S PORTS
www.hoodrivernews.com
Hood River News, Wednesday, February 25, 2015
A7
Freeland leads HRV girls; team fourth at state swimming
By ADAM LAPIERRE
Friday to qualify for Saturday’s fi-
nale.
Freeland, a junior, had the best
Dhani Freeland, Kylie Webb, and
two Hood River Valley High School individual results for the Eagles as
she blaz ed her way
girls relay teams earned fi-
through the 100 meter
nals appearances and podi-
freestyle prelims to qualify
um finishes over the week-
for the top-six finals the fol-
end at the OSAA 5A state
lowing day, where she fin-
swimming championships
ished second in a time of
at Mt. Hood Community
52.72, just off the pace of
College. With these finishes
first-place finisher Maddy
earning team points toward
Kelly of Lebanon, who
overall titles, the HRV girls
touched the wall at 52.46.
ended up fourth behind
DHANI
Freeland also claimed
Bend (1st, 74 points), Sum-
FREELAND
third in the 100 backstroke
mit (2nd, 72 points) and
with a mark of 59.76.
Mountain View (3rd, 42
Webb, a senior, finished fourth in
points) and just ahead of Sandy (25
the 200 IM to earn a podium finish
points) to round out the top five.
The HRV boys sent swimmers to in her final meet as an Eagle.
Two of the three HRV girls relay
compete in eight events, but none
made it out of preliminary rounds teams also advanced past the pre-
News staff writer
lims and placed in the top five in
the finals. The 400 freestyle relay
team of Webb, Freeland, Courtney
Castaneda and Caitlyn Fick posted
a time of 3:44.99, good enough for
third place (Summit was first in
3:34.70) and the 200 medley relay
team of Freeland, Webb, Fick and
Yasmeen Ziada finished fourth
overall in 1:55.15 (Bend was first in
1:50.11).
Although the HRV boys put forth
a commendable effort, none pro-
gressed past the first day of compe-
tition. The 200 medley relay team of
David Walker, Stan Ocheskey, Car-
los Galvez and Trey Schilling was
eighth in the prelims and the same
four comprised the 400 freestyle
relay team, which finished 11th in
the prelims but did not earn a top-
six position for the finals.
HRV swimming at state championships
Girls team: 1st Bend (74), 2nd Sum-
mit (72), 3rd Mountain View (42), 4th
Hood River (26), 5th Sandy (25)
100 freestyle: Dhani Freeland, 2nd,
52.72; 100 backstroke: Dhani Freeland,
3rd, 59.76; 400 freestyle relay: 3rd,
3:44.99, Kylie Webb, Courtney Castane-
da, Caitlyn Fick and Dhani Freeland; 200
IM: Kylie Webb, 4th, 2:10.89; 200 medley
relay: 4th, 1:55.15, Dhani Freeland, Kylie
Webb, Yasmeen Ziada and Caitlyn Fick;
100 breaststroke prelims: Kylie Webb,
7th, 1:09.66; 500 freestyle prelims: Alli-
son Burke, 9th, 5:42.39; 200 freestyle
prelims: Allison Burke, 11th, 2:08.41; 200
freestyle relay prelims: 11th, 1:48.98,
Caitlyn Fick, Allison Burke, Yasmeen Ziada
and Courtney Castaneda; 100 butterfly
prelims: Yasmeen Ziada, 12th, 1:05.56
Boys:
200 medley relay prelim: 8th, 1:47.43,
David Walker, Stan Ocheskey, Carlos
Galvez, Trey Schilling; 50 freestyle prelim:
Trey Schilling, 8th, 23.34; 100 freestyle
prelims: Stan Ocheskey, 8th, 51.24; 200
freestyle relay prelims: 9th, 1:36.21, Trey
Schilling, Andrew Rinella, Carlos Galvez
and Stan Ocheskey; 100 backstroke pre-
lims: David Walker, 9th, 58.75; 200 IM
prelim: David Walker, 10th, 2:10.93; 400
freestyle relay prelims: 11th, 3:36.80, Trey
Schilling, David Walker, Carlos Galvez
and Stan Ocheskey; 100 butterfly prelims:
Carlos Galvez, 12th, 58.27
Hawks 48, Huskies 47
Hawks win Big Sky
Horizon hosts second-round state playoff game Friday
By MIKE WEBER
For the News
The No. 1 ranked Horizon
Christian Hawks boys bas-
ketball team won its fifth
straight Big Sky Conference
title with two district playoff
wins over the weekend at
Hermiston High School.
Horizon (14-0 Big Sky, 24-3
overall) won 58-23 Friday
over the South Wasco County
Redsides (8-6, 13-12) to ad-
vance to Saturday’s District 6
championship game against
the No. 8 ranked Sherman
Huskies (11-3 league, 19-5). In
a rugged defensive-oriented
battle, Horizon pulled out a
48-47 victory on Nick Ander-
sen’s game winning free-
throw to capture its fifth
straight district champi-
onship.
Horizon, guided by coach
Darrin Lingel, will now host
an OSAA 1A second round
state playoff game Friday at
6 p.m. against a yet to be de-
termined opponent. As dis-
trict champions, Horizon
earned a bye in the 16-team
first round playoff bracket,
which included eight games
on Tuesday. If the Hawks
win Friday, they’ll qualify
for the state tournament
March 4-7 at Baker High
School for a fifth consecutive
year and they would play a
1:30 p.m. quarterfinal con-
test on March 4.
NICK
ANDERSEN
had a team-
high 15
points in
Saturday’s
win over
Sherman.
“It was a really good game
against Sherman,” said Lin-
gel, who is hoping to guide
the Hawks to their second
state championship. “They
did some things defensively
that took some things away
from us, which really made
it a tough challenge. Sher-
man made some second half
adjustments and they
switched their defense on al-
most every one of our offen-
sive possessions in the sec-
ond half. It was a good strat-
egy, because we couldn’t re-
ally get into any type of of-
fensive rhythm, but the kids
battled hard to help us be
successful at the end of the
game.”
It was a seesaw contest
versus Sherman, with seven
t i e s c o re s a n d 1 8 l e a d
changes. Sherman led 18-10
after one quarter. The re-
silient Hawks came back
w i t h a s t ro n g s e c o n d ,
outscoring the Huskies 21-13
to forge a halftime deadlock
at 31-31. Horizon was cling-
ing to a one point lead after
three at 40-39 in the tight,
high-intensity defensive bat-
tle.
“All our guys stepped up
and played very well offen-
sively and defensively, par-
ticularly Wes Johnston (five
points), RJ Hicks (four pts.)
and Andersen (season-high
15 pts.),” said Lingel. “Nick
actually won the game for us
by sinking the game-win-
ning free throw.”
With .06 seconds in the
game, Andersen found him-
self on the line; he missed
the first free-throw then,
after a Sherman time-out,
came through in the clutch
to make the second.
Sher man senior guard
Ryan Aldrich played a solid
game with 11 points and six
assists. Jared Davis had five
points and Mason Bloomster
scored seven points and had
a team-high nine rebounds.
The 48 points marked the
lowest total scored in a game
this year by the Hawks, who
have the fifth ranked offense
with an average of 61.9
points per game.
In a one-sided matchup
versus South Wasco on Fri-
day, Horizon dominated the
contest from start-to-finish
with one of their strongest
defensive efforts this year.
Horizon jumped in front
HRVST brings home state hardware
Hood River Valley
Swim Team members Ma-
rina Castaneda, Michelle
Graves, Shea Kasenga
and Thea Smith brought
home a trove of medals
over the weekend from
the 10 and Under Oregon
Swimming
Champi-
onships in Corvallis.
The four posted person-
al best times in all but one
swim and finished with
fop-five finishes in six of
12 total events swam.
Highlighting the results
is Shea Kasenga, who was
third in the 50 breast
stroke and fifth in the 100
breast stroke; times in
Submitted photo
HRVST AT STATE: Shea Kasenga, Michelle Graves, coach
MJ Caswell, Marina Castaneda, Thea Smith.
both were Age Group Re-
gional qualifying times.
Graves also posted two
third place finishes while
competing in a full-sched-
ule of six events.
Results are as follows
Marina Castaneda (9):
50 breast, 4th (43.0); 100
breast, 5th (1:34.94);
Michelle Graves (8): 50
breast, 3rd (48.07); 50 but-
terfly, 7th (42.39); 50 back
6th (43.0); 100 IM, 6th
(1:32.40); 50 freestyle, 10th
(37.22); 25 breast stroke,
3rd (22.49); Shea Kasenga
(10): 50 breast stroke, 3rd
(39.11); 100 breast stroke,
5th (1:26.27); Thea Smith
(10): 200 freestyle, 9th
(2:34.24); 100 freestyle,
14th (1:12.06)
Photos by Jeremy Lanthorn
CELEBRATION: (Top) Jared Davis is hoisted in the air by his brother, Logan, on Saturday after Horizon
defeated Sherman in a thrilling one-point victory to win the Big Sky title. Above, Mason Bloomster gets
a rejection over a Sherman player as teammates Wes Johnston and Nick Andersen look on.
early with a 14-5 lead after
one quarter and continued
leading 21-15 at halftime.
The Hawks were phenom-
enal on offense and defense
in the second half, while
outscoring the Redsides 15-3
in the third and 22-5 in the
fourth to pull away for a lop-
sided victory. South Wasco’s
23 points was the second
lowest total allowed this
year by Horizon. The Hawks
shot a sizzling 60.5 percent
(23-for-38) in two-point field
goals. Davis led Horizon
with 21 points and Bloom-
ster had a strong perfor-
mance with his double-dou-
ble of 15 points and 13 re-
bounds.
The two district playoff
wins extended Horizon’s Big
Sky streak to 49 games com-
bined over the last four sea-
sons. It marked Horizon’s
18th consecutive win over
Class 1A teams as they re-
mained undefeated at the 1A
level.
Friday’s playoff game at
the Hawks Nest will mark
the final home game for se-
niors Davis, Bloomster,
Johnston, Aldrich, Hicks
and Andersen.
Truax headed to U18 Nationals
Hood River Valley High School se-
nior and Cooper Spur Race Team
alumni Elle Truax qualified for next
month’s U18 U.S. National Skiing
Championships in Copper Mountain,
Colo. Traux will be racing in the speed
events of Super G and Downhill.
Traux’s racing career began more
than ten years ago at CSRT’s Christ-
mas Camp. She worked her way up
through the USAA ranks with the help
of the program and its committed
coaches, parents and local businesses.
She will be racing at Nationals with
the Mount Bachelor Sports & Educa-
tion Foundation (MBSEF) team and
racing against the top 16-and 17-year-
olds from across the country.
Each year regional qualifier races are
held to determine the top racers of
Submitted photo each discipline and age division. The
ELLE TRUAX will represent Hood River and the Cooper Spur Race top from each region meet at Nation-
als to determine the best of the best.
Team at the U18 U.S. National Skiing Championships next month.