hoodrivernews.com
Wednesday, March 4, 2020 A7
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
SPORTS
Eagle wrestlers compete in state tournament
for the Eagles, said. “She does
everything her coaches ask
of her. She had a successful
Eight Hood River Valley high school football season
wrestlers competed in last this year. She’s told me she’s
weekend’s OSAA State Wres- planning on running track.
tling Championships at the So, she’s a three-sport athlete.
Veterans Memorial Coliseum She works hard. A lot of the
in Portland. Lauraine Smith teachers here at Hood River
had the team’s best finish as Middle School are excited and
she placed fourth in the 145 proud of her because they
know her when she went to
class.
“She’s just tougher than middle school here. She’s just
nails,” Tony Rolen, head coach an awesome athlete and we’re
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
super excited for her.”
Smith won by decision over
Thurston’s Gabi Gillbert and
moved on to the third-place
match. There, Smith met and
fell to Jasmine Pedersen from
Summit.
“We were pleasantly sur-
prised with how many wres-
tlers qualified,” Rolen said. “We
were hopeful that we would
have a lot of our wrestlers per-
form well and they did. A lot of
them finished the season really
strong and they were really
excited to qualify for the state
tournament.”
In the lightest class for HRV,
Carson Farlow, 106, lost to
Eagle Point’s Luke Callahan by
decision in the second conso-
lation round on Friday. Farlow
ended the season with a 27-12
record.
Like Farlow, Jaime Rodri-
guez, in the 113 class, fell to
Cash Wells from Crook Coun-
ty in the second consolation
round. Rodriguez closes the
season with a solid 13-5 record.
Chad Muenzer, for the 138
class, placed sixth. Muenzer
would have made it into fi-
nals but suffered an ankle
injury and had to pull out.
Crater’s Kellen Kerrigan won
over Muenzer by forfeit for fifth
place.
In the 152 class, Javier Gal-
vez, lost by fall against Crook
County’s Alexander Vail in the
first consolation round.
Maverick Geller, 170, only
made it to the second consola-
tion round as Everett Chandler,
from North Eugene, won by
decision.
For the 195 class, Abraham
Tinajero fell to Crater’s Joseph
Jordahl. Tinajero ended his
season with a 20-15 record.
Cody Durham fell to Ulises
Aguilar-Soto from Milwaukie
by decision in the 285 first
round.
“I’m super proud of the team
and how hard they worked,”
Rolen said. “I think it’s a reflec-
tion of the wonderful coaching
staff, support from the parents
and community and the work
that the kids have done. I wish
I could take the credit, but the
kids do all the work and we
just get to coach them. It’s an
honor to get to coach these
kids, young men and women.
They’re not really kids any-
more, they on their own, most
of them.”
Photos by Gabriel Bravo
HOOD RIVER VALLEY wrestler Lauraine Smith triumphantly
raising her hand after winning a match Saturday, Feb. 29 at the
Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
HOOD RIVER VALLEY wrestler Lauraine Smith attempting to pin Thurston’s Gabi Gillbert Saturday, Feb. 29 at the Veterans Memorial
Coliseum in Portland.
Hood River Valley honors seniors at their final home game
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
Hood River Valley’s girls
basketball team wrapped up
their home games Friday, Feb.
21 as they were defeated by
Redmond 52-38. The team also
honored their senior players in
a pre-game ceremony.
Players who were honored
were Lucrezia Orlandelli, Han-
ayo Sato, Samantha Herring,
Sydney Balzer, Grace Meyers
and Kaitlyn McNerney.
“We had a competitive game
against Redmond,” Steve Note-
boom, head coach for the
Eagles, said. “We got to within
eight points with around three
minutes to go. We had to press
and foul to get possession of
the ball, and they were able
to get some easy baskets and
ended up winning by 14.”
Leading scorers for the
home team were senior Grace
Meyers with 16 points, junior
Morgan Baker at 10 and junior
Karla Barajas with six.
Top scorers for the Panthers
were senior Ellie Corwin with
14, sophomore Alyssa McCon-
nell scoring 12 and sophomore
Skyla Gonzales netting 10.
“We did improve throughout
the year, especially on the de-
fensive end,” Noteboom said.
“I felt like our greatest strength
was half-court defense. We
also became a much better
rebounding team. In the off
season we have to improve our
shooting and ball handling.
I like the phrase that Tom
Ames, the varsity assistant,
uses, ‘Players are made in the
summer and teams are made
in the winter.’”
Sato, Meyers and McNerney
expressed gratitude for their
high school basketball season.
Meyers said it was a surreal
to be in her final home game.
It was special being part of
the basketball program since
freshman year, Meyers said.
As an exchange student,
Sato said she was worried she
wouldn’t get along with her
teammates. The team dynamic,
however, helped Sato create
great relationships with the
Photo submitted by Steve Noteboom
team.
HRV
SENIORS
Lucrezia
Orlandelli,
Hanayo
Sato,
Samantha
Herring,
Sydney
Balzer,
Grace
Meyers,
Kaitlyn
McNerney and their par-
For those wanting to join
the team, or any other sport, ents/ host families before the game Friday, Feb. 21 a Vannet Court in Hood River.
McNerney said to jump in feet
first and give it a shot.
“We did improve
throughout the year,
especially on the
defensive end.”
Steve Noteboom
Head coach
“Put yourself out there,” Mc-
Nerney said. “Try something
new and stick with it. Wheth-
er you choose basketball or
something else, work at it and
don’t quit even when it gets
hard.”
Photo by Gabriel Bravo
HRV SENIOR Kaitlyn McNerney (right) maneuvers around a Redmond player as Hannayo Sato (middle) and Emma Kroll (left) tries
to get open.
Four skiers to compete in Junior Olympics
Cooper Spur Alpine Team Lefevre qualified to represent Junior Olympic in Mammoth
racers Kai Shay, Hanni Sre- the Pacific Northwest Ski Asso- Mountain, Calif., March 18-21.
enan, Izzy Bielen and Sutton ciation at the Western Region
More than 200 12- and
13-year-old skiers from Ore-
gon, Idaho and Washington
competed in six races to iden-
tify nine boys and eight girls
to represent PNSA at the 2020
WRJO. The first qualifier was
held at Mount Spokane in Jan-
uary, where Lefevre took first
in the slalom.
In the giant slalom, Hanni
Sreenan took first while Bielen
took second.
The final qualifier, held
Feb. 22-23 in Stevenson Pass,
Wash., resulted in Shays quali-
fying in second and third in the
super giant slalom. Lucas Gar-
cia finished seventh and 11th.
CSAT’s girls followed up
on their strong Spokane giant
slalom and slalom results with
super giant slalom podiums:
Lefevre in second, Sreenan in
third and Bielen in fourth, with
Photo submitted by Shana Sweitzer Victoria Martin coming in at
CSAT MEMBERS Izzy Bielen, Hanni Sreenan, Victoria Martin, Kai Shay and Sutton Lefevre at Ste- 23rd and 36th in her first-ever
super giant slalom.
vens Pass in Skykomish, Wash., on Feb. 23.
The WRJO brings the fastest
ski racers from California, Ne-
vada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming,
Montana, Alaska, Idaho, Ore-
gon and Washington together
to compete at a national level.
This will be the second time
attending the junior Olympics
for Sreenan, Lefevre and Biel-
en. The first time for Shays.
“I’m super exited to get to
go to the Western Region Ju-
nior Olympics again,” Nahanni
said. “I’m looking forward to
hanging out with my PNSA
teammates and having the op-
portunity to race at Mammoth
Mountain.”
Bielen said she too is excited
to compete against athletes
she met last year and new ones
she’ll meet in March.
CSAT’s head coach and
executive director, Shana
Sweitzer, said all of CSAT’s U14
athletes have been working
towards these goals for the last
10 months.
“Starting last summer, the
entire team attended lifting, in-
terval and agility training four
times a week. Then once the
snow flew they did five days a
week, six hours a day,” Sweitzer
said. “I am really proud of their
dedication, focus and team
camaraderie. For example, at
last weekend’s qualifier Kai got
sick the night prior to the race
so the rest of the team sent
him to bed and as a group they
tuned, waxed and brushed his
skis for him. The level of sup-
port for one another is really
impressive.”
Shana Sweitzer contributed
to this article.