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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2019)
E AST O REGONIAN THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @EOSPORTS | FACEBOOK.COM/EOSPORTS B1 PREP TRACK NWAC BASEBALL Maher busy at Buckaroo Invite T’wolves split home doubleheader with Knights Pendleton freshman Muriel Hoisington wins 2 events, both with personal best times Blue Mountain and Wenatchee Valley each earn one NWAC win By ANNIE FOWLER East Oregonian Wednesday is typically a tough practice day for Lane Maher. The Pendleton junior is a top-notch hurdler, and with a big meet com- ing up on Friday, his coaches wanted to make sure he would be ready. So, in addition to the 110 hur- dles at the Buckaroo Small Meet Invite, Maher also ran the 800 meters and the third leg of the 4x400 relay. While two are stan- dard events, the 800 is not. “That is the fi rst time I have run that since this meet last year,” said Maher, who won the 800 in a time of 2 minutes, 14.96 sec- onds. “It’s not my favorite event. It was just a conditioning day for the Kiwanis meet.” Maher also won the 110 hur- dles in a time of 15.55, nearly 2 seconds in front of Brandon Cald- well of Elgin. Because the meet was small, the 800 race was about 10 min- utes after the 110 hurdles, barely giving Maher time to catch his breath. In the 4x400 relay, the Bucks were last after the fi rst two laps. Maher pulled his team into fi fth, and Dustin Henderson kept them there. Elgin ran away with the event, clocking a 3:36.45. Uma- tilla was second, nearly 4 seconds behind. The Vikings were in second place after Arrik Russell’s fi rst lap, and the rest of the team held steady for a time of 3:40.04. “I saw Elgin warming up and I knew they would come out fast,” Russell said. “I tried to push myself and catch him. I knew I could count on the guys to keep it going if I got a good start. They maintained it.” Pendleton, which won the boys team title, also got two wins from Edwin Linares, who swept the long and triple jumps. He had a personal best 21-0¼ in the long Staff photo by Kathy Aney The Timberwolves may have started Wednesday off with a loss, but they wouldn’t let it end that way. The East Region’s bot- tom-ranked Wenatchee Val- ley Knights scored seven runs in the top of the third to hand Blue Mountain’s baseball team a 9-5 loss in the fi rst of two North- west Athletic Conference games. But the Timberwolves came back ready to fi ght and fi nished the day with a seven-inning, 12-2 win over the Knights. Josh Moore opened game one with an RBI double at the top of the fi rst to get Wenatchee Valley on the board early, but the Timber- wolves’ Gage Young responded with one of his own to tie the score at 1-1. Blue Mountain pulled ahead when Cooper Saxton scored on an error at fi rst base, but the Knights were quick to take things back in their control. Three of the Knights’ sev- en-run streak came from Alex Hussey’s three-RBI home run that capped off the third inning. It would be his only hit of the game, but it was all that was needed to hold off Blue Mountain. The Tim- berwolves would score three more runs to chip away at the defi cit, but could never recover. Zach Britt led Wenatchee Val- ley’s offense, hitting 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Moore also went 3 for 5 at the plate, and scored a run and two RBIs. Nate Smith, who spent two innings pitching for the Timber- wolves, benched just one Knights batter, and gave up eight hits, eight runs, and seven errors. Saxton hit a perfect 3 for 3, scoring two runs and driving another in. See Track, Page B2 Pendleton’s Edwin Linares, of Pendleton, jumps a personal best of 21 feet, one-half inch to win the long jump Wednesday at the Buckaroo Small Meet Invite. See Baseball, Page B2 By BRETT KANE East Oregonian Lillard, Westbrook, Beverley playing with edge By ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press PORTLAND — Damian Lil- lard stared intently well after his deep, buzzer-beating 3-pointer fell to close out Portland’s third quar- ter against the Thunder. The look on his face was one of determina- tion, focus and bravado. It was as if Lillard was making a statement. It’s not new for the Portland guard. Lillard, the Thunder’s Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley all play with an edge and have provided some of the most enter- taining moments of the postsea- son so far. With Lillard and West- brook squaring off in the Port- land-Oklahoma City series, they almost feed off each oth- er’s energy. Lillard fi nished with 29 points on Tuesday night and the Trail Blazers took a 2-0 lead against the Thunder with a 114- 94 victory. The series shifts to Oklahoma City on Friday. Lillard has been dialed in from the start of the series against the Thunder, in part because the Trail Blazers were embarrassed in last year’s playoffs by New Orleans. Portland got ousted in four games by the Pelicans. Sometimes overlooked on a smaller-market team in a confer- ence dominated by Steph Curry and James Harden, Lillard has often played with a chip on his shoulder — and he’s embraced it. His determination was intensi- fi ed by critics who suggested the Blazers’ playoff fate was sealed when they lost center Jusuf Nur- kic late in the season to a bro- ken leg. Asked what he would say to those naysayers after going up by two games, Lillard said: “Nothing.” At least for now, Lillard seems to have the upper hand in an occa- sionally antagonistic on-court relationship with Westbrook. The two got into a tussle for the ball Tuesday night that caused players from both teams to step in before offi cials tamped down on the tension. It certainly wasn’t the fi rst time. The two jawed at each other at the free throw line in a game in January, and there’s the much-replayed clip of Westbrook kicking the ball when Lillard bent to pick it up in 2016. “He’s one of the top point See Blazers, Page B2 AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer Oklahoma City guard Russell Westbrook, right, dribbles past Trail Blaz- ers guard Damian Lillard during Game 2 of an NBA basketball fi rst-round playoff series on Tuesday in Portland. SPORTS SHORTS No positive tests under horse track rules limiting meds ARCADIA (AP) — There were no positive tests in the first two weeks of horse rac- ing at Santa Anita under new rules limiting race-day medication. Dr. Rick Arthur, equine con- sultant to the California Horse Racing Board, announced the results Wednesday at a meet- ing of the racing board’s med- ication, safety and welfare AP Photo/Keith Birmingham committee. Committee chairman Madeline Auerbach applauded upon hearing the results. The Stronach Group, which owns Santa Anita, implemented the changes in mid-March after nearly two dozen horses suff ered fatal injuries in training or racing at the Southern California track. Arthur says the test results are “fairly impressive given how quickly this was implemented.” He says out-of-competition testing done on horses at Santa Anita also yielded no positive tests. Among the changes imposed by The Stronach Group were ban- ning the use of the anti-bleed- ing medication Lasix and increas- ing the ban on legal therapeutic NSAIDs, joint injections, shock- wave therapy and anabolic steroids.