A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2017
Herald Sports
Hermiston finishes
Bulldogs posts win in CRC opener
sixth at Reser’s
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HILLSBORO
—
Through his first three
matches at the Res-
er’s
Tournament
of
Champions,
Hermis-
ton 195-pound senior
John-Henry Line won by
a combined four points.
Those close defensive
battles caught up to him
in the championship on
Saturday at Liberty High
School when Sprague’s
Santos Cantu was able to
edge him 3-2 for the cov-
eted title.
Line had earned his
spot in the finals with a
win by that exact score
over Crook County’s
Cade Woodward in the
semifinals, and he was
the only one to advance
from the five Bulldogs
that reached the semis.
Hermiston started the
day tied for fifth and
finished sixth with 132
points.
Padilla, Juul guide
Hermiston girls to win
Roseburg won the
team title with 270, fol-
lowed by Dallas (170),
Newberg (140), Crater
(135.5) and Culver (133)
to round out the top five.
Hermiston 138-pound-
er C.J. Hendon placed
third after bouncing
back from a 10-9 loss to
Sprague’s Michael Mur-
phy in the semifinals.
Hendon pinned Rose-
burg’s Austin David in
2:11 to reach the third-
place match, where he
then beat Kyle Beal of
David Douglas 6-4.
Placing fourth for
Hermiston were Valen
Wyse (160 pounds), Ju-
lio Leiva (170) and Ken-
ny Bevan (220).
Beau Blake (285)
placed fifth, and Adrian
Tuia (145) was sixth.
Hermiston will wres-
tled a dual at Hood River
tonight.
Hermiston Herald
Bulldog swimmers
surge to win late
HOOD RIVER —
Hermiston’s boys swim
team made it two-for-two
on the season by winning
the Hood River Invite on
Saturday.
A week after tying
Pendleton to win both
team’s first meet of the
season last week, the
Bulldogs surged to the
top of the podium with
471 points at Hood River.
Pendleton was a dis-
tant second with 277,
and they were followed
by Hood River with 263
and The Dalles with 225.
Hood River won the
girls’ meet with 619,
Pendleton was second
with 493, The Dalles
was third with 388 and
Hermiston was fourth
with 164.
Hermiston’s win again
came with a strong show-
ing from its relays as it
placed second and third
in both the 200-yard
medley and freestyle,
and second and fifth in
the 400 freestyle to score
194 team points.
Hermiston scored the
bulk of its points by plac-
ing several swimmers in
each individual event,
though. Points were
awarded down to 16th
place.
Taking first for the
Bulldogs was Carson
Wrathall in the 200-
yard freestyle in a time
of 2:04.53. He also was
second in the 100 free
(54.78) and Ryan Bar-
nard placed second in
two events, the 100 but-
terfly (59.84) and 100
backstroke (1:05.01.)
Hermiston will be
back in the pool on Sat-
urday at a meet in La
Grande.
IN BRIEF
Students will
represent Hermiston
at state contest
HERMISTON — Two
Hermiston students will
represent their team at
the State Hoop Shoot bas-
ketball tournament next
month, after winning the
local Elks Lodge District
Hoop Shoot Jan. 15.
Wyatt Browne and Luis
Flores will travel to Mil-
waukee to compete in the
statewide event Feb. 11.
The District Hoop Shoot,
held at Sandstone Middle
School, hosted students
ages 8 through 13, repre-
senting Elks Lodges from
around northeastern Or-
egon. Students have 25
chances to make as many
free throws as possible.
Competitions
were
divided into three age
groups. The winners for
the 8-9 year-old age group
were Leopoldi Longoria
and Lorelai Keefauver.
The 10-11 year-old win-
ners were Wyatt Browne
and Gianna Medelez, and
Luis Flores and JaLay
Burns won the 12-13 year-
old category.
Cheer clinic
offers instruction,
performance
HERMISTON — A
kids’ cheer clinic is of-
fered to youths in first
through eighth grades.
Participants will per-
form during halftime of
the Friday, Feb. 3 varsity
boys basketball game at
Hermiston.
The clinic is Feb. 1-2
from 6-7:15 p.m. in the
Main Commons at Herm-
iston High School, 600 S.
First St. The cost is $30,
which includes a T-shirt
and instruction for cheers,
chants, jumps and a dance.
Registration is Monday
Jan. 30 from 5-6 p.m. in
the commons. Those who
pre-register by Friday can
save $5.
For more information,
contact KayLeigh at 541-
701-4467 or kayleigh.
wise@yahoo.com.
Softball camp set
for February
HERMISTON
—
Youths wanting to get an
edge before hitting the
softball diamond can at-
tend a pitching and catch-
ing camp.
The camp is open to
ages 6-14 and is offered
Feb. 5, 19 and 26 (begin-
ning skills form 5-6 p.m.
and intermediate from
6:15-7:15 p.m.) at Rocky
Heights
Elementary
School 650 W. Standard
Ave., Hermiston. The cost
is $25 for all three or $10
each. All pitchers must
bring a catcher and wear
indoor shoes.
For more information
or to register, contact
Shellie Rysdam at 541-
667-6100 (ext. 20005),
Lindy
Thompson
at
541-667-6115 or kate.
greenough@hermiston.
k12.or.us. To guarantee
a T-shirt, participants
should register by Sunday,
Jan. 29.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s Hayden Meyers drives past The Dalles’ Jodi Thomasian in the
Bulldogs’ 53-36 win over the Riverhawks on Monday in Hermiston.
HERMISTON — A flat start
by Hermiston’s shooters gave The
Dalles a glimmer of hope, but the
Bulldogs didn’t let it last as they ral-
lied in the second quarter and took
control of Monday’s Columbia Riv-
er Conference game at The Dawg-
house.
Maddy Juul and Kynzee Padilla
both turned in double-doubles and
Hermiston pulled away in its CRC
opener 53-36 for its fifth win in a row.
Padilla posted team-highs of 13
points and 14 rebounds, and Juul
finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds
and five assists.
“Our identity started to show to-
night,” said Hermiston coach Juan
Rodriguez. “Coming into the season
I thought our strength was going to be
our posts, so to see both of them with
double-doubles was really good.”
Jazlyn Romero also added 11
points to go with seven rebounds
from her guard position, and Rile-
igh Andreason finished with eight
points.
Andreason got Hermiston (7-7,
1-0 CRC) out of its funk with back-
to-back 3-pointers to start a 10-0 run
in the second quarter.
“That was a big sigh of relief for
everybody,” Rodriguez said. “The
Dalles had to start coming out on
her, and that opened things up in-
side.”
Hermiston was down by 10 be-
fore its run, and never trailed again
after taking the lead by using strong
offensive rebounding to keep its of-
fense churning.
Rodriguez said he attributed the
slow start to the team’s inability to
get in a good practice after the game
was rescheduled from Friday and an
AAU tournament monopolized the
courts over the weekend.
Iliana Telles and Brooke McCall
each scored 10 points to lead The
Dalles (4-6, 0-1).
Webb’s hot hand leads Vikings to win
UMATILLA — On Sat-
urday morning, the Uma-
tilla boys basketball team
held a shootaround to pre-
pare for the evening’s game
against Nyssa.
During the shootaround,
Umatilla coach Derek Lete
said that senior Kaden
Webb put up a lot of shots,
so much so that Lete had
to tell Webb to ‘Save your-
self for the game’ to which
Webb replied ‘I’ll be fine
coach.’
After Saturday night’s
game, it’s safe to say
Webb’s extra shots paid off
as he scored a game-high 30
points to help his Vikings
knock off the defending
league champion Nyssa 66-
39 at Umatilla High School.
“He was just in a zone,”
Lete said of Webb. “He was
6-9 from 3-point range and
had five in the third quarter,
which was our big quarter, and
that stretch really fueled us.”
Lete said he was proud
of his team’s defensive
effort, holding defending
EOL Player of the Year An-
dres Gonzalez of Nyssa to
just two points and the Bull-
dogs’ leading scorer Boston
Thompson scoreless.
Umatilla followed up the
win with a 63-37 win over
Burns on Monday.
ECHO 64, HELIX 60,
OT — At Helix, the Cou-
gars came out on top of a
back-and-forth Old Oregon
League game that saw the
teams tied at 53 when reg-
ulation ended.
Morgan Marcum paced
all scorers with 28 points
for Echo (5-12, 4-4 OOL),
and Klay Jensen added 14
points as the Cougars won
their third in a row.
Echo’s next game is Fri-
day when it hosts Pine Ea-
gle at 7:30 p.m.
GIRLS
BASKETBALL
ECHO 37, HELIX 29
— At Helix, the Echo Cou-
gars outscored the Helix
Grizzlies 16-4 in the fourth
quarter to pull away with
a 37-29 victory on Satur-
day night in an Old Oregon
League match-up.
Devyn Tarvin led Echo
(13-4, 6-2 OOL) with 15
points and Hannah Mc-
Carty had 11 points. Sadie
Wilson and Emma Fehren-
backer each scored eight
points to lead Helix (6-6,
2-4). Wilson also led Helix
with 14 rebounds.
Echo hosts Pine Eagle
on Friday at 6 p.m.
NYSSA 45, UMATIL-
LA 32 — At Umatilla, the
Vikings couldn’t overcome
a slow start that saw them
staring at a 27-8 halftime
deficit as the Nyssa Bull-
dogs went on to win 45-32
on Saturday night in East-
ern Oregon League play.
Aleesha Watson and
Lauryn Journot each scored
14 points apiece for Umatil-
la (6-10, 1-2 EOL), provid-
ing the bulk of the Vikings
offensive firepower. Char-
lina Lancaster led Nyssa
with 11 points.
Umatilla lost to Burns
39-36 on Monday.
Hermiston looking to join Washington conference
Hermiston hoping
to leave OSAA by
2018 to save on
travel time
Hermiston Herald
HERMISTON — On
the verge of moving up to
a larger conference, the
Hermiston School District
is looking north to give its
athletes a place to compete
without having to make the
round-trip to Portland all
season long.
The district announced
Monday it is exploring the
possibility of joining the
Washington Interscholas-
tic Activities Association
(WIAA) by the fall of 2018.
“Hermiston School Dis-
trict is facing a challenge as
Hermiston High School’s
enrollment continues to in-
crease,” the district said in a
press release. “The growth
will move HHS to the
state’s highest classification
in the OSAA. This brings
up the issue that there are no
similarly sized high schools
within 175 miles of Herm-
iston for competition.”
The current proposal be-
fore the OSAA has Hermis-
ton joining the 6A Mt. Hood
Conference with an average
travel distance for league
games of 179.25 miles. The
average travel distance for
Hermiston in the Columbia
River Conference is 85.67.
Hermiston
estimates
its travel would top 3,000
miles per season for league
games alone would it re-
main with the OSAA’s plan.
Hermiston Athletic Di-
rector Larry Usher, who
voiced concerns over trav-
el when interviewed for a
story titled “Bulldogs eying
move up” that ran by the
Jan. 11 edition of the Herm-
iston Herald, took a harder
stance in the district’s re-
lease.
“This could increase the
school’s travel costs by up
to 60 percent, and students
could miss up to 30 percent
of their classes in a giv-
en month for their athletic
events, which is unaccept-
able,” he said.
The more attractive op-
tion for Usher is hitching
Hermiston’s wagon to the
WIAA’s
Mid-Columbia
League along with Kenne-
wick, Kamiakin and South-
ridge — teams the Bulldogs
regularly play in non-
league competition already.
Which leads to Hermis-
ton’s other main issue with
the OSAA — it’s ranking
system.
The OSAA’s Rated Per-
centage Index (RPI) deter-
mines postseason seeding,
and in some cases even
postseason berths. The RPI
does not factor in out-of-
state opponents, and favors
teams that schedule games
within their classifications.
It’s why Hermiston’s
boys basketball team has
taken four trips to the Port-
land area for games and
tournaments this season,
and dealt with multiple
cancellations, rather than
play smaller local teams
like Umatilla and Stan-
field.
Usher said the WIAA
still needs to agree to the
move, but the Bulldogs
also have some outside
backers in their corner.
“I believe we are still
facing an uphill battle
with the WIAA, and we
completely understand if
they are hesitant,” he said.
“Something new is not al-
ways easy for any group,
but this is about our kids in
Hermiston and this uphill
battle is certainly worth it.
We have the full support
of every school across the
river in the Mid-Columbia
Conference and certainly
hope that pulls some weight
with their association.”
Should
Hermiston
leave, the OSAA would
lose one of its most suc-
cessful programs of the
last 10 seasons, which
have seen the Bulldogs win
13 teams titles in wrestling
(9), girls tennis (2), boys
cross country and football.