Image provided by: West Linn High School; West Linn, OR
About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2008)
2008 7 R Swim Team falls just short of State u C hris E rbin ________________ Staff R eporter The fear that dogged the Swim Team becam e reality at D istricts on Feb. 9 when the top two team s from the Three Rivers League, Lake Oswego and Lakeridge, advanced to State leaving the third place Lions behind. At D istricts, the Lions finished a solid third, but were far from com peting for the state slots. In order for individuals to qualify for State, they had to win their respective com petition, a feat no West Linn swimmer was able to accom plish. The Lions' best result of the day came in the 200 meter backstroke, when Josie Sells, junior, finished a close second to Lake Oswego's top swimmer, a senior. This offers Sells a good opportunity to make the prestigious trip to State next year. She also finished third in the 50 m eter freestyle. Many girls also recorded some of their best results of the year. Hayley M cCrae, sophomore, reached the finals in the 200 freestyle, .as did Rosa Bhutarak, Other standouts included Alexandria Namhie, senior, and Jessica Broberg, freshman. 'W e had a good finish to the season," Namhie said, "As a senior, it’s sad to see it all go by so fast, but it was an amazing season." Much like the girls, many of the boys realized new personal records. Many com petitors swam their best races in the final meet of file season. Thomas Lord and Thomas Lord, senior, engraves the West Alexander Jonsson, Linn emblem onto the head of Kenneth seniors, also recorded Salkoski, sophomore. Head shaving was impressive tim es in one of many pre - district festivities. their final races as Photo submitted by M ary Milton Lions. The swim teams sophomore, in the 200 in the earned a split in a meet Individual Medley. against Putnam prior to "The w ater was freezing!" D istricts to conclude the said Bhutarak, who was regular season. The Kingsmen com peting in Varsity D istricts possessed a surprisingly for the first tim e, "Our girls did great. We had more people strong team this season, particularly on the boys side. make it to the finals this year The boys squad defeated than last." Lakeridge earlier in the year, a team that was projected to finish first in the TRL this season. It was a com pletely Boys' Basketball Team falls in away game at Milwaukie m N icholas A rntz c o -E d ito r-in -C h ie f o The Boys' Varsity Basketball Team hope to m ake the "elite eight" in playoffs, but lost to M ilw aukie, 59-70, on Feb. 15 in an aw ay contest. Aaron Dow ns, head coach, is still optim istic about the team 's chances of reaching the playoffs prior to the gam e. Their trem endous efforts and ability to "gel" as a team , according to Dow ns, m akes them very talented athletes. "Their ability to play together as a team m akes them one of the m ost skilled team s I've ever coached. They get along on and off the court and play w ell off of each others strengths," Downs said. Currently, Justin M onahan, senior, leads the team in average points per gam e w ith 17.3 points. According to Downs, Spencer Flores, senior, and Ryan Barnes, junior, have stepped up, along w ith Jeff Bush, sophom ore, who has really advanced the team throughout the last couple gam es. W est Linn, after a back- % and-forth battle against Lakeridge on Feb. 5, squeezed out a 59-55 w in, in w hat w as a m ust w in gam e for the Lions. M onahan carried the team w ith 34 of the 59 points, w ith the rem aining points sp lit betw een Flores, Barnes, Bush and Ryan Cathcart, senior. W ith that w in, the team m oved into fourth place, still in contention for the final playoff spot. However, the Lions did not fare as w ell against the Oregon C ity Pioneers on Feb. 12. W ith the first quarter yielding only five points for W est Linn, their com eback in the rem aining quarters came too late. Barnes and Bush tied for point leader w ith 10 points each. W est Linn lost to Oregon City, 48-70, dropping them to fifth in the league and tem porarily suspending their playoff spot, this was a good effort against the num ber one ranked team in the TRL. "It has been a good season. They're fun to coach," Downs said. If the team trium phs in the next couple of gam es, they w ill earn a fourth place standing in the league, and w ill l?e w ell on their w ay to the playoffs and their goal of the 'elite eight." The next tw o gam es, against Lake Oswego on Feb. 2 2,7 :1 5 p.m . at Lake Oswego and Putnam on Feb. 2 8,7:15 p.m . at hom e should be really close and intense, according to Dow ns. W inning these are vital to the success if they hope to m ake the playoffs. different story for the girls, as they routed the Kingsmen, winning 98-62, but the Kingsmen boys earned an 87- 77 victory over the Lions. The girls won all but two events in the victory. The Lions got off to a strong start w ith a win in the 200 medley relay. The team of W hitney Finnerty, junior, along with Sells, Bhutarak and Broberg, got the meet off on the right foot. McCrae followed with a win in the 200 freestyle and Bhutarak picked up her first individual victory in the 200 individual medley. Broberg then cruised to a j^ictory in the 100 butterfly w hile Sells captured the 100 freestyle. Sells swam in three consecutive events. After winning the 100 freestyle she was on the second place 200 freestyle relay team along with Kaytlin Coffman, Anna Koll, seniors, and Sara Lord, freshman. She then swam her best event, the 100 backstroke, and won it easily. Finnerty followed with a win in the 100 breaststroke and the 400 freestyle relay team of Mary M ilton, senior, Coffman, Namhie, and Karleen Schuler, junior, won the final event of the day for the girls. ‘1 think everyone's done a good job keeping up with the rest of the league, we all did awesome this year," M ilton said. On the boys side, Putnam's depth was evident early on, and dominated the com petition throughout. Lord took second in the 50 freestyle and Brian Laderote, junior, was the runner up in the 100 freestyle. Arthur To, freshman, also recorded a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke. But, even though Putnam had clinched the meet at that point, the Lions finished w ell, winning the last two events of the day. Kevin Sellers, sophomore, won the 100 breaststroke just one event after competing on the 200 freestyle relay. Finally, the 400 Freestyle Relay Team of Lord, Jonsson, A nders K oll, sophomore, and Hans Fam bach, junior, won the final event. Wrestlers surprise opponents at Districts u J on H elmkamp __________ _ S taff R eporter A fter predictions the V arsity W restling Team w ould m ost lik ely reach no higher than fourth place in D istricts, the team cam e out in the highly com petitive Three R ivers League. G iven the toughest schedule in ' the state, this young team decided to do w hat it does b est and fight through itA w hich proved challenging. Donald Paulson, sophomore, grapples with a Clackamas Cavalier wrestler during Districts. Paulson took first in his weight class at D is tr ic ts an d e a rn e d h im s e lf th ird o l a c f a t , St at e. Photo b y iracie Krellwitz and pu t on a show , earning a second place finish to O regon City. 'T h e Lions have not placed low er than second since 1984. This year is a , rebuilding year and w e w ere still able to take second in D istricts," G eoff Bingham , assistant w restling coach, said . D ue to a lack o f seniors, underclassm en have borne the burden o f com peting D espite their record, Bingham is optim istic. "O u r kids took their lum ps this year and w ill be better for next year," he said. E ight grapplers earned a trip to State, the lone senior being D evan Schiew e at 140 lbs. The other seven include A ndrew Kim at 119 lbs., M itchell G aulke at 285 lbs., ju n iors, Sam Ihrig at 103 lbs., D onald Paulson at 112 lbs., M ichael M acC lanathan at 171 lbs., sophom ores, and Travis Schutzler at 130 lbs., freshm an. Last year in State, Paulson took seventh and Kim took eighth. A ll eight o f this year's com petitors had to place in the top three in their w eight classes at D istricts to advance to State. A ccording to Bingham , the eight State qualifiers have the potential to place high. "I think w e did really w ell this year, b etter than expected because w e're so young. To get ready for State w e've been doing a lot o f live w restling, trying to im prove our skills before this w eekend," Schutzler said. There is a great am ount o f pride in being a Lion w restler. The Lions have a long trad ition of success— an 11 year streak o f w inning D istrict and a 23 year streak o f finishing second or higher. State w as held last Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the M em orial Coliseum in Portland. The State Tournam ent is set up as a double elim ination bracket system . Paulson had lost in the sem i-finals, and after w inning his next m atch, took third in his w eight class. H e w as the only w restler this year w ho placed.
