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SPORTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2018 1B FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS Prep Basketball District Champions Staff photo by Kathy Aney Staff photo by Kathy Aney Heppner’s Sydney Wilson (25) drives to the basket past Cloe Davis (30), of Weston-McE- wen, during Saturday’s district championship game at the Pendleton Convention Center. Chris Weinke (20), of Pilot Rock, goes to the hoop during Saturday’s district championship game against Stanfield at the Pendleton Convention Center. Heppner stuns Weston-McEwen, completes turnaround to win district Pilot Rock uses big second half to thump Stanfield, claim district crown By ERIC SINGER East Oregonian PENDLETON — Two seasons ago, the Heppner girls basketball team sat in the basement of the Columbia Basin Conference and lost sixteen straight games to end the season. It was rock bottom for the program and first-year coach Robert Wilson, however the Mustangs did not stay there for long. On Saturday afternoon at the Pendleton Conven- tion Center, the Heppner Mustangs won their fifteenth game of the season and captured the Columbia Basin Conference district champi- onship with a 48-35 victory over Weston-McEwen. “It’s amazing,” Heppner’s Girls Basketball Heppner W-McEwen 48 35 Jacee Currin said. “We really came together as a team this weekend and I’m really proud of every single girl on our team.” Currin, a junior, has been arguably Heppner’s best offensive player as a do-it-all guard for all three years as a Mustang. However, Heppner’s offense pretty much started and stopped with her in previous seasons, which was a small part of the combined 9-30 record in that span. That all changed this season, as the Mustangs (15-6 overall) roster saw a lot of improvement from the returners and got a boost from new faces such as freshman Sydney Wilson, and the team took off. “I saw this coming up in previous years leading up,” Heppner coach Robert Wilson said of the improve- ment. “We really looked at the youth and tried to develop them. We knew we were getting a group that could be special, maybe not this quick, but I definitely saw the potential. Then as the season went on, we started doing things better and better and really looking to work as a team.” Currin led the Mustangs with 15 points and nine rebounds and Sydney Wilson See HEPPNER/3B By ALEXIS MANSANAREZ East Oregonian Boys Basketball PENDLETON — There’s a reason Pilot Rock entered the Columbia Basin Conference district cham- pionship perfect in league play, and it has everything to do with the Rockets’ four seniors. Riley Lankford, Chris Weinkie, Levi Thieme and Bryson Pierce have been at the heart of the team’s success this season. But their efforts haven’t always produced long win streaks or undefeated records. The group of four strug- gled to find their footing on the court when they first put on the white, blue and yellow uniforms and had to work through plenty of Stanfield Pilot Rock 41 56 tough moments as head coach Eric Smidt recalls. “Those guys have hung with me,” he said. “They have gone through the crappy practices, rebounding and running the floor and doing the sprints every day, and they really came out and they earned it.” The seniors put together 47 of the team’s total points in the 56-41 victory over Stanfield on Saturday afternoon in the Pendleton Convention Center. For Pilot Rock’s top scorer, Pierce, the crowning achievement of being the CBC’s newest district champions was well worth the years of work. “All our hard work has paid off,” Pierce said. “From not being very good our freshman and sopho- more year, it’s nice being the best team in the league for once.” In previous Stan- field-Pilot Rock matchups, the Rockets’ margin of victory was at least 22 points and at most 29. But this time, the Tigers (12-15 overall, 3-5 CBC) stayed with the Rockets (18-6, 8-0) until their athlet- icism and level of play was too much for Stanfield to See PILOT ROCK/3B OSAA State Wrestling Championships Hermiston’s Todryk brings home a state title Fourteen locals finish on the podium East Oregonian PORTLAND — Soph- omore Alice Todryk was Hermiston’s last chance at not leaving Portland without a championship finish on Saturday, and she did not disappoint. In the girls’ 100-pound weight class final on Saturday, Todryk pinned Grants Pass sophomore Samantha Dara in 3:48 to claim the championship, the only indi- vidual title of the weekend for the Bulldogs. To reach the finals, Todryk also scored a win by fall against Oregon City’s Emma Baertlein in 3:48. It was the last year of the girls tournament being an exhibition event, as girls wrestling will offi- cially become an OSAA-sanctioned sport beginning next school year. The only other local to wrestle for a state championship on Saturday was Pendleton junior Alex Rendon in Class 5A at 126-pounds. Rendon, the No. 7 seed in the bracket had already scored an upset over the No. 2 seed on Friday before knocking off the No. 6 seed Cole Siemon of Hillsboro by a 9-5 decision to reach the final. In the championship, Rendon had a rematch with Mountain View’s Beau Ohlson, the No. 1 seed who unbeaten on the season. Rendon and Ohlson faced off in the district championship match just one week prior, where Ohlson won by a 10-2 major decision. On Saturday, Rendon gave Ohlson his all but it just wasn’t enough as Ohlson won the state title with an 11-5 decision. See WRESTLING/3B Kent Frasure/The Oregonian Hermiston’s Alice Todryk is announced as the winner of the girls 100-pound championship after pinning Grants Pass’ Samantha Dara in the final on Saturday at the OSAA State Championships in Portland. Sports shorts Red Sox, Martinez agree to deal (AP) — J.D. Martinez and the Boston Red Sox have, at long last, come to an agreement. The slow dance between the free agent slugger and the power-deficient team wrapped up Monday when they settled on a $110 million, five-year contract. Speculation Martinez and the AL East champions would even- tually wind up together had been swirling ever since he became a free agent last November. Boston was seeking to add power to a lineup that hit an Martinez AL-low 168 home runs. The 30-year-old Martinez has changed his swing to improve his launch angle and become one of the top home-run threats in the majors. Martinez hit .303 with 45 homers and 104 RBIs last year for Detroit and Arizona, which acquired him in July. He had 29 homers and 65 RBIs in 62 games with the Diamondbacks. “The last year-and-a-half, almost two years give or take, it’s been a struggle because I want to be at the top. I was top 10 in the world for a few years, and so not being there, you feel like, ‘Is this it? Is this my old man moment where I can’t play golf again?’” — Bubba Watson The pro golfer shot 12-under 272 to win the Genesis Open on Sunday, his first PGA Tour win in over two years. Watson has dealt with injuries and illness in that span, contributing to him falling out of the top 100 world ranking for the first time in 10 years. MLB implements stritct limit on mound visits for 2018 NEW YORK (AP) Major League Baseball is imposing stricter limits on mound visits in an effort to speed games but decided against 20-second pitch clocks for 2018. After more than a year of negotiations, the Major League Baseball Players Association refused to agree to the changes but also signed an agreement that it will not oppose the new rules. The new rules announced Monday include a general limit of six mound visits per nine-in- ning game without a pitching change, whether by a manager, coach or player. The changes also attempt to force half innings to start on time. MLB has the right to make playing rules changes without an agreement with one year notice and made both proposals during the 2016-17 offseason. THIS DATE IN SPORTS 1971 — En route to a record 76-goal season, Boston’s Phil Esposito becomes the first player to score his 50th goal in February, but the Bruins lose to the Los Angeles Kings 5-4. 1998 — Tara Lipinski, 15, becomes the youngest Olympic figure skating cham- pion, beating fellow teen and U.S. teammate Michelle Kwan to take the gold. Lipinski is two months younger than Sonja Henie was in her 1928 victory. 2011 — Trevor Bayne, 20, wins the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s biggest race, in only his second Sprint Cup start. Contact us at 541-966-0838 or sports@eastoregonian.com
