SPORTS
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13, 2017
1B
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PENDLETON
HERMISTON
Bucks, Dawgs anxious to compete Delgado
ranked No. 1
by Pac-12
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Members of the Pendleton swim team do warm-ups during practice on Thursday at BMCC in Pendleton.
Local swim seasons depleted by winter weather
By ERIC SINGER
East Oregonian
Prep sports teams all across
the state of Oregon have been
affected in one way or another
by the frequent snowstorms that
have hit this winter, but perhaps
none are affected more than the
swim teams.
The Hermiston Bulldogs and
Pendleton Buckaroo girls teams,
for example, have yet to compete
this season as the snow created
bad highway conditions that
canceled the fi rst three meets of
the season at Baker, La Grande,
and most recently last weekend
at The Dalles.
The cancellations are espe-
cially frustrating to the teams
when it adds up to half the
regular season schedule.
“It’s a bummer,” Pendleton
coach Amy Ashton-Williams
said before the team’s practice
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Freshman Janessa Headley swims the freestyle during swim
team practice Thursday in Pendleton.
on Thursday. “For coaches it’s
hard to see the progression in
practice because what they do
here isn’t always what they do in
the race. And some of my swim-
mers like (senior) Jon Jennings
have some really big goals for
the season that are pretty much
getting trampled on and now we
have to adjust.”
Hermiston coach Kevin
Hamblin said that he hasn’t seen
a season have as many cancel-
lations in his 11-plus years of
coaching.
“It’s just been a strange
winter,” he said. “In the past
there’s been times where
everything before Christmas
is canceled, but it’s never been
pushed back this far.”
Some of the Pendleton
athletes haven’t been totally
sidelined, though, as the boys
team squeezed in a last-minute
dual meet in Walla Walla on
Dec. 29 in addition to several
of the varsity swimmers that
have gotten to compete on the
side through the Pendleton
Swim Association. Jennings, the
defending Class 5A state cham-
pion in the 50-yard freestyle, is
one of the PSA members and is
See SWIMMING/3B
NFL
Understanding pass game big in Wagner’s evolution
Seattle
Seahawks
lineback-
er Bobby
Wagner
talks to
reporters,
Tuesday,
Jan. 10,
2017, in
Renton,
Wash. The
Seahawks
will play
the Atlanta
Falcons
in an NFL
football
NFC play-
off game,
Saturday,
Jan. 14,
2017 in
Atlanta.
AP Photo/Ted S.
Warren
Seattle linebacker
led league in tackles
By TIM BOOTH
Associated Press
RENTON, Wash. — Listing all
the ways Seattle linebacker Bobby
Wagner believes he’s a better
player than four years ago when the
Seahawks last came across the Atlanta
Falcons in the postseason would be
lengthy.
At the top of the list would be his
improvement as a pass defender.
“There’s a lot of routes that I prob-
ably did not see when I was a rookie,”
Wagner said this week. “I have more
knowledge of the game than I did
back then.”
Ask around and you’ll get raves
from teammates, opponents and
observers about the linebacker Wagner
has become heading into Saturday’s
NFC playoff game at Atlanta. He led
the NFL in tackles during the regular
season, was voted to the All-Pro team
for the second time in his career, and
in the playoff opener against Detroit
last week had another 10 tackles to
lead Seattle.
Wagner’s always been a stout run
defender and an excellent tackler.
He’s been steady playing behind a
Seattle line that does its job keeping
offensive linemen from getting to the
second level. But Wagner agrees that
his understanding of the passing game
is the big reason he’s making enough
tackles to lead the NFL. And why he’s
grown from being a question mark
when he was drafted in the second
round in 2012 to one of the premier
linebackers in the NFL, a Defensive
Player of the Year contender.
See WAGNER/2B
CORVALLIS — Oregon State junior
149-pounder Joey Deldago was ranked
No. 1 in his weight class in the initial
Pac-12 power rankings released this
week.
Delgado (11-6) also was ranked No.
13 in the nation by
The Open Mat and
Amateur Wrestling
News and No. 19 by
InterMat.
Fellow Hermiston
High School
graduates and current
Beavers Abraham
Rodriguez (4-6) and
Bob Coleman (4-10)
Delgado
were ranked fi fth in
the Pac-12 at 157-
and 184-pounds, respectively.
The Beavers (1-3) won’t open Pac-12
competition until Jan. 30, and will be in
action tonight at Northern Colorado and
Sunday at Wyoming.
The team is coming off a 21st-place
fi nish at the Ken Kraft Midlands
Championships at Northwestern
University on Dec. 30 where Delgado
placed sixth and junior heavyweight Cody
Crawford was seventh.
Delgado won his fi rst three matches
by decision before getting pinned in the
second round by Central Michigan’s
Justin Oliver. He then took a 7-4 loss to
Northwestern’s Ryan Deakin before his
fi nal match ended with a medical forfeit
early in the third round.
Rodriguez was 3-2 but didn’t place,
and Coleman went 0-2.
Men’s College Basketball
Gonzaga
remains
undefeated
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — Fifth-ranked
Gonzaga may be the nation’s last remaining
undefeated major college basketball team,
but the Zags say they aren’t feeling any
extra pressure.
“We do just a great job of taking care
of business and keeping control,” guard
Josh Perkins said after
Gonzaga crushed Loyola
Marymount 93-55 on
Thursday night. “We
LMU
want to keep it going.”
“There’s no pressure,”
added Nigel Williams-
Goss, the team’s leading
scorer. “We have the
same motto: get better
#5 Gonzaga
every day, each week.”
“We
focus
on
one game at a time,”
freshman Zach Collins
said. “We lock in to every single game like
we are not going to play again.”
Przemek Karnowski scored 17 points
to lead Gonzaga to its 16th consecutive
win, longest streak in the nation.
Collins scored 15 points and Silas
Melson added 13 for Gonzaga (16-0, 4-0
West Coast). Six Zags scored in double
fi gures.
Buay Tuach scored 19 points for Loyola
Marymount (8-8, 1-4), which has lost 15
straight games to Gonzaga dating to 2010.
55
93
Sports shorts
Rams make McVay youngest head
coach in NFL history
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles
Rams have made Sean McVay the youngest
head coach in NFL history.
The Rams on Thursday hired McVay, who
turns 31 years old on Jan. 24.
McVay spent the past three
seasons as Washington’s offensive
coordinator. He has been an
assistant in Washington since 2010.
He replaces Jeff Fisher, who
was fi red 13 games into the
Rams’ homecoming season in Los
McVay
Angeles.
McVay wowed the Rams’ top brass during
two recent interviews. He takes charge of a
franchise rebuilding from a 4-12 season, its 13th
consecutive non-winning campaign. The Rams
have a 12-year playoff drought.
Lane Kiffi n was 31 years old when the
Oakland Raiders hired him in January 2007.
“In sports, teams win
and individuals lose. The
Chargers were ultimately
never willing to work with
us as a team so we could
achieve shared success.
Dean Spanos made a bad
decision, and he will regret
it. San Diego didn’t lose
the Chargers. The Chargers
just lost San Diego.“
— Kevin Faulconer
San Diego Mayor reacting to the an-
nouncement that the city’s NFL team
would be moving to Los Angeles
after 56 years in San Diego.
Justin Thomas joins ‘59 club’
HONOLULU (AP) — Fresh off his
victory on Maui, Justin Thomas joined the
“59 Club” on the PGA Tour by making a
15-foot eagle on his last hole at the Sony
Open for an 11-under 59.
Thomas holed a 10-foot par putt on the
eighth hole to keep his hopes
alive for a 59 at Waialae Country
Club. From a deep fairway
bunker on the par-5 ninth,
Thomas hit a 5-iron to 15 feet and
wasted no time making the putt.
Jim Furyk was the last player
with a sub-60 round when he
Thomas
closed with a record 58 at the
Travelers Championship last summer. Furyk
also has a 59, along with Al Geiberger, Chip
Beck, David Duval, Paul Goydos and Stuart
Appleby.
Thomas made two eagles, along with a
bogey.
THIS DATE IN SPORTS
1986 — NCAA schools
vote overwhelmingly in
favor of adopting the contro-
versial Proposition 48. The
rule requires that incoming
freshman maintain 2.0 grade
point averages and score 700
or more on the Scholastic
Aptitude Test or a 15 on the
American College Testing
program.
2010 — Kobe Bryant
nails
a
game-winning
jumper with 28 seconds
left, lifting the Los Angeles
Lakers to a 100-95 victory
over Dallas. The Lakers
become the fi rst NBA team
to reach 3,000 wins.
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