PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 20, 2015
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KEIZERTIMES.COM
Celtics to top ranks in two
weight classes at district meet
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
McNary High School’s
varsity wrestling team will
have two no. 1 seeds headed
into the wrestling district
meet Friday, Feb. 20.
The event gets underway
at 10 a.m. at Sprague High
School in Salem.
The two wrestlers enter-
ing the tournament as top
seeds are at opposite ends of
the spectrum wrestling-wise.
Senior Alvarro Venegas will go
in as the top-ranked wrestler
in the Greater Valley Confer-
ence – and the state – at 195
pounds. Freshman Brayden
Ebbs is the district’s top-
ranked wrestler at 120 pounds.
Venegas, who has dropped
about 30 pounds since his
freshman year and sculpted
what remained, has been wait-
ing for this moment for a long
time. His record this season is
42-1.
“I feel like everything I’ve
done has paid off. If I keep
following in the footsteps of
the other wrestlers, I can win
it and it’s something I really
want,” Venegas said. “I also
Champs in the making?
McNary’s state-ranked wrestlers headed into the
regional tournament:
195 pounds: Alvarro Venegas, senior, fi rst.
132 pounds, Michael Phelps, senior, seventh.
182 pounds: Taran Purkey, senior, seventh.
120 pounds: Brayden Ebbs, freshman, ninth.
160 pounds: Carlos Vincent, sophomore, ninth.
126 pounds: Sean Burrows, sophomore, 10th
want as many other guys go-
ing to state with me as we can
manage. Brayden is going to
be a district champ and Wyatt
Kessler has a great shot.”
Ebbs’s journey to this tour-
nament started well before
he became a member of the
varsity ranks at McNary, as a
longtime member of the Celt-
ic Mat Club.
“From the beginning of
the year, my goal was to be
the best. I’m pretty sure … I
wanted .. I know I’m going to
win this title,” Ebbs said.
He’d like it to come down
to a fi nals match between him
and either Trent Martinez, of
Sprague, or Christian Guerrra,
of Forest Grove High School.
“They’ve both beat me this
season and I’ve beaten them. I
don’t want to leave any tour-
nament with the other guy
having a better record than
me,” Ebbs said.
Celt Jonathon Phelps will
enter the tournament as a sec-
ond seed. His brother, Michael
Phelps, is seeded third. Several
other Celts round out the top
fi ve spots headed into the dis-
trict tourney.
“We’ve got some good
seedings and kids in position
to exceed their seeds and do a
good job,” said McNary Head
Coach Jason Ebbs, father of
Brayden. “Every one of them
is going to have to win one
or two tough matches. That’s
what it will come down to.
Please see SEEDS, Page A11
After open-heart surgery
11-year-old back in the game
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
McNary senior Tregg Peterson slams a ball home on an alley-oop.
Exceeding Expectations
Peterson takes star status in stride
By ERIC A. HOWALD
on soccer team through middle school, Peter-
Of the Keizertimes
son turned his focus to basketball his freshman
With his thick red hair and 6-foot-3 frame, year. In some ways, it was the best and worst
McNary High School senior Tregg Peterson time to join the program. The Celtics had been
stands out on the basketball court for his physi- struggling for a couple of seasons already, but it
cal appearance alone. After the tip off, he stands continued for the next two years under a new
out even more.
head coach, Ryan Kirch.
Peterson has been a backbone of the Celtic
“You could tell there was a lot of confusion
boys basketball team all season long. He’s av- and a lot of player issues. There were egos and
eraging 16 points, fi ve rebounds and three as- attitudes, and a lot of them,” Peterson said. “But
sists per game. His most points in
you still learn to love the people
a single game this season is 34.
you play with.”
As soon as he gets close to the
While the teams struggled,
net, there is a collective intake
Peterson turned to what what
of breath on the Celtic side of
he could contribute and began
any gym. That’s because there’s a
hitting the gym, focusing on
better-than-average chance he’ll
weights and building strength in
slam one home. If he does, what
his legs.
follows is most like a roar.
“Tregg puts a lot of time in
“It’s really the best feeling you
during the off season, specifi -
can get. When you have everyone
cally in the weight room,” Kirch
there – friends and family – and
said. “Between his sophomore
they explode, it gets your adren-
and junior season he went from
— Tregg Peterson being an average looking player
alin going and gets you excited,”
said Peterson.
to a physically dominant perim-
Peterson’s path to becoming a
eter player. His vertical leap im-
star on the court likely began playing basketball proved by nearly 10 inches, and he became a
with his father and sister, Teresa.
very physical presence on the fl oor.”
He laughs and smiles shyly at the mention
Kirch said Peterson came into his own two
of her name.
years ago during a summer league team in a
“She used to beat me pretty handily, but she tournament at University of Oregon.
was my push factor. She was good when she
“Johnathan (Doutt) missed a couple of
played and, coming in, I wanted to be better games for a family event and we were in a posi-
than she ever was. I’ve tried to surpass her and tion where we were looking for someone to
my dad who played in high school and college,” step up. We began to run plays to isolate Tregg
Peterson said.
and he scored at will,” Kirch said.
After playing on a three-time state champi-
Please see PETERSON, Page A11
“I got a little
light-headed
and I was
tired after,
but it was
life-altering.”
Two district titles for Kuch
The McNary High School
girls varsity swimming team will
be sending a small contingent
on to the state swimming meet,
after one freshman claimed two
district tiles last weekend.
Marissa Kuch will be the
No. 6 seed going into the
100 yard freestyle. She’s took
the district title with a time
of 52.35. Kuch will also be
the No. 7 seed headed into
the girls 200 yard freestyle
after winning the event at the
district meet with a time of
1:55.23.
Kuch will also head to the
meet in the 200 free relay with
teammates Sara Eckert, Jewel
Boyd and Josie Ellis. The team
turned in a time of 1:45.05
at the district meet. The same
group will also compete in
the 400 free relay after placing
fourth at the district meet with
a time of 3:52.52.
Overall at the district meet,
the Lady Celts placed sixth
with 158 points, the boys
placed seventh with 95 points.
The McMinnville boys and
girls teams won the district
team titles.
Submitted
Gubser Elementary School fi fth grader Mehki China underwent open-heart surgery last summer
and was cleared to return to the sports he loves last fall.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Mehki China was practic-
ing with his baseball team last
spring when something start-
ed going wrong.
“I got panicked because
it was hard to breathe and I
started stumbling,” said Me-
hki, who was 10 years old at
the time. He had been diag-
nosed with sports-induced
asthma prior to this attack,
but it didn’t take long for his
mother, Brooke, to fi gure out
something else was going on.
She was playing with her
younger son when one of Me-
hki’s friends came to let her
know something was wrong.
“I went outside and he was
slumped against a wall. I tried
to stand him up and get him to
breathe through it, as he tried
to stand up his eyes turned
black and rolled up, then he
passed out,” Brooke said.
Assuming it was an asthma
attack, Brooke ran back inside
and began yelling for some-
one to get an inhaler. Mehki’s
had been left in the car that
day.
She went back to check
on Mehki and found him still
unconscious on the ground,
then back into the gym to fi nd
Andrew Copeland, one of the
team’s coaches and a Keizer
police offi cer, running across
the gym with an inhaler.
“Mehki was still out and I
thought, ‘How is this going to
work if he’s not breathing?’”
I went into terror all over
again,” Brooke said.
Copeland opened Mehki’s
mouth and sprayed the inhaler
into it. He was about to be-
gin CPR when Mehki began
moving about 30 seconds later.
“The ambulance came and
they checked him out. They
offered to take him to the ER,
but I wanted to take him to his
doctor,” Brooke said.
Mehki’s doctor’s performed
an EKG and things looked
fi ne, but the family opted to
pursue further testing. The
hardest part for Mehki – a
three-sport athlete in baseball,
football and basketball – was
his unquenched thirst for the
competition sports bring.
“I’ve been playing since
I was younger and I like ev-
erything about it. I didn’t like
not being able to play. It’s all I
wanted,” Mehki said.
A sonogram of Mehki’s
heart revealed the problem.
“The left coronary artery
is supposed to come from the
aorta. His was coming from
the pulmonary gland and
cutting off the oxygen to his
heart,” Brooke said.
The condition is a congen-
ital heart defect that is usu-
ally caught in the fi rst several
months of a child’s life, but
Mehki’s had gone undetected.
It’s in the family of conditions
that sometimes result in sud-
den athlete death.
Brooke said they could
have left it untreated, but it
would mean Mehki would
likely never play sports com-
petitively again.
“It was a question of the
risk of surgery versus a better
quality of life,” Brooke said.
Mehki went under the
knife for open heart surgery
in July 2014, but was back on
the fi eld six weeks later as an
assistant football coach to Bill
Klem.
He was cleared to play him-
self in November and started
basketball in December.
“We’re not doing so great
right now, but I really want to
see our baseball team do good
this summer,” Mehki said. The
team took second in the state
last year while Mehki was
benched.
“Now he’s free and clear to
do whatever he wants. He had
no complications and was out
of the hospital in four days. He
was laid up for a really long
time, but he can live the life
that he wants,” Brooke said.