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A8 THE ASTORIAN • TuESdAy, FEbRuARy 18, 2020 FIND MORE SPORTS COVERAGE INSIDE ON PAGE A7 CONTACT US Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com Astoria, Seaside swimmers qualify for state Newport dominates the team scores By GARY HENLEY The Astorian Members of the Seaside Riptide, front row, from left, MaKenna White, Kylie Keranen, Moriah Johnson, Lily Miller. Back row, from left, assistant coach Scott White, Ella Brenden, Mya Fenney, Carly Corder, Kenzie Starr, Kimberly Cristabol, Sophia Bucher and coach Chris Corder. SIXTH GRADE TEAMS WIN TOURNAMENTS The Astorian t the high school level, the Asto- ria girls and the Seaside boys will be among the favorites in the upcoming 4A state tournament. And when it comes to sixth grade basketball in Clatsop County, the Asto- ria boys and the Seaside girls will also be battling for state titles next month. At a weekend tournament in Sisters, the Seaside Riptide girls sixth grade team took first place in the “Sisters Shootout,” defeating the Crook County Spurs in Sunday’s championship game, 30-8. Seaside had two wins Saturday over West Salem (48-8) and the Albany Lady Mayhem (35-24), and a semifinal win Sunday over Newport (33-8). Coached by Chris Corder and Scott White, team members include Ella Bren- den, Sophia Bucher, Carly Corder, Kim- berly Cristabol, Mya Fenney, Moriah Johnson, Kylie Keranen, Lily Miller, Kenzie Starr and MaKenna White. In sixth grade boys basketball, the Astoria Bandits qualified for state by winning a tournament in Kelso, Wash- ington last week. The Bandits defeated a team from Longview, 46-36, in the championship game of the gold bracket in Kelso’s For A Eric Gohr The Astoria Bandits. the Love of the Game tournament to earn an automatic state bid. Astoria’s only loss of the tournament was in pool play to the same Longview team, 48-47. The Oregon middle school state championships take place in Bend next month. Astoria girls post 42-point win over Tillamook The Astorian The countdown to a state championship is on for the Astoria girls basketball team. The Lady Fishermen tuned up for the final stretch with a 72-30 win over Tilla- mook in a Cowapa League game Friday night at the Brick House. It was actually closer than the first meet- ing this season between the two teams, won by Astoria, 76-24. After coming up short of the 20-win mark last season, Astoria improved to 20-2 overall, and now has its sights set on the school record of 25 wins, set in 1999-2000. Including their final regular season game Tuesday at home against Valley Catholic, Astoria has five games remaining. In Friday’s game, Astoria’s Hailey O’Brien and Halle Helmersen outscored the Lady Mooks by themselves, with 17 and 16 points. Brooklynn Hankwitz scored eight of her 10 points in the first quarter. Still, the Lady Fishermen led just 37-23 at halftime, but then outscored Tillamook 22-3 in the third quarter, and 35-7 in the second half. Astoria forced 38 Tillamook turnovers. Tillamook boys hang on for win at Astoria Both teams held sizable leads through- out Friday’s boys basketball game at the Brick House, where Tillamook eventually posted a 63-60 win over Astoria. The Cheesemakers and Fishermen both made an equal number of shots from the field (15 two-point shots and five 3-point- ers), while the difference came at the free Vicki O’Brien Melissa Linder-Cho Hailey O’Brien scored a game-high 17 points for Astoria in the win over Tillamook. Astoria’s Ryan Stenblom battled his way through the Tillamook defense in Friday night’s game. throw line, where Tillamook was 18-of-22 to Astoria’s 15-of-22. Individually, Tillamook freshman guard Trask Veek-Petersen scored 27 points to lead all scorers, and teammate Marshall Allen added 14. Astoria had four players with double fig- ures, led by Colton McMaster’s 15 points. Xander Marincovich had 14, Ryan Sten- blom chipped in 13 and Michael Moore scored 10. The Cheesemakers jumped out to leads of 10-0 and 14-4, while the Fishermen held a 12- to 14-point lead in the second half. Tillamook outscored Astoria 28-26 in the fourth quarter. Tillamook improved to 3-3 in league, while the Fishermen dropped to 0-7. Asto- ria finishes the season at home Tuesday vs. Valley Catholic. Always a favorite at the state meet level, Newport swimmers swept the team titles Saturday on the final day of the District 1/4A meet, hosted by the Cubs. There were no team titles for the teams from Clatsop County, as Asto- ria and Seaside athletes only won a combined three events, but the Fishermen and Gulls had better luck Sunday, qualifying several more swim- mers for the state meet as wildcard entrants. It was the second year in a row that Newport hosted the district meet. The event returns to Astoria next year. The state meet takes place Feb. 21-22 at Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton. In the meantime, the Cubs had a great day in their home pool, crushing the dis- trict competition. The Newport girls scored 279 points for a team title, with Tillamook second with 188 points, followed by Taft (179). Astoria (157) was fourth and Seaside (131) sixth out of eight teams. The Newport boys racked up 297 points to easily top Taft (198) and Sea- side (189). Astoria was fifth with 125. And Newport’s combined 576 points was plenty to win the combined team championship. Among the Clatsop County swimmers, Astoria junior Tori Smith swam her best meet, winning both the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 22.98 seconds, and then the 100-yard backstroke in 1:03.91 to gain two automatic spots in the state meet. Smith will have the sixth-best seed time in the 200 IM at the state meet, and will be the eighth seed in the backstroke. Seaside’s lone win belonged to junior Henry Garvin, who won the 50-yard freestyle final in 23.90 seconds. His time of 24.79 was the second-best in Friday’s preliminary. “We started off a little sluggish on Friday, but just kept building as the meet went on,” said Seaside coach Shane Spell. “Henry’s win in the 50 was a great race and punched his individual ticket to state.” The Seaside girls team “continued scoring a lot of points with not a lot of swimmers,” he said. “Kaisa Liljenwall (senior at Warrenton High School) fin- ished up a great three years of swim- ming with a PR in the 100 (1:02.86) and strong relay legs. “Our distance swimmers across the board had a lot of good swims, dropping some nice chunks of time.” Other automatic qualifiers from the district meet (top two in each even qual- ify for state) included Astoria’s Riley Cameron, who finished second in the 100-yard freestyle in 52.61 seconds, the fifth-best time going into the state meet. Seaside’s 200-yard freestyle relay foursome of Westin Carter, Luke Verley, Masyn McCulloch and Garvin finished second in 1:39.68, just behind New- port’s 1:38.69. Luckily for the Fish and the Gulls, the strength and depth of the district resulted in several wildcard qualifiers Sunday. Cameron finished third in the 200 IM in 2:13.29, good enough for a No. 6 seed at the state meet. And the Gulls qualified a pair of fourth-place finishers. Garvin’s time of 55.02 was fourth in the district meet, but qualified for state; and the 400-freestyle relay squad of Carter, McCulloch, Logan Dennis and Leif Rehnert placed fourth in district in 3:56.19, good enough for a No. 12 seed in the state meet. “That shows how fast our district is,” Spell said. “A fourth place finish in the 400 relay still earned a wildcard slot at state.” On the girls’ side, the only wildcard qualifier was Astoria’s Grace Peeler in the 100-yard breaststroke, who finished third in 1:17.16.
