The Top 15 female athletes from the South Sound since 2000
On New Year’s Eve, 1999, The News Tribune produced a list of the Top 100 high school athletes to come out of the South Sound in the 20th century, just before we ventured into the new millennium. The area — roughly bounded by Kent to the north, Eatonville to the south and Enumclaw and Shelton to the east and west for the purposes of the project— produced some great athletes over the years.
Since then? It’s been more of the same. Our rapidly-growing pocket of the Pacific Northwest has continued to produce incredible athletes over the past 20 years, from World Series and Super Bowl champions, to Olympic athletes, basketball stars and more.
THE CRITERIA
While TNT’s century list focused on prep athletes, looking solely at their accomplishments during high school, we thought it would be fun to take a more comprehensive look at each athlete’s entire career, accounting for their whole body of work, from high school to college to professional achievements.
To be considered, athletes had to attend South Sound high schools and graduate in 2000 or later.
We decided to split our selections into two lists: 15 men and 15 women. Naturally, it’s not an easy task to whittle down so many great athletes this area has seen over the past 20 years, but we’ll give it a shot.
Here are the Top 15 women, presented alphabetically. The list of Top 15 men publishes later this week.
Hannah Cunliffe
In her senior year, the Federal Way High School track star won Class 4A state titles in the 100-meters (11.96 seconds), the 200-meters (24.66) and the 4x100 relay (47.34) in 2014. Went on to the University of Oregon, where Cunliffe became a four-time All-American for the Ducks and the NCAA Champion. Cunliffe won the 2017 indoor national title in the 60-meters (7.14 seconds) and broke the collegiate record at the Don Kirby Collegiate Invitational in February that season, clocking in at 7.07 seconds at the University of New Mexico.
Christal Engle (Morrison)
Before she became a prolific player for UW and continued on professionally in beach volleyball, Engle was a standout for Puyallup High School, the 2003 Washington State Gatorade Player of the Year and also a state placer in track and field. For the Huskies, she became the school’s first four-time All-American and four-time All-Pac-12 player, leaving the program as its most decorated athlete. When she wrapped up her senior season, Thompson was the program’s career leader in kills (1,859), attacks (4,726) and points (2,188). She was named the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player when the Huskies won their only national title in 2005, and paced the program to the national semifinals in three consecutive seasons from 2004-06.
Brie Felnagle
A star cross country runner for Bellarmine Prep, Felnagle won the Class 4A state cross country titles her junior and senior seasons, including a 17 minute, 53 second personal record time to win the title as a senior at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco in 2004. In her senior track season in 2005, Felnagle won the 1,600 and 3,200 meter titles. She took the silver medal in the 2005 Nike Outdoor Nationals in the mile. At the University of North Carolina, Felnagle was an indoor national champion in the distance medley relay, outdoor national champion in the 1,500 meters and was a cross country All-American. Competed for Team USA in national competitions and Olympic Trials.
Andrea Geubelle
The Curtis High School product was a seven-time state champion in the long jump, triple jump and 100 meters, and was the state record holder in the triple jump when she graduated in 2009. She continued her track and field career at Kansas and was a three-time NCAA champion for the Jayhawks in the long jump and triple jump. Geubelle is also a four-time medalist at the USA Indoor Championships int he long jump and triple jump. She competed for the United States at the 2016 Olympics.
Megan Jendrick (Quann)
The Emerald Ridge grad, who attended Pacific Lutheran University and Arizona State, is a decorated Olympian. Representing the United States as a 16-year-old high schooler, she won two gold medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, clocking in at 1 minute, 7.05 seconds in the 100-meter breaststroke and 3:58.30 as part of the 4x100 medley relay. She also won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Bejing, again on the 4x100 relay team, which came in at 3:53.30. She set 27 American records and four world records in her swimming career.
Ariana Kukors
The Auburn Mountainview High School grad was already one of the nation’s top-ranked swimmers in high school. At 15, she won her first national championship in the 400-meter individual medley and at 16, repeated in the 400 and added a title in the 200-meter IM. She took fifth place in the 200-meter individual medley at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Kukors won a total of seven medals in major international competition: two golds, three silvers and two bronze medals.
Adrienne Martelli
She ran cross country and played basketball at Curtis High School, but Martelli became a world-class athlete when she walked on to the rowing team at UW and made a quick impact. The Huskies won a Pac-10 title her sophomore season and an NCAA championship in the women’s varsity four event to cap an undefeated season. Martelli was an All-American and All-Pac-10 rower before she joined the United States national team and eventually became a two-time Olympian, competing in both 2012 — the U.S. won a bronze in quadruple sculls in London — and 2016. She is also a four-time medalist at the World Rowing Championships. Martelli is now an assistant coach for the women’s rowing team at Cal.
Alex Montgomery
The Lincoln High School product was The News Tribune’s co-All-Area player of the year as a senior in 2007 with Kentwood’s Courtney Vandersloot, averaging 22.3 points, 18.8 rebounds, eight assists and 6.4 blocks per game. Montgomery had seven quadruple-doubles and a quintuple-double — 27 points, 22 rebounds, 10 assists, 10 blocks and 10 steals — against Central Kitsap that year. She played four collegiate seasons at Georgia Tech, averaging 12.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.8 steals across 124 games, and had 1,565 career points. Montgomery was selected 10th overall in the 2011 WNBA Draft by the New York Liberty, and also played for the San Antonio Stars and Chicago Sky in her eight seasons. She compiled 902 points, 735 rebounds, 252 assists, 112 steals and 45 blocks across 2016 games. Montgomery became the Steilacoom High School girls basketball coach in 2016.
Sadena Parks
The Bethel High School product won a pair of Class 4A golf titles for the Braves in 2006 and 2008 before heading to play collegiately at UW. In four seasons with the Huskies, Parks played 120 rounds and was the program’s top finisher in eight events during her career. She had 17 top-25 finishes and three top-10 finishes. She turned professional in 2013, has a pair of professional wins and has played on the LPGA Tour.
Miesha Tate
A 2005 girls state champion wrestler at Franklin Pierce High School, Tate began her professional mixed martial arts career in 2007. She compiled an 18-7 record as a professional fighter from 2007 to 2016, the highlight of which came in 2016, when Tate defeated Holly Holm by technical submission to win the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship. Along with Ronda Rousey, Tate was a key player in popularizing the women’s divisions in the UFC. Tate retired after losses to Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington.
Courtney Schwan
A two-time Washington State Gatorade Player of the Year, Schwan led the Lions to consecutive Class 4A volleyball titles her junior and senior seasons. She was also a MaxPreps All-American her final year. Schwann was a three-time TNT All-Area Player of the Year before heading to UW to play collegiately. She was a two-time All-Pac-12 first-teamer in 2016 and 2017, the Pac-12 Player of the Year in 2016, a two-time All-American and finished her career with 1,118 kills, 957 digs, 183 blocks and 82 aces. She also played four seasons of beach volleyball at UW and an All-Pac-12 player. She plays professionally in Europe.
Courtney Thompson
A two-time Olympian, Thompson started her decorated volleyball career as a standout for Kentlake High School, where she won three consecutive Class 4A titles from 2000-02. She was named the Washington State Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior in 2002 before continuing to collect accolades in four seasons at UW. Her freshman season there, the setter set the program’s single-season assists record with 1,590 and led the Pac-10 in assists per game. She broke her own record as a sophomore with 1,643 assists, and again led the conference in assists per game. She led the nation in assists per game as a junior with 14.89, helping the Huskies to a national championship, and her 14.5 assists per game her senior year again led all players nationally. She finished her career with a Pac-10-record 6,531 career assists, and set an NCAA record with her 14.56 assists per game. She was a three-time All-American at UW and three-time All-Pac-10 first-teamer. Thompson continued her career with the United States national team. Among her international accolades, she competed for the U.S. in the Olympics twice, helping the national team to a silver medal in 2012 and bronze in 2016.
Courtney Vandersloot
The Kentwood High School grad led the Conquerors to 28-1 overall record and a third-place finish in the Class 4A state basketball tournament in 2007, averaging 26 points and seven assists during her senior year. At Gonzaga University, Vandersloot was the West Coast Conference player of the year three times for the Bulldogs. She became the first Division I player, male or female, to accumulate 2,000 points and 1,000 assists in her career. She was selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft by the Chicago Sky. Vandersloot, a two-time WNBA All-Star (2011, 2019), led the league in assists in 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and holds the all-time WNBA records for most assists in a season (300), highest assists-per-game in a season (9.1), and highest career assists-per-game (6.2).
Morgan Weaver
The Curtis High School grad was The News Tribune’s All-Area girls soccer player of the year three consecutive times, from 2013-15. In her senior year, she scored 36 goals with 11 assists for the Vikings, leading Curtis to a share of the 4A SPSL title and the 4A state quarterfinals. Ranks in the Top 10 in several all-time categories after her career at WSU, including second in goals (43), second in points (98) and first in postseason goals (six). Weaver was named third-team All-America by the United Soccer Coaches in her senior season, becoming the second All-American in program history. Led the Cougars to their first College Cup in 2019. She was selected No. 2 overall by the Portland Thorns in the 2020 NWSL Draft.
Kim West (Butler)
Currently the girls basketball coach at Bellarmine Prep, West was once a standout athlete for the Lions in basketball, soccer and track. She was an all-state soccer player and led Bellarmine to the Class 4A state title in 2000. She also helped the Lions basketball team to back-to-back appearances in the Kingdome in 1999 and 2000. West continued her basketball career at Santa Clara before transferring to play her final to seasons at Oregon State, finished second in the Pac-10 in scoring (18.2 points per game) as a senior and compiled 576 points in her two years with the Beavers. She earned a training camp invite with the Los Angeles Sparks before heading to play overseas in Europe. She also played for Great Britain’s team in the 2012 Olympics.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 8:32 AM.
