Wooding to compete in senior nationals

Sumner High 125-pound senior Tyler Wooding will be winging his way toward Virginia Beach, Va., to compete in the Senior Nationals Wrestling Tournament Thursday through Saturday.

Wooding was invited to the Senior Nationals by virtue of his second-place performance at February’s Class 3A state wrestling tournament in Tacoma. The Senior Nationals committee invites only the first- or second-place finishers in each state’s season-ending tournaments, but only if they are a senior.

Wooding is the first Spartan invited to the national tournament.

At the close of the three-day, double-elimination event, Wooding will have established a national ranking, which is something that he has never had the chance to do before. Additionally, about 300 college scouts will be on hand to observe the high school senior wrestling talent.

Schwartz earns spot at championships

Four Seattle Pacific University gymnasts, including all-arounder Brianna Schwartz, received at-large berths to compete at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships. The USAG national meet is scheduled for April 9-11 in New Haven, Conn.

Schwartz, a Sumner High graduate from Bonney Lake, is one of eight athletes competing for the all-around championship along with individuals from the eight qualifying teams.

Schwartz is coming off a season-best score of 38.575 that placed her third at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships March 20 in Colorado Springs, Colo. That was the highest score this season by an SPU all-arounder.

A senior, Schwartz tied for second place on the bars at the MPSF meet to lead SPU to second place in the team standings with a season-high 191.700 score. She placed third in the all-around at the 2007 USAG meet.

Schwartz may compete before the USAG Championships. She was named as an alternate to the five all-around qualifiers for the NCAA West Region Championships scheduled for Saturday at Washington’s Bank of America Arena.

Seattle Pacific will not compete as a team in New Haven, stopping a streak of 27 consecutive championship meet berths dating to 1982.

The Falcons are listed No. 8 in the final qualifying rankings. Despite the fact that eight teams earned USAG bids, the final spot went to No. 11 Southern Connecticut State due to a provision that grants an automatic berth to the hosting school.

Joining Southern Connecticut in the team competition are Air Force, Bridgeport, Centenary, Cornell, Temple, Texas Women’s University and William and Mary.