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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2017)
PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 26, 2017 GRADUATE TO A NEW SET OF WHEELS 4 Year Degree = Tier 0 Keizer 3555 River Road N, Keizer (503) 463- 4853 GUARANTEED APPROVAL * www.skylineforddirect.com *Some restrictions apply. See dealer for details. KEIZERTIMES.COM Salang wins gold OSAA McNary senior Brendan Van Voorhis, middle, fi nished third in the 400 at the state track and fi eld championships in Eugene on Saturday, May 20. Van Voorhis places third in 400-meters By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes As a freshman and then again as a sophomore, Bren- dan Van Voorhis had fi nished top three at the state track and fi eld meet on relay teams. As a senior, Van Voorhis got to feel what it’s like individu- ally, winning a bronze medal in the 400-meter run in 49.10 on Saturday, May 20 at Hay- ward Field. “It was a good way to end my senior season,” Van Voorhis said. “This year’s fi nals heat was insanely fast. Everyone was under 50 seconds. I don’t re- member the last time I saw a fi nals heat that was all under 50 seconds. It was crazy. It was going to be challenge. I didn’t run anything spectacular. I ran a good race.” In lane seven after running a 49.82 in prelims, it was im- portant for Van Voorhis to get off to a fast start. Please see BRONZE, Page 15 By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Since placing seventh at the state track and fi eld meet as a sophomore, Leilani Salang had pictured herself climbing up the podium until the day she arrived to the top. With a nearly 10-foot PR in the discus, Thursday, May 18 was that day as the Blan- chet Catholic senior and Keizer resident won the 3A state championship at Hay- ward Field in Eugene. “I had visualized it many times,” Salang said of winning the state title. “I had thought about it the night before, walking from the seventh place podium though every step getting all the way to the top. It felt so good, just ac- complishing my goal.” With a throw of 125-11 at districts, Salang entered the state tournament as the fa- vorite. But a newspaper story posted on one of her chal- lenger’s Instagram pages gave Salang extra motivation. “She (Jordynn Slater) had gone to her local paper, the Bend Bulletin, and she told them she was going to be the next girl to win all three throwing events, only the third in history,” Salang said. “It was a little overzealous. It’s not something I would ever do, especially call it when you’re not ranked fi rst in all of the events.” After throws of 115-07, 117-01, 117-02, Salang trailed Slater going into fi nals. With Submitted Leilani Salang threw a PR of 139 feet to win the 3A state cham- pionship in the discus Thursday, May 18. only three discus throws re- maining in her high school career, Salang thought of her cousin who was recently diag- nosed with brain cancer. “I wanted to win it and dedicate it to him,” Salang said. “I just thought of him and he’s sitting in the hospital. That inspired me and gave me that extra push.” In her fi rst attempt in fi nals, Salang threw the discus so far that she didn’t comprehend the correct number. Instead of 139 feet, the actual distance, Salang thought she heard 130 feet, nine inches. Either would have been enough to top Slater, who placed a distant second at 124- 03. “When I threw it, it didn’t really feel like a hard throw,” Salang said. Please see GOLD, Page 15 McNary advances in state playoffs Celtics win round one at home By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes McNary had to come back and then hold on to defeat Tu- alatin 10-9 on Monday, May 22 in the fi rst round of the state playoffs. After spotting Tualatin four runs in the top of the fi rst in- ning, McNary starting pitcher Josiah Gilbert was able to settle down and hold the Tim- berwolves to just two runs over the next fi ve innings. “A lot was going through my head and I really just had to calm down and focus on myself and just playing catch and getting back to the basics, staying fundamentally sound,” Gilbert said. Trailing 5-0, the Celtic of- fense began to come alive in the bottom of the third inning. With one out, Jonah Geist reached on an error and then Brendan Frizelle doubled to put two runners in scoring position. With two strikes, Matthew Ismay fouled off four pitches before driving in McNary’s fi rst two runs with a double. “I just fouled them off wait- ing for him (Tualatin pitcher Elijah Diggins) to throw one down the middle and he put one over the center I could hit and I got ahold of it,” Ismay said. Riley Hays added a single to score Ismay and get the Celtics within 5-3. “The big guy (Ismay) in your lineup, when he comes through like he’s supposed to and you kind of relax and realize there’s a lot of baseball KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley The McNary softball team meets Nicole Duran at home after the senior third baseman hit a two- run homer in the bottom of the second inning. KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley McNary senior Brendan Frizelle celebrates after scoring a run in the Celtics 10-9 victory against Tualatin. to play,” McNary head coach Larry Keeker said. “That’s ba- sically what we said right after the fi rst inning, there’s a lot of baseball. You’ve got seven innings. We’ve scored against these guys in the past. We knew we could score. It was just a matter of getting the nerves out and playing base- ball.” Down 6-3, McNary’s bats really heated up in the fi fth inning. After Ismay drove in Geist with a RBI single, Hays walked to load the bases with no outs. Tyler Covalt then singled to score Frizelle and Ismay to tie the game 6-6. Ismay, who was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs, credited the rally with senior leadership and experience. “I think a lot of it has to do with how many seniors we have (10) and whether we like it our not we’ve had a lot of come back games where we’ve been fi ghting from behind so I think being in that spot and having senior leadership, there was no panic when we went down 4-0,” Ismay said. “We knew we could come back and win it.” Gilbert gave the Celtics the lead, driving in two more runs with a triple. McNary tried a squeeze play but Daniel Johnson’s bunt was popped up to the fi rst baseman. Please see SURVIVE, Page 14 Lady Celts power past Grant By DEREK WILEY Of the Keizertimes Kevin Wise looked out at the scoreboard on Monday, May 22 and declared this Mc- Nary softball team the best hitting squad he’d ever had. With 22 hits, including six doubles and three home runs, in an 18-14 fi rst round playoff victory over Grant, the Lady Celts head coach had all the proof he needed. “The great thing about this team that makes us really hard to defend against is we can play small ball if we need to and we can hit the long ball,” Wise said. “We’ve worked a lot on just fi nding holes. We have a lot of speed, too. We have it all.” McNary, the No. 9 seed, jumped out to a 4-0 lead against No. 24 Grant. The Lady Celts scored three runs in the bottom of the fi rst before even getting an out. Nadia Witt and Al- exa Cepeda led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Haley Ebner then added a third straight base hit to drive in Witt. After Cepeda scored on a wild pitch, Hannah Carr doubled to bring Ebner home. Haley Bingenheimer added a sacrifi ce fl y to score Carr from third. After the Generals an- swered with fi ve runs in the top of the second, McNary came back with fi ve itself. Carr singled to drive in Witt and Cepeda. Emma Kin- ler and Nicole Duran then hit back-to-back home runs to give the Lady Celts a 9-5 lead heading to the third. “It was defi nitely pretty nerve-racking but no matter what I know that the team’s got everybody’s back,” Duran said. “Even when we get into those long innings like that, you know that there’s some- body there to make that play to get us out and we can go in and hit and get more runs.” McNary pitcher Faith Danner settled down to retire Grant 1-2-3 in the third and fourth innings. The Lady Celts then added four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a commanding 13-5 lead. Please see POWER, Page 15
