Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2020)
PAGE A12, KEIZERTIMES, FEBRUARY 21, 2020 KEIZERTIMES.COM Celtics swim concludes season at MVC meet KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary senior Alyssa Garvey made it to the fi nals in the 50-yard freestyle and placed eighth at the MVC District Meet. The Mc- Nary girls fi nished sixth overall. By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes After weather derailed the format last year, the Moun- tain Valley Conference host- ed their fi rst true district meet Feb. 13-14 at the Kroc Center in Salem. The McNary boys took fi fth place with 220 points while the Celtic girls placed sixth with 138 points. While they had a tough time hanging with the likes of Bend and Summit on the scoreboard, McNary head coach Casey Lewin was glad to see his team give their best performances of the season. “We had best times across the board on Friday and we backed up our swims on Sat- urday. The kids really focused and worked hard the few weeks leading to districts. It was nice to see their efforts rewarded,” Lewin said. The big highlight of the meet for the Celtics was that Bella Beard became the fi rst McNary girl to qualify for the state meet since Marissa Kuch in 2016. Beard fi n- ished third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of (1:09.52). Beard will race in the preliminary heat at Mount Hood Community College on Friday, Feb. 21. If she fi n- ishes in the top eight, she will compete in the fi nals the following day. It’s unlikely that Beard will compete for a state title, but Lewin believes that the McNary junior could break the school record in the 100-breast at the state meet, which is 1:08.80. “It will be great for her to get another opportunity to break the school record. With a good, clean race, she can get down to the 1:08s,” Lewin said. Despite dealing with an injury, Paris Boyd also had a fantastic day for the McNary girls. Boyd made it to the po- dium in two individual events, placing sixth in the 50-freestyle (25.84) and fi fth in the 100-free (57.27). She also helped the 200-free relay team fi nish fi fth and the 200-medley team place fourth. “Paris had big swims for us, even though she was deal- ing with an injury,” Lewin Please see SWIM, Page A8 Celts send 12 wrestlers to podium at districts By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes After placing seventh last year, the McNary wrestling team was hoping to show im- provement at the Mountain Valley Conference District Meet, which took place at Mountain View High School Feb. 13-14. It’s safe to say their goal was accomplished. The Celtics, who only placed fi ve wrestlers last sea- son, sent 12 of their 21 kids to the podium, which earned McNary a third-place fi nish at districts. “I’m so proud of the kids. They wrestled so tough. They were in a bunch of close matches and they nev- er stopped wrestling. It was such a fun weekend. I got a lot of compliments from oth- er coaches on how tough the kids wrestled. It was a huge difference from last year,” Mc- Nary interim head coach Sam Martin said. Despite some of the expe- rience McNary has, the top fi nishers for the Celtics were actually young guys in fresh- man Hunter Ruberto and sophomore Aldo Villavazo. Ruberto placed third in the 145-pound division while Villavazo took second at 220 pounds. Both wrestlers au- tomatically qualifi ed for the state tournament at the Moda Center in Portland, which starts on Friday, Feb. 28. After receiving a bye in the fi rst round, Villavazo pinned Anthony Alvarez from McKay to earn a spot in the semifi nals. Villavazo then advanced to the championship match after his opponent was disqualifi ed — Villavazo was unable to wrestle in the championship bout due to injury. Ruberto, on the other hand, took a much windier road to earn his state qualifi - cation. Ruberto won his fi rst round match, but got beat with an 18-3 technical fall against Elijah Byers from Sprague in the quarterfi nals. But the Celtics freshman re- sponded in a big way. “All week, we talk about never giving up during a match. You’re always in a match until the fi nal whistle. I took every match like it was going to be my last. I was put- ting it all on the line,” Ruber- to said. Ruberto got two straight pins before edging out Moun- tain View’s Mason Burke in the consolation semifi nals, winning by a score of 12-8. The victory over Burke gave Ruberto a berth in the third-place match, which wound up being a rematch with Byers with a state tour- nament spot on the line. Ruberto battled with Byers into the second round, but when he was able to get posi- tion with a two-point reversal, Ruberto nailed down the pin six seconds before the second round ended. “Going into the second Please see WRES., Page A8 KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary’s Anthony Garcia-Reyes (blue singlet) fi nished fourth in the 220-pound division at the MVC District Tournament. KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings McNary guard Gunner Smedema elevates for a jumper over a Mountain View defender in the Celtics 67-49 win on Tuesday, Feb. 18. McNary rolls at home against Mountain View By MATT RAWLINGS Of the Keizertimes It’s typical for Nate Meithof to have a big night. The state’s third leading scor- er once again carried the McNary boys hoops team with 27 points in this one. But it was a performance from an unexpected source that pushed the Celtics over the edge. McNary sophomore Ty- ler Copeland, a guy that has swung time between JV and varsity for part of the season, was 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and had 14 points as the Celtics defeated Mountain View 67-49 on Tuesday, Feb. 18. “My coach was telling me that I needed to be more of a varsity player. It really got to my head so I knew that I had to come out here and play well,” Copeland said. “I felt like I needed to prove my- self today. It was just a great night. I don’t know what else to say.” After McNary head coach Ryan Kirch was very criti- cal of the Celtics in their last home game, he was much more pleased with what he saw from his squad against Mountain View. “I thought it was the best 32 minutes we have played. I was really pleased with the complete effort from start to fi nish,” Kirch said. McNary started the game with a lineup they haven’t played before as Copeland, along with Gunner Smede- ma and Junior Nunez each got their fi rst varsity starts. The new starting fi ve gave the Celtics a spark imme- diately, scoring the fi rst 14 points of the game. Copeland hit back-to- back triples from the base- line in the fi rst minute of the game. Meithof then hit a deep 3-pointer from the top of the key to extend the lead to 9-0. Meithof then hit a run- ner on the Celtics follow- ing possession, and mo- ments later, Smedema nailed a trey from the corner get the advantage to 14-0. “Once we got on a roll, we just kept going,” Copeland said. Coming out with a new starting fi ve stemmed from a strategy by Kirch to add some intensity to their prac- tices. Kirch installed several competitions at practice and the fi ve guys that earned the most points from the compe- titions would be named the starters for the next game. “I thought we were getting complacent in some areas as a group. Our top fi ve guys that compete the hardest in practice and have the most competition points, those guys started. It makes for good comradery and it makes our practices Please see BBALL, Page A9
