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