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