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PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 19, 2017 KEIZERTIMES.COM KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley LEFT: Brendan Van Voorhis, of McNary, fi nished second to McKay junior Israel Garza in fi nals of the 100-meter run at the Greater Valley Conference Championships on Friday, May 13. Van Voorhis also qualifi ed for the state meet in the 200 and 400. RIGHT: Courtney Giessinger placed third in the long jump and earned a wild card spot. Alyssa Looney took fi fth. McNary athletes head to Hayward By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes ALBANY—McNary senior Brendan Van Voorhis’ dream of quali- fying for the state track and fi eld meet in the 100, 200 and 400 be- came a reality. Running in the Greater Valley Conference Championships at West Albany High School, Van Voorhis fi nished second in all three events on Friday, May 12. “It’s one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in a long time in track and fi eld,” McNary head coach Frank Gauntz said. “You don’t see a lot of people do all three and be very successful and Brendan today was very successful.” After securing the fastest time in the 100 in Wednesday’s prelims with a personal record of 10.90 seconds, Van Voorhis took second to McKay junior Israel Garza in the fi nals, fi n- ishing in 11.09 on a windy day. As the only participant in both the 100 and 400 fi nals, Van Voorhis then placed second to West Salem junior Jacob Miller in 49.55. With only 20 minutes between races, Van Voorhis could feel the wear of the 100 down the fi nal stretch. “I don’t think anyone or any- thing could’ve prepared me for that 100 and 400 combo,” Van Voorhis said. “That was insane. I usually kick around the 200 meter mark so that’s what I did expecting to fi nish strong but I died with like 50 meters left. I was struggling to fi nish. That’s how I got second.” An hour later Van Voorhis took an early lead in the 200 before being passed by Garza. He then had to hold off West Salem senior Valeriy Yurchak for second. “I took off and I had a fantastic start and then I just kind of ran and then I saw Israel pass me and I was like ‘whatever I can get second, I’m just qualifying’ and then I saw some kid from West (Yurchak) coming up on me,” Van Voorhis said. “I fi nished the race strong. My calves actually cramped up towards the end of the race. It was a struggle to fi nish that.” Van Voorhis nearly qualifi ed a fourth event for state but the 4x400 relay team, which also included Lu- cas Garvey, Anthony Tellez Hernan- dez and Jose Solorio Diaz, fi nished third to West Salem (3:26.77) and Sprague (3:30.84) in 3:31.54 in the fi nal event of the night. “I was only three steps behind him (Sprague senior Dustin Jackson) at the end,” Van Voorhis said. “That’s so close to getting more people to state. That’s disappointing that I didn’t get them. When I was warming up for the 4x400, I felt like just dead. I was just tired. My calves were cramping. I was putting my sweats on and my hip fl exor cramped up. I had to mas- sage it out.” After fi nishing third in the long jump at 17-03.25, McNary senior Courtney Giessinger had to wait a couple days to fi nd out if she would be joining Van Voorhis at Hayward Field as a wild card. She received the good news from Gauntz in an email on Sunday. “I didn’t want to get too excited about something and it not happen,” Giessinger said. “I was keeping my fi ngers crossed that I would get the wild card. It was really exciting.” The McNary senior enters the state meet seeded 12th out of 16 jumpers but Gauntz believes Giess- inger, who has the school record of 17-06, has as good a chance as any- one to get on the podium. Please see TRACK, Page 11 Childress third in GVC By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes SALEM—The district ten- nis tournament went as ex- pected for McNary junior Hannah Childress as the No. 3 seed fi nished third in the Greater Valley Conference on Saturday, May 13. But Childress faced an unfamiliar opponent, Esther Vega, in the quarterfi nals to qualify for her third straight state tournament. Childress was out sick when the Lady Celts faced Forest Grove in the regular season. “I played her (Vega) last year but I didn’t know how much she improved by,” Chil- dress said. “I was excited and nervous to play her.” Childress made quick work of Vega, winning in straight sets 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the semifi nals. Childress said the key was keeping her energy up. “When I was up in the sec- ond set 4-1 I felt pretty com- fortable but there’s always that unexpected turn that can hap- pen where you can be up 5-1 and all of the sudden it’s 5-5 and they win the set,” Chil- dress said. “That’s happened to me before so I never really feel comfortable.” Childress lost to West Al- bany sophomore Ceanne El- liott 6-2, 6-2 in the semifi nals. Elliot, the defending district singles champion, went on to defeat West Salem senior Anya Gerasimova 6-3, 6-1 in the fi - KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley Hannah Childress fi nished third in the Greater Valley Confer- ence girls singles tournament at Salem Tennis and Swim Center. nals. Childress bounced back in the third place match, shutting out South Salem freshman Abby Fedor 6-0, 6-0. The state tournament is May 18-20 at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaver- ton. “I’m excited to see how well I do this time compared to last time because last time I got a pretty bad draw and I had to play the No. 1 in the second round,” Childress said. “I’m excited to see how far I can go.” Childress wasn’t the only Lady Celt to make a deep run in the singles tournament. Junior Katerine Perez won three matches before falling to Elliott 6-0, 6-0 in the quarter- fi nals. “It was a good experience,” Perez said. “She creamed me but I had a really good time playing her and maybe next year I can come back stron- ger.” Two of Perez’s wins, a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Amy Gilliat and 6-2, 7-6 defeat of Molly Puckett came against opponents she lost to during the regular season. “I didn’t think I was go- ing to make it this far so I was really happy about it,” Perez said. “This year I learned how to improve my backhands. My backhands are way bet- ter, thanks to my coach and my dad helped as well. It’s nice to know that everything I worked hard on paid off in the end.” Please see TENNIS, Page 12 McNary seniors Lyndsey Miller, Nicole Duran and Hannah Carr were honored after the Lady Celts fi nal game of the regular season, a 7-4 win over Sprague on Friday, May 12. Lady Celts ready for playoffs By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes McNary head softball coach Kevin Wise wants the Lady Celts to approach the state playoffs the same way they did the regular season— one game at a time. “We’re just looking at it like that’s our championship game and then we move on to the next one and that’s our championship game,” Wise said. “I think it’s just trying to stay with what we’ve been do- ing. Our motto this year has been ‘one day at a time’ and that’s what we’ve done and we’ve done it really well.” McNary defeated Sprague 7-4 on Friday, May 12 to close out the season 19-4 overall McNary baseball to host Tualatin Page 12 and 14-2 in league play to fi n- ish on top of the Greater Val- ley Conference standings. Nadia Witt, Alexa Cepeda and Emma Kinler each had two hits in the win. As the 9-seed, the Lady Celts host Grant (24) on Monday, May 22 at 5:30 p.m. in the fi rst round of the state tournament. McNary shares two com- mon opponents with Grant— Cleveland and Lakeridge. While the Lady Celts shut out Cleveland 10-0 and defeated Lakeridge 11-2, Grant, which fi nished fi fth in the Portland Interscholastic League, split with the Warriors, losing 3-2 and then winning 7-2. Grant beat Lakeridge 11-10. McNary enters the playoffs riding a six-game winning streak, which included con- vincing victories over Mc- Minnville and West Salem. “If we just keep hitting and being aggressive and Faith (Danner) just keeps dealing like she’s been dealing, I don’t think we’re going to change a whole lot because obviously it’s been working,” Wise said. Please see READY, Page 11
