Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 5, 2003)
D 7 D March 5, 2003 The Clackamas Print Cougars wrestle to twelfth in U.S. Staff Writer Three Clackamas wrestlers bat tled to All-American status over the (weekend at the National Junior I College Athletic Association national I tournament, and one of the success I stories was unanticipated. In the NJCAA individual rankings Ireleased Feb. 25, coaches picked I Bridger Sacher (197) to win fourth place and predicted Sean Bolen (141) and Michael Fisher (157) to capture eighth place finishes. While Bolen did not place as expected, a remark able showing by Chris Henry (285) helped him finish as one of Clackamas’ top three performers. Sacher was Clackamas’ best wrestler. He won four of six matches and secured a fifth place victory by pinning Neosho’s Golden Smith in 1:45. In other matches, Sacher won by 11-6 decision over Colby’s Derek Dougherty, by 18-9 major decision over Minn. West’s Nate Buys and by pin after 1:43 over Pima’s Melvin Hunter. He then lost an li ft) decision to Labette’s William James in the championship semifi nals and was pinned in 4:30 by Nassau’s Chris Weidman in the consolation semifinals. Fisher finished sixth after being pinned in 2:29 by Middlesex’s John Powell. Fisher also decisioned Northwest’s Cort Petersen 9-4, Williamson’s- Shane Vocht 9-6, Pima’s Ronald Yousefnejad 5-3 and Ellsworth’s Dustin Blevin 10-9. Fisher entered the consolation bracket after losing his opening match in overtime 13-11 to Iowa Central’s Steve Sommer; he lost by 6-4 deci sion to Sommer again in the consola tion semifinals. Henry stole a seventh place finish by 7-4 decision over Harper’s Danny Perez. Henry also decisioned Colby’s Rio Mayo 5-4 and Ridgewater’s Mike Redman 8-2 before dropping a 4-2 decision to Waldorf’s Chris McDonald. He won by 3-2 decision in the consolation quarterfinals to Nassau’s Greg Thomas before his final victory. The five other Clackamas wrestlers at the tournament and faced early exits. Bolen opened with a loss by 9-1 major decision to Harper’s Chad Isacson. He won his next match by forfeiture and followed with a 15-5 major decision over Yakima Valley’s Matt Skeeto. He then dropped a 7-5 decision to Lincoln’s Chris Ravenna. Ben Sevigny (125) lost his two matches by 13-0 major decision to Lincoln’s Josh Collins and by fall to Middlesex’s Rob Wilkinson after 4:30. Jimmy Crisman (right) earned an unexpected bid for the national tournament during the regional competition hosted by CCC. Crisman and the rest of the Cougar team secured twelfth place in the nation at the NJCAA tournament in Minn. Jimmy Crisman (133) was pinned by Labette’s Emery McReynolds after 6:15 and then lost by 15-6 major deci sion to Neosho’s Willard Chad. Derrick Bollier (165) lost to Ridgewater’s Nate Schut by 5-2 deci- sion and Lassen’s Shawn Reilly by 9- 4 decision. Austin Lawrence (184) lost by 10- 8 decision to Ellsworth’s Ken Prophette and 6-3 decision to Southwestem’s Dan Gordon. North Idaho College scored 140 points to win first place out of the 22 Division I schools entered. Clackamas placed twelfth with 34.50 points and was the second-highest scoring NWAACC program. Track gears up for season with strong start, high expectations Sports Editor LUKE MAHAN Clackamas Print Cavin Wahl-Stephens tosses one to his teammate Chris Kosmas during practice. The Cougars grabbed a split during their season opening double header. Clackamas baseball starts off with a split Sports Editor Clackamas’ baseball team kicked off the 2003 season on the road at Blue Mountain CC in Pendleton on March 1. The doubleheader was split down the middle with each team capturing one win, but the Cougars overpowered Blue Mountain with offense, finishing the day with 17 hits. CCC dropped the first game with a final of 8-5. Nik Mason went 2 for 3 with a double, scoring one run and racking up two RBIs. Jesse Gaylord also had a double and scored a run in the loss. The Cougars came back the next game to take control with some on-fire pitching from Ty Combs, who threw five near-per; feet innings. He faced 17 Blue Mountain men and 13 of them were sent back to the bench from strikeouts; he handed out zero walks. His team supported him with some strong offense, led by Chris Runyon and Gaylord. Runyon was 3-3 with one RBI and two stolen bases and Gaylord went 2-5 with a triple. Gavin Wahl-Stephens added a double and scored a run, and Jason Chan was 2-4 with five stolen bases in the game. For the day, Clackamas had 10 stolen bases, 17 hits and four bunts. The Cougars next doubleheader will be played on March 8 against Columbia Basin CC in The Dalles, beginning at 10 a.m. The entire first part of CCC’s baseball season will be played on the road, and Clackamas will make their first appearance on the Cougar dia mond on April 1 against Mt. Hood. With two top 10 performances in school history and multiple ath letes qualifying for the conference championships, Clackamas’ track program started off the season looking ready to do some damage. They opened up the year at the Bearcat Invite on March 1 in Salem. This is one of the best starts that the program has had, according to Head Track Coach Jack Kegg, and probably the best ever for the women. “We had a good first meet. We had 20 qualifiers for conference championships between men and women,” Kegg said. “So I thought that was a good start for us.” Some strong performances for the women came from Kari Rissmiller and Rebekah Yancoskie. Both of these women are expected to do very well this year. “We expect a lot out of [them],” Kegg said. “Both of them as defending NWAACC champions should be big for us.” Rissmiller ran equal to her fastest time last year in the 1500m, and is the defending NWAACC Champion in that event. Her time of 4:40 helped her to qualify to defend her title at the champi onships. Yancoskie ran an 11-sec ond PR in the 1500m, and was a mere two seconds off her PR in the 800m, where she is the defending champion. Both of her times in these events qualified for the cham pionships. While the women rolled along pretty well, they did hit some bumps in the road; during the championship-qualifying run of the short relay, Megan Moore dove to pass the baton to her teammate and landed on her shoulder, breaking her collarbone. The injury will force her to be out for six weeks, but because the women’s team has so much depth, they will still be able to run that event while Moore is recouperating. “It’ll hurt us for a little bit. We have good depth in the women’s side this year though, so it’s not as bad as it usually is,” Kegg said. “Usually we lose and leg and we don’t run a relay for that time. This year we have two relays, so it’s a good group of women.” Some other women to watch throughout the year include Megan Odom, who had a good start after being injured all year. She qualified in the 100m this past weekend and should do well in the sprints. Jenna Bird and Kasie Gillespie should also be pretty significant in the hur dles and sprints. Erin Schafer, who was last year’s fourth place high school pole-vaulter in the country took first in that event and quali fied; Kegg expects her to do even better once she gets going. The men also had some impres sive performances. Josh Carlson represented in the javelin by throw ing 202’ 5”, which is in the top 10 in school history. According to Kegg, he is capable of throwing a lot farther. Team Captain Kelly Howlett won the hammer throw, and qualified for the champi onships. Theron Harris breezed through the 200m and 400m while racing unattached due to eligibility issues. Nate Henry also has some eligibility requirements to fulfill, but he won the 400m hurdles his first time ever running them. Rusty Pruden looks good in the middle distance races, as he is the defend ing 800m and 1500m NWAACC Champion, and in the 5000m, the foursome of Pat Searing, Eli Nevarez, Mike Schwoebel and Ira LaFontaine all are expected to do a lot this year. David Arndt is an All American shotputter who took sec ond with a really good throw of 48’ 8”, and Steve Groth is a returning All American in the triple jump who is expected to be big for Clackamas this year as well. The next event the Cougars will take part in is the Mt. Hood Open on Saturday, March 8 at Gresham. FILE PHOTO Kari Rissmiller started the 2003 track season by matching her fastest time from last year in the 1500m.
