PORT ANGELES — Probably the top sports story of the year on the North Olympic Peninsula was Port Angeles and Sequim playing one of the most exciting Rainshadow Rivalry football games in recent memory, with the Wolves winning 36-32 on a 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Lars Wiker to Toppy Robideau with 20 seconds left in the game that was played in late September at Civic Field.
Port Angeles had surged to a 20-0 lead, but then lost starting quarterback Parker Nickerson, who had a 51-yard touchdown pass and a 75-yard interception return, to a leg injury.
With Nickerson out, Sequim roared back behind Aiden Gockerell’s 204 yards rushing to take a 29-26 lead. Port Angeles mounted its own comeback in the fourth quarter behind backup quarterback Brandt Perry.
Perry threw a touchdown pass to Blake Sohlberg with 1:29 left in the game to give Port Angeles a 32-29 lead. Sequim drove 66 yards with no timeouts for the game-winning touchdown, with Wiker completing three passes for 54 yards.
In the end, the two teams combined for four touchdowns in the fourth quarter. It was the seventh straight win for Sequim over Port Angeles, but it didn’t come easy.
Other top sports stories for 2022:
• The performance of Sequim runner Riley Pyeatt and the Sequim 4×400 girls relay team.
Pyeatt, a senior whose career was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, finally got a state championship in the 800-meter run at the state 2A track and field championships held at Mount Tahoma Stadium in May. She followed that up by anchoring the girls 4×400 relay team that also won a state championship. The other runners on that team were Eve Mavy, Hi’ilei Robinson and Kaitlyn Bloomenrader.
A few weeks later in Eugene, Ore., the quartet of Pyeatt, Mavy, Robinson and Bloomenrader went on to win the 4×400 at the Nike Nationals held at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, beating teams from Texas, Florida and other states.
• The Peninsula College women’s basketball team had a great run in the 2021-22 season and came within four seconds of winning the Northwest Athletic Conference championship.
The women, led by Port Angeles’ Millie Long and Sequim’s Hope Glasser, finished the season with a 22-3 record and blew through the postseason, where they faced Lower Columbia College in the finals.
In that game, Lower Columbia hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 61-61 with 20 seconds left in regulation. In overtime, the Peninsula women looked like they were going to pull the game out, but Lower Columbia hit a 3-pointer again with four seconds left to win 76-75.
It was a heartbreaking loss, but the Pirates came back as the preseason No. 1-ranked team in the NWAC in the fall and finished 2022 on an eight-game winning streak.
• The Port Angeles boys basketball team had seen its share of heartbreak in recent seasons. Coach Kasey Ulin has built a strong program that has come to challenge perennial powerhouse North Kitsap for the Olympic League championship every year.
But, the Roughriders found themselves snakebit in the district playoffs and in the past several years, just could not get out of the district tournament.
That all changed in 2022 as Port Angeles, riding a talented, tall team led by seniors Wyatt Dunning, John Vaara and Xander Maestas, won two out of three games at district to finally make it to the 2A state tournament.
Once at the Yakima SunDome, the Riders won two games to finish sixth. It was the first time since 1997 that the Roughriders had placed at state.
• Neah Bay had another successful year in sports with two teams making it to 1B state championship games. In March, the Red Devils’ girls basketball team, led by Courtney Swan, made it to the state championship game against Mount Vernon Christian, coming in second place after losing 37-33.
The Neah Bay football team, led by the duo of Julian Carrick and Jodell Wimberley, crushed pretty much all their opponents all year long, making it to the 1B state championship game against Liberty Bell out of Winthrop. Unfortunately, the Red Devils made some mistakes in the championship game and fell 50-12. Nonetheless, it was an amazing season for the Red Devils.
• Port Angeles High School runner Jack Gladfelter, after coming in fifth at the state track meet in the spring in both the 1,600 and the 3,200, had a wildly successful cross-country season in the fall. Gladfelter broke a longstanding Port Angeles High School record in the 5K, then a week later, broke his own record with an even better time. He ended up finishing third at the state 2A cross-country meet, the highest finish ever for a Port Angeles male runner.
Sports writer Michael Carman contributed to this article.
Sequim’s Riley Pyeatt celebrates with her teammates, from left, Eve Mavy, Hi’ilei Robinson and Kaitlyn Bloomenrader after winning the women’s 4×400 emerging athlete championship at the Nike Nationals held in Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., this weekend. (Nike video)
