B2
SPORTS
East Oregonian
Saturday, February 27, 2021
OSU women emerging despite coronavirus setbacks
By ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Pressv
CORVALLIS — Perhaps
no women’s team in the
Pac-12 has had it rougher this
season than Oregon State.
And yet, the Beavers seem
to be gaining momentum.
Oregon State heads into
the final weekend of the regu-
lar season — and a poten-
tially defining game against
rival Oregon on Sunday, Feb.
28 — having played just 14
total games, fewest in the
conference.
The Beavers had nine
games postponed because
of the league’s coronavirus
protocols. They were not
rescheduled.
“For us, it was outside
adversity that made us
tighter,” coach Scott Rueck
said. “There were no frac-
tures and have been no
fractures within our group.
We’ve chosen to stay
together through it and that’s
a hallmark of our program.
It’s what we expect. It’s what
we talk about when we say
we are family. Families get
tighter through adversity
and they problem solve well.
That’s what we’ve always
done. And to this team’s
credit, they’ve done an
incredible job of it.”
After opening the season
at No. 18 in the AP Top 25,
Oregon State dropped out of
the rankings with consecu-
tive December 2020 losses
to Utah, Oregon and Wash-
ington State. But the Beavers
(8-6, 6-6) have won five
of their last six, including
a statement-making 71-64
victory over No. 8 UCLA on
Sunday, Feb. 21.
Over the last six games,
the Beavers are shooting
49.8% from the floor, while
making 50.9% of their
Nichols:
Continued from Page B1
from other meets started to
get posted and I slid to 20th.”
With runners also compet-
ing in other distances, they
pulled out of the 1,000,
moving Nichols up to 14th.
“It worked out good for
me,” Nichols said. “I was
on pins and needles waiting.
Tuesday night (Feb. 23), I got
a text from my coach that
said, ‘Pack your bags, you
are going to South Dakota.’”
Prelims for the 1,000 will
be run Thursday, March 4,
with the finals (top 8) Satur-
day, March 6. The top eight
athletes earn All-America
honors.
“That’s the plan,” Nichols
said of making the finals.
An obscure distance
As a senior at Heppner,
Nichols won 2A state titles in
the 800 meters, 3,000 meters,
and ran the anchor leg on the
4x400 relay team that also
won state gold and smashed
the school record by more
than 3 seconds.
At the college level, there
are a plethora of distances
Maher:
Continued from Page B1
new to Maher.
As a junior at Pendleton,
he won the Oregon 5A state
title in the 300 hurdles in a
school record time of 38.75.
He was second in the 110 high
hurdles in a time of 14.73.
Maher had his sights set
on the Bucks’ 110 record of
14.46, set by Kelly Simp-
son in 1999, but the COVID
pandemic washed away his
senior season.
The transition to the
college scene came with a
3-inch bump in the height of
the hurdles for the 60-meter
race and the 110s. High
school hurdles are 39 inches
EOU:
Continued from Page B1
Davis, a junior from Sand-
point, Idaho, qualified after
Amanda Loman/Associated Press, File
Stanford’s Cameron Brink (22) tries to block a shot by Oregon State’s Aleah Goodman (1) during the first half of an NCAA col-
lege basketball game in Corvallis on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021.
3-point attempts to lead the
nation.
They are led by senior
Aleah Goodman, who is
averaging 19 points over her
last seven games and 16.6
points overall. Goodman
made highlight reels last
weekend with a three-quarter
court shot in a 77-52 victory
over USC.
Another reason for the
rise is the addition of fresh-
man guard Talia Von Oelhof-
fen, who joined the team in
January after leaving high
school early. She’s averag-
ing 11.9 points off the bench.
Rueck noted that Good-
man, a senior, has set the tone
for the team while it faced the
coronavirus shutdowns.
to choose from during the
indoor season, including the
600, 800, 1,000 and the mile.
Welch said he felt the
1,000 played to Nichols’
strengths.
“He is a good middle
distance runner, and it was
an event I thought would
“HE IS A
GOOD MIDDLE
DISTANCE
RUNNER, AND IT
WAS AN EVENT
I THOUGHT
WOULD SUIT HIM
WELL”
Amanda Loman/Associated Press, File
Oregon State coach Scott Rueck yells instructions to players
during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game
against Stanford in Corvallis on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021.
“This team, to their credit,
has been relentlessly posi-
tive. And I would say that
Outside, it’s 2½.”
With a shortened indoor
season (two meets), and both
meets held outside, Nichols
said he doesn’t know how
well he will run indoors.
“I think it will depend,” he
said. “I haven’t raced indoors,
and it will depend on how
good the track is.”
The Ruth Donohoe First
Dakota Fieldhouse at Mount
Marty University is brand
new.
“It’s a flat 200,” Welch said
of the facility’s track. “It’s a
good layout, but there is an art
to running a flat 200 indoors.”
Moving up the EOU
leaderboard
suit him well,” Welch said.
“When we were recruiting
him, it was an event I thought
he would do well at. He has
good speed, good range and
he runs tough.”
Nichols still is on the
fence.
“I like and dislike it,”
Nichols said. “It’s a weird
distance to adapt to. At an
indoor meet, it’s five laps.
Nichols’ time of 2:30.53
ranks him eighth all-time in
the Mounties’ record book for
the 1,000. The school record
is 2:25.51, set by Hans Roelle
in 2014.
“I’m happy about that,”
Nichols said. “Still a lot of
work to do.”
Welch sees Nichols chas-
ing, and catching, that record
before he’s done at EOU.
“If he can figure out how
to train in the summer, he
will be an absolute monster,”
Welch said. “He could be one
of the best we have ever had.”
high, while they are 42 inches
at the college level.
“My legs are long enough
so the adjustment wasn’t
bad,” he said. “I do have a
bruise on my right hamstring
from hitting the hurdles.”
Practice for the outdoor
season has begun, and Maher
is looking forward to the 110s,
but the jury still is out on the
400-meter race. While the
hurdles remain at 36 inches
like high school competitions,
it’s the extra distance that has
Maher gasping for air.
“I’ve run the 400 a couple
of times,” he said. “It’s abso-
lutely miserable.”
The Yotes’ 110 hurdle
record is 14.87 set by Brooks
Ney in 2016, while Hurd
owns the 400 record at 52.89
(2012).
Basterrechea has no doubt
that Maher will make an easy
transition in both events.
“It’s a no-brainer,” said
Basterrechea, who owns the
C of I records in the high
jump (6-9) and long jump
(20-6¾). “We know what he
can do in the 110s. I’m really
looking forward to seeing
what he can do in the 400. He
should get ample opportuni-
ties to get out there and set
some blazing speeds.”
For Maher, he’s just happy
to get a chance to compete.
“I’m just grateful to have
a season,” he said. “I’m super
eager to get on the track.”
The Yotes’ outdoor sched-
ule has not been finalized, but
Basterrechea said they hope
to get underway the third
weekend of March.
winning the heptathlon this
past weekend at the C of I
Polar Vortex Classic. He led
the entire way from begin-
ning to end, winning four of
the seven events.
Roddewig’s point total
ranks sixth most in EOU
history, while Davis’ total is
seventh.
The 2021 NAIA Track &
Field Indoor National Champi-
onships will take place March
3-6 in Yankton, South Dakota.
— Ben Welch, EOU track coach
is mostly loaded on Aleah
Goodman’s shoulders as our
most vocal leader on this
team. You tend to go the way
your leaders go and she, Taya
Corosdale and this team have
chosen to control what they
can control and to remain
positive through it all, to the
point where, I mean, I can’t
say every single day, but
pretty much every day has
been fun.”
Under Rueck, Oregon
State has been a consistent
performer on the national
stage, making six straight
NCAA Tournament appear-
ances and four straight Sweet
16 berths.
“They’re a very talented
offensive team,” Stanford
coach Tara VanDerveer
said. “They have a lot of
weapons and (Rueck) does
an excellent job with their
team in terms of running the
offense.”
Fourth-ranked Stanford
has already clinched the
regular-season conference
title heading into next week’s
conference tournament in
Las Vegas. Ninth-ranked
Arizona, No. 10 UCLA and
No. 14 Oregon are also in the
Top 25 in the traditionally
strong Pac-12.
February 28 will be
rivalry day in the confer-
ence to close out the regular
season. In addition to Oregon
State at Oregon in Eugene,
other games include Arizona
at Arizona State, Colorado
at Utah, Cal at Stanford and
Washington at Washington
State.
Despite its lack of games,
Oregon State currently
appears on the bubble to
make the NCAA Tourna-
ment field. A victory over the
Ducks or a strong showing
in the conference tournament
could cement an at-large spot
for the Beavers.
Oregon coach Kelly
Graves said there’s a signif-
icant difference between
this Oregon State team and
the one the Ducks beat 79-59
in December 2020 in that
they’re doing everything
better.
“They haven’t played a
ton of games,” Graves said.
“They’ve (had) a lot of time
to focus on them and they’ve
done a great job. I think Talia
has come in and really helped
them, has given them another
weapon.”
Rueck said he’s confi-
dent Oregon State is coming
together at the right time.
“I think we still have
room for growth, no ques-
tion,” Rueck said. “But I do
believe that we’re playing our
best basketball right now.”
Half birthdays are a reminder of
how far we’ve come in six months
LUKE
OVGARD
CAUGHT OVGARD
sk any elemen-
tary schooler how
old they are, and
they will immediately tell
you. It’s an uncontrolla-
ble impulse for children to
share how old they are, a
badge of honor, even. So
important is the measure of
years they’ve survived that
they might even add a frac-
tion to that age, insistent
that they’re not 8, but 8 1/2
years old.
I’m no child psycholo-
gist, but even I understand
that distinction is meaning-
ful to them for a number of
reasons. It shows they’re
just a little older, a little
more educated, expe-
rienced and capable. It
shows they’re that much
closer to the next milestone
and that they’ve survived.
Six months, to a child, is a
long time.
A
Six months
Mid-pando, six months
can be a long time for
adults, too.
The first six months of
our pandemic were rough,
but people adjusted. The
safest, least controversial
activities were outdoor
activities practiced alone
or in small groups. Activ-
ities like fishing. These
activities flourished as
people sought ways to
find meaning, take care of
their mental health and do
something not involving a
screen.
In the first six months
of the pandemic, Oregon’s
fishing license sales surged
by 18% over the previous
year, per Oregon Public
Broadcasting.
Our great state wasn’t
alone, either.
Nationally, statista.
com reports gross fish-
ing license sales broke
$750 million for the first
time in 2020. I contrib-
uted $922.83 of that while
fishing my way across the
country, chasing mean-
ing but hiding it under a
mask the whole time (albeit
begrudgingly after the
third skin infection).
Summer came to an
end, and I had my existen-
tial crisis about turning 30
in this strange new world
where you had to recognize
people only by their eyes.
Six more
I opened my eyes this
week to see it was my own
half birthday. The calen-
dar claims it’s been just
six months since I turned
30, but I’ve aged a lot more
than that.
This was a winter full
of turmoil, heartbreak,
disappointment and hard
times, but things seem to
be looking up. As more
people are vaccinated
and more people survive
infection, the number of
potential hosts for the
virus decreases, and some
semblance of normalcy
begins to return. It feels
like we just might be claw-
ing our way out of this pit
we’ve been living in for the
past year, and I am here for
it. Restaurants are reopen-
ing, children can plan for
their futures once again
and for the first time in a
year, planning for tomor-
row doesn’t feel foolhardy.
Six more
Since months from now,
I’m optimistic that life in
the United States will be
rich and meaningful once
again.
Undoubtedly, there
will be a pall of death
left behind. We’ve all
lost loved ones, and we
will never forget them.
We cannot forget them.
COVID changed the world.
Largely for the worse, and
whether we like it or not,
some things will never be
the same. But not all of the
changes brought on by this
pandemic were harmful.
Restaurants, bars,
theaters and stores have
never been cleaner. We
have seen the glaring
faults in our supply chains,
health care systems and
government infrastructure.
Shining a light on what’s
broken is a great way to
improve it, and we’ve done
that.
Individually, we’re
now spending more time
with family than ever and
much to my delight, we’re
spending much of this
time outside. Most impor-
tantly, I think we’re truly
beginning to see just how
precious that time is.
Time is finite. We can
never get more of it. Young
or old, healthy or sick, the
days we’ve been given feel
more like a gift to me than
ever before. I’m not saying
it’s been easy. The past
year has been one of the
loneliest of my life, but so
much horror has made me
appreciate joy when I find
it, and I’m ready to chase it
more in the coming months
as it becomes easier and
easier to catch.
I’ve already made plans
for my summer, my fall
and, in the general sense,
my future.
Next time a little kid
tells me they’re 5 1/2 or 8
1/2 or 11 1/2, I’m not going
to think they’re naïve.
They know that every day
matters, and they know
that in today’s world, a half
birthday is worth celebrat-
ing.
———
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