4:31 PM: The buzzer has just sounded in the gym at Bellevue College, and it brought an end to the West Seattle High School boys’ season, with an 71-40 loss to Rainier Beach. The Wildcats’ season under head coach Keffrey Fazio will be remembered for highlights including its early 8-game winning streak (see the season schedule/results here).

7:51 PM: Photos added. #22 Yusuf Mohamed led WSHS scoring with 13 points, followed by #5 Abdullahi Mohamed with 7, #24 Carter Golgart and #4 Chaaka Trahan with 6 each, and #2 Kendall Green with 5. WSHS brought a spirited cheering section:

You might notice some familiar faces – from the WSHS girls’ basketball team, which plays Mercer Island tomorrow for third place in the district playoffs, 1:15 pm at Bellevue College.

One more high-school basketball playoff game involving a local team tonight: The Seattle Lutheran High School girls lost their second consecutive Tri-District Tournament game, falling to Neah Bay, 43-35, at Evergreen Lutheran in Tacoma. They play Mount Rainier Lutheran for fifth place in the tournament at 10 am Saturday.

(WSB photo: WSHS #30, Lexi Ioane, and #4, Kelsey Lenzie)

6:11 PM: A formidable opponent for the West Seattle High School girls’ basketball team this afternoon at Bellevue College – top-ranked Bellevue HS. While the Wildcats hit halftime with a five-point lead over the Wolverines, an intense third quarter ensued, and Bellevue pulled ahead, ending with an eight-point victory in the district-playoff game, 58-50. West Seattle will play next for third place in districts, 1:15 pm Saturday vs. the winner of tonight’s Mercer Island-Bishop Blanchet game. We’ll add more from today’s game later.

ADDED 9:56 PM: Scoring for the Wildcats – 17 points for #30 Lexi Ioane, 10 for #3 Izzy Turk, 9 for #20 Grace Sarver, 8 for #32 Lydia Giomi.

We now know their Saturday opponent will be Mercer Island.

(Photo by Daven Camacho)

We’ve been featuring local athletes who are headed to state competition, and here are five more! Thanks to Lynn Ogdon-Perrine for sharing news of the Chief Sealth International High School wrestlers set for state matches this Friday and Saturday. Above, Regional and Metro champions from Sealth, from left: Daron Camacho at 195 weight class, Hameed Maktoof at 152 weight class, and Joe Kereti at 220 weight class. Next photo features Antonio Chiles (left), who placed 3rd at Regionals and is headed to state at 182 weight class:

(Photo by David Perrine)

Lynn says Gonzalo Cruise also placed 3rd at Regionals and heads to state at 120 weight class. The state tournament is this Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome. Good luck to all!

Two more playoff games tonight for local high-school basketball teams:

SEATTLE LUTHERAN GIRLS VS. TULALIP HERITAGE: This game ended with a loss for the Saints, 48-37, in Mount Vernon. The SLHS girls’ next game will be at 6 pm Thursday vs. Neah Bay, at Evergreen Lutheran in Tacoma.

WEST SEATTLE BOYS VS. BELLEVUE: This was a rollercoaster game for the Wildcats, eventually losing 64-57. They went into the locker room down 36-10 at the half but rallied to a one point lead early in the fourth quarter, leading to raucous cheers from the bench:

(WSB photos)

The defense toughened up in the second half, too, as head coach Keffrey Fazio‘s boys kept battling:

#22 Yusuf Mohamed was the scoring leader with 14, followed by #4 Chaaka Trahan with 11.

The next game is a must-win – 3 pm Friday vs. Rainier Beach, again at Bellevue College.

(WSB photos: WSHS players from left, #32 Lydia Giomi, #3 Izzy Turk, #21 Gabby Sarver)

4:26 PM: We’re in the gym at Bellevue College, where the West Seattle High School girls have just made it into the district-playoff quarterfinals with a win over Juanita, 73-66. Top scorer: WSHS senior Lydia Giomi, with 32 points. The Wildcats’ next game will be at 3 pm Thursday, against the winner of tonight’s Lakeside-Bellevue game.

(#30 Lexi Ioane)

5:55 PM: We’re back at HQ now and adding photos.

The scoring was rounded out by #30 Lexi Ioane with 12, #21 Gabby Sarver with 10, #3 Izzy Turk with 8, #20 Grace Sarver with 6, and #10 Jenna McPhee with 5.

Head coach Darnell Taylor‘s Wildcats led by as many as 20 points during the course of the game, but Juanita kept battling back. At halftime, the Wildcats were up 38-28, and added 7 unanswered points at the start of the second half, with the 50-30 lead not long after that. Juanita then scrapped its way to within five points, 52-47, but WSHS kept fighting and took the win.

The Seattle Lutheran High School boys are in the Tri-District basketball championship game. That’s after a 76-65 victory tonight vs. Neah Bay at Mount Vernon Christian (thanks to Mike Jensen for the updates). The Saints will face crosstown rival Shorewood Christian in the championship game next Saturday (February 20th), 7:15 pm, at Lummi Nation High School in Bellingham.

TOMORROW’S PLAYOFF GAMES: The SLHS girls play Tulalip Heritage, 6:15 pm in Mount Vernon. And both West Seattle High School teams play district games at Bellevue College (3000 Landerholm Circle SE) on Tuesday – the girls at 3 pm vs. Juanita and the boys at 8:15 pm vs. Bellevue.

Another local swimmer to cheer for in state competition starting later this week! Thanks to West Seattle High School head swim coach Blake Hurd for the report:

This last weekend a West Seattle Junior, Seryozha Dahl, completed in the Boys Swimming 3A District 2 Championship Meet on Mercer Island at Mary Wayte Pool. Entering the meet, Seryozha was ranked 3rd in the 200 Individual Freestyle for session #2 with a time of 1:48.26, ranked 6th overall amongst the entire meet. Seryozha finished the 2-day meet with a time of 1:48.96 for a 9th place overall.

Seryozha’s best performance, however, was in the 500 Individual Freestyle. Again entering the swim meet highly ranked, 1st not only in session #2 but in the entire meet with his best time of 4:52.51, finished prelims on Friday with a new personal best of 4:49.00. Even with his best time, Seryozha finished prelims in 3rd place going into finals, with only .16th of a second behind prelims first place time of 4:48.84. Seryozha dug deep again and in the third race in a row in 2 weeks achieved another personal best time of 4:48.04 in the 500 Freestyle, taking 1st at Boys Swimming 3A District Campionship.

Seryozha Dahl advances into Boys Swimming 3A State Championship Meet next Friday and Saturday in Federal Way at King County Aquatic Center. He’s ranked 9th overall in the 200 Individual Freestyle and 1st overall in the 500 Individual Freestyle. Good Luck Seryozha!

Honorable mentions for West Seattle Swim Team: Senior Jimmy Nguyen competed in both the 50 Individual Freestyle and 100 Individual Backstroke. Freshman Jackson Espeut competed in the 100 Individual Freestyle. After a year of absence, West Seattle had 2 Relay teams competing in the District Championship Meet. The Relays consisted of Freshmen Jackson Espeut and Cameron John, Sophomore Kit Lui and Senior Jimmy Nguyen for the 200 Medley Relay, and Junior Seryozha Dahl joind Cameron, Jackson, and Kit for the 200 Freestyle Relay. Go, Wildcats!

As noted in this morning’s reader report on other local swimmers headed to state, the competition starts Friday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Any other local athletes headed to state competition? editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!

While their school’s in Burien, these swimmers all live in West Seattle, says Brent Lindblom, who sent the photo with word they’re all headed for state competition:

Congratulation to the Kennedy Catholic High School Varsity Swim Team members advancing to the WIAA Boys State HS Swim/Dive Championship:

From left to right: Coach Sean Prethero; Junior Ian Olufson, swimming the 200 Free Style, 500 Free Style and 400 Free Style Relay; Senior Jeff Kasahara, swimming the 100 Breast Stroke and 400 Free Style Relay; Freshman Ty Lindblom, swimming the 500 Free Style and 400 Relay; Ben Kinerk, swimming the 400 relay. Assistant Coach Marley Prethero.

Championships are next Friday and Saturday, February 19th and 20th, at King County Aquatic Center at 650 SW Campus Dr., Federal Way, beginning at 12:00 Friday. There is a cost of admission and program fee. GO, LANCERS!!!!

Anybody else from this area headed to state competition? We’d be happy to share that news too – editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!

(Click any view for a close-up; more cameras on the WSB Traffic page)

6:12 AM: Good morning – no incidents in/from West Seattle so far. Two reminders:

FAUNTLEROY WAY SPEED LIMIT: The stretch between SW Alaska and California SW is now 30 mph, with signage installed on Saturday as SDOT said it would be.

FERRY SUBSTITUTION: M/V Tillikum is taking the place of M/V Sealth on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth state-ferry run today; its capacity is 87 vehicles, while Sealth’s is 90.

7:06 AM: Crash partly blocking the right lane in NB 1st Ave. So. Bridge.

7:35 AM: WSDOT says that has cleared.

8:35 AM: If you’re headed southbound on 35th from the Triangle or anyplace northbound, you will be diverted at Alaska. A power pole is about to fall over – apparently just rotted through its base, according to SPD, which has the road blocked for about half a block at Alaska until City Light can take care of it. Thanks to the person who texted us about the closure (206-293-6302, any time)!

8:43 AM: Added the photo above. Talked to another officer who said the pole rot was part of the problem – the pole getting backed into by a delivery truck was the other part. No ETA on how long for a fix; we’ll check back. The southbound 21 is affected, Metro has tweeted:

9:28 AM: Thanks to Joe and a text tipster for noting that the NB 21 is also being diverted right now – Joe says the City Light crane is on site so the road is blocked both ways at the scene just south of Alaska.

10:01 AM: Metro says northbound is back to normal, southbound remains blocked.

ADDED LATER, SIDE NOTE: For the record – we checked with City Light regarding the ongoing replacement of poles before something like this takes them out. From Scott Thomsen of SCL:

We do have an effort underway to steadily replace old poles that have deteriorated over time.

We have identified about 5,500 poles that currently need to be replaced. This is a backlog that built up as the result of deferred maintenance following the 2000-01 West Coast energy crisis and, more recently, other work associated with new service installations in one of the nation’s fastest growing cities filling the schedules of our crews.

We identify 500 to 600 more poles each year that add to the list of those needing to be replaced. We expect to replace about 1,400 poles a year to steadily eliminate that backlog over several years.

(Photo courtesy West Seattle Girls Softball)

As winter sports wrap up, it’s time to gear up for spring sports – including softball! Meg Simmons from West Seattle Girls Softball shares the news that signups are happening now:

West Seattle Girls Softball is a local nonprofit recreational league for all girls ages 6-15. No previous softball experience necessary. Registration is open through February. Skills and drills clinics offered in March, with regular practices begin in late March. Season wraps up by the end of the school year. Go to westseattlegirlssoftball.com to register.

Datapoint: WSGS was founded in 1999.

Thanks to Bonnie for texting the photo to our hotline (206-293-6302)! The 2016 West Seattle Beach Run is on. It’s a 25K/50K “fun run” formerly known as the West Seattle Fat Ass. Runners are going from Lincoln Park to Seacrest Park and back if they’re doing the 25K, twice for the 50K (no road closures – this is on sidewalks/paths). Proceeds after expenses are going to the White Center Food Bank.