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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, FEbRuARy 13, 2020
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
ghenley@dailyastorian.com
Buzzer-beater
lifts Warrenton
past Clatskanie
The Astorian
Astoria High School
Members of the Astoria girls swim team following their league championship win.
League swimming titles for
Astoria girls, Seaside boys
By GARY HENLEY
The Astorian
he first two Cowapa League
championships of the 2019-20
sports season went to the North
Coast schools, in the form of first place
finishes for the Astoria girls and the
Seaside boys swim teams.
The league meet was held Feb. 7 at
the Astoria Aquatic Center. Swimmers
from Rainier and Scappoose also took
part, but their points did not figure in
the Cowapa League standings.
While Astoria won the girls team
championship with 222 points, the
Seaside boys racked up 294 — just
enough to get past Astoria’s 292 — to
capture the first place trophy.
The boys’ team title was still on the
line in the very last event of the day,
the 400-yard freestyle relay.
Seaside ended up disqualified from
the race, along with Tillamook. So
the event came down to two teams —
Astoria and Valley Catholic.
Luckily for the Gulls, the Valiants
finished 14 seconds ahead of the Fish-
ermen, who picked up 26 points for
second place, instead of 32 had they
won the event.
That left the Fishermen two points
short of the Gulls in the final team
standings.
Valley Catholic was a distant third
with 179, followed by Tillamook
(103).
The Seaside boys won just two
events, with several more top three fin-
ishes to rack up the points.
Seaside’s first win came in event
16, the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The foursome of Westin Car-
ter, Shawn Collins, Luke Verley and
Henry Garvin (three juniors and a
sophomore) edged Astoria at the wall,
finishing in 1 minute, 44.71 seconds, to
Astoria’s 1:44.84.
Collins swam the very next event,
winning the 100-yard backstroke in
1:08.03, just ahead of teammate Leif
Rehnert, second in 1:08.92.
For more points, the Gulls had
T
Clatskanie hit a miracle shot to tie the
game at the end of regulation, but Warren-
ton’s Austin Little banked in a 3-pointer
as time expired in overtime, giving the
Warriors a 41-38 win in a Coastal Range
League boys basketball game.
At 4-3 in league play, Warrenton holds
a one-game lead over Willamina for sec-
ond place in the league standings. The two
teams meet Friday at Willamina to finish
the league season, and could meet again in
the league playoffs next week.
Austin Little scored 13 and Dawson Lit-
tle added 11 in Tuesday’s win.
Warrenton coach Nate McBride called
it “about as good of a game as you could
ask for. If you’re a fan of basketball or high
school sports, you would have had to love
this game.”
Which Warrenton almost lost, as the
upset-minded Tigers came in with a
3-17 overall record, but sent the game to
overtime.
“We led for the vast majority of the game,
and were really able to control the tempo,”
McBride said. “We got beat up pretty good
on the boards, but our kids battled.”
The Warriors even led by four with 12.9
seconds left, when Clatskanie’s Skylar
Vocana hit a 3-pointer to bring the Tigers
within one point.
Clatskanie fouled with just under four
seconds left, and Warrenton’s Hordie Bod-
den-Bodden hit both free throws for a three-
point lead.
But as time expired in regulation, Vocana
hit a running 3-pointer just inside half-court
line to tie the game.
The teams traded baskets over the first
few minutes of overtime, before Austin Lit-
tle hit the off-balance 3-pointer as the over-
time session ended.
No. 1 Clatskanie tops
Warrenton girls, 57-22
Seaside Swimming
Seaside coach Shane Spell and the Gulls celebrate a league championship.
to rely on second place finishes for
Garvin in the 50-yard freestyle; Masyn
McCulloch in the 500-yard freestyle
and Leif DeWinter in the 100-yard
breaststroke; and third place showings
from McCulloch (200 freestyle), Sean
Olea (200 individual medley), Sam
Heroux (100 butterfly) and Garvin
(100 freestyle).
The Astoria boys won three events.
Riley Cameron had the best time
(1:59.84) among 11 Cowapa swim-
mers in the 200 freestyle, and also won
the 100 freestyle in 53.44.
Fisherman junior Noah Kastengren
followed with a victory in the 500 free-
style (5:58.08), with teammates Chris-
tian Womack third and Nikolai Bois-
vert fourth.
Astoria added several third and
fourth-place finishes for more points.
On the girls’ side, Astoria opened
with a second place finish in the 200
medley relay, followed by a win for
freshman Emelia Cameron in the 200
freestyle (2:20.04).
The Lady Fish began to rack up the
team points when Grace Peeler, Con-
stance Rouda, Tori Smith and Cameron
won the 200 freestyle relay (1:56.09),
then a 2-3-4 finish in the backstroke
(Smith, Rouda and Brooke O’Connor).
Peeler took second in the breast-
stroke, and Astoria had enough points
for the team championship.
The Seaside girls scored 207 points
for third behind Astoria and Tilla-
mook, with one win. Senior Kaisa Lil-
jenwall teamed with sophomore Taryn
Shay and juniors Emily Philbrook and
Brooke Blankenhorn to finish first in
the 400 freestyle relay in 4:32.15, just
ahead of Valley Catholic’s 4:33.59.
Blankenhorn took second in both
the 200 and 500 freestyle races, while
Liljenwall, Blankenhorn, Sofia Ship-
ley and Philbrook place second behind
Astoria in the 200-yard freestyle.
Liljenwall was third in the 100 free-
style, and Shipley took third in the
breaststroke.
Astoria and Seaside swimmers will
compete this weekend in the district
meet, Friday and Saturday at Newport.
The district results will determine state
qualifying.
Two free throws by Kenzie Ramsey
had Warrenton in front 11-9 late in the first
quarter, but the rest of the night belonged
to No. 1-ranked Clatskanie, which posted
a 57-22 win on the Warriors’ home floor
Tuesday night.
The No. 2-ranked Tigers improved to
6-1 (17-2 overall) in the Coastal Range
League girls basketball standings, tied with
Willamina.
After Ramsey’s free throws with 2:50
left in the first quarter, Clatskanie went on
a 14-0 run to take a 23-11 lead.
A 3-pointer by Ramsey finally stopped
the string, and Ramsey’s layup early in the
third quarter still had the Warriors within
26-16.
But too many turnovers, missed free
throws and errant passes by the Warriors
led to too many easy points for Clatskanie,
which outscored Warrenton 45-11 after the
first quarter.
The Warriors remain in a third place tie
in the league standings at 2-5, and have
one game remaining (Friday at Willamina)
before the league playoffs begin.
SCOREBOARD
PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE
THURSDAY
Girls Basketball — Livingstone Adventist at Jewell, 5:30
p.m.
Boys Basketball — Livingstone Adventist at Jewell, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY
Girls Basketball — Tillamook at Astoria, 6 p.m.; Warrenton
at Willamina, 6 p.m.
Boys Basketball — Tillamook at Astoria, 7:45 p.m.; War-
renton at Willamina, 7:30 p.m.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Astoria 50, Banks 31
AST (50): Brooklynn Hankwitz 14, Fausett 12, O’Brien 11,
Helmersen 8, Norris 3, Long 2, Jackson, Fisher.
BAN (31): Nya Johnson 8, Walker 7, Shook 6, Hailey 5, Stre-
blow 3, Saunders 2.
Astoria
8
9
15
18—50
Banks
6
2
10
13—31
Valley Catholic 48, Seaside 43
SEA (43): Lilli Taylor 16, Ruby Douglas 16, Blodgett 5, Peter-
son 4, McFadden 1, Doney 1.
Seaside
11
9
11
12—43
Valley C
16
9
13
10—48
BOYS BASKETBALL
Warrenton’s Vollner qualifies for state
The Astorian
The Warrenton girls wrestling
team found out how tough the
big schools are in a regional tour-
nament, last weekend at Century
High School.
Centennial won the team title,
and Warrenton placed 23rd (tied
with Tillamook) in the North
Regional, held last Friday and
Saturday.
The North Regional included
large 5A and 6A schools from
the Portland area, and featured
teams from across the state, from
Warrenton to Vale and Nyssa, to
North Salem.
caught some tough
The top four wrestlers
matchups early on,” said
at each weight qualified
Warrenton coach Corey
for state, Feb. 28-29 in
Conant. “Both the quan-
tity and quality of girl
Portland.
wrestlers have increased
Warrenton had one
every year.”
state qualifier, as senior
He added, “this (War-
Jade Vollner took fourth Jade Vollner
renton) team is the first
at 190 pounds, locking
up her second trip to state. As a four-year girls group that we
sophomore, she took fourth in have had. Anna Schenbeck, Isa-
the first ever girls state tourna- bella Carr and Jade have pro-
ment in 2018.
vided leadership to the younger
Astoria finished 48th and Sea- wrestlers and have played a
side tied for 55th in the team huge role in building a tra-
dition of girls wrestling at
standings.
“Our team fought hard but Warrenton.”
Schenbeck pinned her first
two opponents at 130 pounds,
before a pair of losses.
At 190, Vollner scored a pin
(1:25) over Centennial’s Mel-
ody Lozano, then followed with
another quick fall (1:06) over
Isis Phillips of Scappoose in the
quarterfinals.
From there, Vollner lost in the
semifinals, and went 1-1 in con-
solation for fourth.
“The coaching staff is incred-
ibly proud of this group of girls
and will be looking for big things
from them in the future,” Conant
said.
Banks 53, Astoria 44
AST (44): Xander Marincovich 11, McMaster 10, Stenblom
6, Junes 6, Williams 5, Matthews 3, Brockman 2, Moore 1,
Altheide-Nielson.
BAN (53): Jacob Slifka 24, White 9, Buliga 7, Evans 5, Taylor
3, Buchanan 2, Exline 1.
Seaside 60, Valley Catholic 39
SEA (60): Brayden Johnson 10, Ryan Hague 14, Beau John-
son 16, Stephen Snyder 10, Sibony 7, Langmo 2, Rich 1.
VC (39): Daniel Pruitt 14, Eberhart 8, French 6, Cheung 3, Lo
3, Howard 2, Baglai 2, Hussein 1.
Seaside
14
17
15
14—60
Valley C
10
4
18
7—39
WRESTLING
Girls North Regional
at Century HS
Team scores: Centennial 166, Scappoose 166, Hillsboro
150, Century 140, Forest Grove 114, Ontario 101, Baker/Pow-
der Valley 97, Nyssa 83, Glencoe 74, Estacada 70.5, Oregon
City 67, David Douglas 65, Hood River Valley 62, Milwaukie
53, Vale 50, Aloha 49, Sandy 48, La Grande 46, Banks 45,
Canby 45, Canby 45, Lincoln 45, Beaverton 43, Tillamook
40, Warrenton 40, Wilson 39, Liberty 36, Woodburn 36,
Cleveland 35.5, Sunset 35, Franklin 34, Newberg 32, West
Linn 32, Putnam 28, Willamina/Falls City 28, Jefferson 27,
Dallas 26, Clatskanie 21, Echo/Stanfield 20, Silverton 20, St.
Helens 20, Southridge 19.5, Molalla 19, Parkrose 19, West-
view 18, Lake Oswego 16, The Dalles/Dufur 16, Wilsonville
15, Astoria 14, Benson 13, McLoughlin/Weston-McEwen
13, North Marion 13, Yamhill-Carlton 12, Roosevelt 11, Bar-
low 10, Corbett 9, Seaside 9, Rainier 8, Adrian 7, Heppner/
Ione 6, Kennedy 6, Tigard 4, Gladstone 3, Vernonia 2, Laker-
idge, Sheridan, Cove.