E AST O REGONIAN
Saturday, april 10, 2021
FOLLOW US ON
TWITTER @EOSPORTS |
FACEBOOK.COM/EOSPORTS
A chance to compete
Local teams headed
to unofficial 3A/2A/1A
state cross-country
championships
B1
Ducks who
opted out of
2020 regret
nothing
By ANNIE FOWLER
East Oregonian
By JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
EBANON — East Linn Christian athletic
director and cross-country coach Kellen
peters has had a lot on his plate the past
couple of months.
He and his wife had twin girls on Feb.
19, 2021, the same day he sent out a message to
fellow small-school, cross-country coaches about
putting together an unofficial state championship
for runners at the 3A/2A/1A level.
“Back when we found out there would be
no OSAA (Oregon School Activities Associa-
tion) state championships, i saw the look on my
students’ faces,” Peters said. “I know I’m not the
only coach who is seeing those faces. I understand
why the OSaa can’t do it, but with some help, we
are able to do something for the kids.”
Not long after Peters posted on athletic.net, he
had 35 schools saying they were in.
“It grew from there,” Peters said. “I was
clear that we weren’t trying to do something we
shouldn’t.”
the championships will be held on Saturday,
April 10, at Cheadle Lake Park. There are 59
schools with at least one runner qualified.
There are 88 runners registered for the 3A boys
race, 112 for the 2a/1a boys race, and 106 for the
3A/2A/1A girls competition.
Runners had to qualify through a district meet.
“The cool thing is because we don’t have to
deal with the financial part of getting kids there,
we were able to get in more kids than the OSAA
would,” Peters said. “Forty percent of the kids
who will run are kids who probably will never
get a chance to race at state again.”
The Heppner Mustangs will be taking their
girls and boys teams, and Stanfield/Echo will be
taking its boys team, along with Zora Gehrke for
the girls race.
Also competing are Alex McIntyre and Rose
White from Weston-McEwen, and Saint Schim-
mel from Nixyaawii.
The Heppner girls won the team title at the
3A/2A/1A Special District 5 Spring Champion-
ships last week, while the Heppner boys were
second.
“It’s kind of cool,” Heppner coach Russ Nich-
ols said of the state meet. “This is the closest thing
we can get. The senior class has missed out on so
much the last year and a half. This will be great
for them.”
When the state meet was originally proposed,
record, including EOU’s first-ever
undefeated CCC season at 14-0.
under Morehead, the Mounties
have won six regular-season CCC
championships, including their third
straight title. With the regular season
title secured, the Mountaineers will
host this year’s CCC Volleyball
Tournament on Friday, April 9, and
Saturday, april 10. EOu has also
secured an automatic qualifying bid
to the Naia National tournament.
EUGENE — Pro days are about
evaluating potential in the NFL.
But Oregon’s pro day also was a bit
about the potential of last season.
With four of nine participants
having opted out of last season
after the Pac-12’s initial August
2020 decision to suspend all sports
until January 2021, including Penei
Sewell, Jevon Holland, Thomas
Graham Jr. and Brady Breeze, there
was a feeling of what could have
been for the ducks in 2020.
“I really do believe that the situ-
ation out West was a lot different
than the rest of the country,” Oregon
coach Mario Cristobal said.
“it wasn’t like we were told it
was going to take a little while. We
were postponed twice and really
canceled. There was no guarantee
of actually playing a season and
that’s when the opt-outs took place.
I don’t think anyone should judge
that. Those guys were tremendous
competitors. Some of the guys that
were seniors that did opt out, they
had made the decision to return,
had gone through spring ball, had
gone through the offseason. They
had every intention and carried out
their intentions through actions to
play this year, it just didn’t happen.”
The four Oregon players who
opted out are at peace with their
decisions, as is deommodore
lenoir, who opted out and chose
to return when the season was
restored.
But that didn’t make it easy for
them to sit out last fall or remove
their frustration with the manner
in which the pac-12 went about
handling the pandemic last summer
compared to its peers across the
Power 5, FBS and AAU.
“When it came down to it in
August, we were told the season was
canceled, we were super frustrated
as seniors,” Breeze said. “I could
tell the whole Oregon coaching staff
was frustrated because they did
every type of process we could to
make it to where we could play, but
then the Pac-12 still for whatever
dumb reason, they decided to call
off the season.
“We said our goodbyes; we were
hugging the coaches, hugging the
players. Us seniors, we thought we
were never going to play for Oregon
ever again. I moved out of my apart-
ment, moved back to Lake Oswego,
was living with my parents, getting
ready to start training and getting
ready for the NFl process. Mentally
I was checked out, and then five
weeks later I get a phone call like,
‘Hey you got to be here tomorrow;
we got practice tomorrow, we got
See Volleyball, Page B2
See Ducks, Page B2
L
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Runners take off from the start of the 3A/2A/1A Special District 5 Spring XC Championship 1A/2A
boys 5,000-meter race at Thompson Ranch in Heppner on Friday, April 2, 2021.
STATE QUALIFIERS
GIRLS 3A/2A/1A
Heppner: Madelyn Nichols, Hailey Heide-
man, Kylie Boor, Hannah Finch, Irelynn
Kollman, Hannah Palmer, Kayla Rodriguez.
Stanfield/Echo: Zora Gehrke. Weston-McE-
wen: Rose White.
BOYS 2A/1A
Heppner: Trevor Nichols, Ed Ellsworth, David
Cribbs, Thomas Rudolf, Kamron Drury, Roen
Waite, Joseph Sherman. Stanfield/Echo: Si-
say Hurty, Keegin Chitty, Jagjot Singh, Josue
Hernandez, Camren McCann, Uriel Carillo,
Alex Flores. Weston-McEwen: Alex McIntyre.
Nixyaawii: Saint Schimmel.
Nichols wasn’t on board. it was the same day as
their district meet. After conferring with the other
Special District 5 coaches, it was agreed to move
the district race to the week before.
“Once we could change our district meet, I was
on board,” Nichols said. “It should be a lot of fun.”
The Mustangs’ Madelyn Nichols won the girls
race, with teammate Hailey Heideman coming
in third.
Hunter Nichols was the first Heppner boy
across the finish line, coming in third. Stanfield’s
Sisay Hurty was fourth.
The state meet will have three races — the 3A
boys, the 2A/1A boys, and the 3A/2A/1A girls.
the races will be one hour apart, and peters said
they will be following all Oregon Health Author-
ity guidelines.
The Cheadle Lake Park course is relatively
flat, which should benefit the Heppner runners.
“We run so many hills in Heppner,” coach
Nichols said. “I think they will like the course.”
It takes a village
While a handful of schools have donated
money toward the event, Peters said people and
organizations have stepped forward to help.
Former Lebanon coach Brad Bauer, who is
now retired and owns a timing company, has
offered to do the timing for the meet.
Steens Mountain Running Camp founder/
director Harland yriarte emailed peters out of
the blue and offered to cover costs that had not
already been taken care of.
Medals have been ordered for the first 10
runners in each division, and the top four teams
in each division will receive a trophy. Each runner
and coach will receive a free T-shirt.
None of the teams have been charged a fee to
compete, but travel costs are the responsibility of
each school.
“It’s enough of a financial burden just to get
here,” Peters said.
With the race being held at a public park,
Peters said they can have up to 15% capacity,
which will allow family and friends to attend and
watch. admission is free.
The park has a double-loop course, giving
spectators an area where they can view most of
the race.
“It’s a very spectator-friendly course,” Peters
said. “It will be nice for the families.”
EOU dominates 2020 postseason CCC awards
East Oregonian
CORVALLIS — After grabbing
its first undefeated regular season,
the No. 8 ranked Eastern Oregon
University volleyball team high-
lighted the 2020 postseason Cascade
Collegiate Conference honors,
released thursday, april 8.
Kaki Mclean Morehead was
named the CCC Coach of the year,
while Kiley McMurtrey grabbed
her third-straight Libero of the Year
honor, Madison pilon was named
McLean
Morehead
McMurtrey
the Setter of the year, and Cambree
Scott was named the player of the
year. the No. 13 ranked Corban
University’s Rylee Troutman earned
Pilon
Scott
Freshman of the year.
Morehead is in her 14th season
at the helm of the Mountaineers,
heading into postseason with a 15-0
SPORTS SHORT
2-minute silence across sports to mark Prince Philip’s death
By ROB HARRIS
Associated Press
lONdON — Venues fell silent
for two minutes, black armbands
were put on, and flags lowered to
half-staff as British sports marked
the death of prince philip.
The Royal Family and govern-
ment told sports authorities that
competitions could continue follow-
ing the death of the 99-year-old
husband of Queen Elizabeth ii on
Friday, April 9.
philip held positions in sports
bodies throughout his life, includ-
ing as president of the English Foot-
ball association and a 22-year spell
as president of the international
Equestrian Federation that he used
to develop new competitions.
“British sport has lost one of its
strongest and, on occasion, boldest
advocate,” World Athletics presi-
dent Sebastian Coe said. “He had
an unflinching view of the role of
sport in all our neighbourhoods.
That belief will be missed.”
philip was a keen cricketer and
he served two spells as president
of the lord’s-based Marylebone
Cricket Club, which is regarded as
the guardian of the laws of the game.
He presented the Lord’s Taverners
ECB Trophy to the English cricket
champion for 43 years until he
retired from royal duties in 2017.
“We owe him a great debt
for his support and passion over
many decades,” England and
Wales Cricket Board chairman Ian
Watmore said.
County cricket matches were
underway when his death was
announced by Buckingham Palace
and a two-minute silence was held
before the afternoon sessions of
play in venues without fans due to
the pandemic.
The largely empty Aintree race-
course also fell silent before the
second day of racing in the Grand
National meeting. Philip was an
honorary member of the Jockey Club
and would attend flagship racing
events, including Royal Ascot, to
accompany his horse-owning wife.
at ascot in 2012, he presented the
queen with the trophy after one of
her greatest successes with Estimate
winning the Queen’s Vase Stakes.
Jockeys at aintree wore black
armbands as footballers were
asked to do across the weekend at
England’s professional leagues,
including the Premier League, and
for the England women’s interna-
tional game against Canada —
where the queen is also head of state.
Peter Powell/Associated Press
A video screen shows a picture of the late Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh, ahead of the races on the second day of the Grand Na-
tional Horse Racing meeting at Aintree racecourse, near Liverpool,
England, on Friday, April 9, 2021. Buckingham Palace says Prince
Philip, the irascible and tough-minded husband of Queen Elizabeth
II, has died. He was 99.