PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 20, 2016
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Baseball season ends
with 16-2 play-in loss
File
ABOVE: Austin Brown, Brendan Van Voorhis, Anthony Nguyen and Levi Timmons won the 4x100
district title last week. BELOW: Dani Duran won solo titles in the 400 meter and 300 hurdles.
Duran, Van Voorhis, boys 4x100
win GVC titles at district meet
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
McNary High School senior Dani Duran
added to her growing list of accomplishments
at the Greater Valley Conference Champion-
ships last week.
Duran took the league titles in the 400
meter race and 300 meter hurdles at the meet
held in McMinnville May 13 and 14.
“It’s defi nitely a good feeling,” Duran said.
“I was just out there trying to compete and
reach some goals.”
One of those goals was setting a new school
record in the 300 hurdles, which she did with
a time of 44.91 seconds. The old school record
was 45.3 seconds.
Duran ran the hurdles for the fi rst time ear-
lier this season and immediately started posting
times that put her in the top three in the entire
state.
“It was something I wanted to do, but I’d
never even practiced it before. I was worried
that it would turn out to be a bad experience,
but now I want that state title,” Duran said.
With her time at the GVC meet, Duran
is now second in the state. Gresham High
School’s Leah Russell leads with a time of
43.93.
“She’s a whole second ahead me, but I’m
still improving every meet,” Duran said.
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
Celt Trevor Gilbert gets a hits a line drive in the game with McMinnville High School Wednesday,
May 11.
Duran fi nished the 400 meter with a time
of 58.60 seconds to take the gold.
The Celts’ only other solo title winner was
the boys Brendan Van Voorhis, who took fi rst
in the 400 meter with a time of 49.26.
“I was struggling with a knot in my calf, but
I got it done,” Van Voorhis said.
Please see TRACK, Page A11
Lady Celts land
playoff berth
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
A string of three consecu-
tive losses last week left the
McNary High School varsity
baseball team fi ghting for its
survival at a play-in game Tues-
day, May 17.
The Celtics traveled to meet
Grants Pass High School for a
chance at a playoff berth af-
ter a heartbreaking fi nal week
of Greater Valley Conference
competition. McNary lost the
contest 16-2. The Cavemen’s
nine-run fi fth inning was the
death knell for the Celtics.
McNary’s season ends with
the loss.
Before the Keizer team’s fi -
nal three games of the season,
hopes were high for securing
a playoff spot outright, but the
Celtics never quite found their
stride facing South Salem, Mc-
Minnville and Sprague high
schools.
A slow start to the 9-8 loss
to the Saxons Tuesday, May 10,
had the Celtics trying to make
the most of a late-game rally.
“It seemed like nothing
was going our way in the be-
ginning. We’d get a hit and it
would go right to someone and
they’d hit one and it was in the
perfect spot,” said Celt Tanner
Gordon.
South Salem was up 9-0 at
the end of fi ve innings while
McNary struggled to get a
bead on the starting pitcher.
“When they made a pitching
change in the seventh inning
that’s when we fi nally started
making a run,” said Trevor Gil-
bert, a McNary senior.
In the sixth inning, Matt
Aguilar scored on a walk; Bren-
dan Frizelle scored on a sac-
rifi ce fl y by Trent Van Cleave;
and Matthew Ismay scored on a
sacrifi ce fl y by Daniel Johnson.
In the seventh, McNary sent
fi ve runs across the plate for the
9-8 fi nal.
Please see PLAY-IN, Page A11
File
McNary sophomore Hannah Childress will be making her second consecutive appearance at the
state tournament after taking third at the GVC championships.
Childress to state tourney
KEIZERTIMES/Eric A. Howald
McNary’s Kinsey McNaught lines up a hit in the game with South Salem High School Tuesday,
May 10.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
The McNary High School
varsity softball team fi nished
in fourth place in the Greater
Valley Conference to wrap up
the regular season last week.
The spot earned the team a
berth in the state playoffs and
the Celtics seemed headed for
a contest at North Medford
High School in the fi rst round
Monday, May 23.
The Celtics met the Black
Tornadoes earlier this season –
in McNary’s fi rst game of the
season – and Medford took
a 15-5 win. Celt Nadia Witt
thought things would be dif-
ferent on Monday.
“We’ve had a lot more time
to get better and I think we’ll
be more prepared for them
this time around,” Witt said.
The end of the season
proved more tumultuous
then expected for the Celt-
ics. The Keizer team was rid-
ing a three-game win streak as
it entered the week. McNary
extended is streak to four with
a 4-1 win over South Salem
High School and then lost its
fi nal two games to McMin-
nville (5-3) and Sprague (7-4)
high schools.
“After we knew we made
the playoffs, they let up,” said
Please see CELTS, Page A11
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
McNary High School sophomore Hannah
Childress entered in the Greater Valley Confer-
ence tennis championships seeded fourth.
She came home as the third place fi nisher
with a berth in the state tournament that began
May 19 in Tualatin.
“My goal this year was just to make it to state,”
said Childress, who was one half of the fourth
place doubles team last year with her older sister,
Sandy. “It was a lot more nerve-wracking with-
out Sandy there to support me, and a lot of pres-
sure, but I made it.”
Childress fi nished the regular season with a
record of 10-3 to earn her seed. She said one of
the most memorable matches at the district meet
was taking a win over West Salem High School’s
Anya Gerasimova in the contest to decide third
place.
Early in the season, Childress’s main goal was
to improve her confi dence on the court, and
she’s made strides in that department as well.
“There’s always room for improvement, but
I defi nitely believe I can do this now,” she said.
Her fi rst test of the state tournament will be
Clackamas High School’s Remi Lam. If she wins,
she must then face down the top seed in the
tournament, Jesuit High School’s Bess Waldram.
“If I win my fi rst round, I’m in for a diffi cult
match with Bess, but as long as I do my best
that’s all I can ask of myself,” she said.