7A
Friday, January 10, 2020
The Observer
Prep wrestling
Top-ranked Tigers bury Baker
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A match-
up of top-fi ve teams Wednes-
day quickly turned into a
rout by the newly christened
No. 1 team in Wednesday’s
4A wrestling coaches poll —
the La Grande Tigers.
In their only dual at La
Grande High School this
season, the Tigers put on
a stunning performance,
recording seven pins and
winning all but two matches
on the way to a 61-7 victory
over rival Baker — which
itself is ranked fourth in the
state.
“Those kids really rose
up,” La Grande head coach
Klel Carson said. “Those
early weights, those young
kids like we were talking
about…they’ve never been
in a dual. All freshmen, and
wrestling state placers.”
Not only wrestling state
placers, but beating many of
them.
After Delia Gulzow won
by forfeit to give the Tigers
an early lead, freshman Bry-
sen Peneloza (113 pounds)
needed only 38 seconds to
pin Caleb Shaw and give La
Grande a 12-0 advantage.
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
La Grande’s Gabe Shukle pinned Baker’s Jaden Martin Wednesday to cap off a dominant dual by the Tigers, who
defeated the Bulldogs 61-7 at La Grande High School.
“I really wanted to win
and start the team off good,”
Peneloza said. “The team did
really good. I thought it was
going to be closer, but we did
really good.”
The tone for the night was
set with Peneloza’s victory.
Josh Collins (120) and Braden
Carson (132) both recorded
second-round pins over Baker
opponents Gavin Stone and
Cody Eskew as La Grande
claimed the fi rst six victories,
surged to a 31-0 margin and
took complete control.
“We lost a couple matches
there that we probably
should have won at 120, 126,
138, (and) once you start do-
ing that, it’s like a steamroll-
er, and it’s hard to get your
team morale turned around,”
Baker head coach Brandon
Young said. “That was kind
of what happened.”
The performance was one
that stunned the LHS head
coach, who before the dual
said he believed there would
be several tough matches.
“I gotta give (Baker) some
credit. They’re rivals, but
they’re really tough. They’re
quite literally probably the
third best team in the state
or maybe the fourth best
team in the state,” coach
Carson said. “I was a little
bit surprised.”
Baker stopped La
Grande’s run with a close 3-2
decision by Jake Eskew over
Braxton Bisenius at 145
and a 16-5 major decision by
Ian Feldmeier over Wyatt
Livingston at 152.
But the rest of the night
belong to the Tigers, who
won four of the fi nal fi ve
matches by fall — none
taking longer than Spencer
Gerst’s 1:20 takedown of
Alex Ritter at 220 pounds
which made the score 55-7.
The exclamation point
came moments after Gerst’s
win. Gabe Shukle (285)
needed only 53 seconds to
pin Jaden Martin to cap
See Tigers / Page 8A
College track and fi eld
Photo by Alex Navarro/EOU Athletics
Eastern Oregon University’s Corey Sledge, shown during last year’s Cascade Colle-
giate Conference meet, is the defending outdoor national champion in the pole vault.
Photo by Alex Navarro/EOU Athletics
Eastern Oregon University’s Payton Jolley, shown during last year’s Cascade Colle-
giate Conference meet, was an all-American in the pole vault in 2019.
Mountaineers have high hopes for track season
■ Men look to build off of last year’s fourth-place CCC finish
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
Eastern Oregon University
men’s track and fi eld team is
blended.
The Mountaineers enter
2020 with a range of ath-
letes from younger athletes
who make up a talented
underclass to more veteran
athletes who have experi-
ence on the biggest stage of
NAIA track and fi eld.
It’s a mix, that, if ev-
erything comes together,
should be in contention for a
Cascade Collegiate Confer-
ence title and, according to
head coach Ben Welch, could
fi nish anywhere from 10th
to 20th at nationals — both
indoor and outdoor.
“With the middle distance
group we have the vault
crew (and) we’re better in
the sprints and jumps than
we were last year. (It’ll) be
interesting to see how it all
comes up,” Welch said.
On the experience end, the
Mountaineers bring back
defending outdoor pole vault
national champion Corey
Sledge, who was among
three vaulters to place in the
top nine at nationals last
spring and part of what he
believes could be the best
vaulting group in the nation.
“As far as our pole vault
squad goes, we should be
No. 1 if not No. 2 in the nation
as a group in NAIA,” he said.
Sledge also expects there
to be more balance across
the team this season.
“We brought in some
really good talent on the
men’s side, especially in the
sprints,” he said. “Where we
were lacking hard last year
was the core sprints. We
have our distance covered
and most of the fi eld events
(covered).”
Dustin Zimmerly and Alex
Navarro also are former all-
Americans, and Zimmerly
has high hopes for himself
and the team.
“We have the strong-
headed guys that are willing
to put in the work to (excel).
Some of them don’t realize
how good they are, so I think
there’s going to be a lot of
guys proving more to them-
selves and gaining a lot of
confi dence this year. We are
still young and we lost quite
a few good bodies,” Zimmerly
said. “With this guys’ group,
we’ve (taken) that as motiva-
tion to step up.”
Zimmerly said from an
individual standpoint, he
wants to fi nish atop the
podium with teammate
Navarro at nationals in the
1,000-meter run.
“I’m hoping we can both
get on the podium, possibly
1-2,” he said. “He’s really,
really fi t, and he’s trained so
hard. It’d be really nice.”
Also among the return-
ers for EOU is last year’s
standout athlete at the CCC
meet, jumper Allex Kosel,
who was the top individual
point scorer.
Kosel said the team has
a good dynamic and there a
competitiveness among the
See Men / Page 8A
■ Women aim for CCC title after taking second a year ago
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
Eastern Oregon University
women’s track and fi eld
team has been on a steady
trajectory upward the past
couple of seasons. Last year
the program claimed a total
of 13 all-Americans between
the indoor and outdoor sea-
sons, landed several Cascade
Collegiate Conference cham-
pions, and as a team took
second at the CCC meet.
And with a still relatively
young group, there is hope
that this team could grab a
CCC title in the spring and
make noise at nationals —
both in the indoor national
meet in early March and the
outdoor national meet in late
May.
“The women I think may-
be have a little more balance
across the event spectrum
(than the men),” EOU head
coach Ben Welch said. “We
have somebody (Maggie
Ledbetter) who has already
qualifi ed for nationals in the
shot, which we haven’t had
for quite a few years. We
have returning all-Amer-
icans in relays, and in the
vault we’re solid, returning
an outdoor all-American in
the women’s vault. We have
a returning all-American
indoors in the long jump. It’s
a pretty balanced group on
the women’s side.”
The Mountaineers indeed
have most of their all-
Americans back both indoors
and outdoors. That includes
senior Paige Dodd, an indoor
all-American in the pentath-
lon and an outdoor all-Amer-
ican in the heptathlon who
has been close to breaking
the program record in the
heptathlon.
“Final year, so I’m obvi-
ously wanting to go out with
a bang. I’ve already noticed
improvement from last year,
so that’s encouraged me to
train more because there’s
so much more in me,” Dodd
said, “especially think-
ing about the things I did
indoor vs. outdoor. I know I
can bring some of that into
indoor this season.”
Dodd said there is a
higher focus and better unity
and attitude among the
team this season than a year
ago. Sprinter Megan Bolton,
who is among the returners
on the all-American 4x400
indoor relay team, said she
also sees where those traits
are stronger than in 2019.
“I think the women’s team
has a lot of unity this year
that they didn’t necessar-
ily have as much last year,
and that (will) help with
the success individually by
supporting each other,” she
said. “I also think the talent
and the drive this particular
group has now makes them
just a step above the group
that we had last year, just
being more determined to
reach goals they set, setting
the goals (and) pushing each
other to do what their goals
are.”
Another of last year’s
all-Americans was Ebony
See Women / Page 8A