Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2015)
S PORTS www.hoodrivernews.com Weekly’s two HRs propel HRV to win over Centennial Eagles win two in a row with victories over Centennial and Mountain View By MIKE WEBER For the News The Hood River Valley High School softball team turned its season around and regained momentum follow- ing two confidence building nonleague wins. The Eagles (4-6) won 4-2 Monday over the Centennial Eagles (2-8) in Gresham. On Friday, the Ea- gles utilized a strong offen- sive attack while recording a season-high 14 hits in a 9-3 home win over the Mountain View Cougars.The No. 23- ranked Eagles will try to ex- tend their win streak to three games when they host the Century Jaguars (3-5) in a 4:30 p.m. preseason contest Century lost 12-9 to West An- Wednesday at Westside Ele- chorage on Mar. 23 in a spring mentary School in Hood break tournament in The River. HRV then travels to Dalles. Gresham for a 4:30 p.m. con- Hood River, the defending test Thursday versus the Bar- Columbia River Conference low Bru- co-cham- ins (5-1). pions Based ( w i t h u p o n Pendle- compara- t o n ) , t i v e demon- scores of strated ERIC KELLER previous resilient contests, qualities the Ea- of a gles should have a good high-caliber team in over- chance to get a win Wednes- coming a 2-0 deficit Monday day. HRV won 9-2 at home on the road versus Centenn- Mar. 21 over West Anchorage. nial. The Eagles, guided by ‘We’ve started a little win streak now.’ coach Eric Keller, responded by scoring four runs over the next three innings and hold- ing Centennial scoreless for the remainder of the game to get a second consecutive vic- tory. “We’ve started a little win streak now,” said Keller. We’ll have to continue playing hard again in order to get another win on Wednesday and we’ll see what happens. Our two pitchers (freshmen Hannah McNerney, Kaylin Winans) are really doing good and they’re starting to adapt to pitching at the varsity level. See WINS, Page A8 SENIOR MADDY GRAHAM returns a volley during Monday’s match against Benson Polytechnic in Hood River. Graham, who coach Jaime Rivera is going after the state title this year won No. 1 singles Monday in two sets, 6-0, 6-0. Photo By Ben Mitchell Girls tennis ties in sets, wins in points at home debut The girls tennis team has struggled to get matches in so far this season, with scheduling conflicts and rain can- cellations, but was able to get in their first home match of the year Monday night, which ended in a draw in sets against Benson Polytechnic, although coach Jaime Rivera said the team “won in points and sportsmanship.” The varsity team went 4-4 in sets at the Tsuruta courts, with singles wins coming from Maddy Graham, Ann Evans, and Nikki Paulus and HRV’s lone doubles victory coming from Olivia Newcomb and Camaryn Cham- bers in three sets (full results below). The season is young, but Rivera likes already what he sees from his team. “The team looks solid after only two competitions,” he said. “What I am most proud of is their desire to com- pete and the way in which they have approached the season, especially con- sidering the new team culture we have established. We are loaded with ju- niors and freshman so our future is bright.” Rivera said athletes to watch out for this season are returning standout se- nior Maddy Graham, who is aiming for a shot at the state title in the sin- gles category. Other notables in singles include AnnElise Acosta, Ann Evans, and freshman Nikki Paulus. In dou- bles, the team of Olivia Newcomb and Camaryn Chambers look to lead HRV. Rivera said his top priority this sea- son is to work on creating a team cul- ture. “This group is looking to become a team in the true sense of the word,” he The Hood River Valley boys lacrosse team has gotten off to a good start, going 2-1 in their first three games and looking to dominate the flow of games with the team’s signature up- tempo style of play. In a Friday night home game, the Eagles ground out a win against Oregon City, edging the Pioneers 8-7. “It was a nail-biter for sure,” said coach Matt Luchsinger. “It started off kind of slow for both teams. First quarter, both teams were trying to figure out each other’s strategy.” It took a timeout in the second quarter for the Eagles to find their bearings, whom Luchsinger said were stunned by the speed of Oregon City’s game. “The hardest thing for our defense was to figure out their offense they were really fast,” he said. “So I called a timeout in the second and said, ‘This is our offense: It’s transition ball; they’re just doing it better than we are.’” HRV pushed the pace, and eventually took control of the flow of a game that had largely been dictated by Oregon City. “We were able to move the ball fast from one side to the other,” Luchsinger said. “They were playing unselfish ball. It allowed for the guys to make a lot of great goals.” Half of those goals for HRV came from attack Henry Bar- ton, who had a team-high four goals — two of which were be- hind the back, Luchsinger noted. Middie Cody Wheat led the team with eight ground balls “which is a lot of ground balls, which is good to see,” News staff writer The HRV girls lacrosse team had their highest scor- ing game of the season Mon- day evening, when the Eagles absolutely dominated their opponent, Wilson High School, 18-6 — and on the road no less. HRV (2-2) “brought their A- game,” according to coach Andrew McElderry, after the team recovered from a less than ideal start. “We got off to a shaky start, allowing Wilson to score two quick goals in the first two minutes, but after that, we took the wheel and never gave it back,” he said. Leading HRV was sopho- more captain Riley Bauer who McElder ry said “brought an intensity that in- fected the whole team.” Bauer had a team-high six goals on seven shots and also led HRV in ground balls, with four. Close on her heels was Erin Mayer, who scored five in eight. Others scoring for HRV in- cluded Lydia McElderry (3), Sam Davies (2), Savannah Brentlinger (1), and Daisy Dolan (1), who also led the team in draw controls, with seven. On defense, McElderry said that the skills of frosh goalie Ella Rand, who had seven saves, “continue to im- prove in the cage as her confi- By BEN MITCHELL News staff writer The East County Classic meet is circled every year on the HRV track team’s calendar as the first official com- petition of the season where it’s more about wins and losses than it is about personal best times and dis- tances. The meet gives the Eagles to compete against other 5A teams such as The Dalles and Hermiston, as well as teams from other classes HRV came in determined to take the title after last year’s meet that saw the girls team take first, and the boys team take fifth overall. This year, the girls grabbed second — first went to Clackamas — and the boys team took first in a victory that bowled over coach Donnie Herniesen. “As happy as we were with the girls performance, the boys were truly outstanding,” he said. “Last year’s team win by the girls was a bit of a surprise, but the boys win this year was completely unexpected, even though it probably shouldn’t have been. We had boys winning events and scoring points across all events, both track and field events.” Typically, Herniesen said the team is “chasing (per- sonal records) and solid marks to improve and prepare ourselves for the District Championships in May,” at this point in the season. Herniesen said that “with the weather being a limiting factor, we instead tasked our kids with going out and competing for meet points.” And they did. And while first-place finishes are im- portant, Herniesen noted that second- and third-place finishes — as well as seventh- and eighth-place finishes — are key if a team wants to win overall. That was es- pecially the case with the boys team, who squeezed past Hermiston by just four points. “It was a total team win, and it was important for us to scrap out every point and every finish in order to get those points. With a 4-point margin of victory over Her- miston, if even one boy doesn’t place where he did, if we don’t get one of those seventh-place scorers, or a Hermiston athlete beats us in one more event, Hermis- ton ends up with the team trophy,” Herniesen said. “We had wins by many of our superstars, in the jumps, the distances, and the throws, without which we wouldn’t have been in position to win at all – but it was the points scored by our seventh- and eighth-place finishers which closed the deal for us. Track is a team game that relies on individual efforts, just like every other sport. Every athlete we took to that meet owns a small chunk of the trophy we brought home on Friday night.” HRV will compete next in the Sandy Invitational on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. 1. Maddy Graham- WIN (6-0, 6-1) 2. AnnElise Acosta - Loss (4-6, 4-6) 3. Ann Evans - WIN (6—1, 6-4) 4. Nikki Paulus - WIN (6-4, 6-3) VARSITY DOUBLES 1. Olivia Newcomb & Camaryn Cham- bers - WIN (6-4, 5-7, 1-0) 2. Tia Semmes & Vanessa Olivas - Loss (6-1, 4-6, 0-1) 3. Madison Mooney & Crystal Flores - Loss (4-6, 5-7) 4. Yasmeen Ziada & Mattie Elise Back - Loss (3-6, 0-6) Luchsinger said. “I’ve been telling the team all year that ground balls and face-offs win games.” On defense, Luchsinger praised goalie Dallen Olmstead, who had “a ton” of saves with a total of 14 on the evening and was “definitely one of the main reasons for us winning the game.” At the moment, HRV sits near the top of the Columbia Con- See LAX, Page A8 HENRY BARTON Offense for girls lax explodes against Wilson High By BEN MITCHELL HRV track teams go 1, 2 at ECC VARSITY SINGLES Eagles make it two in a row with Friday’s win over the Oregon City Pioneers News staff writer A7 said. “That is our number one goal.” The Eagles will next head to Pendle- ton for a match against the Buckaroos Wednesday at 4 p.m. HRV boys lax looks to keep foot on the gas pedal By BEN MITCHELL Hood River News, Wednesday, April 8, 2015 dence grows.” You would think the high score would be the highlight of the night for Coach McElderry, but as good as all those goals were, he said the team’s “crowning achieve- ment” came in the last five minutes of the game when HRV already had it in the bag. “I asked the team to hold the ball, value possession and work it around the outside,” he said. “They showed a pa- tience and maturity that I have been dreaming about for a long time.” The game Monday night came on the heels of a game against Sunset High School in Beaverton, which HRV lost 16-6 against what McElderry called “a pretty polished Sun- set team.” Lydia McElderry and Erin Mayer led the team in the goals cate gory with two apiece; Mayer had a team- high four shots. Savannah Brentlinger and Sam Davies tallied the other two goals for HRV. Brentlinger, Mayer, and Riley Bauer were each award- ed an assist. Victoria Kohner- Flanagan and Lauren Trum- bull each won a draw control while Savanna Boersma, Ash- ley Hendricks, and Laura Scarborough each won a ground ball. Goalie Ella Rand was able to save six of the 28 shots she f aced F riday evening. Photo by Donnie Herniesen THE HRV boys track team celebrates with their first-place tro- phy they took home from the ECC meet on Friday. TRACK RESULTS East County Classic Boys team results 1st: Hood River Valley (146.5) 2nd: Hermiston (142.5) 3rd: Clackamas (116.5) 4th: Franklin (93.5) 5th: Reynolds (83.5) 6th: The Dalles (47.5) 7th: Clatskanie (31) Girls team results 1st: Clackamas (184) 2nd: Hood River Valley (141) 3rd: Franklin (97) 4th: Reynolds (96) 5th: Hermiston (71) 6th: The Dalles (62) 7th: Clatskanie (4) HRV boys in top five 100 meters Parker Irusta, 5th 200 meters Parker Irusta, 5th 1500 meters Connor Truax, 3rd 3000 meters Justin Crosswhite, 1st (9:12.91); Quinn Fetken- hour, 4th 110 meter hurdles Parker Kennedy, 2nd 300 meter hurdles Noah Noteboom, 4th 3K steeplechase Jesse Wiley, 2nd; Jacob Bromham, 5th 4x100 relay Parker Kennedy, Parker Irusta, Tyrone Stintzi, Gabriel Campos-Davis (3rd) 4x400 relay Cole Osborn, Parker Kennedy, Owen Ramsey, Ty- rone Stintzi (3rd) Shot put Sebastian Barajas, 1st (49-2); Sam Fults, 4th Discus Sebastian Barajas, 1st (169) High jump Tyrone Stintzi, 3rd Pole Vault Parker Kennedy, 1st (14- 6); Patrick Crompton, 2nd Long jump Parker Irusta, 1st (20-10) HRV girls in top five 100 meters Jestena Mattson, 1st (12.67) 200 meters Jestena Mattson, 1st (25.93) 400 meters Emily Viuhkola, 2nd 800 meters Caitlyn Fick, 3rd; Claire Davies, 5th 1500 meters Lauren Robinson, 5th 3000 meters Sascha Bockius, 1st (11:10.62); Denali Emmons, 5th 100 meter hurdles Marlie Bloomster, 5th 300 meter hurdles Marlie Bloomster, 4th 2K steeplechase Terri Hewitt, 3rd; Chloe Clark, 4th 4x100 relay Clarissa Najera, Jestena Mattson, Emily Viuhkola, Kassidy Davidson (2nd) 4x400 relay Kassidy Davidson, Cait- lyn Fick, Audrey Marble, Emily Viuhkola (2nd) Shot put Lauren Winans, 4th Discus Lauren Winans, 5th High jump Jestena Mattson, 1st (5- 3); Shae Duffy, 3rd Pole Vault Amber Kennedy, 3rd Triple jump Casey Sherrerd, 5th
