E AST O REGONIAN
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
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Colbray finishes 2-2 at NCAA Wrestling Championship
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
sT. LOuIs — sam colbray (hermiston), a
senior at Iowa state, went 2-2 in the 184-pound
weight class at the Ncaa Wrestling champi-
onships.
colbray opened the tournament with a 2-1
loss to No. 4 seed Parker Keckeisen of univer-
sity of Northern Iowa. Keckeisen went on to
finish third overall.
colbray dropped into the consolation
bracket, where he beat christopher Weiler of
Wisconsin by a 12-4 major decision. colbray
followed with a 7-3 decision over caleb
hopkins from campbell university.
colbray’s stay at the tournament ended with
a 9-4 loss to dakota Geer of Oklahoma state.
colbray, a 2016 hermiston graduate, was a
four-time Oregon high school state champion
for the Bulldogs at 195 pounds.
Andrew James (Hermiston) had five carries
for 49 yards for the Mounties, who have won
six consecutive games over the saints.
Trent durfey (umatilla) had two tackles for
carroll college.
College football
Oregon state university’s Jazlyn romero
(Hermiston) finished fourth with a throw of
122 feet, 6 inches in a three-team meet satur-
day, March 20, with Western Oregon and
humboldt state in Monmouth.
Next up for the Beavers is the Oregon Invi-
tational on april 2-3 in eugene.
Kai Quinn (Pendleton) completed 16 of
28 passes for 216 yards and one touchdown
to help lead eastern Oregon university to a
28-0 victory over carroll college on satur-
day, March 20.
College track and field
Madison Wilson (hermiston) placed
second in the 100 hurdles for eastern Wash-
ington university on Friday, March 19, at the
Whitworth essential Invite in spokane, Wash-
ington.
Wilson turned in a time of 15.16 seconds,
finishing just behind teammate Madelyn
Knight (15.13). Wilson also finished fourth in
the high jump (5-0 1/4).
Doc Porter (Pendleton) finished second in
the 400 meters on March 20, for central Wash-
ington university at the doris heritage Track
Festival in Seattle. Porter crossed the finish
line in 49.82.
MAC-HI SOCCER
Pioneers
making most
of makeshift
season
McLoughlin boys
soccer team is 5-0-1
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
around the Northwest,” said cimmiyotti,
who helped build the race trail years ago.
riders started in downtown echo. They
were separated into groups based around the
distance they signed up for — either 32, 23 or
14 miles — to abide by cOVId-19 rules for
outdoor recreational activities.
“usually we don’t have to do all these
smaller waves,” cimmiyotti said.
all riders also wore masks at the start.
after riders exited the town, the race
formally began when they reached the sno
road Winery and echo West ranch & Vine-
yard mountain bike trail system — a lengthy,
winding system of single-track trails that
climb and descend rolling hills lush with
sagebrush, wildflowers and wildlife.
MILTON-FreeWaTer — In
his 30-plus years as soccer coach
at McLoughlin high school, Jose
Garcia has seen just about every team
dynamic, good or bad.
With this season being played in
the middle of a pandemic, Garcia
is pleased to see the passing of the
torch, so to speak.
“I didn’t think it would be this
good,” Garcia said of his team’s 5-0-1
start in a season filled with nonleague
games. “With the pandemic, and
what little time we had to prepare and
condition, I didn’t think we would
work this well together. We have
seven freshmen who are training
with our seven seniors, and the older
guys have done a great job working
with them.”
Which is a positive change from
some years in the past.
“Before, they would be mean
to one another,” Garcia said. “The
younger kids would be intimidated
and afraid to make mistakes. Now, if
they make a mistake, it’s OK. They
own it as a team. I wasn’t expecting
this from them. I was nervous to see
what would happen.”
The teamwork has resulted in the
best season the Pioneers have had
since 2017 when Mac-Hi finished
See Race, Page A11
See Soccer, Page A11
Bryce Dole/East Oregonian
Cyclists depart Echo for the 13th annual “Echo Red to Red” cross-country mountain bike race on Saturday, March 20, 2021.
Race brings cyclists back to Echo
More than 400 people
descend on small
community for annual
‘Echo Red to Red’ bike race
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
E
chO — hundreds of bikers and
spectators gathered in downtown
echo on saturday, March 20, for
the 13th annual “echo red to red”
cross-country mountain bike race.
The race, which was organized and
supported by scott’s cycle and sports,
brought more than 400 riders of all ages and
skill levels from across the Northwest. The
race was a fundraiser for the Kiwanis club
of echo’s scholarship fund and for the Bikes
for Books program through Masonic Lodges
of echo to encourage reading for elementary
school students.
“I’m just really excited that this many
came out,” said race director Brian cimmi-
yotti.
cimmiyotti expects the race could be one
of the largest in the state this year.
“We’re definitely going to be in the top
three” largest in Oregon, he said.
cimmiyotti said this year’s turnout was
one of the largest in years, partly due to the
inclement weather in years past. he added
that, with the 19 elite riders who took part
in the race, it’s clear the event is becoming
more competitive.
“It’s nice to see so many fast riders from
Oregon soars past Iowa 95-80 into Sweet 16 OSU bounces Oklahoma State,
Cunningham from NCAAs
By JOHN MARSHALL
AP Basketball Writer
INdIaNaPOLIs — Oregon
wove its way through a pandem-
ic-altered season filled with inju-
ries, pauses and uncertainty to win
a conference title.
When another kink surfaced in
the Ncaa Tournament, the resil-
ient, adaptable Ducks shook it off
and soared.
Off to another Sweet 16.
chris duarte scored 23 points
and Oregon showed no signs of
rust after a long layoff, beating
No. 2 seed Iowa 95-80 on Monday,
March 22, to reach the sweet 16
for the fourth time in the past five
Ncaa Tournaments.
“The guys fought through it,
they stayed together,” Oregon
coach dana altman said. “I’m
proud of the way they responded.”
The seventh-seeded ducks
(21-6) were put in an unprece-
dented spot, advancing to the
West region’s second round
without playing a game. Virginia
commonwealth’s multiple positive
cOVId-19 tests took care of that,
leaving Oregon with a nine-day
break since losing in the Pac-12
Tournament semifinals.
Oregon’s offense hummed
like it was fresh off the line once
the ball went up, kicking off the
NCAA Tournament’s first of the
By CLIFF BRUNT
Associated Press
Darron Cummings/Associated Press
Oregon players celebrate following a second-round game against
Iowa in the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament at Bankers
Life Fieldhouse on Monday, March 22, 2021, in Indianapolis. Oregon
won 95-80.
March 22 second-round games
with a masterpiece.
The Ducks flowed on the floor
and glowed on the scoresheet,
shooting 56% and hitting 11
3-pointers. LJ Figueroa hit five 3s
while scoring 21 points and Will
richardson added 19 points in an
offensive domination.
“We just said keep our foot on
the gas,” duarte said. “We did and
it was a lot of fun.”
The ducks’ sweet offensive
movements left the hawkeyes
(22-9) flailing, one game short of
the sweet 16 for the fourth time
under Fran McCaffery.
Luka Garza played like a
two-time all-american, bulling
in for three-point plays, hitting
mid-range jumpers and dropping
in the occasional 3. he capped his
stellar college career by tying the
Iowa Ncaa Tournament record
with 36 points and grabbing nine
rebounds before receiving a nice
See Oregon, Page A11
INdIaNaPOLIs — Oregon
state embraced the role of the hick-
ory huskers — results and all.
hours before their second-round
Ncaa Tournament game against
Oklahoma state, the Beavers’
basketball Twitter account posted a
video of center roman silva carry-
ing guard Gianni hunt to the basket
on his shoulders to measure the
rim’s height.
It recreated a scene from the
1986 movie “hoosiers,” in which
small-town hickory’s coach tried
to help his team relax about playing
at massive Butler Fieldhouse. hick-
ory went on to win that fictional
state title. On sunday, March 21,
the building now known as hinkle
Fieldhouse was the site of a real-life
underdog story.
ethan Thompson scored 26
points and No. 12 seed Oregon state
neutralized Oklahoma state and
star freshman cade cunningham,
rolling to an 80-70 upset.
Oregon state (19-12) was picked
to finish last in the Pac-12 and
had to win the conference tourna-
ment just to make the NCAA field.
The Beavers pulled that off, then
cruised past No. 5 seed Tennes-
see in the first round. They became
the third double-digit seed to reach
this year’s sweet 16, joining 15 seed
Oral roberts and syracuse, an 11.
“We’ve always had that confi-
dence,” Thompson said. “But it kind
of took us — we had to go to take a
further step and kind of believe in
ourselves and trust in each other.
and as you can see, these wins that
we’ve been having have been great
team efforts.”
Maurice calloo, who transferred
from Oklahoma state, scored 15
points and Jarod Lucas also had 15
for the Beavers, who advanced to
play eighth-seeded Loyola chicago
in a Midwest region sweet 16
matchup that few could have
predicted. Loyola overmatched No.
1 seed Illinois earlier on March 21.
cunningham, a first-team
all-american and possible top
NBa draft pick, scored 24 points
for Oklahoma state (21-9), but the
fourth-seeded cowboys rushed
shots down the stretch and at times
failed to get him the ball.
avery anderson scored 16
points and Keylan Boone added 13
for Oklahoma state in a game that
was delayed for 20 minutes at the
start by a power outage.