The Tarriers have racked up four league championships this fall and post-season competition is just beginning.  The Tarriers swept the high school girls, high school boys, middle school girls and middle school boys league championships in cross-country.  Volleyball, soccer and tennis are moving into the post-season while football has two big varsity games left in the regular season.

Volleyball
The Upper School’s varsity volleyball game will play their first post-season match in school history on Friday, October 31, at 3pm in Port Townsend.  The team has a 5-7 league record this year; 5-11 overall.  This is a “pig tail game” to determine which team will take fourth place in the league and continue on in the post-season.

The Tarriers beat Life Christian on Monday night 3-2 in one of the most exciting matches of the year.  They won the first game by three points, 25-22, then lost the next two matches by two-points, 24-26 and 23-25.  They made a strong comeback in the fourth game, winning 25-18 and completed the victory with a 15-3 score in the fifth game.  Kate Ellwanger had four service aces, 11 kills, and 12 block.  Grace Su had five service aces, four kills and 10 digs.  Rachael Williams had 11 kils, six digs and five blocks.  It was a big win for Charles Wright after losing 3-1 against Life Christian earlier in the season.

On Wednesday, Charles Wright faced Orting.  They were confident going into the game because they had beaten Orting 3-0 earlier in the season.  Again, Charles Wright won 3-0 with scores of 25-17, 25-23, and 25-18.  Su had three service aces, seven kills and ten digs.  Williams had ten kills and 15 blocks.  Erin Hoolihan had two service aces, three kills, five digs and 30 assists.

The Upper School’s JV team also played well this year.  They finished their 5-9 season with wins over Life Christian and Orting as well.  The Tarriers beat Life Christian 2-1: 23-25, 25-18 and 25-18.  They beat Orting 2-1 as well: 24-26, 25-16 and 25-10.

The Middle School’s varsity team did extremely well this fall.  Their season record was 7-3.  In the last two weeks of the season they beat Tacoma Baptist 3-0 and Seattle Christian 2-1.  The Middle School also had two JV teams.  The JV-white team played against teams from Showalter, Life Christian and Tacoma Baptist, facing each team twice.  They lost their first two matches of the season against Showalter and Life Christian, then beat Tacoma Baptist twice and beat both Showalter and Life Christian on the second go-round.

Cross-Country
Charles Wright’s cross-country program is extremely strong this year.  The Tarriers have captured all four league championships – Middle School boys, Middle School girls, Upper School boys and Upper School girls.  All four teams will run in District matches this weekend.  Middle School runners compete in West Seattle and Upper School runners will be at American Lake.

The Upper School’s boys and girls teams won the Nisqually League 1A Championships last Thursday at Lake Spanaway State Park.  The boys won easily and were led by Nick Smith and Max Laberge (1st and 2nd overall, 16:44 and 16:45 for 5k).  The team has been ranked one of the top three teams in the state all fall.

More impressively, according to their coaches, the girls beat Seattle Christian and Vashon Island for the 1A team title.  Although Charles Wright had several “superstar girl runners” last year, the school had a difficult time fielding a complete five member team.  August 25th the Tarriers started the season with six girls who had never run high school cross country.   Two months later their hard work culminated in a league championship.   “We are super proud of this team!” says Coach Ryan Johnson.

The girls team was led by freshman Rie Nordestgaard (2nd place for 1A, 21:38 for 5K).  Khoe Tyner, running with a sore foot, went from near last place at beginning of the race to finish in the top five.  Alex Jordan ran a personal best by two minutes.

For the Middle School team, David and Olivia have proven to be the league’s runners to beat this season.  Both have led their team to top finishes in several meets.  David set a course record at the league championship meet.

Football
The Upper School varsity football team won their homecoming game against Cedar Park Christian 42-28.  Marcus Mayse had a 35-yard run.  Mike Mayer had a 13-yard run, 5-yard run and 3-yard run.  Phillip Inouye turned in an 81-yard run.  Cory Barrett caught a 38-yard pass from CJ Dale and then kicked a field-goal.  Alex Benfanti also kicked a field-goal.  The Tarriers now have a 3-4 record with two games left to play.  Friday, October 31, they face Life Christian at home.  Next week they’ll be on the road at Orting.

The Upper School junior varsity team won their final game of the season against Seattle Lutheran by a score of 52-22.  The team finished with an even 3-3 record.

The Middle School football team finished their season with an outstanding 5-1 record.  At the close of the season the team beat Chief Leschi 40-14, Tacoma Baptist 13-6, and Cascade Christian 7-6.

The 5th and 6th grade football team will play their last game of the season tonight, October 30, at Charles Wright against Life Christian.  Earlier this week the team beat Gig Harbor 32-26.  They have a 5-4-1 record this season.

Soccer
The Upper School’s varsity girls soccer team moves into the post-season this weekend after a third place league finish.  The team closed out their regular season with wins over Life Christian and Vashon and a tied game with Chimacum.  The Tarriers beat Life Christian 3-0.  Fallon Staples scored all three goals and assisted Natalie Powell in securing the shut-out.  In the 3-1 win over Vashon, Staples scored twice and Val Rutan scored once.  Natalie Weyerhaeuser scored twice in the 2-2 tie with Vashon.
The Upper School junior varsity girls soccer team finished their season 4-1-1.  Their final two games of the season were a 4-2 victory over Orting and a 2-2 tie with Vashon.  Sarah Johnson scored three goals and Caitlin Mahan scored one against Orting.  Kajsa Mayo and Lindsey Getchell scored against Vashon.

The Middle School boys soccer team wrapped up their season this week with a 3-4-1 record.  Nate M. scored 14 goals this season.  Andrew W. scored four goals, Nate Y. scored three, and Ted T. scored two.

Tennis
The Upper School boys tennis team finished their season 8-2 and hosted the Nisqually League Tournament.  Daniel Ham took the #3 singles spot while Dillion Truscott and Chris Wong took first among the doubles competitors and Xavier Al-Mateen and Hunter Hassig took second.  All five competitors will move on to the quad-district tournament next spring.