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.