PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, MAY 26, 2017
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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