Top sports stories of 2022

Selected by Press sports staff, in no particular order

State wrestling

Coeur d'Alene High senior Gunner Giulio capped his high school career with a 9-5 win over Meridian's Isaiah Twait in the 170-pound championship at Holt Arena for his fourth straight 5A title.

"It was definitely a surreal moment and a sense of relief that it was over," Giulio said. "I put a lot of pressure on myself and it was nice to know it was over."

"He's such a great competitor," Coeur d'Alene coach Jeff Moffat said. "He just rises to the occasion. There's a lot of pressure on that kid, and he had a lot of family here. He had to remain focused, and we didn't even bring it up, and he did a great job. We just told him to go out and do your thing."

Gunner's older brother, V.J., won four straight 3A titles from 2008-2011 at American Falls before winning an NJCAA title at North Idaho College. His dad, Jim, coached American Falls to five state titles.

"I'm just really thankful for the Coeur d'Alene community, coach (Jeff) Moffat, Kelly Moffat, Tony Hook and Luke Feist," said Gunner Giulio, who is playing football at NAIA Carroll College in Helena, Mont. "All of them really helped me accomplish a dream of mine since I was 6 years old."

Coeur d'Alene, vying for its first state 5A title since 2011, finished second with 281 points. Meridian won its second straight title with 290. Post Falls was third with 248.

Senior Rylan Rogers, who signed to wrestle at Michigan, made short work of Meridian's Carson Gooley with a pin 30 seconds into the 195-pound championship to earn his second straight state title.

"My plan was to go out and have fun," said Rogers, who won all four of his matches by pin. "I just wanted to be present and enjoy my last high school match and score as many points as I could. I just happened to catch him."

Last December, Porter Craig was about to board a van to travel with his Camas (Wash.) teammates to compete at the Tri-State Invitational, an event Coeur d'Alene would win for the first time in 2021.

A few weeks later, Craig's family moved to the area when his dad got a job in the area, giving him a shot at a state tournament he missed out on in 2021 due to COVID-19.

"We were just about to get in the van to come here for Tri-State, then got shut down (due to Covid)," Craig said.

Craig pinned Meridian's Cade White in 3:09 for the 145-pound title.

"It was the greatest feeling I've had in my life," said Craig, who verbally committed to wrestle at NAIA Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. "It still doesn't seem real. I just had to win no matter what since it was my last time competing for a state title."

Junior Alyssa Randles notched the program's first girls state title, pinning Jordan Barrett of Payette in 2:45 in the 126-pound championship match. This was the first year a girls tournament was sponsored by the Idaho High School Activities Association, and held alongside the boys tournament.

"I was really excited," said Randles, who won state titles in 2020 and '21, when the state girls tournament was an invitational. "I really loved this team this year. I just went out looking to see what kind of takedowns I could get and do my best."

"Alyssa was just dominant in the finals," Moffat said. "She's a very good wrestler and very technical. It was nice to see the girls finally get their own tournament. Her name is going up in our wrestling room right next to all the boys champions."

In his first time in the state finals, Post Falls freshman Rider Seguine was cool, calm and collected in his 3-1 win over Coeur d'Alene senior Christian Kelly in the 98-pound championship.

"I just went into the match trying to get the first points and not let him control the pace of the match," Seguine said. "I was never really out of the match and there wasn't a time where I really doubted myself."

After reaching the state 5A finals at 98 pounds last year, Lake City junior Zach Macdonald entered the 2022 tournament with a different approach.

"I'm usually walking into the finals of any tournament nervous," Macdonald said. "I just treated it as if it wasn't anything special, and basically treated it like a normal match."

Macdonald pinned Meridian's Jerimiah Gonzalez in 1:42, his third pin in four matches at state.

Maybe Macdonald's lone mistake of the weekend came walking into Holt Arena on Saturday.

"I left my phone on the bus," Macdonald said. "After my match, I did a backflip and jumped the fence to hug my teammates. Getting off the bus, my phone fell out of my pocket, so I didn't have it all day. But it was blowing up after my match. I called my grandpa and dad, and they were both really excited about it."

State track and field

Post Falls High senior Sammie Wood won the state 5A girls 3,200-meter run in May in Boise, pulling away from fellow Trojan Annastasia Peters — a junior — for the title.

"It was really surreal," Wood said. "It was really good to see all the hard work paying off in that last moment."

Wood and Peters led the pack throughout the race, with Wood pulling away from Peters on the fifth lap, winning in 10 minutes, 39 seconds.

"Once I got there, all I could think about was being a state champion," said Wood, who signed with Boise State. "And it feels really cool. Every year, I've wanted to be a state champion, but things just didn't come together. This year, it did and it felt awesome."

Peters, who recently signed to run at Utah, finished second in 10:51.

The next day, Wood added another to her trophy case, winning the 1,600 in 4 minutes, 54.25 seconds.

Wood ran neck-and-neck with Boise's Allie Bruce until the final lap, where Wood took over.

"I knew I had to strike at the right time," Wood said. "I just kind of kicked it in a little in the last 250 meters really hard."

Wood's attempt for three titles came up short in the 800, finishing second to Boise's Logan Smith, who won the race in a meet record 2:09.07.

As a junior, Wood was fourth in the 3,200 at state, third in the 1,600 and eighth in the 800.

"It was really just the perfect ending to an impressive season," Post Falls girls distance coach Jessie Ward said. "Sammie was so excited to get into some fast races and had big goals for the state meet. She went into it with a ton of confidence and it showed in her races. She was patient when she needed to be and made big moves that no one could cover. When she kicked, it seemed like she knew no one could hang with her."

Coeur d'Alene senior Lily Phenicie won the state 5A girls discus with a throw of 136 feet, 8 inches. She hit the winning mark on her first throw of the finals.

Phenicie was third in the discus at state as a junior. At the regional meet, Phenicie won with a throw of 116 feet, 6 inches.

"It was honestly a mix of adrenaline and good weather," Phenicie said. "It's my senior year, so I wanted to pay it off and show what I've been working on."

Lake City's 4x100 and 4x200 girls relay team of Hailey Jo Parks, Georgia Whitehead, Madison Quigley and Keturah Vogel-Greenwood was second in the 4x100 and third in the 4x200. Parks, Whitehead and Vogel-Greenwood were part of state championship relays in the event last year.

"They were awesome," Lake City coach Kelly Reed said. "They actually ran faster in the 4x100 than last year, when we won. We exchanged the baton exceptionally, and they were really close to the time in the 4x200 that won."

Lakeland junior Kenna Simon won the 4A girls high jump — though she didn't know it at the time.

When she heard the meet official in the event call her name, she grew concerned for a moment.

"I'd already PR'ed at the height they were at with a 5-2 (5 feet, 2 inches)," Simon said. "I thought they were having me make another attempt."

As it turned out, they had even better news.

"They said, 'No, you've won.'"

Simon, who has signed to play volleyball at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz., joined the track team last spring midway through the season, finishing 12th at state in the high jump as a sophomore.

State championship-winning coaches Allert, Manzardo, Seymour step down

Steve Seymour, who made it a game-day ritual to look for the lucky pennies as he walked the halls — and anywhere else his feet took him before the game — called it a career after 27 seasons as Lakeland High girls basketball coach.

"I just felt like … as cliche as it sounds, it was time for somebody else to give it a shot," said Seymour, 56, who attributed his decision to "a combination of many things that have added up over the years."

Seymour coached in more than 600 games at Lakeland, finishing with an overall record of 296-315. He took the Hawks to state 11 times, winning back-to-back state 3A titles in 2001 and '02). Lakeland was also third in 3A in 2004.

Under Seymour, Lakeland won or shared six Intermountain League titles, won five 3A district championships and six 4A regional titles.

"Coaches say they do it to spend more time with their family," Seymour said. "The two people home in my house, I'm not sure they're crazy that I get to spend more time with them. This is the first time I haven't had a coaching position in 35 years."

Until recently, Seymour coached the high jumpers at Lakeland for 30-plus years, and the hurdlers for some 15 years.

Seymour said he still plans to teach English for a few more years before he retires as an educator.

The 1984 Coeur d'Alene High graduate played one season at receiver at Snow Junior College in Ephraim, Utah, then transferred to North Idaho College, where he was primarily a high jumper. He finished up at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., competing in the high jump there as well.

After graduation, Seymour married the former Marci Long and they moved to Klamath Falls, Ore. There, he taught for five years and was, at various times, an assistant coach in football, girls basketball and track and field.

In 1994, Seymour was hired as a teacher at Lakeland, where he was boys JV basketball coach for one season under Mike Bayley. When Lakeland girls coach Shelly (Layton) McLean resigned at the end of the season, Seymour was named the Hawks' varsity girls coach.

Marc Allert resigned as Post Falls girls basketball coach after 11 seasons. Allert coached the Trojans to state championships in 2013 and 2018, and was an assistant coach on the Trojan boys' title team in 2010.

"It's something I've had in the back of my mind for a few years," Allert said. "It's been a year-to-year deal where I've gone to re-evaluate things. It's something I've always loved doing, but now with the health issues, it's just time to step away."

Allert, 58, was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder — Amyloidosis — where proteins get into his blood and deposit 'garbage.'

"It really affects everything I do that I don't even think about," Allert said. "For me, my biggest issue is my blood pressure."

Allert added that he'd find himself feeling light-headed or dizzy at times during practices and games.

"It just wasn't fair to the girls that I'd ask them to put all that time and energy in, when I couldn't do it myself," Allert said. "The timing was just kind of right."

During the Trojans' games at state, the Post Falls crowd included some former teammates, players and assistant coaches, as well as Allert's family.

"It was nice for them to be there," Allert said. "It's nice all of them came out to support me. To be going through all of this and have all that support, and to support the team as well, it was great. My family has always been there through thick and thin, but it was nice to see some of those guys that I played with and kids I coached down there."

Allert, who assisted Post Falls coach Mike McLean from 2007 until taking over the girls program in 2011. Allert went 177-94 as Trojan girls coach.

Allert, a 1981 graduate of Post Falls High, played one season at Boise State before returning home, graduating from Eastern Washington.

All told, he coached at Post Falls for 32 years.

Paul Manzardo resigned after seven seasons as Lake City High baseball coach, and the biggest reason was pretty simple:

His wife, Windy, 49, needs a heart transplant, and he needs to be nearby.

"With Windy's diagnosis, it would have been too hard to try to coach, taking care of her, doing my job at NIC … it would be too much on my plate," said Manzardo, 52. "I had to let something go. And I just felt it was important that I focus more time on my family than baseball right now."

Windy, a Clark Fork High graduate and a cardiac nurse, was diagnosed some six months ago with sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease which has attacked the electrical system of her heart.

She (and Paul) need to be within three hours of Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, should they receive the call that a heart is available for her.

Manzardo was 74-65 at Lake City. In his first season (2016), the Timberwolves won the second state title in program history. Lake City also reached the state play-in game twice under Manzardo.

Lake City finished 11-12 this past season, 5-7 in the Inland Empire League.

"I didn't want to be a distraction (as baseball coach)," Manzardo said. "We have a really good group of young kids, and they have a chance to do something special in the next couple of years, and I didn't want to come in the way of that, by not being able to give 110 percent."

Assistant Mike Criswell was named Lake City head coach last week.

Born in Flint, Mich., Manzardo played at Powers Catholic High in Flint, then was a middle infielder at Ferris State in Big Rapids, Mich.

He attended graduate school at the University of Idaho, which is where he met Windy.

He then was an assistant baseball coach at North Idaho College for a couple of seasons, and was head coach for five seasons (1998-2002), before the program was cut for budget reasons. Manzardo coached Little League for more than a decade, and was an American Legion baseball coach for several years.

Paul and Windy's two sons are still playing baseball — Kyle in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, and Marcus as a sophomore at Community Colleges of Spokane.

Manzardo has worked at NIC the past 29 years, and is currently division chair for physical education and resort recreation management at the school.

NIC golf wins Northwest Athletic Conference title

North Idaho College freshman James Swan knocked in a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the individual championship, leading the Cardinal men to their fourth straight team title at the Northwest Athletic Conference golf championships at Apple Tree Golf Course in Yakima, Wash., in May.

Swan shot 73-74—147, 3 over par, good for a one-shot victory over Dalton Dean of Bellevue, who was in his group, but drove into the water on the final hole and scrambled for par.

"It was cool, and I was super happy for him," NIC men's and women's coach Russell Grove said. "He's made a tremendous leap since he's been here."

NIC, which had battled Bellevue all season for team honors, shot 602 for the two-day tournament, 14 strokes better than Bellevue. James Baldauf tied for fifth for the Cardinals, and Tyler Vassar tied for 10th.

NIC's men also won the NWAC championship in 2017, '18 and '19. There was no spring season in 2020, and no conference championship in '21, because of COVID-19.

"It's different, only coaching them for a year or two, they're in and out quick," Grove said. "We've had a solid program, and they've worked hard while they're here, and that's led to their success."

John Drager dies

John Drager coached just about everything there was to coach at Mullan High for decades — football, basketball, track and field — and also served as athletic director.

He drove his teams to games on a school bus, and he ran the local pool.

Drager, who died Feb. 26 at age 81, was known as a master motivator — but he was also known to lose his lunch, as it were, before games.

"I remember him getting extremely nervous before games," said John Posnick, who played football and basketball for Drager at Mullan High, graduating in 1972. "He'd throw up in the locker room before games; he was so nervous.

"My senior year, we played Plummer in football, and he was so worried about how good they were going to be. We had a real good team … he was just in the locker room throwing up. He was so worried they were going to beat us. Hell, we were up 32-0 after one quarter, 50-0 at the half. I think we won 64-6, or something like that."

Drager attended Kellogg High for one year before transferring to Wallace, where he played football and basketball, and was all-league in football.

He went to Idaho on a football scholarship, and played basketball at North Idaho College before finishing up at the U of I.

Drager started his coaching career — a career that would span more than four decades — as an assistant to Norm Walker at Mullan. After they guided Mullan to a state boys basketball title in 1965, Walker left for Wallace and Drager took over coaching basically everything at Mullan.

As a football coach, he won 14 league titles, guided the Tigers to state titles in 1983 and '84, and compiled a 229-51 overall record.

"Basically he could get kids to run through a wall. He was very good at motivating," Posnick said.

The football field at Mullan was renamed John Drager Field in 1996.

In basketball, he posted a career mark of 467-205 with the Tigers.

State cross country

Post Falls senior Annastasia Peters won the state 5A girls cross country race in 16 minutes, 56.07 seconds at the Lewis-Clark State Course at Lewiston Orchards on Oct. 29, becoming the first Trojan female to win an individual cross country title.

"I knew I had the potential to race, "said Peters, who was third last year. "Any girl out here has the potential to become a state champion and I admire all of them that came out. Cross country is a tough sport and I love the atmosphere and the girls. It won't set in for a while. Never in a million years. From my freshman year to now, putting in all that hard work really paid off."

After a breakthrough 2021 season that saw Coeur d'Alene Charter's McKenna Kozeluh win a state 3A title as a junior, keeping her mind on the next one got tough after taking an early lead and never giving it back for a second straight individual title.

"This one was more of a mental challenge than last year," Kozeluh said. "I didn't have anyone in front of me, but it was tougher to keep the pace and my mind on the goal. Overall it was a good race and I was glad to come out and compete with an amazing team."

Jacob Barnhart became the third Timberlake boy to win a state cross country title, winning in 15:47.56.

"I just knew I had to keep going and keep a hard work ethic," Barnhart said. "I knew there was a pack right behind me, but knew I had a better finish than them."

Area athletes taking talents to Division I level

Not many North Idaho athletes get a chance to play basketball in the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference.

But Lake City High senior Blake Buchanan will get that chance after signing with Virginia and coach Tony Bennett, the former Washington State coach.

"It really started off with the staff," Buchanan told The Press. "I like the way they were talking to me, recruiting me, they've been on me for awhile. They've always been super honest with me. The facilities were very good. I think playing in the ACC is going to be big for me. And then I think the opportunities off the court and on the court are going to be huge for me, because I don't know how far basketball is going to take me, so with how good of a school they are academically, that's going to be big. And just a change of culture, a new place is going to be good for me."

Prior to his decision, the 6-foot-10, 210-pound Buchanan narrowed his choices to Virginia and Gonzaga. He had offers from nine schools total, including Idaho, Pepperdine, San Jose State, Utah Valley, San Francisco, Washington State and Iowa.

Virginia won the NCAA championship in 2019.

"Gonzaga's a great school, it would have been amazing to play there. But I just think I want to get away from here," Buchanan said. "And playing in the WCC was kind of a big one; I want to play in a more competitive conference that pushes me."

Buchanan, who transferred from Moscow High after his freshman season, averaged 13.7 points and 8.5 rebounds this past season as a junior for the T-Wolves, who finished 23-3.

Buchanan was a first-team All-Idaho selection by the state's coaches for the second straight year.

Lake City guard Kolton Mitchell, the Timberwolves' all-time leading scorer, signed with Idaho State.

"I really like the coaching staff," Mitchell told The Press. "They've been the first school to be on me; they started recruiting me last spring (in 2021). And they offered me pretty quickly (in July before his junior year), so I had lots of time to think about it."

Idaho State head coach Ryan Looney, a Central Valley High grad and a former assistant at North Idaho College, was the Bengals' lead recruiter on Mitchell.

Mitchell was first team all-Idaho as a junior, and second team as a sophomore. He was MVP of the 5A Inland Empire League last year, co-Player of the Year as a sophomore, and all-league as a freshman.

Mitchell had preferred walk-on offers from Utah Tech (formerly Dixie State) and Colgate.

Last year, led by Buchanan and Mitchell, Lake City lost just one game during the regular season, and was the top seed to the state 5A tournament before getting upset in the first round.

This year, Lake City is off to a 6-0 start, highlighted by wins over Owyhee, last year's Idaho 5A champion, and Curtis, last year's Washington 4A champion.

Coeur d'Alene High senior Madi Symons signed to play basketball at Wyoming of the Mountain West Conference in June.

Symons had offers from Texas-Rio Grande Valley, a Western Athletic Conference program in Edinburg, Texas, as well as Idaho and Southern Utah of the Big Sky Conference and San Diego of the West Coast Conference.

"I really love the community there," Symons said of Laramie. "It's a real family atmosphere and the town is very similar to Coeur d'Alene."

Symons also took unofficial visits to UNLV, Boise State, Southern Utah, Idaho, San Diego, San Diego State and Grand Canyon in Phoenix, Ariz.

She eclipsed the 1,000-point scoring mark for her career at Coeur d'Alene in December of her junior season.

Madi's parents are Corey Symons, the head men's basketball coach at North Idaho College, and Nicole Symons, the girls basketball coach at Coeur d'Alene High. Corey Symons played at Falls Christian Academy and at NIC before transferring to Northwest University in Kirkland, Wash. Nicole, the former Nicole Nipp, played her first three years of high school basketball at Coeur d'Alene, transferring to Lake City when it opened for the 1994-95 school year, and also played at Northwest.

St. Maries boys basketball

The St. Maries Lumberjacks came up short in their bid to repeat as state 2A champions, falling to Melba 59-50 in the state title game in March at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.

"We never give up," St. Maries senior forward Colby Renner said. "Down 15, we're still pushing to come back … maybe hit a couple of 3s … we truly thought we were coming back."

But shooting 36.2% (21 of 58) from the field stalled any attempts at a comeback for St. Maries (20-4), and Melba (24-2) went on to win its first state title since 2011.

"They have such a will to win, and never-give-up attitude," said St. Maries coach Bryan Chase, whose team was in the state title game for the third time in four years. "That's what I'm most proud of … down 15, got within striking distance … and we were a couple of possessions away from … who knows what happens? That just says a lot about those kids, and how hard they play."

Senior Tristan Gentry-Nelson had 11 points and 10 rebounds for St. Maries, and guard Greyson Sands added 12 points. Senior Coleman Ross had eight points and seven boards.

Gentry-Nelson and Ross started on last year's title team.

"A sense of unfulfillment," said Gentry-Nelson, now playing at Walla Walla Community College. "We felt like we should have been here all year, and we got here, and it just seems like we dropped the ball. It was winnable, but not enough stuff went our way tonight."

Joe Reiber, a 6-foot-2 senior swingman, scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the second half for Melba. Junior guard Braden Volkers added 14 points and Cache Beus, a 6-4 sophomore post, had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

"It just felt like we were spinning our wheels all night long, trying to get some traction," Chase said. "If we could have made one of those runs a little earlier … "

"They're a great team," fourth-year Melba coach Spencer Trappett said of St. Maries. "I thought they were tired, and I thought we could use that to our ability, and get the ball up and down the floor. Great coach, great program. They could have won it anyway, and once we got ahead, I thought that kinda took it out of them, took the fight out of them, but they stuck with it the whole game. They play hard and they get after it, and they do it year after year after year."

The last four years at state, St. Maries finished second, third, first and second.

Lake City girls capture second straight swim title

It was out of necessity that Lake City's Gabby Garasky found herself swimming in, and winning the 100-yard freestyle as a sophomore.

Back in her element, Garasky added titles in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke during the state 5A finals at the West Valley YMCA and Boise Aquatics Center in early November.

"During club season, the butterfly and backstroke are my main events," Garasky said. "I train and work year-round on them. It was nice to be able to transition to that this year and work on them during the high school season."

Garasky's time of 56.24 seconds in the butterfly broke the state record.

"I was definitely focused on it after the prelims," Garasky said. "I knew I was close, and today it just felt like the perfect race and I executed the way I wanted to."

"Gabby's just such a versatile athlete to go where we need and just perform," Lake City coach Shelly Sobek said.

Lake City junior Steven Griffith nabbed his first state title, winning the 500 freestyle.

"I just knew I needed to be consistent," Griffith said. "Whether it's been showing up on time for practice or the way I train, I just wanted to keep doing the same thing I'd been doing. The finals, I felt kind of slow in the race and it didn't feel like the greatest. But I trusted myself and my coaches and when I hit the wall, it felt pretty special."

Lake City finished with 260 points to run away with a second straight girls title.