be played at Hanford on Saturday. West Valley has a first-round bye and will play the Shadle Park-North Central winner at 1 p.m.

West Valley highlights: Rachel Hanses 13 kills, 7 digs; Emily Yost 7 kills; Lexi Filliol 16 digs; Julia Nathe 16 assists; Nicole Stine 3 kills; Linnea Phillips 5 digs, 3 aces; Debora Aguilar 9 digs, 8 aces.

Sunnyside highlights: Ayla Schmick 3 kills; Emily Meyer 2 kills; Savanna Martinez 12 digs.

SUNNYSIDE 3, HANFORD 2: At West Valley, the Grizzlies led 2-0, got outscored 50-23 in sets three and four and then regrouped to outlast the Falcons in a fifth-set battle, 25-22, 25-18, 14-25, 9-25, 19-17.

Alissa Martin’s 42 digs helped Sunnyside oust Hanford and earn a regional berth. With the CBBN’s No. 2 seed, Sunnyside will play East Valley of Spokane in an 11 a.m. regional opener on Saturday at Hanford.

Sunnyside highlights: Alissa Martin 42 digs; Lani Ramos 7 aces; Jill Spini 5 blocks; Kiana Ramos 7 kills; Melissa Amaro 27 assists.

CWAC PLAY-INS

EPHRATA 3, PROSSER 2: At Prosser, the Tigers advanced with a 11-25, 25-21, 25-23, 24-26, 15-12 victory despite 13 kills from Tayshia Hunt and 12 blocks from Tamara Jones.

Ephrata moves into the first round of district and will play Ellensburg on Thursday at Grandview at 5 p.m.

Prosser highlights: Tayshia Hunt 13 kills; Jillian Espinosa 10 kills, 10 digs; Haily Larson 17 digs; Rachel Anderson 17 blocks; Tamara Jones 12 blocks; Taylor Flores 39 assists.

OTHELLO 3, WAPATO 1: At Othello, Kylee Mollette’s 31 kills sparked the Huskies to a 17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-22 win.

Othello advances to the first round of district and plays East Valley on Thursday at Selah at 5 p.m.

Wapato highlights: A.J. Yarlott 13 kills, 3 aces, 2 blocks; Hayley Strom 8 kills, 2 aces; Lei Campos 8 kills 5 blocks; Marjorie Imperial 7 digs, 2 kills; Faith Draculan 30 assists, 4 kills; Nakota Strom 2 kills, 2 digs; Stephanie Valasco 2 blocks, 4 digs.

SCAC DISTRICT

GRANGER 3, RIVER VIEW 0: At Granger, Sam Zapien’s 16 kills and Janae Klarich’s 27 assists and four aces led the Spartans in a 25-18, 25-21, 26-24 first-round victory.

The tournament moves to Highland on Saturday. Granger will play Connell in the semifinals.

Granger highlights: Yasmin Sanchez 6 digs, 11 perfect passes; Emily Carpenter 8 kills, 2 aces; Italia Mengarelli 3 kills, 7 digs, 11 pp; Janae Klarich 27 assists, 4 kills, 18-19 serving, 4 aces; Sam Zapien 16 kills, 11-13 serving, 2 aces; Ashlee Reddout 2 kills, Lyndsay Oswalt 6 kills, 2 aces.

GOLDENDALE 3, BURBANK 0: At Goldendale, the Timberwolves advanced with a 25-21, 25-23, 25-17 win and will face fourth-ranked Royal in Saturday’s semifinals at Highland.

Goldendale highlights: Sadie Shattuck 10 kills, 3 aces; Lexie Cameron 7 kills, 8 digs, 14 perfect passes; Haley Hoffman 23 assists, 3 aces, 7 digs; Ashley Barrett 5 kills; Monique Scherf 15 pp, 14 digs; Cassie Kelly 5 digs; Alex Counts 4 digs; Tayler Bradley 22-23 serving, 10 digs, 2 kills.

ROYAL 3, ZILLAH 0: At Royal, the East champion Knights prevailed 25-21, 25-11, 25-20 in the first-round match. The Leopards will face Burbank in a losr-out match Saturday at Highland.

Zillah highlights: Whitney Winters 6-6 serving, 2 blocks, 10 kills; Christina Slack 16 perfect passes, 8 digs, 10-10 serving; Lauren Messmore 6 pp, 8 digs, 14-14 serving; Alisi Uasike 8 digs, 6 kills, 14 assists; Felina Razey 20 pp, 8 digs, 6-6 serving, 5 kills.

CONNELL 3, NACHES VALLEY 0: At Connell, the Eagles won 25-18, 25-21, 25-15 to reach Saturday’s semifinals. The Rangers will play River View in a loser-out match Saturday at Highland.

NORTH CENTRAL 2B

KITTITAS 3, WATERVILLE 0: At Entiat, the second-ranked Coyotes continued barnstorming through the season with their 16th consecutive sweep, winning 25-11, 25-15, 25-15.

Ali Kilgore’s 15 kills led Kittitas, which plays Liberty Bell for the district title on Saturday at 10 a.m. in Entiat.

Kittitas highlights: Ali Kilgore 15 kills; Jordan Paul 10 kills; Kayvonne Vaver 7 kills; Dakota Adams 5 kills.

NORTH CENTRAL 1B

THORP 3, MOSES LAKE CHRISTIAN 2: At Entiat, the third-ranked Tigers outlasted No. 10 MLC 17-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 15-6 in the semifinal match.

Thorp will play Pateros, a five-set winner over Wilson Creek, in Saturday’s championship at Entiat at 10 a.m. The district has two state berths.

Local report–GNAC honors 7 Wildcats, Zeutenhorst

Seven Central Washington University football players, along with former Selah High standout Jake Zeutenhorst are among the players named to the GNAC All-Academic team released Tuesday.

Four of the Central players are repeat selections — junior linebacker Adam Bighill, senior receiver Johnny Spevak, senior kicker-punter Garrett Rolsma, and senior linebacker Buddy Wood.

The other three are seniors Zach Hekker and Andy Roof, and sophomore Mike Reno from Kittitas High School.

Among the Wildcats, Bighill has the highest grade-point average at 3.69 as an exercise science major. Spevak has a 3.61 GPA in accounting, Rolsma a 3.50 in exercise science, Wood a 3.47 in contruction management, Hekker, a tight end, a 3.55 in general studies, Roof, an offenisve guard, a 3.53 in exercise science, and Reno, a defensive lineman, a 3.42.

Zeutenhorst, a junior at Western Oregon, has a 3.49 GPA in business.

Dixie State had the most selections with 12, followed by Western Oregon (nine), Central (seven) and Humboldt State (one).

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

EWU tops CWU in exhibition

CHENEY — Julie Piper scored 23 points to lead Eastern Washington to a 101-49 exhibition victory against Central Washington on Tuesday in women’s basketball action.

East Valley graduate Jessica Huntington added four points and a game-high six assists for the Eagles.

Amanda Murdoch led the Wildcats with 13 points.

CWU returns to action Nov. 20-21 at the Sodexho Tip-Off Classic hosted by Seattle Pacific University.

CENTRAL WASHINGTON — Amanda Murdoch 3-6 5-6 13, Russell 4-7 0-1 9, Betteridge 4-7 0-0 8, Albrecht 3-9 0-2 6, Bergner 2-3 0-0 6, Fernandez 2-11 0-0 5, Afoa 1-6 0-0 2, WalkingChild 0-1 0-0 0, Duerr 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 19-54 5-9 49.

EASTERN WASHINGTON — Julie Piper 10-15 2-2 23, Brianne Ryan 5-11 8-10 20, Nicole Scott 5-13 3-4 13, Kyla Evans 4-9 0-0 11, Cooper 1-1 5-5 7, Sparavalo 3-4 0-0 6, Schoening 2-6 0-0 6, Russell 3-7 0-0 6, Ojeda 1-3 3-4 5, Huntington 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 36-73 21-25 101.

Halftime—EWU 59, CWU 23. 3-point goals—CWU 6-20 (Bergner 2-3, Murdoch 2-3, Russell 1-2, Fernandez 1-6, WalkingChild 0-1, Duerr 0-3, Afoa 0-1, Betteridge 0-1). EWU 8-21 (Evans 3-6, Schoening 2-6, Ryan 2-7, Piper 1-1, Huntington 0-1). Fouled out—CWU-Fernandez, EWU-None. Rebounds—CWU 29 (Afoa 5), EWU 47 (Scott 10). Assists—CWU 11 (Duerr 4, Fernandez 4), EWU 18 (Huntington 6). Total fouls—CWU 23, EWU 8. Technical fouls—CWU-None, EWU-None. Att—632.

GOLF

Tweten scores ace at Elks

Scott Tweten had a hole-in-one on Oct. 30 at the Yakima Elks Golf and Country Club. He aced the 133-yard eighth hole using an 8-iron.

Mike Nelson and Lonnie Wiseman witnessed the shot.

Hunter safety starts early

YAKIMA, Wash. — At 4-foot-6 and 68 pounds, Faith Torres doesn’t look like your typical hunter, but she has earned the right to be one. In fact, the 75-question written portion of the state’s hunter education course was a breeze.

She answered just one question wrong.

“The one I missed, it asked if you could stand up in a boat and take a shot, would that be legal,” Faith explained. “I thought it was illegal, but it wasn’t illegal. It was just … stupid.”

She giggled then, like the 9-year-old fourth-grader she is — albeit one who is fully qualified to be a hunter. For that matter, so is her little sister, 8-year-old Sophie, as well as brothers Jordan, 14, and Ryker, 11.

The Torres quartet of Yakima took the week-long hunter education course in early  September — Jordan for the second time just as a refresher — and all passed easily. And if their young ages surprise you, well, you’ve never been to a hunter education class.

“In some classes, I get all young kids, and in some classes I get adults,” said Byron Kent, who taught the class attended by the Torres kids. “The students have stayed pretty much the same age over the years — they get to 9, 10, 12, that range. In some classes, I get parents or kids who will never hunt, but they do it for the firearm safety.”

The Torres kids, though, come from a hunting family, and they’re accustomed to eating game brought home by their dad, Eric Torres, a Yakima construction contractor. Both Jordan and Ryker had gone out as learners and observers on multiple trips with their dad before they ever hefted a gun.

Jordan took hunter education at 9 and is a regular hunter now, Ryker’s early Christmas present this year was his first hunting rifle and when Faith’s birthday was coming up last May, one of the gifts she really wanted was to be enrolled in hunter-ed.

“As for Sophie, she’s just kind of game for anything and everything,” Eric Torres said. “It was one of those things where I included her in the class and didn’t really hold out an expectation either way. I didn’t know if it would capture her interest and if she would fully comprehend all the material, comprehend all the material, but she just totally took to it, paid attention, passed the written exam, did the field work. I was really pleased.”

The field test, though, was tough on the girls — particularly the shooting part.

“The recoil,” Faith said, her eyes wide at the memory. “It was so much.”

“It almost knocked me over,” Sophie added. “My arms were so sore. It knocked my ear thingies out.”

*********

Hunter education is a serious undertaking in Washington; all hunters born after Jan. 1, 1972, have to pass the course in order to get a hunting license. The class calls for four 4-hour evening classes, typically Monday through Thursday. That’s followed by a five-hours-or-more field test on Saturday in which students must demonstrate weapon handling and carrying safety. They must know not only how to load and unload a gun but when that’s necessary, and be able to fire at targets or clay pigeons without difficulty.

And even if a student aces the written test, the instructors — all of whom are volunteers, not even paid for their mileage — have plenty of latitude when it comes to the field test.

“If I do not feel that student is going to be safe walking behind me with a loaded firearm,” Kent said, “he’s not going to pass my course.”

Kent has a deeply personal reason for having been a devoted hunter-ed instructor for 15 years. Two of his boyhood buddies died as the result of gun accidents. And any student not taking his class seriously, especially when it comes to firearm safety, is going to have a very difficult time getting certified.

“The academic part is pretty simple,” Kent said. “Where I have failures is when I get out on the range. If they get to playing with the guns, horseplay, if they can’t load and unload safely or maintain muzzle control, if they can’t control themselves … I tell the parents (to) bring them back next year. They’ll be a little more mature then and can understand.”

Maturity was never a concern when it came to the Torres kids, who, Kent noted, “were very focused.”

Even Jordan, at 14 already an experienced hunter, got something out of his second time through the course.

“You definitely forget some of the little teeny things you learned the first time,” he said.

Jordan’s first experience as a rifle-carrying hunter came that fall after his first time through the class. In retrospect, he says, he hadn’t been quite ready to maintain the stealth and patience necessary to be a successful hunter.

“I was all jittery and nervous and couldn’t stay quiet,” Jordan admitted.

The next year, though, he took a buck and remembers well the rush of adrenaline when his first shot put the deer down.

“Volcanic,” he said. “My hands were like this” — he shook his hands like branches quaking in a strong wind — “or at least they were after, when (the deer) was on the ground. That’s when it started to kick in: ‘Wow, I just shot a buck.’”

Ryker didn’t have the same kind of success when he went on his first official deer hunt this fall with his dad, but he knows his time will come. It may be a while, though, before either of the Torres girls goes hunting.

“Maybe I could go,” Faith said, “but I don’t really want to go because that gun really makes me sore.”

Sophie had another reason altogether for being in no hurry.

“I don’t like being quiet that much.”

Elk season has arrived — which means it’s time to leave the state

YAKIMA, Wash. — The general elk hunting season opened on Saturday. Luckily, I won’t have to go elk hunting this year. I have drawn a deer-hunting tag for Colorado for this week and fortunately for me, while thousands of hunters from around the state descend on the Cascades west of Yakima, I will be 1,000 miles away.

It is hard to put a finger on what has soured me on elk hunting over the years, but of all the hunting seasons that pop up during the fall, the elk hunting season is one I really dread. Yes, I would love to put some tasty elk meat in the freezer, but I look forward to the actual hunt about as much as preparing for a colonoscopy.

I think back on all of my past elk hunts and unfortunately, very few are remembered with much fondness.

From the time I was a kid, elk hunting with my dad — and facing the snow, cold, rain, wind and lack of elk — to the recent trips where I’ve been literally overrun by orange-clad nimrods with no hunting manners or sense, it has tarnished the experience for me.

Like the time hunting partner Doug Jewett and I were elk hunting up in the Gold Creek area. We were sitting in his rig waiting for legal hunting hours, when four guys rolled up next to us and piled out of their truck, right into the section of woods we were planning to hunt.

Yes, it was a public area, open to hunting for everyone, but all common sense and hunting ethics say you don’t go barreling out into an area someone else is about to hunt.

Elk hunting seems to bring out all kinds.

Of course the classic was the time the two guys moved in on a ridge where I was sitting and glassing and sat down right next to me, because they had set up green plastic chairs to reserve “their spot.” I had been there since first light, but that made no difference to these dolts. Because they had put their chairs there at some point earlier in the season, and because they had hunted there before, they believed it was “their” spot.

It didn’t bother them one bit that they moved right in where I was already set up. They sat in their chairs, not 20 yards from me, and weren’t moving.

After an hour or so I got tired of looking over and having them grinning at me like a couple of simpletons, so I moved. Who knows what would have happened if an elk had wandered through.

To say the least, elk hunting is extremely popular. And when you have basically two regions of the state where the majority of the elk live, you are going to get large concentrations of hunters. And when you get large concentrations of hunters, you get quite a mix of those who are experienced and inexperienced.

For me, part of the joy of hunting is getting away from people, and being out in the wilds by myself. Unless you have horses, or are willing to do some serious backpacking into the wilderness, that is just not going to happen much during elk season.

I can’t tell you how many times I have hiked my way during the early morning darkness to a spot I wanted to hunt, only to start seeing orange figures all around me when it got light enough to see. It’s very frustrating. But that is elk hunting.

I know much of the appeal of elk season to many hunters is not so much the actual hunting, but the camaraderie and fellowship that comes in building a big camp and participating in the tradition of it all. I totally understand that. I enjoy that, too. But I also enjoy the hunting part. Or, at least, I try to enjoy it. During a typical elk season, however, it’s tough.

The rest of the elk hunting world could probably care less, but this week there is one less hunter working the hills above Rimrock Lake looking for an elk. One less hunter overlooking that saddle. One less hunter sitting on that rock. Once less hunter to try to avoid.

I won’t be among the throngs of people who are scouring the woods today, tomorrow and the rest of the week looking for an elk, and honestly, I’m not too broken up about that.
• Rob Phillips is a freelance outdoor writer and partner in the advertising firm of Smith, Phillips & DiPietro. He can be reached at rwphillips@spdadvertising.com.

WIldlife Moment: Keep an eye out for diving ducks

The ring-necked duck is truly misnamed.

Do you see any ring on this bird’s neck? Nope. There is a ring on its bill, though. Why not ring-billed duck?

Well, back in the 1800s before the advent of birding with binoculars, science progressed alongside the barrel of a shotgun. In hand, early scientists noticed a chestnut band ringing this duck’s neck, thus its name.

This species is a diving duck — as opposed to a dabbler, such as mallards and pintails, which do not normally dive for food. Ring-necked ducks habitually dive for food and are related to other diving ducks such as scaup (“bluebills” to the hunter).

WHERE AND WHEN: Look for this bird from November through March on any pond in the Yakima area, especially those rimmed by trees. The various ponds along the Yakima Greenway or arboretum are likely spots. Most migrate to north to Canada to nest come spring; only a few nest on nearby mountain lakes. Clear and Leech Lakes along the White Pass Highway are known local nesting areas.

A pair of ring-necked ducks relax on a small pond southwest of the Yakima Air Terminal on a recent afternoon. (Photo courtesy of DENNY GRANSTRAND)

HOW TO SPOT ONE: Males of this species are very distinctive with their jet-black backs and white, peaked head and white vertical mark at the waterline. Females are tougher to distinguish from redhead females, another diving duck.

CHOW TIME: This duck makes frequent shallow dives, using its big feet for propulsion to swim to the pond bottom, where it can snip at aquatic plants and their seeds. They go for pondweeds, sedges, smartweeds, grasses and algae. In the warm months, this duck relishes water insects. Bugs are especially sought by the ducklings; they grow quickest on a diet rich in protein.

SOCIAL LIFE: Pair bonding takes place in the winter. The male performs odd courtship rituals that include laying his head far backward, then thrusting it forward in a spastic motion. If this doesn’t get the hen’s attention, he will swim alongside her, nodding his head rapidly. Evidently, what looks nerdy to humans really gets female ring-necks scooting.

The nest is near the water’s edge — perhaps on a dry hummock — and is a shallow bowl of grasses and sedges, lined with lots of down (a habit shared by the eider ducks in the Arctic). The hen lays 7 to 12 eggs. The eggs are incubated by the hen for 25 to 29 days. Once the ducklings hatch, the female leads her brood to the water within a day or so. If danger appears, the female and brood hide in dense marsh vegetation rather than on open water like many ducks. The ducklings find their own food and can fly about 50 days after hatching.

WHAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW: The tufted duck is closely related to the ring-necked duck that occurs all across Europe and Asia. There it is very common in many city parks. A tiny number of tufted ducks fly the wrong way on their southbound autumn migration and find their way to North America. Birders eagerly scan flocks of ring-necked ducks and scaup in the North America hoping to spot this rare visitor. The male is distinctive on account of its bright white sides (rather than gray as in the ring-necked) and also its distinctive tuft, a duck having a “bad hair” day.
• Wildlife Moment, focusing on native wildlife, typically runs in Outdoors on the first Tuesday of every month, with the cooperation of the Yakima Valley Audubon Society.

Conditions are favorable for start of elk season

YAKIMA, Wash. — The elk season got under way Saturday in Eastern Washington,which meant about 18,000 elk hunters trying to fill a tag in the Yakima herd and another 4,000 hunters focusing on the Colockum herd.

On the west side of the Cascades, hunters will have to wait until this coming Saturday. But in both areas, weather seems to be cooperating.

“We’ve already gotten significant snow in the high parts of the Cascades, so deer and elk will start to filter down closer to the roads and the hunting corridors,” Ted Clausing, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s regional wildlife program manager, said prior to Saturday’s opener. Noting the recent rainy weather, he added, “It’s snow more than rain (in the mountains) on this side.

“You’ve got that, and on the west side you have the fog and the rainy days that also make (the elk) stay out in the open a little longer. The visibility’s down, so they’re not feeling as exposed.”

Elk hunters in the Colockum will be working under different rules this year, with that area having gone to “true spike bull” regulation for game management units 328 (Naneum), 329 (Quilomene), 334 (Ellensburg) and 335 (Teanaway).

A true spike bull is one in which neither antler has any branches coming out more than four inches above the skull. For hunters in the Yakima GMUs, a spike bull can still be legal to take if it’s a one-by-two or even a one-by-three, provided that one antler is unbranched.

Why the change?

“In the Colockum, they have better antler development,” Clausing said. “We don’t know if it’s genetics or nutrition; they have a pretty big expanse of winter range that we don’t have down here, and they have a pattern of developing better antlers earlier. We’ve determined that about 15 percent of the yearlings have branching on one side or the other.”

And because most of the yearling bulls in the Colockum GMUs were being harvested during the general elk season, district wildlife biologist Jeff Bernatowicz said, “The low recruitment has left the Colockum herd well below bull escapement objectives.”

With the estimated 15 percent of those yearling bulls now off the hunting market, Clausing said the number of hunters in that area may drop somewhat — though not likely too much. This region’s elk hunters are a serious bunch, and the typical Yakima elk herd hunter is out there for five or six days, making for more than 100,000 hours of hunter effort.

The season in the local GMUs will end Nov. 15. Anyone recreating on upland trails in this part of the state between now and then should make a point of wearing either hunter orange or some other bright color that could not possibly be confused with an animal.

Central maintains top spot in regional poll

ELLENSBURG —The Central Washington University football team maintained its No. 1 regional and No. 2 national rankings in this week’s polls.

The Wildcats, who have won 16 straight regular-season games, are one of only three remaining unbeaten Division II teams in the nation and trail only North Alabama (10-0) in the AFCA national poll.

In Super Region IV, only three teams have fewer than two losses, including the top-ranked Wildcats, second-ranked Northwest Missouri State (9-1) and No. 3 Tarleton State (9-1).

A win Saturday in its final regular-season game at Western Oregon would guarantee CWU (10-0) a first-round bye and second- and third-round home games should they advance that far.

First-round pairings and byes are scheduled to be announced Sunday following the week’s contests.

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Soccer

Pate named GNAC player of week

Central Washington sophomore Amy Pate has been named the GNAC women’s soccer Player of the Week for the week of Oct. 26-Nov. 1, the conference announced Monday.

Pate scored the Wildcats’ first two goals in their 3-1 upset victory over then-sixth-ranked Seattle Pacific on Saturday in Ellensburg. The win snapped an eight-game losing streak in the head-to-head series between the two schools and was Central’s first win over the Falcons since 2001.

Pate is Central’s first soccer player of the week in the conference this season. She has scored three goals on nine shot attempts for the Wildcats, who are 7-9-1 overall and 4-5-1 in GNAC play.

Central, , will conclude its 2009 season with two away matches this week. The Wildcats visit Western Oregon on Wednesday before closing the campaign on Saturday at Saint Martin’s.

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