[11]April 4, 2009www.fedwaymirror.com

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to our patient

Dave Riefon his way to Romania

for Jr. Worlds 2009!

More than 300 athletes are currently at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center through today for the Speedo Junior National Synchronized Swimming Championships.

The meet features athletes ages 15 to 18, who are vying for Junior National Titles in the solo, duet, trio and team events and is hosted by the Paci� c Northwest Association (PNA). PNA is made up of the Kitsap Water Blossoms, Olympia YMCA Synchro Club, Paci� c Waves Synchro, Port Townsend Pirou-ettes, Seattle Cascades Synchro Club, Seattle Kaleidoscopes and the Seattle Synchronized Swim Team.

The Santa Clara Aquamaids (Santa Clara, Calif.) will be in search of bringing home their third consecutive Junior National title. Other top con-tenders will include the Walnut Creek Aquanuts (Walnut Creek, Calif.), who took home second place last year, and the 2006 Junior National Champions, the Riverside Aquettes (Calif.).

Top routines will advance to the 2009 U.S. National Champi-onships, which will take place April 30-May 2, at Stanford University. Tickets for Saturday will be $15 for adults and $10 for youth (ages 6-12) and senior citizens.

Check www.usasynchro.org daily for results and info.

KC AQUATIC CENTER HOSTING NATIONAL SYNCHRO SWIM MEET

SPORTS

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AY Celski’s Olympic dream within grasp

Federal Way native J.R. Celski leads a pack of skaters, which includes Apolo Ohno (right), during last month’s World Short Track Speedskating Championships in Vienna. Celski won gold in the 3,000 meters and was on the � rst-place 5,000-meter U.S. relay team. JERRY SEARCH/FOR THE MIRROR

Federal Way native preparing for the 2010 Vancouver Games as a short track speedskater

BY CASEY OLSON

sports@fedwaymirror.com

Ever since J.R. Celski can remember, he’s dreamed of donning the red, white and blue uniform of the United States of America in the Olympic Games.

“I think about that every-day in my life,” Celski said. “Just the thought of being there at the biggest sporting event in the history of the world is pretty exciting.”

Celski’s Olympic dream is about to become reality. � e 18-year-old Federal Way native is on the cusp of ful� lling his lifelong quest of qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in neighboring Vancouver, B.C. a� er developing into one of the best short track speed skaters in the world.

Just the idea of walking into BC Place Stadium for the opening ceremo-nies just a year from now, sends shivers up and down Celski’s spine.

“It’s a big goal to be a part of that,” Celski said. “I know I can compete with those guys. But I’m just happy to be a part of this whole skating deal. I’m just going to train hard and hope that God takes me to

the Olympics.”Celski is well on his way. All

you have to do is look at Celski’s performance at last month’s

Short Track Speed-skating World Cham-pionships in Vienna, Austria.

Celski skated to a gold medal in the 3,000-meter � nal and helped the U.S. team, which included Apolo Ohno, to a win in the 5,000-meter relay. He � nished second in the overall classi� cation behind South Korea’s

Lee Ho-suk. Ohno � nished � � h. His performance at the world

championships ended a very strong season around the world for Celski. It was his � rst year

on the United States’ short track World Cup team. Celski won a gold medal in the 1,500 meters Feb. 15 in Dresden, Germany at the World Cup VI event and also competed in World Cup events in Bulgaria, Canada, Japan and China, among others.

“I have been able to gain a lot of experience and improve my technique,” Celski said. “� e meet atmosphere is pretty crazy. � ere are a lot of big short track fans (in Europe). People come up and ask for autographs and stu� . A lot of people are really into that. Every meet I skate, I’m going against the best in the world.”

But all the work is pointing toward the goal of skating at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in

High school wrap up: Beamer fastpitch remains undefeatedBY CASEY OLSON

sports@fedwaymirror.com

� e Todd Beamer Titans continued their early-season run on the so� ball � eld Tuesday with a 10-0 win over the Graham-Kapowsin Eagles. � e victory improved the Titans to 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the South Puget Sound League South Division.

� e win total comes just a year a� er Beamer � nished with just three victories during the 2008-09 season.

� e Titans are being led by Emma Blauser. � e pitcher is 6-0 on the season

and held Graham-Ka-powsin to only � ve hits Tuesday, striking out nine. Blauser was also 2 for 3 at the plate. Out� elder Sarah Petosa also continued her strong o� ensive season by going 2 for 3 with two triples and three stolen bases. Beamer also

got two RBIs each from Brianna Grushe and Taylor Winton during the win over Graham-Kapowsin.

� e sixth-ranked Je� erson Raiders lost

Celski (left) stands on the podium after winning an overall silver medal at the world championships in Vienna. South Korean Lee Ho-suk won the overall gold medal.

Emma Blauser

“I think about that everyday in my life. Just the thought of being there at the biggest sporting event in the history of the world is pretty exciting.” J.R. Celski

[ more CELSKI page 12 ]

[ more WRAP UP page 12 ]

April 4, 2009[12] www.fedwaymirror.com

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their second game in a row Tuesday to Kentlake. The Raid-ers (5-2) could only muster three hits against Kentlake pitcher Nicole Weber, who struck out 15.

Federal Way (1-3) picked up their first win of the SPSL North season Tuesday, 15-5, over Kent-Meridian. The Eagles got two RBIs each from Amanda Earlywine and Alleah Pac.

Boys soccerBeamer (4-1-0) got a pair of

goals from Troy Peterson and single goals Ugo Okoli, Erik Lissak, Austin Sweeney and Michael Manolides during a 6-2 win over Puyallup Tuesday.

Jefferson improved to 3-1-2 in the SPSL North with a 4-0 shutout of Kent-Meridian Tuesday. The Raiders got goals from Miguel Toscano, Lenin Ramirez, Cody Harris and Jason Minerich. Chris Hicks and Adam Duke combined on the shutout in goal.

BaseballAfter dropping their first two

SPSL North Division games, the Federal Way Eagles got back on track Monday and

Tuesday. The Eagles’ offense exploded for double-digit runs in wins over Auburn and Kent-Meridian and the Federal Way pitching staff didn’t allow a single run.

The Eagles owned Auburn Monday, 12-0, in five innings and followed Tuesday with a 20-0 win over Kent-Meridian. The win evened the Eagles’ SPSL North record at 2-2 and 4-3 overall.

Against Auburn, the Eagles got a three-hitter from Jarred Lee and exploded for nine runs in the top of the third inning. Sophomore Nick Tanielu finished with five RBIs and a home run and Winston Gatlabayan ended the game 3 for 3 with two RBIs.

Federal Way tallied 13 runs in the bottom of the third Tues-day against Kent-Meridian and Elliot Morris stuck out 10 and allowed only two hits in five innings of work. Terin Beck finished 3 for 3 with three runs and three RBIs.

Beamer improved to 3-2 in

the SPSL South with a 13-3 win over Graham-Kapowsin Tuesday in five innings. Carson Wolbert finished 2 for 3 at the plate with four RBIs and also threw all five innings. Brian Corliss was 2 for 3 with three runs and Travis Crumb was 2 for 4 with two RBIs.

Jefferson (3-2) split a pair of games with Kentlake and Kent-Meridian. The Raiders downed K-M Monday, 11-3, thanks to a home run by Drew Staples and a 3-for-3 day from Jeff Brigham.

The Raiders had no answers for Kentlake Tuesday during a 14-4 loss. The Falcons got a pair of home runs from Jacob Thielman and Andy Enders. Jefferson’s Mitch McQueen finished 2 for 3.

Decatur (2-2) got an extra-inning win Monday over Bethel, 7-6. Kyle Font finished 3 for 4 with three runs.

Girls tennisThe Federal Way Eagles were

shut out Tuesday by the league-leading Kentwood Conquerors, 5-0. The best match of the day came at No. 2 doubles when Kentwood’s Tess Manthou and Korin Hedlund beat Federal Way’s Susan Huynh and Lauren Lang, 6-3, 3-6, 10-5.

Vancouver. “It has been a long year,” Celski

said. “It’s been a big learning experi-ence for me. I didn’t have many expectations at the beginning of the year and a lot of them seemed out of reach. But when I started seeing my competition from the different countries, those goals were not that far out of reach.”

Celski started the 2008-09 season with the goal of being in the top-three in the world at the end of the year and ended up in second overall at the World Championships.

“I just wanted to get as much knowledge as I could,” Celski said. “So the season was a success.”

To qualify for the Olympic short track speedskating team, Celski will have to finish in the top-two during any of the three individual races or in the top-four to qualify for the U.S. relay team at the Olympic Trials, which will be held Dec. 8-12 at the Berry Events Center at Northern Michigan University.

Celski will spend the spring and summer training with the US team in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.

“The summer training is pretty intense,” Celski said. “They are just gearing us up for the Olympics, so hopefully we can peak. That’s a big part of it, being able to peak for the Olympics. That’s when you want to

be in top shape.”Celski’s skating career started as

a 4-year-old inline skater at Federal Way’s Pattison’s West rink with his father, Bob, and two brothers, Chris and David. After numerous inline national championships, Celski switched over to the ice as a 12-year-old to follow in the skates of his idol, Ohno, also a former Pattison’s skater and Olympic gold medalist.

Short track speedskating has be-come one of the most popular spec-tator events at the Winter Olympics and that won’t change in Vancouver. To say the event has been a hot ticket would be an understatment. Just ask Celski’s parents, Bob and Sue Celski.

“My parents didn’t even get tick-ets,” Celski said. “It’s going to be very hard to get into the event. I will be able to get my parents tickets, but my friends and family are going to have to buy scalped tickets, I guess.”

According to Olympic organizers, 120 of the 170 events in Vancouver required a lottery to distribute tick-ets, including short track speedskat-ing. When 1.6 million tickets were put on sale, Canadians submitted requests for more than $345 million worth. By comparison, U.S. fans re-quested $75 million worth of tickets before the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

Celski is hoping that all those fans will be watching him skate in Vancouver. That would be a dream come true.

[ celski from page 11 ] [ wrap up from page 11 ]

carson wolbert