DECEMBER 29, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A11
KEIZERTIMES.COM
McNary fi nishes
2-2 at Capitol City
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
McNary senior Lucas Garvey tries to drive past a Sprague defender during the Celtics fi nal game
of the Capitol City Classic on Friday, Dec. 22 at Willamette University.
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
SALEM—McNary sim-
ply ran out of gas, falling to
Sprague 58-43 on Friday,
Dec. 22 in its fi nal game of
the Capitol City Classic at
Willamette University.
“I just literally think that
the gas tank was below emp-
ty,” Celtics head coach Ryan
Kirch said. “And they’re frus-
trated and disappointed be-
cause it’s a rival.
“They just played so hard
for four games. You could
see out there that they could
barely just run and get up
and down the fl oor on the
college court. They’re not
excuses but the guys just ran
out of gas. There’s not much
you can say other than that.
I appreciate how hard they
played all week.”
Out-hustling the Olympi-
ans, McNary jumped out to
a 9-2 lead.
However, Sprague an-
swered with six 3-pointers to
take a 32-23 lead into half-
time.
The Olympians made
three more 3-pointers in
the second half to lead by as
many as 18.
Chandler Cavell led Mc-
Nary with 11 points.
Noah Hudkins came
off the bench to score nine
points. Boston Smith fi n-
ished with eight and Andrew
Jones added seven.
The Celtics opened the
16-team tournament on
Monday, Dec. 18 with a 71-
60 win over defending 6A
state runner-up Clackamas.
Cavell had 27 points and
seven assists. Lucas Garvey
fi nished with 11 points and
Riccardo Gardelli added 10.
McNary then lost to
Woodcreek, last season’s state
runner-up in California, 54-
52 in overtime on Wednes-
day, Dec. 20.
Garvey, who led the Celt-
ics with 15 points, sent the
game to overtime with a
3-pointer at the buzzer.
Cavell added 12 points, six
rebounds and four assists.
“Our kids battled,” Kirch
said. “It was a good, physi-
cal game (against Clackamas)
and the same against Wood-
creek from California. You
go and you play big, really
talented teams for a reason
and we got better.
“Losing a couple of tough
games here makes us bet-
ter in the long run as we
go and play other teams in
the league. I think we got
tougher, more competitive.
I thought we did some re-
ally good things. As far as a
week is concerned, we got a
lot better.”
McNary defeated Wilson-
ville 55-30 on Thursday, Dec.
21.
Gardelli had 15 points and
fi ve rebounds. Garvey added
11 points, four rebounds and
four assists.
“Our guys really defended
well,” Kirch said. “We were
able to get stops, which al-
lowed us to run in transi-
tion.”
The Celtics play at Shel-
don on Friday, Dec. 29 at 7
p.m.
McNary’s next league
game is Tuesday, Jan. 2 at For-
est Grove.
Top sports stories of 2017
The order of the top 10 sports stories of 2017 was decided by an online poll at keizertimes.
com. Any ties were broken by associate editor Derek Wiley.
#1 Vincent comes back
from injury to win district
Winning the district title
alone probably wasn’t enough
to propel McNary sophomore
Enrique Vincent to the top
sports story of 2017.
It’s how he did it.
After missing most of the
season with a knee injury,
Vincent returned in February
for the Celtics fi nal two duals
of the regular season and then
defeated West Albany junior
Wyatt French 11-5 in the fi -
nals of the OSAA 6A Special
District 5 tournament on Sat-
urday, Feb. 18 at West Salem
High School.
Vincent ran twice a day, in
the morning before school
and then after practice, to cut
12 pounds to make weight
(120 pounds).
Vincent thanked his coach-
es, Jason Ebbs and assistant
Devin Reynolds, for pushing
him.
“They knew my limits.
They knew I would do any-
thing for this spot right here,”
Vincent said. “It feels great. It
makes up for all the days and
weeks I’ve missed.”
The following weekend
Vincent placed third in the
state tournament at Memorial
Coliseum in Portland.
“Ricky’s got a drive that a
lot of kids don’t have nowa-
days,” McNary head coach Ja-
son Ebbs said. “He goes hard
all the time and it frustrates
wrestlers when he goes that
hard for as long as he goes.
That’s an unique skill set to
have. That makes him dan-
gerous. That makes him scary.
That makes him hard to wres-
tle.”
File
McNary sophomore Enrique Vincent hugs Celtics assistant coach Devin Reynolds after winning
the OSAA 6A Special District 5 tournament at West Salem.
#2 Bibens-Dirkx fi nally
gets call to big leagues
After more than 11 years in
the minors, 32-year-old pitch-
er Austin Bibens-Dirkx was
called up to the Texas Rang-
ers. The former Keizer Little
Leaguer and McNary High
School graduate made his Ma-
jor League Baseball debut on
May 17 in Texas, allowing one
hit and one run in one inning.
Bibens-Dirkx got his fi rst
start on May 31 against Tampa
Bay. On June 11, he then went
head-to-head with two-time
Cy Young Award winner Max
Scherzer and faced a Washing-
ton Nationals lineup that in-
cluded 2015 National League
Most Valuable Player Bryce
Harper and 2016 Silver Slug-
ger Daniel Murphy. Over seven
innings, Bibens-Dirkx allowed
just three hits and one run, a
solo home run to the fi rst hitter
of the game, to earn the win.
“That might be probably
one of the most memorable
File
McNary football player Kolby Barker signed with the Air Force Academy during a ceremony in
early February.
#3 McNary athletes sign
Submitted
Austin Bibens-Dirkx, a McNary graduate, made his MLB debut
on May 17 for the Texas Rangers.
outings that I might ever have
in my career,” said Bibens-
Dirkx, who retired 19 Nation-
als in a row. “I just kept the
ball down with making quality
pitches and if you do that in any
league, you can get guys out.”
Moving back to the bull-
pen in August, Bibens-Dirkx
fi nished his rookie season 5-2
with a 4.67 ERA and 38 strike-
outs over 69 innings.
Headlined by three Divi-
sion I scholarships, 19 Mc-
Nary student athletes signed
with colleges in 2017.
Kolby Barker signed a na-
tional letter of intent to play
football with the Air Force
Academy in February.
Barker didn’t always plan
on playing Division I foot-
ball. But after his junior sea-
son, programs began fl ooding
him with attention. Wyoming
was the fi rst to offer, then Air
Force.
“I started this with let’s see
if maybe I can play for West-
ern Oregon or something like
that,” Barker said. “I did not
expect this. It’s been so much
greater than I could have ever
expected. It’s a dream come
true. I’m so excited about my
future and about the Air Force
Academy.”
Brendan Van Voorhis got
a full ride, 70 percent ath-
letic, 30 percent academic, to
DePaul University, a private
school in Chicago. He signed
in April.
“It’s kind of unreal honestly
because I didn’t think that I
was going to be D-I for track,”
Van Voorhis said.
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