hoodrivernews.com
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 A7
HOOD RIVER NEWS | Hood River, Ore.
SPORTS
HRV alum places second in UW heptathlon record books
By GABRIEL BRAVO
News staff writer
A Hood River Valley High
School alum made it into the
University of Washington hep-
tathlon record books after
competing in the Mountain
Pacific Sports Federation Track
and Field Championship Feb,
28-29. With a final score of
5,487, Parker Kennedy moved
up to second place in school
history.
Jeremy Taiwo holds the
school record at 6,156 set back
in 2013.
Pa rke r att r i bu t e s h i s
achievement to long practice
hours and an interest in hep-
tathlons since high school.
“I started doing the decath-
lon in high school and then got
recruited by UW to pole vault,
but then started doing the
multi-events there,” Kennedy
said. “Over the last two years,
I’ve been training really hard
in the heptathlon, indoors, and
in the decathlon, outdoors. We
train speed and power because
most of the events are speed
and power. Multi-event peo-
ple who do the decathlon and
heptathlon definitely have to
stick around for longer hours
to practice the different tech-
nique events because it’s a lot
of technical work.”
On the first the day of the
event, Kennedy leaped his
personal best in the long-jump
at 23 feet and seven-and-a-half
inches. The Huskie also set a
personal record in the shot-
put with a toss of 42 feet and
11-and-a-half-inches.
In the second day of the
event, the junior won and set
a personal record in the 1,000-
meter run at 2:38. He also hur-
dled the bar in the pole vault at
15-feet-nine-inches.
“It was pretty exciting (plac-
ing in second),” Kennedy said.
“The guy who has the number
one spot is an Olympian and
had the world record in the
high jump in the decathlon.
He’s a volunteer coach right
now.”
This event wrapped up the
indoor season and Kennedy
was set to begin the outdoor
season until UW canceled all
sporting events and practices
until June 5.
“Right now, our whole sea-
son is canceled, and we’ll know
if we can practice as a team at
the end of this month,” Kenne-
dy said. “Now it’s kind of hard
to stay fully engaged in prac-
ticing and working out. But
I’m just doing my usual daily
training plan that I’ve been
doing on my own. Hopefully
we can find some meet to do
outside of NCAA competition.
It’s been hard to have put in a
Photo courtesy of Parker Kennedy
UNIVERSITY of Washington junior Parker Kennedy runs ahead of an opponent at the MPSF Championships Saturday, Feb. 29 in
Seattle.
bunch of work and be shoot- It’s put everyone in a confused,
ing for big goals and have this depressed state.”
year’s opportunity taken away.
With the extra time on his
hands, Kennedy said he’ll take focus on mental health and
a closer look as to where he not let public health concerns
needs to improve his game, worry him too much.
Photo by Gabriel Bravo
C ATCHING
S OME
W IND
Kite surfer Gary Siskar
guides his power kite down
to the beach with help
from a fellow kite surfer at
the Hood River Event Site
Saturday, March 21. This
method of lowering the kite
grounds the apparatus at an
angle which prevents wind
from catching in the sail and
flying away, Siskar said.
Hometown wrestler wins NJCAA title
Photo submitted by Jason Shaner
CLACKAMAS Community College sophomore Jason Shaner took the NJCAA title for the 133-class
and closed out his season with a 28-22 record.
By GABRIEL BRAVO
Bluffs, Iowa. Jason Shaner,
Hood River Valley alum, con-
tributed in this achievement
Clackamas Community Col- by beating Ladamien Sturdi-
lege won its second consec- vant in the final round for the
utive NJCAA wrestling title 133-weight class.
Saturday, March 7, in Council
Shaner fought and compet-
News staff writer
ed his way to the final with a
28-2 record. In one loss, Sha-
ner wrestled up a weight class
because the team needed it
and lost due to a concussion
he previously suffered in a bus
accident.
“I think it was in December,”
Shaner said. “We just dueled in
Roseburg and on the way over
to Reno, we flipped our bus. It
was a bad situation but I’m just
happy nobody got seriously
hurt. Half of our lineup was
concussed or had some minor
injuries that put us back. We
all made it through though. We
came back strong at the end of
the year. It wasn’t a good expe-
rience, but it made us closer as
a team.”
To commemorate the in-
cident, the team had “Just
roll with it” imprinted in the
national shirts they ordered.
After taking a week to recover
from the accident, Shaner re-
turned to the mat chasing after
the title.
“It’s cool to be back-to-back
national champions because
it’s never been done,” Shaner
said. “Our coach, Josh Rhoden,
has only had two national
championships prior to this
year. I was on the team last
year that did it. To be honest I
knew it was going to be harder
to win it a second time, but I
knew our team was capable
and it was awesome. We did it
for our coaches and basically
everyone who supports us.
We did it for ourselves too, but
it’s great to see all of our hard
work to pay off for everyone
who supports us. We have a
big following in Oregon City,
Clackamas area and the wres-
tling community.”
His winning no-compro-
mising attitude stems from a
desire to win and excel. Shaner
said he doesn’t like losing and
always strides to improve.
Shaner’s father, Jason Sha-
ner Sr., said he saw his work
ethic since high school.
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WEATHER FOR HOOD RIVER, OR | MARCH 25-31, 2020
Today
52
/36°
Variable clouds
with a shower
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Actual High/Low
Tuesday
52° 53° 56° 63° 63° 61°
/41°
Rather Cloudy
/42°
Cloudy with
showers around
/41°
Cloudy with
rain possible
/41°
Mostly cloudy,
rain possible
“I’d like to say it was us but
it’s all Jason,” Jason Shaner Sr.
said. “People think we push
him but it’s not us. Right now
he’s still running five, six miles
a day. I tell him, ‘You’re not
going to wrestle for six months.
You can take a week off.’ It’s
all him. He sets high goals
and he’ll kill himself trying to
make it.”
Jason Shaner says he hopes
he sets a good example for
wrestlers at CCC and at HRV
by making the right choices on
and off the mat.
/40°
Cloudy with
rain possible
/40°
Mostly cloudy,
rain possible
March 18-23
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
62/32
67/32
70/32
67/37
67/33
51/36
Updated 3.23.20, 9:10 AM PDT
Data from Accuweather.com
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