Eight EHS athletes sign on to college sports

Published 12:00 pm Monday, April 6, 2026

Eight Enumclaw High athletes signed on the dotted line recently, locking in their much-anticipated collegiate athletic experiences.

The setting was the stage in the EHS commons where the Hornets stared out at an assembly of family, friends, teammates and coaches. The after-school ceremony took place on Thursday, March 26.

Taking part were Sutton Kelsey and Clare Largent from the Hornet girls soccer program; Gavin Trachte and Nik Storem from the football team; Cole Chiechi and Hunter Anderson from the baseball diamond; and Zane Wirkkala and Levi Gruner from boys soccer.

Here’s a look at the elite eight, where they will be headed following June’s graduation and a brief bit about their Hornet days.

Sutton Kelsey: After spending four years on the Hornet varsity roster, Kelsey will head to California State University-Chico and take to the pitch for the Wildcats. Chico State is a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association and competes at the NCAA Division II level.

Kelsey capped her Hornet playing days in spectacular fashion, earning NPSL 3A Player of the Year honors during the fall season

Kelsey will arrive in Chico as a new era dawns for the soccer program, with Halle Meadows recently taking over, following the retirement of 25-year coach Kim Sutton.

The Wildcats finished second in the CCAA a season ago, trailing only the champs from Cal Poly Pomona. Other league participants include Stanislaus State, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal State East Bay, Cal State San Marcos, Cal State LA, Can State Monterey Bay, University of California-Merced, Can State Dominguez Hills and San Francisco State.

Clare Largent: Following a four-year varsity career at Enumclaw High, Largent will head just a bit north and join the program at Seattle Pacific University.

The Falcons, under the direction of head coach Arby Busey, are members of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The squad is coming off a 2025 season that ended with an overall record of 8-5-7 that included a 6-3-5 record in conference play. That landed the Falcons in fourth place in the eight-team GNAC.

Other member schools are Western Washington, Simon Fraser, Western Oregon, Norhwest Nazarene, Central Washington, Saint Martin’s and Montana State-Billings.

During the fall soccer season, Largent was a midfield force and was named a first team, all-NPSL 3A selection.

Gavin Trachte: A two-year starter for the successful Enumclaw High football team, Trachte will take his quarterbacking talents some 300 miles east to the campus of Whitworth University.

At the conclusion of the fall season, Trachte shared first team, all-NPSL 3A honors. He had received second team accolades as a junior.

Whitworth is a small, private Christian university located on the north side of Spokane. Athletically, the Pirates sport crimson and black colors and compete in the Northwest Conference at the NCAA Division III level.

Trachte will join a stable and successful program headed by coach Rod Sandberg, who has spent a dozen years at the Pirate helm. During the fall season he guided the squad to an undefeated record in conference play, the accompanying NWC championship and an NCAA playoff appearance.

Aside from Whitworth, the Northwest Conference includes Pacific Lutheran University, George Fox University, Lewis and Clark University, Pacific University, the University of Puget Sound and Willamette University.

Nik Storem: The Hornet lineman will head across the country to suit up for the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles, trading the familiar Pete’s Pool turf for Tucker Stadium in Cookeville, Tennessee, and its 16,500 seats.

The move to the college ranks follows an EHS career that saw Storem earn first team, all-league honors as both a junior and senior.

He heads south at an interesting time. Tennessee Tech has competed lately in the Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Football Association which includes schools in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as Tennessee. Tennessee Tech announced it will be joining the Southern Conference effective July 1 of this year, joining the University of Tennessee-Chatanooga, The Citadel, East Tennessee State, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Virginia Military Institute, Western Carolina, Wofford College and Furman, Mercer and Samford universities.

Cole Chiechi and Hunter Anderson: Enumclaw’s standout seniors will soon pack their bags and head for Southwest Washington, where they will join the baseball program at Clark College.

The Penguins participate in the Northwest Athletic Conference, a 28-team affiliation that spans three states and a Canadian province. Vancouver-based Clark College is in the West Region, along with Lower Columbia, Tacoma, Olympic, Centralia, Pierce and Grays Harbor.

The Penguins have built a proud program under coach Mark Magdaleno who, during seven years at the helm, has seen 74 of his players head off to play for four-year colleges.

Zane Wirkkala and Levi Gruner: This Hornet soccer duo will travel thousands of miles to the East Coast, trading the halls of Enumclaw High for the small campus of Patrick Henry College.

PHC is a private, liberal arts college and is found in Purcellville, Virginia, about 40 miles from Washington, D.C. In the world of higher education it is fairly new, opening its doors to students in 2000, and has an enrollment numbering in the hundreds.

Gruner and Wirkkala, currently in the midst of their senior seasons at Enumclaw High, have spent their days on the pitch under the direction of coach Shawn Tobius. In Virginia they will compete as Sentinels as members of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association.

Sports is a small part of the student experience, as PHC fields just four teams – men’s and women’s soccer and men’s and women’s basketball.