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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TuESDAY, FEbRuARY 19, 2019
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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Kathryn Zacher
Astoria swimmer Riley Cameron.
Astoria
swimmers
place at
state
The Daily Astorian
The North Coast did not send
many swimmers to the final day
of the OSAA state meet, held Fri-
day and Saturday at Tualatin Hills
Aquatic Center in Beaverton.
But swimmers from Astoria
and Seaside still made the most
of their appearance in Friday’s
preliminaries and Saturday’s
finals.
While no Seaside swimmers
qualified for Day 2, Astoria sent
two swimmers to the final six in
their respective events.
The highest placing went to
Astoria junior Riley Cameron,
who finished fifth in the final of
the boys’ 200-yard individual
medley.
Cameron came in with the
sixth-best time in the field (2
minutes, 17.63 seconds), and
that’s where he placed with his
preliminary time of 2:14.42.
His time of 2:16.09 in Satur-
day’s final was good enough to
move Cameron into a fifth-place
finish, just ahead of Blanchet
Catholic’s Paul Hegney.
Also qualifying for the finals
was Astoria sophomore Tori
Smith in the girls’ 100-yard
backstroke.
Seeded seventh coming into
the meet, Smith’s 1:03.68 in the
preliminaries moved her to the
finals, where she swam a 1:04.02
for sixth.
For the Gulls, “We didn’t
make it to the second day, but
had some really great swims,”
said Seaside coach Shane Spell.
“The 200 free relay dropped two
seconds from their district win-
ning time (1:52.46) and moved
up one spot from their original
seed (to 1:50.21). Great relay
splits across the board.”
In addition, “Kendy Lin had
less than 10 minutes to turn
around and swim her 100 back-
stroke,” Spell said. “Lifetime
best by over a second (1:06.63)
and moved up three spots from
her original seed (from 11th to
eighth). I’m thankful that the
seniors got to finish the season
strong and some of our younger
swimmers got a peek at what is
possible next year.”
SCOREBOARD
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Astoria 44, Seaside 42
SEA (42): Lilli Taylor 9, Turner 8, Blodgett 6, Kiser
6, Goin 4, Douglas 4, Garhofer 3, Zagata 2.
AST (44): Brooklynn Hankwitz 17, Norris 11,
Fausett 9, O’Brien 5, Helmersen 2, Long,
Jackson.
Seaside
8
10
12
12 — 42
Astoria
14
10
6
14 — 44
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Hailey O’Brien drives to the basket for Astoria.
ASTORIA TOPS SEASIDE WITH
NORRIS BUZZER-BEATER
Both teams headed
for state playoffs
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
or a game that did not have a whole
lot riding on it — both teams are
expected to make the playoffs —
the Seaside and Astoria girls bas-
ketball teams put on a pretty good show
Monday night at the Brick House.
An offensive rebound basket by Asto-
ria’s Julia Norris as time expired gave
the Lady Fish an exciting 44-42 win over
their rivals, putting a dramatic end to the
Cowapa League seeding game.
The Clatsop Clash win streak for Asto-
ria is now at six, but the previous five all
came by fairly decisive margins. The two
league meetings this season were both
Astoria wins, 57-31 and 43-23.
Astoria just seemed to have Seaside’s
number.
The Gulls, however, decided to change
their number for Monday’s contest. And
it nearly worked.
By the time it was over, Seaside prob-
ably regretted 20 turnovers and 10 missed
free throws, all of which made a big dif-
ference in the closest girls’ Clatsop Clash
in years.
Seaside coach Mike Hawes asked
himself after the game, “Well, what
words of wisdom does one tell a group of
heartbroken kids? My goodness, how far
we’ve come in a couple weeks,” since the
Gulls lost by 20 on the same floor, Feb. 1.
On the other side, Astoria coach Mike
Jacobson had a feeling this one would be
close.
F
“We talked about that before the
game,” said the former Seaside coach.
“It’s real tough to beat a team three times
in one season, and (the Gulls) did a good
job of sticking around.”
Just minutes into the game, the score
was Brooklynn Hankwitz 10, Seaside 4,
as Astoria’s big junior post scored the
first 10 points for her team (and finished
with a game-high 17).
Hankwitz picked up a crucial foul just
before halftime, and spent time on the
bench in the second half.
That helped the Gulls turn a 24-18 defi-
cit into a 30-30 tie at the end of the third
quarter, which was capped by Annaka
Garhofer’s 3-pointer as time expired.
“We knew if we took care of the ball
we’d have a chance,” Hawes said. “We
had 15 turnovers at the half and we fin-
ished with 20, and two or three of those
were at the start of the third quarter.
“So once we started passing to each
other we got more shots, got our feet set
defensively and clawed our way back,”
he said.
The entire fourth quarter was back and
forth, but the Gulls never led.
With the Fishermen holding a 32-31
lead early in the period, Astoria turned on
the “Julia Norris Show.”
The junior — who had no points the
first three quarters — scored on a three-
point play with 5:53 left, for a 35-31
lead. Her 3-pointer a minute later made
it 38-32.
But Seaside didn’t fold. Not this time.
Emy Kiser answered Norris’s three
with a 3-pointer of her own, Lilli Taylor
scored on an offensive rebound, and Tay-
lor hit a pair of free throws at the 2:18
mark to tie the game, 39-39.
With 1:52 left, Norris made 1-of-2
free throws, then after a defensive stop,
Norris scored on an offensive rebound
for a 42-39 lead with 1:05 remaining.
Taylor was fouled on Seaside’s next
two possessions, and made 3-of-4 free
throws (she would finish 7-of-8 at the
line).
Tied 42-42 and with 35 seconds left,
the Fishermen played for the final shot.
Norris’s drive to the hoop came up
short, but she grabbed the offensive
rebound and scored as time expired.
“We’ve had two buzzer-beaters this
year, and they’re pretty exciting to win
that way,” Jacobson said, two weeks
after Halle Helmersen beat Banks with a
last-second 3-pointer. “Julia was just in
the right place at the right time.”
Hawes said, “We extended to help cor-
ral (Hailey) O’Brien, but that left Hank-
witz solo and she’s good, too. Astoria has
lots of weapons, and if one doesn’t get ya
the others might, like Norris.”
Astoria will wait to find out who its
opponent will be in the Sweet 16, but it’s
likely to be a home contest March 2. Sea-
side will also wait for its playoff bid in
the play-in round.
“I’m proud of these kids,” Hawes said.
“They come to play every night. I think
we’ve earned the right to play on, and if
we hang on to the ball we just might get
the next one.”
Norris finished with 11 points, all in
the fourth quarter, while Kelsey Fau-
sett had nine. Taylor had nine points and
Trinity Turner scored eight for the Gulls.
“The kids are excited to keep play-
ing,” Jacobson said of his players. “This
was a good win, but they want more than
to just make the state playoffs. We want
to keep playing, and take it as far as we
can.”
Knappa wrestlers battle to third place in district meet
The Daily Astorian
One Knappa wrestler — Luke
Goozee — scored an individual
championship, and the Loggers
qualified one additional Goozee
for the state tournament follow-
ing two days of wrestling at Toledo
High School, which hosted the Dis-
trict 1/2A tournament Friday and
Saturday.
Vernonia scored 282.5 points to
win the team title, twice as many
points as second-place Neah-Kah-
Nie (141), while Knappa took third
with 114 team points.
Luke Goozee was Knappa’s lone
champion, as the senior topped a
field of nine wrestlers at 138 pounds.
After a first-round bye, Goozee
scored two quick pins over fresh-
man Rolando Miranda of Gervais
(48 seconds) and Waldport sopho-
more Kaleb Chavez (14 seconds) to
reach the finals.
Knappa wrestling
The Knappa wrestling team took third and qualified two individuals for the state meet.
It took a little longer in the
championship bout, where Goozee
pinned Vernonia’s Austin Sicard in
1:11 for the title.
Goozee’s “little” brother, soph-
omore Isaac Goozee, wrestled four
opponents at 220, winning three
matches to place second.
Goozee won by fall in the first
two, pinning Kennedy’s Quentin
Castro in 1:31 and Isaac Barnes of
Nestucca in 1:01 in the semifinals.
Neah-Kah-Nie senior Tristan
Bennett defeated Goozee in the
championship match with a fall in
1:13.
Goozee had to wrestle one more
match to place second, and did so
with a 50-second pin over Colton’s
Elijah Hagler.
The Loggers scored the rest of
their points with team depth, high-
lighted by a third-place finish for
Kaleb Roe at 170 pounds.
Gauge Perdue took fourth at 126,
and fifth-place finishes were scored
by Devyn McCall at 132 and Jona-
than Lenhard at 182.
Team scores: Vernonia 282.5,
Neah-Kah-Nie 141, Knappa 114,
Santiam 106.5, Siletz Valley 103,
Toledo 103, Gervais 91, Colton 74,
Nestucca 69, Sheridan 53, Kennedy
32, Waldport 21.