Sports
7A
Tuesday, August 18, 2020
Th e Observer
Creech becomes weightlifting champion
La Grande softball
player sets record
despite pandemic
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
LA GRANDE — When
her junior softball season
was canceled due to the
coronavirus pandemic,
Harley Creech found an
outlet in weightlifting.
“I was stuck at home
for a while, obviously, so I
was looking for something
to do because I didn’t
have softball practice and
wasn’t able to go out and
do the things I normally
do,” she said.
Before the summer
was even halfway over,
she had become a record-
breaking state champion.
Creech, who will be a
senior at La Grande High
School this fall, won her
division in the Eastside
Invitational in Springfi eld
July 25. In the process,
Creech set a state record
not only in the youth girls
division — she posted
marks that were records in
the division above her, the
women’s junior division.
Creech, 17, recorded
a lift of 192 pounds in
the clean and jerk, a per-
sonal record by 2 pounds,
and added a mark of 146
pounds in the snatch,
which was 3 pounds off
her personal best in the
lift.
“I was pretty nervous,
but I think the adrena-
line defi nitely helped me,”
she said. “On a normal
training day you don’t hit
Staff photo by Ronald Bond
Incoming La Grande High School senior Harley Creech trains Saturday, Aug. 1 at Eagle Cap Crossfi t, La Grand. Creech
won the Eastside Invitational July 25 in Springfi eld and in the process set records in two divisions. She is set to compete
at the junior nationals in December in Atlanta, Georgia.
“I was pretty nervous, but I think the adrenaline defi nitely helped me.”
— Harley Creech, on winning her division in a recent weightlifting competion
those kinds of numbers.”
She also surged to sixth
in the nation as a youth
and as a junior.
Both of Creech’s par-
ents lift, and she said she
had lifted with them spo-
radically, but when school
and sports were brought to
a halt, she started a lifting
program with her father.
“That was something
to keep me busy during
the day,” she said of the
12-week program.
When they started the
program, she could lift
125 pounds in the snatch
Rival Blazers, Lakers open
playoff action Tuesday
The Associated Press
LAKE BUENA VISTA,
Fla. — The Los Angeles
Lakers’ path to a 17th
championship looks awfully
perilous from the outset,
and not just because the
Western Conference’s top
seeds have struggled in the
bubble.
Damian Lillard by him-
self is enough to make any
team worry about its post-
season prospects, yet the
bubble MVP is just one
challenge looming before
the Lakers.
The Lakers’ dubious
reward for perseverance
in an extraordinarily chal-
lenging and particularly
tragic season is no prize at
all: They must begin their
quest against the streaking
Trail Blazers and Lillard,
who has lit up the Lakers
and just about everybody
else for years.
“Defi nitely not your
typical eighth seed,” fi rst-
year Lakers coach Frank
Vogel said. “They played
at an elite level during this
stretch in the bubble, at
least offensively.”
What’s more, the Lakers
have only a nominal home-
court advantage when the
fi rst-round series begins
Tuesday. They’ll play in the
near-silent bubble instead
of a sold-out Staples Center
cheering this beloved fran-
chise’s fi rst playoff appear-
ance since 2013.
After going 3-5 in the
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Joe Horst
bubble with unusually
poor play by their nor-
mally sturdy defense, not
much looks certain for the
Lakers — except the leader-
ship of LeBron James, who
has already done just about
everything possible in the
NBA postseason.
Even if their fans must
watch from afar, the Lakers
still ended their streak of
six straight non-playoff sea-
sons — an unprecedented
embarrassment for the
NBA’s glamour franchise.
Everything changed
when Anthony Davis
agreed to join LA from
New Orleans last summer,
and the Lakers spent the
year quickly building a
cohesive team that could
handle the rigors of a post-
season run.
Lillard presented an
entirely different set of
challenges, particularly
in the confi nes of a sev-
en-game series.
“He’s balling right now,”
Davis said. “He’s hot. He’s
doing whatever he can do
to make his team win. He’s
carrying the load, playing
a ton of minutes. He’s the
head of the snake for their
team, and you’ve got to do
your best to contain him,
take away some of his ten-
dencies, but they also have
other guys to make plays as
well. They’re a tough oppo-
nent, but everybody knows
that level he’s on and his
mindset.”
Portland had to win the
fi rst play-in postseason
NBA game since 1956 to
reach this spot, beating
Memphis 126-122 on
Saturday.
and 170 in the clean and
jerk.
“We saw a lot of
improvement over those
12 weeks, so we wanted
to see what else I could do
with an actual coach who
could help me,” she said.
The search led them to
an Olympic weightlifting
coach on the other side of
the state.
“We found a coach to
see how it went,” she said.
“I’ve been lifting with my
parents a little bit — not
Olympic lifting but more
powerlifting for a while
— but this is new.”
Her coach, Mason
Kobernik, is based in
the Portland area, so
Creech would receive a
training regimen from
him and send videos to be
analyzed.
Everything headed into
the state competition in
Springfi eld was foreign
for the teenager — and her
family.
“I had no idea what
to expect because I had
never been to one and my
parents have never been to
one,” she said.
It was also the fi rst
time she met her coach in
person, though she thinks
that could have fueled her
drive.
“That added to the
stress, I guess, but the
nerves defi nitely were an
advantage because of the
adrenaline,” she said.
As it turned out, the
fi rst-timer put up a near
perfect performance on
her record-setting day.
“I made all three of
my snatches and two out
of three in my clean and
jerks,” she said.
Creech will compete in
the junior nationals, which
will take place in Atlanta,
Georgia, in December.
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