hoodrivernews.com
Wednesday, January 1, 2020 A7
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
SPORTS
After stumble, snowboarder FitzSimons conquers trick
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
Hood River’s hometown boy,
Sean FitzSimons, competed in
the Visa Big Air Dec. 20 at Sun-
Trust Park in Atlanta. The event
was sanctioned as an Interna-
tional Ski Federation snowboard
and free ski world cup.
FitzSimons placed fifth be-
hind Justus Henkes, Ryoma
Kimata, Nicolas Laframboise
and Chris Corning.
In the morning, participants
slid down a 65-foot scaffold
jump and had two runs to land a
trick. Qualifiers got to run in the
finals later that day.
During his qualifying runs,
FitzSimons landed a front triple
1440. This trick entered Fitz-
Simons into the finals in eight
place.
This feat was not easy for
FitzSimons since the last time he
attempted this trick, he landed
on his head. During the Modena
Skipass Big Air World Cup in
Italy, FitzSimons failed a jump
and was shaken by the incident.
“I can’t remember anything
on that trick,” FitzSimons said.
“The last flip is really scary
because you go right over your
head just before you land. So, I
was a little bit nervous coming
to this one because it was kind
of the same build as in Italy.
This one was also scaffolding
so I was kind of tweaking. I was
like, ‘Oh god, I don’t want to do
this again.’”
Despite FitzSimons’ failed
triple 1440 attempt in Italy, the
19-year-old kept decided to try it
during his qualification run.
“Before they were going to
close practice I said, ‘Alright. I
and then I just dropped out of
the sky, broke my board’s nose
and tail and I had to run back
into the athlete lounge and grab
my other board.”
FitzSimons had 15 minutes
to get his backup board before
qualifying runs began.
“There was a bunch of people
in the stands,” FitzSimons said.
“I guess there was 11,00 people
that showed up. Then I got a ton
of snapchat and stories of all the
homies back home that were
watching. Shoutout to Hood
River, who were watching.”
For his next event, FitzSimons
File photo
will
compete in the Laax Open
SEAN FitzSimons of Hood River boards down a rail in previous event.
in Switzerland Jan. 13-18. Last
year FitzSimons made it into
finals and said if he rides well
guess I got to front triple real said. “I still had Modena, Italy, in So I just chucked it so hard and and consistently he can make
quick just to get it out of the way the back of my head and didn’t I didn’t open my eyes until I felt it into finals again.
before the comp,’” FitzSimons want to land on my head again. myself come around three times
Sandy Pioneers defeat Eagle boys, 89-61
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
In the final game of the year,
Hood River Valley’s varsity
boys basketball team was de-
feated by Sandy High School
89-61 Friday, Dec. 27. Jason
Maki, head coach for the Pio-
neers, said it was a much closer
game than the score indicated.
“I played Hood River a
bunch of times,” Maki said.
“We used to be in the same
league back when it first start-
ed, and we’ve kept a rivalry
going. We’ve even played them
in the playoffs before. We knew
they’d have a lot of energy;
knew they had some shooters
and knew they were going to
play hard.”
The Pioneers came out
strong at the beginning of
the game with seniors Pierce
Roeder and Kaleb Hubbard
sinking three three-pointers
back to back. This built a lead
that which Sandy was able to
capitalize on.
Sandy had the upper hand
at the end of the first quarter
with a score of 26-14. At the
end of the second quarter they
had a similar point difference
at 45-26.
During halftime Maki talked
to the team about preserving
their lead.
“We talked at halftime about
playing defense and trying to
make them take some tough
shots,” Maki said. “I felt our
defense tightened up a bit,
they had to take some tougher
shots and we were able to out-
run them a little bit. So, we got
some transition baskets that
were able to push the lead a
little bit.”
Photo by Gabriel Bravo
HRV senior Noah Webster looks to pass the ball as Sandy senior Orion Shaw closes down on him and other Sandy players scramble to guard Eagle players.
Lead scorers for Sandy in-
clude Roeder with 34 points,
senior Colby Carson with nine
and junior Laden Weathers
with seven.
Even with the lead slowly
slipping away, HRV senior
Noah Webster kept hustling,
driving and making plays.
“I love the way Noah is play-
ing,” Dirks said. “He is working
hard and competing every
second no matter the score.
The whole team is resilient.
They want to win, and they are
willing to sacrifice to make that
happen. The way we compete
has never been in question
from my point of view. I’m am
proud of how hard we play.”
Lead scorers for HRV in-
clude Webster with 22 points,
junior Ian Searcy with 11 and
junior Zac Wells and sopho-
more Emanuel Romero with
eight each.
“I think (the loss) is a little
humbling, and shows we have
work to do,” Dirks said. “We
want to compete with the best
teams, and at this point in the
season we aren’t there yet. I
have all the faith in the world
that we can get there, but it’s a
process.”
HRV is back in action Jan.
3 as they host Reynolds High
School at 6:30 p.m.
Local crossfit athlete raises
money for competition trip in Italy
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
In a warmly lit dinner party
on Friday, Dec. 27 at Farm
Stand in Hood River, Alex Wil-
lis was serving food and raising
money to go to the CrossFit
Italian Showdown in Riccone,
Italy, from April 24-26. The
dinner party featured a menu
of leafy greens and beet salad,
festive chicken squash platter,
flourless chocolate torte and
berry cobbler.
“I got addicted really
fast. I went to my
first few classes and
I was sold. I almost
didn’t even play
lacrosse because I
was so into it. Now
I love it so much I
want to pursue it as
a competitor and
maybe as a coach
someday.”
Submitted photo
JEREMY LOVEBREED, Sarah Guemperlein, Alex Willis, Brittany Douthit and Raquel Sanders at Farm Stand Friday, Dec. 27 after Willis’ fundraising dinner. Attendees had
a five course meal which included a chicken squash platter, lentil loaf with potato mash and mushroom gravy and berry cobbler.
Alex Willis
With dinner attendees had a
chance to enter a raffle and win
a massage, a goodie bag and a
Garmin Forerunner watch.
As a full-time student pur-
suing a degree in kinesiology,
working part time at Farm
Stand, and dedicating her time
to the gym at CrossFit Viento,
Willis is admired by many.
Johannes Loschnigg, mem-
ber at CrossFit Viento gym, is
one of those people.
“She got incredibly good in-
credibly fast to the point where
she is potentially going to
competitions,” Loschnigg said.
“So everyone from the gym is
super excited for her because
she’s doing so well and training
so hard. I really was happy to
be able to play a part and do
something in helping her go to
one of these competitions.”
Willis first began doing
crossfit two years ago when
her health teacher persuaded
her to take a class and gave her
the phone number for Cross-
fit athlete Regan Huckaby of
Hood River.
“In my head it sounded
super expensive, but Regan
said to come work out and not
worry about the cost,” Willis
said. “I got addicted really fast.
I went to my first few classes
and I was sold. I almost didn’t
even play lacrosse because I
was so into it. Now I love it so
much I want to pursue it as
a competitor and maybe as a
coach someday.”
Willis is addicted to cross fit
because there is always some-
thing to work on, she said. The
community also plays a big
part in her dedication to the
sport.
“I’m surrounded every
day by such strong amazing
women that are so selfless,”
Willis said. “There’s people
that are 65 and 16 working out
in the same gym and doing the
same work out. Everyone is
super supportive and it’s super
fun too, in a weird sick way.”
Willis said she’s super
grateful for everyone who’s
helped her out and blown
away by their generosity.