E AST O REGONIAN
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
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B1
Pendleton’s Barnard wins swim title in record fashion
bucks senior also
placed second in the
100 breaststroke
BUCKS RECORD BOOK
Ryan Barnard holds three
school records:
200 IM — 1:57.93
100 breaststroke — 58.47
100 backstroke — 56.52
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
at the start of the week, Pendle-
ton swim coach Tony Nelson said
“you have to be extremely gifted
to win state.”
Put senior ryan barnard in the
gifted section.
barnard won the 200 individ-
ual medley in a school-record time
of 1 minute, 57.93 seconds satur-
day at the Tualatin Hills aquatic
Center to become the first Pendle-
ton state swim champion in three
years.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” bar-
nard said. “It was really exciting.”
barnard, the only Pendleton
swimmer to ever win a state title
in the 200 IM, took nearly 6 1/2
seconds off his previous record of
2:04.32.
“In prelims, I swam my race,
but I didn’t go with everything I
had,” barnard said. “I wanted to
be the No. 1 seed. When I touched
the wall, I thought maybe 2:01, and
I broke 2 minutes.”
In the finals, Barnard held off
Nic ashland of Corvallis for the
title.
“I was in the lead when did
my last flip and I could see where
everyone else was at,” he said. “I
gave it everything I had.”
For Nelson, Barnard is his first
state champ.
“It’s just exciting to watch him
See Barnard, Page B3
WRESTLING
Dawgs done
Hermiston ends season with loss to shadle Park
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
It’s not often a team will score
80 points and lose a game, but a
lackluster second quarter hurt
Hermiston as it tried to extend its
season Monday.
The bulldogs were outscored
16-11 in the second and dropped a
district 8 loser-out game to sha-
dle Park 86-80 at Kennewick High
school.
“as a coach, you never know
when it’s the last game,” said
Hermiston coach Casey arstein,
whose team finished the season
15-8. “That’s why you play high
school sports, to learn life lessons.
With six seniors, it’s tough. I got
to be their coach for three years, it
was awesome.”
The Highlanders turned around
and played Kennewick 90 minutes
after their win. shadle Park beat
the Lions 87-81 to earn a berth to
regionals.
“I couldn’t do it, but the kids
have more energy,” sP coach
arnold brown said with a laugh.
Brown said he had seen film of
Hermiston before the game, but
that you never know what you will
get until you step on the court.
“They are a loaded team,”
brown said of the bulldogs.
“Their five guards do a good job
of penetrating, kicking it out and
hitting the 3. They can score, and
we had to score with them. They
never gave up.”
It would have been easy for the
bulldogs to throw in the towel
when they trailed 79-64 with 3:08
remaining in the fourth quarter,
but that is not in their nature.
Instead, they went on a 16-7 run
to cut the deficit to single digits. In
the run, andrew James drilled a
pair of 3s and Cesar Ortiz added
two buckets inside, but they sim-
ply ran out of time.
“We played our hearts out,”
said James, who finished with
18 points in his final high school
game. “We left it all out there. I’m
proud of everyone.”
The first quarter ended tied
24-24, but the bulldogs trailed
24-18 with just over a minute to
play.
James drove the lane, made the
basket, was fouled and made the
Staff photo by Kathy Aney/
Pendleton’s Ryan Barnard excelled
at the 5A state swim meet at the Tu-
alatin Hills Aquatic Center.
Hermiston’s
Wagner and
Lee bring
home medals
Wagner fourth at 160
pounds, while Lee
finishes fifth at 220
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Hermiston’s Cole Smith drives to the hoop during Monday’s District 8 3A playoff game against Shadle Park in
Kennewick.
ensuing free throw. Ortiz, who
scored a game-high 25 points,
drilled a 3 with 36 seconds left to
knot the score.
The Highlanders rattled off
the first eight points of the second
quarter, while the bulldogs strug-
gled to score. Cole smith hit free
throw at 4:37 to end the drought.
six of Hermiston’s points in the
quarter came from the free throw
line, as the bulldogs trailed 40-35
at the half.
after the break, the Hilanders
started to open things up, taking a
Staff photo by Kathy
Aney
Hermiston’s An-
drew James (11)
eyes the basket
during Monday’s
District 8 3A play-
off game against
Shadle Park in
Kennewick.
Trevor Wagner didn’t know
what to expect when he got to the
Tacoma dome.
The Hermis-
ton
sophomore,
making his first
trip to Mat Clas-
sic, made the most
of his adventure,
reaching the 3a
Trevor Wagner semifinals before
finishing fourth
saturday at 160 pounds.
“I didn’t expect myself to do
that good,” Wagner said. “I took
it match by match. It was cool. I
think I was the only sophomore at
my weight to place.”
Wagner had company on the
medal stand as freshman Jon Lee
worked his way through the conso-
lation bracket to finish fifth at 220
pounds.
“I’m glad I was
even able to go to
state,” Lee said. “I
think I could have
done better. The
two matches I lost,
I made mistakes.
Jon Lee
Next year, I will
do better.”
Wagner and Lee are the first
non-Washington athletes to win
medals at Mat Classic. Hermiston
joined the WIaa and the Mid-Co-
lumbia Conference this school
year.
“I think it’s cool me and him
are the first two from Oregon to
place at state in Washington,” Lee
said. “It’s a big milestone for both
of us.”
Wagner agreed.
“everyone was looking down
on us like we don’t belong here,”
he said. “We placed. It shows we
do belong here.”
With Wagner and Lee placing,
See Wrestling, Page B3
See Hermiston, Page B3
Mustangs stampede to state
No. 1 Heppner boys
take down union
in bMC district
championships
By BRETT KANE
East Oregonian
and just like that, the Mustang
boys are district champions.
On saturday, Heppner friends,
families and fans made the hour-
long commute and packed the
Pendleton Convention Center to
see their team knock down a 63-50
victory over union in the blue
Mountain Conference champion-
ship game.
“before the game, I told them,
‘If you’re not excited, then I’ve
done something wrong to prepare
you for this,’” said coach Jeremy
rosenbalm. “This is only our sec-
ond district championship since
2002. but I knew they’d be hyped
up going in.”
before the Mustangs hit court,
rosenbalm gave them one last
piece of advice:
“It’s just another basketball
game. The hoop’s still 10 feet, and
the 3-point line is still 19.9.”
and Heppner brought a red
hot energy to the court — but
they weren’t the only ones. union
nabbed the lead twice in the first
quarter before Heppner managed
to pull away for the long haul.
“We were ready, but we’ve
played union before, so we knew
what to expect,” said senior point
guard Hunter Nichols. “We knew
they were coming for us.”
The bobcats took brief advan-
tages of 4-3 and 6-5 before Hep-
pner made seven- and six-point
runs to put the first quarter away,
19-9.
a 3-pointer from Nichols in
the second quarter would push the
Mustangs out to a 14-point lead,
while the bobcats managed just
seven points before the halftime
buzzer — four from senior post
Tate Lantis and three at the line
from junior forward Gannon Car-
reiro. The Mustangs led 29-18 at
the end of the half.
The Mustang roster ranges
from players big and small, but
they used their variety to their
advantage. senior Trent smith, a
5-foot-8 guard, knocked down a
3-pointer to open the third quar-
ter, and senior Justin Mcaninch,
a 6-foot-10 center, scored four
points from the inside to help Hep-
pner out to 44-30.
See Heppner, Page B3
Staff photo by Kathy
Aney
Heppner’s Trent
Smith (12) moves
past Tate Lantis, of
Union, during Satur-
day’s Blue Mountain
Conference playoff
game at the Pend-
leton Convention
Center.