Page 2B
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Friday, October 23, 2015
HERMISTON:
UCLA upsets TigerScots waiting
PRs
pouring
in
at
No. 20 Cal
on district opponent
end of season for
Lady Bulldogs
College Football
Associated Press
PASADENA, Calif. — With UCLA’s
season seemingly teetering on the brink
of collapse, Josh Rosen calmly propped it
back up with a passing performance that
put the freshman’s name in the Bruins’
record book.
Rosen completed a school-record 34
passes and threw two of his three touch-
down passes to Devin Fuller, and UCLA
got back on track with a 40-24 victory over
No. 20 California on Thursday night.
Rosen passed for 399 yards in another
splendid game for the standout rookie,
and Thomas Duarte had career highs of 10
catches for 141 yards for the Bruins (5-2,
2-2 Pac-12).
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another big Pac-12 game, going 34 for 47
without a turnover.
CBC Volleyball
East Oregonian
in both of their regular season
match-ups with 3-2 scores each time.
Which ever team wins will have
ATHENA — Since 2010, the
Weston-McEwen TigerScots have its hands full with the TigerScots,
turned in six-straight seasons of as Weston-McEwen swept all four
at least 20 wins, as the TigerScots matches with the Mustangs and
HDUQHGZLQ1RDJDLQVW6WDQ¿HOG Rockets this season.
Weston-McEwen coach Shawn
on Tuesday.
The season turned in by the Tiger- White knows that even amidst his
Scots (20-8, 8-2 CBC) earned them teams’ success, what happens during
the No. 2 seed in the Columbia Basin the regular season won’t really
Conference district tournament, matter come Saturday.
“We just need to work on staying
which will be played at Culver on
aggressive and keep working on
Saturday.
Their opponent is still yet to be just getting better each day,” he said
decided, as the TigerScots are set to following Tuesday’s match.
The winner of Weston-McEwen
play the winner of Pilot Rock (11-12,
4-6 CBC) and Heppner (12-12, 5-5 and Pilot Rock/Heppner will then
CBC) which is slated to start at 12 proceed to play the Culver Bulldogs
(26-3, 10-0 CBC) 30 minutes after
p.m.
Heppner defeated Pilot Rock the conclusion of the match.
PENDLETON: Bylenga on pace for state
runner because I had that
the aspiring collegiate runner experience.”
A hard month of training
tried anything she or her
following
the state meet and a
coaches could come up with
JRRG¿QLVKDWWKH)RRW/RFNHU
to ease the pain — lightened
Regionals in December
workouts,
cross-training, West
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aqua jogging, even maternity though, and Clem went on to
wraps.
place eighth in the 3,000 and
None of it worked, but it 10th in the 1,500 that spring
wasn’t the treatments that DWWKH26$$WUDFNDQG¿HOG
were the issue. Clem had championships.
been misdiagnosed.
Back to full strength for
Three weeks before the her senior season, Clem is
district cross country meet of hoping to lead an entire team
her junior year, Clem found of Buckaroos to the state
out she’d been competing meet as they prepare for this
DOO VHDVRQ ZLWK DQ LQÀDPHG weekend’s district champi-
appendix that would need to onships at Sorosis Park in
be removed immediately.
The Dalles.
“Doctor (John) McBee
“I haven’t really hit the
saved the day and did an time I’ve wanted to yet this
amazing surgery,” Stewart year, so I’m hoping to get
said. “There was so much to state,” she said. “And
scar tissue around (the hopefully I bring my girls
appendix) it took 45 minutes with me.”
longer than they thought it
She’s still looking to get
was going to take.”
back to the form that got
The timing of the surgery, her a personal record in the
which also required a 5,000 meters of 18:45.95 her
one-week recuperation, didn’t sophomore season, but her
leave Clem much time to get 19:31.1 at last week’s Kyle
herself ready to compete at Burnside Wildhorse Invite
districts. She still managed to was the second-fastest by a
reach the state championships CRC girl this season. She
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from the Columbia River seconds ahead of any of the
&RQIHUHQFHEXW¿QLVKHGWK district’s other top runners.
With the cutoff for indi-
— 25 spots lower than she
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had as a sophomore.
That placing, along with seventh place, Clem’s fourth-
her inability to run a single straight appearance at the
race quicker that 20 minutes Lane Community College
that season, took a toll on course that hosts the state
meet appears inevitable.
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The margin for error will
“It’s weird, when that
pain (in my side) went away be much slimmer for the rest
I wasn’t used to not feeling of the team. Only the top two
that pain. So it was weird to district placers will advance
feel other pain, like, ‘Is that to compete at state, and it’s
an injury? I don’t know.’ a race that’s expected to be
So I probably didn’t go my decided by just a few points.
“Ever since freshman
hardest for a while,” she
said. “I feel like I’m a better year state has always been a
Continued from 1B
goal of ours and it’s always
been so close,” said senior
Chyenne Carey. “Each year
we’re really close and this
year I feel like we’re closer
than ever. And what it will
come down to at the race is
who wants it more. Which
team wants it more. I feel like
we’re in a really good place
mentally where we just want
it and we’re just going to do
our best and try whatever we
can to make it there.”
Fellow senior Kaleigh
Waggoner agreed that this
group has never been more
prepared to make a run at state.
“I think that we’ve been
peaking at the right times and
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been working harder and
getting better throughout the
season,” she said. “I think
there’s been moments where
we’ve all had a bad day or
we’ve all had a bad race, but
we’re at the moment now
when we’re so focused and
so ready for this race.
“We’ve never been this
ready before and that feels
really good. I think the whole
district is kind of in antici-
pation of who is it going to
be, the top two? So that’s
really cool and it’s also really
nerve-racking.”
Stewart said the girls are
doing all the right things in
practice, but the competition
is better this year too.
“These girls are doing
more miles than we’ve ever
had a Pendleton team do
before, and they’re doing it
at a faster pace than they’ve
ever been able to do before,
but unfortunately so is the
whole state,” she said. “I
couldn’t ask any more out of
this team, I’m super proud
of their effort. We’ll just
have to see if our best day is
good enough with everybody
else’s best day.”
The Pendleton boys are
also trying to overcome a
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reach the state meet. The
qualifying criteria is the
same, and the Buckaroo boys
are also led by a three-time
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Senior Nolan Bylenga’s
best time this season is
16:33.8, and the only CRC
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at the Wildhorse Invite was
Hermiston’s Josiah Nieder-
werfer.
A self-proclaimed statis-
tics nut, Bylenga watched
his competition closely this
season as times were posted
online, but even he has no
idea how Saturday’s race will
turn out for himself or his
Buckaroo teammates.
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close, we’ve been improving
like crazy these last couple
meets,” he said. “We’ve put
in so much hard work, and
I think whatever happens —
we could come out running
huge PR’s — and I think it
will be a good race, and I
want to see what happens.”
Stewart thinks Hood
River will be the team to
beat, though.
“Hood River is the
strongest boys’ team in the
league by far, they’re very
impressive,” she said.
Pendleton’s boys had their
streak of three-straight state
berths snapped last season.
The last time the girls took a
team to state was 2011.
The district meet will
begin at 10 a.m. for the girls
and 10:45 a.m. for the boys.
———
Contact Matt Entrup at
mentrup@eastoregonian.
com or (541) 966-0838.
HELIX: Life in small town revolves around sports
month of the year where we
don’t have sport going on,”
actually did realize it, it feels said Jackson, “so it’s mostly
really good. And now having shopping, going to dinner,
the opportunity to win and DQGRIFRXUVH1HWÀL[´
being able to win as a team
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and grow together and grow enjoy frequent trips for Thai
ourselves along with it is food and road trips to the
rewarding.”
Tri-Cites for shopping extrav-
The season turned in by aganzas, as well as numerous
WKH*UL]]OLHVHDUQHGWKHPWKH nights spent at one of their
No. 2 seed in the Old Oregon houses for some board games.
League district tournament
“If we do anything outside
and No. 8 ranking by the of school it’s always going
26$$¿QLVKLQJLQDWLHZLWK to be us three and other
Powder Valley atop the OOL people along with us,” said
standings.
Flerchinger.
“When you lose like we did
The growth of their
(earlier in their careers) it just friendship throughout high
isn’t fun,” said Flerchinger. school has been something
“But this year I’m so excited. that Parker has enjoyed to
Every day at practice we’re watch for the past four years.
so loud, we have so much fun
“They’ve gone to school
together and it’s just a great together forever, so it’s really
time all around.”
fun to watch them,” she said.
For Mize, the turnaround “I love all my kids and it’s
for her began when she always fun to watch them
¿QDOO\DFFHSWHGWKHQDWXUHRI grow and move on and know
volleyball being a team game that they’re going to do great
and not individually.
things.”
“I know my freshman year
Moving on is something
I was only really concerned that the three friends have
about myself and what I had began to think about, as their
to do,” she said. “But this senior year of high school
year I’ve focused much more creeps to an end.
on making my teammates
As of now, they all have
better, encouraging them, and plans to go to college — they
helping them with something just don’t have a clue where.
“I want to go to a bigger
even off the court.”
When the three seniors college and either study
are not on a court or running physical therapy or speech
around a track, they are often pathology,” said Flerchinger.
times still found in the same “I want to go to a big school
and hopefully make a differ-
place.
“We live in Helix, so we ence there.”
For Mize, she is mostly
don’t really have a lot to do in
Helix,” said Flerchinger with undecided on whether she
a wry smile. “But we do a lot would like to go to a big
of stuff together. We’re not university or stay a little
closer to home with some
the partying group.”
private schools or commu-
So what do they do?
“We only have like one nity colleges. However, she
Continued from 1B
does know that she wants to
study elementary education.
And for Jackson, she has
plenty of options athletically,
having received several track
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different colleges.
But before the post-high
school life begins, they still
have games to play.
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uled to play Echo (16-7, 8-4)
on Saturday at 9 a.m. in La
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the OOL district tournament.
The two teams met twice
during the regular season
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both matches with 3-0 wins.
Echo is another team
that turned things around in
2015, improving from a 9-13
record last season to 16 wins
this season.
Because of that, Parker
knows that her team should
not expect a third easy win
over the Cougars when
Saturday comes.
“Anything can happen in
the tournament,” she said.
“We’re not overlooking
anybody and we’re going to
go in and play our game. The
kids know when they get in
their rhythm they are tough
to beat and we’re going to try
and maintain that.”
Parker does believe her
team will have an advantage
in the match, having made it
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“They know what it takes
and they’ve been focused so
far this week in practice,”
she said. “I just think they’re
ready to play a game again.”
The winner of Helix and
Echo will then play again at
1:30 against the winner of
Joseph and Powder Valley
for the district title.
BIG SKY TOURNEY
The 2015 season was a
spectacular debut for Ione
coach Brandi Orem.
The Cardinals ran through
the Big Sky League this
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mark in the league and an
18-6 overall record.
It was quite the turnaround
for a team that turned in just
nine wins in 2014.
The season led them to an
appearance in the Big Sky
district tournament, where
they will play the Condon/
Wheeler Knights on Saturday
at 12 p.m. at The Dalles.
As Ione trended upwards
from where they were last
season, the Knights went the
opposite direction.
Condon/Wheeler
won
20 games a season ago and
advanced to the second round
of the OSAA playoffs.
The 2015 season started
off looking like a disaster, as
the Knights won only two of
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once Big Sky League play
began, the Knights found a
rhythm as they went on to win
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9-5 in the Big Sky.
Condon/Wheeler ended
up in a play-in game against
Mitchell/Spray on Thursday,
and defeated Mitchell 3-0 to
advance to Saturday.
Ione and Condon/Wheeler
faced off twice during the
regular season and the Cardi-
nals won both times with 3-1
and 3-0 scores.
The winner of the match
will advance to play the
winner of South Wasco
County and Dufur later in the
day.
Continued from 1B
get this title, this state title.’
We still believe that we
will, but we didn’t think it
wouldn’t be this much of a
challenge because we came
in thinking this is literally
the best team we’ve ever
had,” Blackburn said.
“We’re just not having the
season we wanted to have. I
think it’s just a mental issue
and a health issue.”
After handily winning
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the Runner Soul XC Fest at
Sandstone Middle School,
Hermiston went to Hood
River where the Eagles easily
beat the Bulldogs, compiling
34 points to Hermiston’s 42.
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iston hadn’t won the Skip
Sparks Invitational.
Senior Donell Rome
said that meet was the gut
check they needed.
“As soon as that meet
was over, awards were
coming and it was like,
‘Oh, second. Hermiston’s
never gotten second here,’”
he said. “We were just like,
‘It’s time to get going.
Hood River’s there, they’re
not fooling around. They
just put three in front of our
No. 1. We’re ready for it.’”
Since then, Hermiston
has run in some very
competitive meets. The
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the CRC Preview at The
Dalles, then placed 20th
and 14th at the Bob Firman
Invitational in Idaho and
the Richland Invite, respec-
tively.
But then Hermiston
won the Kyle Burnside
Wildhorse Invite last week.
Senior Josiah Niederwerfer
set a season best at 16
minutes, 26.6 seconds. He
hopes the effort can bleed
into the rest of the group,
which hasn’t quite crescen-
doed the same way.
“That was the point,”
he said. “Hey guys, it’s
time to start doing this.
We’re cutting back, it’s
time to start really making
it happen and speeding it
up and running where we
can be, because we’re all
capable of running with
each other and being in
front.”
If seniors Hayden Earl,
Castellanos, Rome and
sophomore Isaac Sanchez
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they did last season, when
Hermiston ran away with
the CRC title, they could be
in jeopardy of not winning
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time in its history. Rome
said they’ve thought about
the streak, but they haven’t
talked about it. They don’t
want to apply any undue
pressure to themselves.
“There’s always pres-
sure,” Niederwerfer said.
“We’re pressured to not
lose our streak.”
“When we get pressure
put on ourselves … we
don’t compete well under
pressure,” Rome added.
“First meet of the year,
no pressure. We knew the
teams who were coming,
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thought has crept in that we
could lose this. But I think
that it’s not an option. It’s
either you win or you don’t,
and we want to win.”
On the girls side,
however, expectations have
been shattered. Led by
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struggled in the beginning
of the season but has tossed
out back-to-back PRs, said
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can make it to state after
last season’s disappointing
fourth-place
conference
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It started when Crystal
Delgado came on as the
full-time girls coach. She
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with more group sessions
such as team dinners, and
they even have a constant
group text so they’re
always in communication
with each other.
For a sport that relies on
pack running and support,
the closeness gained by the
Bulldog girls has been a
boon to the steady improve-
ment this season.
“She has really blended
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said. “We know that we
have each other’s backs and
we want to do it for them as
much as ourselves.”
But the girls aren’t
just happy to be here, as
they say. They expect to
perform.
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Bulldog girl to post a PR
recently. She’s one of nine
Bulldogs — varsity or
otherwise — to PR, and
Laura Zepeda added a
season-best at Richland.
The other nine all set PRs
at Wildhorse. Sophomore
Sidney Tovey, who is
coming on strong with
back-to-back PRs, as well,
could make a difference as
the No. 6 Bulldogs runner.
Melany Solorio is dealing
with a minor leg injury
and wasn’t at practice on
Thursday, but she should
be healthy enough to run
Saturday.
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can make it (to state),”
Blackburn said. “I know
they can make it. There’s
some nervousness, because
it’s in their hands.
“The girls have clicked
this year.”
The district meet begins
at Sorosis Park in The
Dalles at 10 a.m. for the
girls and 10:45 a.m. for the
boys.
ATHLETE
OF THE WEEK
JOCELYN
GUARDADO
Junior
Umatilla Soccer
Guardado recorded
hat tricks on back-to-
back days to help the
Vikings remain in the
playoff hunt with 3-3
ties against Riverside
and Portland
Christian. Two of her goals against
Portland Christian were in the game’s
final 10 minutes with the last coming
unassisted in the 80th.
P ROUDLY S PONSORED B Y :
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Advanced Orthopedic
& Sports Medicine Institute
620 NW 11th St., Ste. 201, Hermiston
www.hermistonortho.com
541-289-7075