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143RD YEAR, NO. 228 ONE DOLLAR DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, MAY 23, 2016 Warrenton girl drowns off Klipsan Lady Fish are stunning at state track meet Beach DOMINANT REPEAT 12-year-old was likely in the water more than 30 minutes By NATALIE ST. JOHN EO Media Group LONG BEACH, Wash. — A 12-year-old Warrenton girl drowned on Sunday evening while playing in the waves in the Klipsan Beach area. “These just make me sick. It’s like they never end,” Paciic County Sheriff Scott Johnson said shortly after the girl was pro- nounced dead at Ocean Beach Hospital. Local ocean waters have claimed the lives of numer- ous inexperienced swimmers in recent years. According to Johnson, details of the incident are still emerging, but responders believe the girl and her family may have been visiting local friends. She and a friend were reportedly swimming or playing in the tide near 196th and N streets when she ran into trouble just before 7 p.m. “It sounds like the adults were maybe down the beach, or at the house,” Johnson said. Photos by David Ball/For the Daily Astorian See DROWNING, Page 10A Astoria sophomore Darian Hageman, the high-point athlete of the state meet, holds another team trophy for the Lady Fishermen. Fishermen score points in all seven events By DAVID BALL For The Daily Astorian UGENE — Astoria’s Kaylee Mitchell came ’round the inal turn in the 800- meter inal at the same time that team- mate Darian Hageman took a little hop and started down the runway for a record-set- ting effort in the triple jump. The two teammates ran almost side-by- side in front of the boisterous Hayward Field grandstands. In a lash, the Fishermen had put 18 points on the scoreboard. That was the story at Saturday’s Ore- gon School Activities Association state track championships for an Astoria team that had too many athletes in too many events. It wasn’t a matter of whether Astoria was going to win the 4A team title again, it was only a matter of how many points they would put up. E MORE WINNERS Other student athletes from Clatsop County bring home trophies. Read more on Page 4A “We were fortunate enough to get peo- ple spread out across many events and some in multiple events,” Astoria coach Garrett Parks said. “All coaches are nervous on Day 1 because you have to get kids through to inals, and the girls did a great job with that. At the end of the day it’s just nice to see the kids celebrate.” Astoria inished with 109.5 points to blow out runner-up Siuslaw by almost 40 points. Marshield topped the leaderboard coming into Day 2 of the meet, but Astoria would take charge in dramatic fashion when Saturday’s irst racing inal went into the books. Astoria was expecting a tight race in the 400-meter relay inale, but Phoenix went into the inal exchange two strides ahead of the pack. But a dropped baton caused mayhem coming off the corner, and Astoria’s Natalie Cummings took full advantage snatching the metal tube from teammate Kaylee Mitchell and sprinting away. She hit the inish line a full two strides ahead of anyone else. “I saw everyone closing in and it was nerve-racking, I knew I just had to get the baton and go,” Cummings said. “I saw Phoenix drop it out of the corner of my eye, and I just kept pushing myself. My team deserved a gold medal, and I wanted to do my part to get it.” Astoria won the tag-team race in 50.12 sec- onds and surged past Marshield by a point on See CHAMPS, Page 4A Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian A month-old double-crested cormorant at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast. Thousands of birds abandon their nests Cormorants left eggs vulnerable to predators By CASSANDRA PROFITA Oregon Public Broadcasting Oficials say thousands of cormorants abandoned their nests on East Sand Island in the Columbia River and they don’t know why. Reports indicate as many as 16,000 adult birds in the colony left their eggs behind to be eaten by predators including eagles, seagulls and crows. The birds’ mysterious departure comes after the latest wave of government-sanc- tioned cormorant shooting. It’s part of a cam- paign to reduce the population of birds that are eating imperiled Columbia River salmon. Amy Echols, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the contrac- tors who monitor the birds for the Corps reported May 16 that the East Sand Island colony had been signiicantly disturbed. LEFT: Astoria’s triple crown winner, Darian Hageman, competing in the triple jump and long jump. She also won the high jump with a school record leap. RIGHT: Junior Natalie Cummings was the winner of the 100 meters, and took second in the 200 meters. See CORMORANTS, Page 10A Warrenton teacher, coach is a master of much eacher, coach, isher, over- seas traveler, singer and guitar player. Lynique Oveson, remarkably, is all of the above. Her current work address is Warrenton High School. Oveson is wrapping up her irst year of teaching at Warren- ton, and, just this weekend, took a handful of athletes to the state track meet in Eugene, as the Warriors’ track coach. This summer, she will be back in Alaska, resuming her job on a ishing boat. For a person who believes “everything happens for a rea- son,” Oveson’s coaching story alone is unique. Technically, her time on the sidelines started when she was T just a child. “My dad coached at Wal- lowa High School (football, basketball and track), and I have pictures of me and my identical twin sitting on the bench, when we were 3 years old. Coaching is in our blood.” After coaching the Warren- ton junior varsity teams in vol- leyball and basketball last fall and winter, “I was trying to not coach this spring, and focus on teaching,” she said, “but that didn’t really happen.” In her days as an athlete, Oveson competed in track La Grande High School, and later at the University of Portland. “I did a little bit of every- thing, but my two main events were the javelin and 800. I hated the 800, but I was good at it.” She was diagnosed with a heart condition her freshman year at Portland — which began her transition from athlete to coach. Heart condition The heart condition “turned out to be a blessing in dis- guise,” she said. “I started See OVESON, Page 10A Submitted Photo Warrenton teacher and coach Lynique Oveson, left, with one of her state-qualifying track athletes, Eli Petersen, fol- lowing the district meet.