Image provided by: West Linn High School; West Linn, OR
About The amplifier. (West Linn, Oregon) 1921-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2009)
12 Sports M ard# Future looks bright as Swim Team sends four to ^ M ax H ays _______________ Staff Reporter It was a loud and exciting weekend at the Lake Oswego pool on Feb. 14, where people were going crazy according to Josie Sells, senior captain. It was a day filled with nerves and emotion which did not distract the Lions, who were on a mission to show that they could compete with the always dominant Lakeridge and Lake Oswego. The District Meet started out rough for the Lions, with the Girls' 200 Medley Relay team being disqualified. The boys' relay team of Gunnar Wolfe, freshman, Kevin Sellers, junior, and John Bonoff and Brian Laderoute, seniors, quickly picked up the slack, finishing third in the 200 Medley Relay with a time good enough to qualify for State. This was the first time in three years that anyone from West Linn has qualified for State. Wolfe placed second in an exciting race qualifying for State and posting a time of 22.08 in the 50 Yard Freestyle, he was outtouched by Caleb Stockwell, senior, of Clackamas. Wolfe also qualified in the 100 Yard Freestyle, once again finishing second. Some of the weekends' best performances came from Jessica Broberg, sophomore, who placed third in the 100 Butterfly and fifth in the 500 Freestyle. Sellers also had a good meet, placing fourth in both the 100 Back and 100 Free. Sells had a strong showing, placing fourth, they showed they skills and strength. This year came in seeded eighteenth, fourth in the 200 Individual could hang with the big was a building year for the and finished sixteenth, just a Medley, and third in the 100 powerhouses in the Three program, and I can only see it second away from qualifying Backstroke. Haley McCrae, Rivers League. improving over the next few for finals. Wolfe, the Lions junior, had a pair of fifth "In the next couple years years," Skinner said. only individual competitor, place finishes, in both the 200 the team is just going to At the State swim meet finished sixth in the 50 Yard Free and 100 Back. Almost get stronger as younger the Lions relay of Sellers, Free and tenth in the 100 Yard everyone recorded at least swimmers develop their Bonoff, Laderoute, and Wolfe Free. one personal best by the end I-------------- ! of the weekend. "I was impressed with how close the boys and girls teams came to finishing third in the meet," Head swim coach Phoebe Skinner said. While the Lions had ■ ■< : struggled at Districts in past years, they shined this year, having at least two athletes place in the top 12 in 14 of the 16 individual events. They also recorded 18 top six finishes. There were many i i ■Jai iliiiii t highlights for the Lions at ..iiiliiili _____ Districts, as the swimmers left it all in the pool according Brian Laderoute, senior, swims the butterfly leg of the boys 200 Yard Medley Relay at Districts where the Lions took third place and qualified for State. The team finished in fourth place overall in the Three to Laderoute. While both the Rivers League. League. • Photo Photo courtesy courtesy of Michael Bonoff boys and girls only placed Rlvers iíS í^ íijíííiíííííí Gaulke wins State title, team takes second at Staff Reporter After finishing as District champion, Mitchell Gaulke, senior, won the State wrestling championship in the 285-lb. weight class last weekend. Donald Paulson, 130 lbs., followed his District title as the runner up in his weight class at State. "It was exhilarating. This is my senior year and winning state was a great way to finish off my career with my high school bros," Gaulke said. Every Lion faced a tough opponent in the first round at State. The team had placed second at Districts and sent nine wrestlers to State. Along with the aforementioned wrestlers, Brian Schiewe, Anthoney Chay, Travis Schultzler, Christian Wilson and Zach Sramek competed. Seyeral wrestlers won their first match but lost their second. Sramek won his first match, but lost his next two matches. Wilson started off with a victory in the first round, but then lost the next match and again in the consolation bracket. MacClanathan was too victorious in the first round, but suffered the same fate as Wilson. Gaulke and Paulson both had great runs at State. Paulson sped through the first four rounds, but met his match in the finals against Justin Eldred of Grants Pass. Gaulke took down every challenger in his path on his way to the championship. His first two matches were pins, the first pin happening in less than a minute. In the finals, he faced Centennial's David Vieru, a junior. Renegades look to seize sixth state championship ICO Staff Reporter For the past six years West Linn High School Club Rugby has been making itself known since its establishment in 2003. The girls' team, the Rucking Renegades, has won five straight State Championships and has been ranked as high as third in the nation. The boys' team has held its own as well. They've reached fourth and fifth in state in 2007 and 2006, respectively. The teams consist of players from West Linn, Wilsonville, Oregon City, Lake Oswego and Lakeridge high schools. Approximately one third of the players are from West Linn. The blending of schools is embraced. "I like it. We blend together well and they really add to the team," Charles Stevens, senior co-captain, said. The boys' team plans to improve upon its record from last year when they posted a losing record. . "We don't care so much about winning as much as we do keeping a good attitude," Stevens said. The boys have been preparing for their Saturday games at Athey Creek Middle School since mid- February. It seems West Linn Rugby Club is undersized, compared to the 24 other teams in the Rugby Oregon High School program according to Stevens. "To make up for our size we’ll have to be fit," Stevens said. Maybe the boys should take lesson from the girls. Their goal is to stay on top as state champs for a sixth year in a row. But more importantly the Renegades are looking forward to a good year with good Alison Lair, Wilsonville sophomore, Mallory Williams and Megan Hackney, seniors, and Calley Lathrop and Holly Ferguson, juniors, rally around fallen lock Betsy Luehrs, senior, on Feb. 28 during the Oregon pre-season tournament. The Renegades won four out of the five games they played at the tournament which began at 9 a.m. and ended at 3:30 p.m. Photo by Mark Popper! competition according to Zchonae Jones, junior. Unlike the boys, the Renegades start preparing in the off-season around October and actually begin practices mid-January. Even though rugby may not be as popular as football in the U.S. or as popular as soccer throughout the world, rugby is one of the fastest growing sports. Each year West Linn Rugby grows in members. "We get new players every year that have never seen a rugby game before. So it's basically like learning the sport over and over again every year, because we have to teach the new players the game. So it takes a lot of patience," Jones said. Despite having to teach new players the game of rugby, the girls are expecting to seize their sixth straight State title according to Jones. Tomorrow is opening weekend for both boys and girls with Saturday. The girls will travel to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to face Carson Graham. The boys will be on their own turf hosting North Clackamas at 10 a.m Sat, March 7. The team has shown promise and done well according to Coach Doug Samarron. They went 5-1 in the Three Rivers League while finishing second to undefeated league rival Oregon City. "Oregon City has nothing onus," Samarron said, but they showed the Lions that "sometimes they have to be more mentally prepared than physically." Oregon City was 4-0 going into the District Meet. The team is young and still maturing according to Samarron. This team is much the same team as last year, but has many young wrestlers. Some of the more inexperienced wrestlers have developed faster than he expected because they were forced to wrestle with Varsity. Districts were the main objective for the Lions. "Everything comes down to two days," Samarron said. Every team had an equal shot at the championship, regardless of regular season record. Prior to the meet, Samarron called it a "pressure cooker." Paulson's expectations were pretty simple going into it. "To win," Paulson said. Paulson said he felt a sense of accomplishment knowing his hard work paid off. Early tournaments were more difficult for the team. "The team wasn't put together until mid-January," Samarron said. "At some of the tournaments we were thumped." Early season tournaments included the Newberg Invitational and the Pac Coast Tournament at Hudson's Bay High School. Their improvement over the season showed as the team performed close to what Samarron expected at Districts, trailing only Oregon City. I
