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About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 2015)
S PORTS www.hoodrivernews.com Hood River News, Saturday, January 3, 2015 A7 NEVER A DULL DAY A look back at sports highlights from an exciting year in Hood River County Shaner claims state title Skiers win Cato race Starting 2014 in powerful fash- ion for Hood River Valley High School athletics, alpine ski racers Lucy McLean (pictured here) and Austin Keillor were a cut above the rest at the annual Christine Cato Memorial Race on Jan. 4. Both claimed individual titles in the race, which brought several hundred skiers from across the state to Timberline for the first race of the season. Submitted photo Thompson wins X-Games bronze Submitted photo Eight to state HRVHS swim team had a breakthrough 2013-14 sea- son and finished by claim- ing 11 individual district ti- tles and qualifying eight team members (Danielle Miller, Kylie Webb, David Walker (pictured here), Carlos Galvez, Daniel Mears, Trey Schilling Dhani Free- land, Caitlyn Fick) for the 5A state champi- onships. The girls went on to finish third at the state meet the follow- ing week. Gorge Roller Girls gain steam Still in its infancy, the Gorge Roller Girls derby team opened its 2014 season on Feb. 15 with a 213-163 win over the Southern Oregon Roller Girls. The team competed in eight bouts in the season and is back, bigger and better this season, with its first bout scheduled for Jan. 24 at The Dalles Armory. See www.gorgerollergirls.org for info. Hood River Middle School eighth-grader Jason Shaner went undefeated at the Oregon Wrestling Association’s Colle- giate Kids Wrestling Champi- onships to claim the 120-pound state title in early February. Shaner, now a freshman at HRVHS, is on the varsity line- up for Eagle wrestling. The Hood River community helped one of its own, snowboarder esx Dylan Thompson, win an X-Games bronze medal in early 2014, in the Games’ Real Snow contest. The contest pitted several of the world’s top urban, street-style snowboarders against one another in an online voting contest in which the riders with the most votes advanced through the rounds and the top three earned medals. In 2013 Thompson won a bronze in the rail jam event and he is on the lineup for the 2015 Games Jan. 22-25 in Aspen. Snow! Much like this year, the 2013-14 ski season got off to a rocky start, literally, until a series of storms in February tur ned things around. By the end of the season the “Miracle Spring” de- livered several big dumps that brought the snow back to near normal by May. Marquez wins 5A 126 pound wrestling title Wiley leads HRV nordic at state Sam Wiley claimed a boys state title for HRV Nordic at the 2014 OHSNO 7.5k state race on Feb. 22. Both boys and girls teams finished sec- ond at state in the breakthrough season. HRVHS junior Christian Marquez defeated two-time state champion Matt Hofenbredl of Dallas 4-2 in overtime to claim the 2014 5A state title at 126 pounds. Marquez was accompanied by seven other HRV wrestlers at the tournament. Placers were Marquez (first), Chas Peterson (fifth), An- drew DeHart (sixth) and Steven Swafford (6th). Team members Jessica De- Hart and Peyton Riggert also claimed state titles in a female tourney. Mar- quez and Andrew DeHart went on to win state freestyle and Greco titles. Freestyle skiers rule Tucker FitzSimons and Hannah Berge- mann claimed overall state freestyle ski- ing titles in early March after putting forth the best combined efforts in skier- cross, slopestyle and rail jam events. Teammate Patrick Crompton also claimed an individual state title in the skiercross event while both boys and girls squads claimed overall team state titles. FitzSimons, Bergemann claims national titles Hood River snowboarder Sean FitzSimons claimed gold medals in the 12-13 year-old di- vision of the USASA National Championships in Copper Mountain, Colo. in the slopestyle and super pipe events. Meanwhile, skier Han- nah Bergemann won national titles in slopestyle, halfpipe and rail jam for the 16-18 divi- sion. Jones named Athlete of the Year 2009 HRVHS graduate and profes- sional triathlete Erin Jones was named USA Triathlon’s Athlete of the Year in March for her 2013 season, which was highlighted by a Collegiate National Championship. Jones is currently liv- ing and training in Colorado with the goal of representing the USA in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. Horizon hoops end run second at state After claiming the 1A Big Sky Conference title with an impressive 25-game winning streak, the Horizon Christian School Hawks were defeated 68-49 by Columbia Christian in the OSAA 1A state cham- pionship tame on March 8. The team is gunning for another shot at the title this season as they hold firmly onto the top 1A ranking at year’s end. Set sail With great community sup- port, the inaugural high school sailing team set sail in the spring with a full roster of sailors and a fleet of boats to use for the Northwest Interscholas- tic Sailing Association season. The team ended up third in the state later in the spring. Hood 2 River Relay is instant hit State track champs Jestena Mattson and Sebast- ian Barajas claimed back-to- back titles in their respective events at the 2014 OSAA state track and field championships May 23-24 in Eugene. Mattson won the 100 and 200 meter events and Barajas the discus event. T his inaugural sports contest started on the slopes of Mt. Hood Meadows and ended at the Hood River Waterfront, with six events taking place on the way down. Despite the short time organiz- ers had to plan, 320 par- ticipants turned out – a clear sign of a bright fu- ture for the event. Water polo second at state Hood River Valley High School water polo competed its breakthrough season in November at the 5A Oregon High School Water Polo state championships. After qualifying for the tournament as the Mt. Hood Conference runner-up, the Eagles defeated Mt. View 15-10 and Marist 12-8 last to qualify for the finals vs. Summit; Summit won 12-1 to claim the title. Cinderella season for HRV baseball HRVHS baseball turned around what looked to be a mediocre season this spring to advance through the state playoffs with four straight wins and qualify for the state finals. The team lost 8-3 against Sandy, but an appearance in the championship game was a major accomplish- ment for the team and the program as a whole. State soccer champs In by far the most ex- citing sports moment of the year, the HRV boys soccer team defeated Woodburn 2-0 on Nov. 15 to claim the first state soccer title in school history. The boys had a perfect 18-0 season lead- ing up to the finals. Later that month, star player Gio Magana was named the state’s 5A Player of the Year. KB4C breaks $100K The seventh annual Kite- boarding-4-Cancer broke the $100,000 fundraising threshhold this July. The kiteboarding con- test, based from the Hood River Event Site, was graced with great wind and a large field of participants who completed more than 2,300 laps around the three-mile course. Brandon Scheid was the individual win- ner; he completed 70 laps in the six-hour time limit. Hicks wins Fort Dalles Days Rodeo Horizon Christian School senior RJ Hicks scored an 81 on the final ride of the night at the 2014 Fort Dalles Rodeo to win the event, the prize money and a shiny new belt buckle.