MARCH 15, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE C3
SIGNING,
continued from Page C1
TRACK,
continued from Page C1
after taking a college visit
there earlier in the school
year.
“I immediately liked the
campus and they had pro-
grams there that I wanted to
pursue, which was a major
factor in why I wanted to
go there,” Allen said. “Plus, I
knew their baseball staff was
really good and that they had
a good pitching staff.”
Allen will get the chance
to pitch alongside former
McNary standout Josiah
Gilbert, who is entering his
sophomore year at Pacific.
But the thing Allen is most
looking forward to is just be-
ing able to play at the next
level.
“Getting to go onto the
the next level is really excit-
ing because not a whole lot
of people are able to do that,”
Allen said. “It just shows that
a lot of hard work and perse-
verance will take you where
you need to go.”
While Covalt and Allen
are both greatly looking
forward to playing baseball
in college, they also want to
finish off their high school
careers at McNary on the
right note.
“Going into their senior
year, we’re going to expect
them to be leaders in their
own unique way,” Keeker
said. “Tyler will be more of
a vocal guy and David will
lead based on his actions and
work ethic.”
“We expect them to lead
the way and perform well in
the field.”
Nary’s
other
high-lev-
el sprinter last season and is
expected to improve in the
100m and 200m.
“We expect (Rios and
Hernandez) to pick up right
where they left off,” Gauntz
said. “They are only going to
get faster.”
McLean Schmidt (senior):
McNary’s best returning hur-
dler. He had top-15 finishes
at districts last year in the in
the 100 and 300-hurdles.
With the addition of Bend,
Mountain View and Summit
to the conference, Gauntz
knows that his team will be
challenged from week to
week. But McNary’s goals for
the season aren’t about how
many dual meets they win
or how many kids they send
to state. It’s all about building
towards success for the future.
“I don’t really have expec-
tations on how many kids
we’ll take to state. I just want
kids to be faster, jump higher
and throw farther than they
did at the beginning of the
year,” Gauntz said.
“I want a lot of (person-
al records) at the conference
meet.”
File
McNary pitcher Faith Danner enters the season as one of the best arms in the Conference.
CELTS,
continued from Page C1
ting average to go along with
19 RBIs.
Alexa Cepeda (junior- OF):
As a sophomore, Cepeda was
the team leader last season in
runs scored (37) and stoled
bases (25). She was named a
2018 honorable mention.
“Alexa’s one of those kids
that gets on all the time,”
Wise said. “And when she
gets on, she’s so quick and
smart and she causes a lot of
havoc.”
Kate Ronning (sopho-
more- 3B): Also was a honor-
able mention performer last
season. Batted .368 and had an
on-base percentage of .455.
Abbi Covalt (sophomore-
2B): Batted .410 as a freshman
and is McNary’s third honor-
able mention performer that’s
returning to the team.
Another big benefit for
this McNary team will be the
addition of freshman pitcher
Hannah Ebner.
Last season, Danner pitched
in all but one game as Wise
did not have much confidence
in the rest of his pitching staff.
However, Wise believes that
he will be able to take the load
off his star pitcher a little bit
more this season.
“(Hannah) is a good
pitcher. So now we have
that backup if Faith is
having a bad day or needs
some rest,” Wise said. “It’s
nice that we have someone
else we can go to.”
With the majority of his
starters returning, it’s clear
that Wise believes that this
group has a high ceiling.
“We want to win a con-
ference title and make a
deep run in the playoffs,”
Wise said. “I think this
group is going to get better
as the year goes on.”
File
McNary sophomore Kennedy Buss runs the 800 meters in a
meet from last season.