10* T he C lackamas P rint
S ports
F ebruary 18, 2004
Three Cougars will wrestle at nationals
keep hi- focus.”
/
Terence Huntley finished in
T he C lackamas P rint
sixth after getting caught in a pin by
his opponent in the third place
The Clackamas wrestling team match. Huntley h^a a great tour
made the trip to Coeur d’Alene, nament, but made just one mistake
Idaho, for the Region 18 and it cost him a chance at nation
Championships last weekend and als.
qualified three athletes for the
Coach Haluska praised true
national championships to be held freshman Tim Cook from
next week in Rochester, Minn.
Reynolds High School, who had
Shawn Siefke at 165 pounds, three great matches at the regional
Chris Kidby at 184 and Bridger in a tough weight class at* 125
Sacher at 197 all qualified by finish pounds.
ing in the top four in their respec
“Tim has come a long, long way
tive brackets at the regional. Sacher from the beginning of the season..
led the Cougar matmen with a He has improved his conditioning
regional championship, while and his technique throughout the
Siefke took second, losing a tough year and it almost paid off with a
final against a
trip to Minnesota,”
North
Idaho
said Haluska. “He
College wrestler,
was just 10 seconds
and Kidby fin
“Our wrestlers
away from going,
ished third in his
but his opponent
each
have
a
class, coming back
escaped on him and
great shot at
after a tough semi
defeated him in the
final loss to win
end of the fourth
being national
the
third-place
place match. This
champions.”
match to go to
kid has an outstand
nationals.
ing future.”
Mike Haluska
“Bridger by far
Cook beat Ben
Head Wrestling Coach
was in the tough
Sevigny in a wresde-
est weight class at
off to fill the 125
the tournament,
pound bracket, so
so tough, that in addition to the Sevigny wrestled up a weight at
four wrestlers who qualified on the 136.
mat in that class, the tournament
“Ben thought he could qualify
was allowed two wild card wrestlers at the higher weight, so we gave
from any bracket at the tourney to him a shot,” said Haluska. “I think
go to nationals, so they took the that the competitors that he was
fifth and sixth-place guys from the facing were a tittle too big for him.”
197 lb. class,” said Head Coach
Mike Maginn had a good tour
Mike Haluska.
nament, but the coach thought that
“Bridger had a great tourna he may have run out of gas by the
ment and he needs to keep it up at time he wrestled for a shot at
the national meet. He has an out nationals. Maginn finished fifth in
standing chance to become a his class, but could go to nationals
national champion; he just needs to as an alternative, because the fourth
Frank Jordan
SARA ATKESON
C lackamas P rint
Clackamas wrestlers Luis Cisneros (left) and Shawn Siefkie get ready for regionals dur
ing a recent practice. Siefkie, Chris Kidby and Bridger Sacher performed well at region
als, qualifying for the national championships next weekend in Rochester, Minn.
place wrestler from Lassen College
separated his shoulder in the fourth
place match and may not be able to
go to nationals. If the Lassen
wrestler can’t go, then Maginn will
take his place.
Lucas Buyas moved up in
weight to wrestle in the heavy
weight bracket, where he met some
larger competition.
“Lucas lost two matches that he
could have won, but his opponent
in each match was' considerably
heavier than Lucas and that may
have been the turning point,” said
Haluska. “He made a couple of
mistakes that cost him in each
match, but Lucas only weighs
about 1.95, so' he may have been
giving up 60-80 pounds in each
match. It was tough, but Lucas
never gave up and wrestied tough.”
North Idaho College won the
team race with 94.5 points, with
Lassen College finishing second.
Clackamas finished sixth in the
team race with 24.5 points. North
Idaho qualified all 10 of tits
wresders for the national' tourney,
while Lassen qualified eight of
theirs. Haluska believes that either
one of these schools has a legiti
mate shot at winning the national
championship.
“North Idaho is loaded, but
Lassen will do all right,” he said.
“When it comes to the national
tournament, whoever isn’t sick,
whoever isn’t sore, whoever
trains right that particular day is
going to win their match. It is
that simple. Our wrestlers each
have a great shot at being nation
al champions. I think that we will
do all right next week.” *
All-Star game, A-Rod and Sheed: Just CTC for me, Mr. Editor
Frank Jordan
T he C lackamas P rint
Now that a meaningless argu
ment has fueled my outrage at the
world in general, I have a few
things that I want to get off of my
chest, before it explodes and caus
es a bloody mess.
Sunday, many people around
the country watched the spectacle
better known as the NBA All-Star
game. The game itself is just a way
for the Association to celebrate its
stars and it does a fine job. It is a
nice break from the hum-drum of
the long NBA season (except for
us Blazer fans).
The beef with the All-Stat
game is this: Why has the city of
Portland, with its long-standing
franchise in the Association (33
years and counting), NEVER
hosted die NBA All-Star game?
This franchise has won an NBA
championship, made two other
appearances in die NBA Finals,
and has a passionate love of the:
game and its fans.
The biggest knock on P-town
has been (1) the current reputation
of the franchise, a.k.a. the Jail
Blazers, and (2) that there is not
enough hotel space in and around
the Rose Garden arena.-
This is a bunch of B.S. and the
NBA knows it. They just want an
excuse to leave the game in the big
media markets so they can make
more money.
The association needs to make
this happen and soon, or it might
inspire a serious letter-writing
campaign to the league offices in
New York. C’mon, Nic, we need
to get going on this.
Okay. Time for another chest
exploding rant. Alex Rodriguez
(A-Rod), the quarter-bilhQn dollar
shortstop of the Texas Rangers,
"has been traded*'to the New York
Yankees for Alfonso Soriano, a
few minor leaguers and some cash,
I’ll say, some $46 million in cash.
If I were a Boston Red Sox fan,-
I would be so mad that I might
want to take Major League
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig
hostage and demand that this man
be thrown out of baseball for
good. Boston and Texas had a
perfecdy good trade worked out
two months ago, but the commis
sioner’s office turned it down.
Why? Because Yankees owner
George Steinbrenner has Major
League Baseball wrapped around
his tittle finger and can get away
with anything he wants. New
York has all of the tradition and
it seems that whatever is good
for the Yankees is good for the
game.
That is a load of crap. The
Florida Martins proved that last
season, and other clubs are doing
well with less. I would go on about
this more, but it might turn into
profanity, and our little paper has
enough problems already.
Finally, about the trade. Great
trade. Glad to see the Blazers do
it. I will admit, I loved Rasheed
Wallace and his game. But for $17
mil per season, I would have
expected more. When he told the
media that all the team had to do
was “CTC” or “cut the check” at
the end of the day, I lost all respect
for him as a person.
Rasheed should go out and
work for a living tike 99.9 percent
of his fans have to do, then maybe
he would have a new realization
about his life. He plays a game for
a living, .something that this writer
has dreamed about since he was a
wee lad.
Unfortunately, the Blazers may
have to 'kiss this season goodbye.
They are 5 ’A games out of a play
off berth with 31 games left. They
still have to play the Lakers three
times, the T-Wolves twice and the
Spurs twice:
Another trade may be in the
offering before tomorrow’s trade
deadline, but it would have to be a
good -deal to pull the Blazers up to
a 22nd consecutive playoff berth.
Good luck to my team and, win or
lose, I will be pulling for them.
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