SPORTS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2015 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS Cross Country State Championships Cardenas claims another title “It’s just like last year, it feels really good to win again.” Umatilla senior builds lead over second mile Sam BARBEE East Oregonian EUGENE — Fabian Cardenas URXQGHG WKH ¿QDO FXUYH DW /DQH Community College with nothing but blue track in front of and behind him. After winning last fall’s 3A/2A/1A state championship and last spring’s 3,000-meter run, the Umatilla senior had just 200 meters between him and his third state championship and second straight cross country title. No one would catch him. &DUGHQDVSXOOHGDZD\IURPWKH¿HOG LQ WKH ¿UVW PLOH DQG QHYHU ORRNHG back, clocking a time of 15 minutes 50 seconds to win by 25 seconds over Jefferson sophomore Hassan Ibrahim and 37 seconds better than Weston-McEwen’s Hayden Scott. “It’s just like last year, it feels really good to win again,” Cardenas said. “Especially because this year was a little tougher, it’s a little windier than it was last year. This year there were a couple more guys up there with me, like Hassan. He was the only guy with me at 60 seconds, I knew he was gonna challenge me, at least for part of the race.” The course was wet and muddy in places, slowing down the times overall. That didn’t affect the district champion Cardenas much, who ran his best time in three tries RQWKH/&&FRXUVH'XULQJWKDW¿UVW mile, Cardenas pulled away from the leading pack of Ibrahim, Scott and several others. But Cardenas’ second mile split increased from WKH ¿UVW DQG WKH JDS EHWZHHQ KH and Ibrahim and Scott just kept expanding. Cardenas had no trouble maintaining his pace with nobody on his tail. “This year, I’m better at that because I’ve been running more mileage than I did last year,” he said. Cardenas is expecting to run collegiately, though he is yet to commit to a school. “I’d like to thank my family for supporting me,” Cardenas said, gold medal around his neck. — Fabian Cardenas, Back-to-back 3A/2A/1A boys cross country state champion af- ter winning Saturday’s finals meet at Lane Community College EO Media Group photo Umatilla’s Fabian Cardenas leads Jefferson’s Hassan Ibrahim (588) and Weston-McEwen’s Hayden Scott at the 2015 OSAA 3A/2A/1A State Cross Country Championships at Lane Community College in Eugene on Saturday. Cardenas finished first, Ibrahim was second and Scott was third. Umatil- la’s Fabian Cardenas tops the po- dium at the 2015 OSAA 3A/2A/1A state cross country meet in Eugene. Weston-McE- wen’s Hayden Scott is third. “Sadly, they couldn’t be here today, but they’ve been supporting me all season, they gave me what I need. And I’m thankful for that.” Scott, though, was excited about &DUGHQDV¶EOLVWHULQJ¿UVWPLOHVSOLW then fell off to 34 seconds on the second mile. “This is it for me, it’s the peak of my high school experience,” Scott said. “It’s a such a great feeling to be third at state with guys I’ve been running with since my freshman year (at Hermiston).” Union edged Catlin Gabel for the boys team title with 64 points to Catlin Gabel’s 68, and Bandon was a distant third with 81. On the girls side for the 3A/2A/1A girls, Marissa Dobry and the St. Mary’s Crusaders dominated. Dobry led from the gun, though had identical one-mile splits with Bandon’s Sailor Hutton, Oregon Episcopal’s Stephanie Finley and Catlin Gabel’s Maya Rayle. Dobry began to pull away during the second mile, opening up a 19-second lead, the eventual margin of victory. She ZRXOG SRZHU LQ WR ¿QLVK DW St. Mary’s accrued 67 points led by 'REU\DQG8QLRQ¿QLVKHGDGLVWDQW second with 83 points. Enterprise ¿QLVKHGWKLUGZLWKSRLQWV CLASS 4A Seaside and Siuslaw won the boys and girls team titles in the 4A meet, respectively, with each team also boasting their race’s individual champion. Seaside junior Bradley Contributed photo Rzewnicki won the boys’ title by courtesy of Hayden ¿YH VHFRQGV RYHU 6LVWHUV VHQLRU Scott Tony Hooks in 16:13. Siuslaw junior Celie Mans won by 21 seconds over Henley senior /H[L+HDO\LQ Mac-Hi’s girls team was 14th KLV¿QLVK,QWKH¿UVWFURVVFRXQWU\ Scott set a personal record at the with 376 points and was led by season of his Weston-McEwen district meet at 16.24.7, and nearly VHQLRU(OLVH*ULI¿WKLQVWZLWKD FDUHHU6FRWW¿QLVKHGVHFRQGDWWKH eclipsed it with a 16:27 Saturday time of 22:12 — seven seconds and 3A/2A/1A Special District 5 race RQ WKH XSDQGGRZQ ZHW /&& VL[SODFHVEHWWHUWKDQVKH¿QLVKHGDV last week behind Cardenas again. course. Scott was three seconds off a junior. Bulldog boys leave disappointed Hermiston finishes fifth in 5A finals team with 142 points. Summit took the team title after a very close race with Crater. The &RPHWV KDG WKH ¿UVW WKLUG DQG ¿IWKSODFH UXQQHUV WKRXJK FDPH By SAM BARBEE XS VKRUW WR 6XPPLW ZKR ¿QLVKHG East Oregonian with the second-, sixth-, seventh-, eighth- and ninth-place runners. EUGENE — Expectations were The only top-10 runner not from high entering the 2015 cross country Summit or Crater was Bend’s Caleb season for the Hermiston boys. The +RIIPDQZKR¿QLVKHGIRXUWK Bulldogs lost just one runner from For Hermiston, Josiah Niederw- last season’s state bronze team, and HUIHUHQWHUHGWKHWUDFNDQGWKH¿QDO seemed prime and ready to return 100 meters in ninth, but Summit’s to Hermiston as the top boys cross Jett Ballantyne and Marist’s Jerik country team in the state. Embleton kicked past him to push The season didn’t go their way, him off the podium. The next and neither did Saturday’s 5A Hermiston runner to come across Oregon State Championships at was Donell Rome, who placed 25th /&&+HUPLVWRQ¿QLVKHG¿IWKDVD in 16:57. “We did come in expecting better performances from everyone, but during the race I passed some teammates and they just weren’t feeling good,” Niederwerfer said. “It’s not our best. We didn’t run like Hermiston at all.” /DVW \HDU¶V VWDOZDUW +D\GHQ Earl, struggled all season with nagging issues that prevented him from duplicating his junior season UHVXOWV +H ¿QLVKHG VW LQ $QJHO&DVWHOODQRV¿QLVKHGWKLQ 17:26 and Isaac Sanchez crossed in 17:32, good for 49th. Pendleton’s lone boys partici- pant, Nolan Bylenga, started in the front pack but faded late. He said See CROSS COUNTRY/4B 3B: ROYALS BEAT METS IN FIVE EO Media Group photo Hermiston’s Josiah Niederwerfer (852) charges uphill in the boys OSAA 5A Cross Country State Championship on Saturday at Lane Community College in Eugene. Niederwerfer finished 11th to lead Hermiston’s boys to a fifth-place finish in the team standings. HERMISTON Hermiston boys soccer gets over play-in hurdle Bulldogs used strong defense to defeat /LEHUW\RQ6DWXUGD\ AP Photo/Matt Slocum Kansas City Royals’ Jarrod Dyson back,” he said after the game. ³'H¿QLWHO\ D Liberty cloud looming over us getting past the play-in By ERIC SINGER round espe- East Oregonian cially with last year. It was a On a gloomy Saturday big result for us.” On paper, the game afternoon in Eastern Oregon, appeared to be an easy win for the Hermiston Bulldogs’ boys VRFFHU WHDP ¿QDOO\ JRW RYHU +HUPLVWRQDV/LEHUW\ its postseason hump, defeating came in with just a 4-9-1 WKH /LEHUW\ )DOFRQV LQ DQ overall record and a No. 23 ranking in the OSAA. But the OSAA state play-in game. In each of the last two years Falcons gave the Bulldogs all the Bulldogs lost in the play-in they could handle in the game. ³$OOFUHGLWWR/LEHUW\WKH\ round, getting shut out both came out and pressed us and times. But the performance on Saturday was a big relief for made it hard for us to play Bulldogs coach Rich Harsh- our game,” said Harshberger. “But we got the result, which berger. “It was good, we needed I’m ecstatic about, but we to get this monkey off of our GH¿QLWHO\QHHGWRFDOPLWGRZQ 1 and impose ourselves throughout Hermiston the rest of the playoffs.” / L E H U W \ came out of the gates and immediately put pressure on the Bulldogs, and the Falcons had the Hermiston defense somewhat scattered. Hermiston goalkeeper Antonio Campos had to make several aggressive plays and stops to keep the game scoreless. “With the formation it’s always a bit risky, but my back four and the goalkeeper are outstanding, they’ve done a good job,” said Harshberger. “The results we get and where we’re at right now is really up to them.” Then about midway 3 WKURXJK WKH ¿UVW KDOI WKH %XOOGRJV EHJDQ WR ¿QG WKHLU groove on offense, and at the 34-minute mark Bernardo $UXMR DQG /LEHUW\ JRDONHHSHU Jacob Thompson collided wide left of the goal, resulting in a yellow card on Thompson and a penalty kick for Arujo. Because of the yellow card, Thompson was removed from the game for the penalty kick, replaced by defender Roberto Salinas. Arujo took advantage of the PK, and drilled it past Salinas to give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead. The goal swung some momentum in the Bulldogs’ favor, as just seven minutes later the Bulldogs struck again on a close-range goal from See SOCCER/4B