Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1997)
8 Sports The Clackamas Print Wednesday, January 15,1997 Cougars brave the meat grinder Caywood twice defeats #1 wrestler, sidelined with shoulder injury for season Brendon Neal Sports Editor The wrestling team started without much experience but is coming on strong. Head Coach Mike Haluska expects some of his wrestlers to reach the nationals. Clackamas wrestling com petes in the National Junior Col lege Athletic Association (NJCAA). The competition peeks in January, then teams focus on fine tuning before regionals. The team is made up of about half freshman and half sophomores. The team started the season with little experience but competed in a number of ma jor duels and tournaments against some of the better teams. “It is real hard to go into col lege straight from high school. My biggest goal of this year [for the team] is to get better, and I can truly say that everyone is work ing hard and getting experience in. If they keep tips pace up, we have a real good chance to get a lot of All-Ameri cans [honors],” said Haluska. “It is a fun team, and they work hard. They make it fun.” January is a tough month for Clackamas. The Cougars start the month with duals against the top three teams in the na tion. “A lot of guys call Janu ary the meat grinder. It is a real tough The Cougars are expecting several wrestlers to place in the national championships in February. month on the out for the season. North Idaho wrestlers will place at the nation whose “coaches call him ‘the best body,” said Haluska. Clackamas hosted a dual with is the number one team in the als in Bismark, N.D., and the team true freshman [straight from high can finish as one of the top five in school] in several years’,” said #1 ranked North Idaho College nation. Garrison (142 pounds) the nation. Clackamas will host Hodges. and Pacific Lutheran University Williams has placed in several on Friday and the Clackamas Open placed third in the tournament the Region 18 championships on tournaments against four-year and has placed in almost every Feb. 15. Tournament on Saturday. Clackamas will host a Double college wrestlers but Haluska Corey Caywood (134 tournament. Damion Martindale pounds) beat the top ranked and Lonnie Eggert have also Dual with Lassen and Colby, on thinks Garrison has a chance to Glenn Garrison (142 give him a challenge or win. wrestler, from North Idaho, in his placed in most of the tourna Friday. The Cougars will travel to pounds), number one at the na class twice over the weekend, ments this season. Haluska thinks there is a tionals last year, will compete Portland State for a tournament but separated his shoulder in the second match . He is probably good chance at least three or four against Lassen’s TJ Williams on Saturday. Clackamas drops two, reloads for Chemeketa JohnThorburn Assistant Sports Editor The women’s basketball team had a rough December. When the students departed for their winter break last month, the Clackamas women’s basketball team geared up for a long haul of tough pre-season games. The Cougars met Western Oregon State on Dec. 17 here in the Clackamas gymnasium and went on to defeat last year’s Division II National Champions behind tre mendous overall play from sopho more Claire Cox and the rest of the team. “It was a very strong team ef fort against Western Oregon State,” said Head Coach Karen Twain. “We even had great play from the ladies coming off of the bench.” After this exciting win, the team’s hopes looked bright going into the regular season against top programs like Umpqua and Chemeketa Community Colleges. Just before the winter break ended, however, the Cougars lost Shelley Mitchell for most of the season in a frightening car accident and Lauren Mohan to mononucleosis. The loss of these two players are especially damaging to Coach Twain’s game plan. “Shelley was the first person off our bench and was a key con tributor,” said Twain. “And Lauren was our starting point guard - our only true point guard. Without these two, we have to shift play ers around to positions where they’re not used to or haven’t even played before. We’ 11 be lucky if we get Lauren and Shelley back before the playoffs.” “Freshman Robbie Nicks was moved over to guard so she is in a bit of a transition,” added Twain. “That is awkward in itself consid ering she is 6’1” and spotting up for threes.” As school is back in session, the Cougars have played their first two regular season games against Umpqua and Southwestern Oregon Community Colleges (SWOCC). The women played a close game against Umpqua but the lack of depth and inexperienced play ers at new positions were a con siderable factor and led to a loss. This past Saturday, Clackamas traveled to a rowdy gymnasium in Coos Bay to take on the Lakers of SWOCC. The Cougars poured out a tremendous effort and kept the game very close but being shorthanded and miss ing two of their star players, were not able to overcome the fired up Lakers, Standing at 0-2 in league play, the Cougars are still well within contention of first place as they captured last season’s champion ship with a 10-2 record. With twelve games remaining before the playoffs, Clackamas has plenty of time to get on track. Claire Cox is currently averaging 21 points and 11 rebounds per game and will lead her team against top- ranked Chemeketa Community College tonight in our gym. Game time is 6 p.m. Sophomore Claire Cox led the Cougars past Western Oregon State Warriors. Cox leads Clackamas with an average of 21 points and 11 rebounds per game. Photo by Joel Coreson Expansion teams fall short in finals JohnThorburn Assistant Sports Editor The Jacksonville Jaguars’ and Carolina Panthers’ bids for a Super Bowl title came to a sud den end this past weekend. In only their second season in the National Football League, the underrated Panthers and upstart Jaguars be came the two fastest teams to ever reach a championship game. After defeating the Denver Broncos 30-27 in one of the biggest upsets in league history two weeks ago, the Jaguars seemed poised to make an appearance in New Or leans on Jan. 26, the site of Super Bowl XXXI. Led by University of Wash ington Alumni Mark Brunell and the strong running back Natrpne Means, Jacksonville traveled to Massachusetts this past Sunday to take on Bill Parcells’s New En- gland Patriots. With a defense that had not yet allowed a touchdown in the playoffs, the Jaguars certainly faced a tough opponent in the Pa triots. Brunell, facing his old cross-state rival Drew Bledsoe (Washing ton State), led his team onto the field where they were man handled on their opening posses sion. Two plays after turning over the ball on downs, New. England running back Curtis Martin was celebrating his one-yard touch down run in the end zone. The rest, as they say, was history. Jacksonville could not muster more than two field goals against the stubborn Patriots defense, and New England went on to win Lambeau Fiel Wis,, „ie Carolina Panthers m e t heavily-fa- vored Brett Favre and the Packers. Home to the most loyal and zaniest fans in the league, Green Bay broke open a close game in the second quarter with a six-yard touchdown strike from Brett Favre to Antonio Free- man. Carolina played tough but could not match pro stars like Reggie White, Edgar Bennet, Eu gene Robinson and Brett Favre, and so went on to lose 30-13. The Packers won the National Football Conference Champion ship and earned their first Super Bowl appearance since 1968. New England will be appear ing in their second Super Bowl since they lost 46-10 to the Chi- cago Bears in Super Bowl XX.
