Wednesday, May 26, 2021
A9
SPORTS
Eagles hang with top competitors, take third
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
LA GRANDE — The Joseph
boys were within striking dis-
tance of contending for the 1A state
championship Saturday, May 22,
at Eastern Oregon University in La
Grande, before a strong eff ort by
Powder Valley in the fi nal two races
and a win by Damascus Christian
in the 4x400-meter relay sent them
past the Eagles.
Joseph fi nished as a team with
52 points to take third, trailing only
Damascus, who had 56 points, and
Powder Valley, which won the 1A
title with 64.5 points.
“They (did) a great job,” head
coach John Roberts said. “Good job
all the way though. I think just about
all of them PR’d in all of their races,
and the two girls did, too. It was a
Davis Carbaugh/The Observer
Joseph’s Kale Ferguson, right, shown competing in the boys 200, won the
1A state title in the discus and took second in the javelin Saturday, May 22,
2021, in La Grande.
great 1A meet.”
A strong day in the fi eld, led by
Kale Ferguson, put the Eagles in
position to compete for the state
crown. The sophomore, wrapping
up his fi rst season of high school
track after the pandemic canceled
the 2020 year, set a personal best in
winning the discus with a throw of
134 feet, 8 inches, and also reached
a PR in the javelin at 150-feet-8,
which was good for second. In both
events, he set a new PR by more
than 13 feet.
Ferguson said he didn’t expect to
make it onto the podium in the dis-
cus, let alone win it.
“For discus, I got there, and
when I was looking at everyone
that was throwing, I thought ‘Wow,
I don’t belong here. These guys are
huge,’” he said. “... When I got up
onto the platform where you throw,
I just prayed for strength to guide
my throw, and each time I threw it
went farther and farther. The last
one, it came out perfectly.”
He said it still hasn’t set in that
he won.
“Just hearing the words ‘state
champion’ is a little — I can’t
explain it, it’s weird,” he said. “I
didn’t expect I would make it to
state at the beginning of the season.
I’m kind of realizing that I have the
abilities to do stuff like that.”
It was also a good day for senior
Juston Rogers and junior Reece
Nelson. Rogers came in second in
the boys 400 in a PR time of 52.77
seconds — just 0.35 behind winner
Conley Martin from Adrian — and
was fourth in the 800 in 2:06.64.
Nelson, meanwhile, placed second
in the high jump at 6 feet even.
“He was happy with it,” Rob-
erts said of Rogers. “He put a lot
of speed into that 400, and it took
a lot out of it to come back and run
that 800. He was happy with it, and
See Eagles, Page A10
PREP BASEBALL
Eagles plate
13 runs in
wild fi fth to
take third
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
I really appreciate everyone. Everyone was
giving it their hardest, going 100% every
event. It was really fun to watch. Glad to be
here; glad it happened.”
Peters had a strong eff ort in his fi nal prep
track meet. The EHS senior sprinter ran the
second leg on the 4x100 and 4x400 relay, both
of which took fourth with respective times of
47.16 seconds and 3:41.39. In his leg of the
4x400, he moved the team from middle of the
pack to the lead before it fi nished fourth.
“Coming around that corner on my leg, I
knew it was my last 400. I said, ‘I gotta go
hard.’ That’s exactly what I did,” he said. “I
ran the hardest I’ve ever run, ran my best 400,
a 53 split.”
Individually, Peters placed fourth in the
200 in 23.46 seconds and was fi fth in the 100
in 11.56.
Lute Ramsden ran the anchor leg on both
relay races, and individually placed third in
the 400 with a personal best time of 52.56.
Ransom Peters and Zander Walker were
the other two legs of the fourth-place 4x100
team, while Knapp and Gideon Gray ran fi rst
and third on the 4x400 team.
Roan Flynn came in sixth in the 300 hur-
dles for Enterprise in 46.14, and in eighth in
the 3,000 was Brenden Moore in a time of
45.67.
Head coach Dan Moody said he was
pleased with the eff ort given the short season.
CORVALLIS — In one unfor-
gettable inning, the Wallowa Val-
ley off ense woke up and the Eagles
baseball team was catapulted from
the cusp of a run-rule defeat to a
wild victory and a third-place
fi nish.
The Eagles scored 13 runs in
the fi fth inning to turn what was on
the verge of being a Rainier rout
into a 14-11 victory Saturday, May
22, in the third-place game of the
3A culminating week champion-
ship series at Crescent Valley High
School in Corvallis.
The Eagles (13-3 overall) were
on the ropes when they came to bat
in the fi fth, already trailing 11-0,
and needed two runs just to extend
the game past the fi fth inning.
Instead, they completely fl ipped
the game around, recording numer-
ous hits, sending 18 batters to the
plate and taking advantage of at
least four Rainier errors.
“They just kept scoring every
inning, and we weren’t, so morale
got down,” head coach Mark
Ramsden said. “A dropped fl y ball
kept us alive with two outs.”
Ramsden credited the bench for
helping turn morale around.
“I think what turned things
around really was our bench was
always encouraging. The guys on
the bench never gave up,” he said.
“The bench has always been loud
and encouraging, and this is the
game that it paid off .”
An error and walk opened the
bottom of the fi fth, and Evans fol-
lowed with a two-run double to
get the Eagles on the board. Chase
Homan’s fi rst hit drove in Evans to
make it 11-3. After another error,
Nave doubled in two to make it
11-5, then scored on a David Salim
squeeze bunt. A walk, error and
an out later, Maclane Melville’s
RBI single chiseled the lead even
smaller. It was now just 11-7.
Evans struck again, knock-
ing in two more runs with a sin-
gle, then scoring on an error to cut
the margin to a single run. Homan,
who had singled, scored on a dou-
ble steal to tie the score. Nave
and Salim followed with RBI sin-
gle — Nave’s for a 12-11 lead and
Salim’s for a two-run margin — to
complete the stunning turnaround.
The Eagles batted around twice in
the inning.
Homan added an insurance run
See Enterprise, Page A10
See Baseball, Page A10
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise junior Zac Knapp won 2A state championships in both the boys 3,000, which he is shown competing in here, and in the 1,500, on
Saturday, May 22, 2021, at the 2A state meet in Union. Knapp helped the Outlaw boys to a third-place fi nish.
Knapp wins twice as
Enterprise boys place third
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
U
NION — Zac Knapp put together
what appeared to be an almost
eff ortless performance Saturday,
May 22, in Union.
The Enterprise junior eased to victory in
two races, and his big day helped the Outlaw
boys track and fi eld team take third at the 2A
state meet at Union High School.
Knapp, who just a few weeks earlier
helped the Wallowa Valley cross-country
team to a state title, set a personal best and
came within a fraction of a second of setting
a school record in the 1,500-meter run with
a time of 4:10.88, about 0.4 seconds behind
the best mark at EHS. Later, he immediately
broke to the front of the pack in the 3,000 and
glided to an easy win in a time of 9:19.91.
While about 10 seconds shy of his personal
best in the race, the run was enough to win by
more than 23 seconds.
“(The) 1,500 going in I was really ner-
vous. There were a lot of really, really great
racers in that,” Knapp said. “I just thought,
‘Give it my all. I’ve got one shot at this.’ State
was taken away last year from me. I just took
it by the neck and did the best that I could.
And then the 3,000, the same thing. I was
like, ‘I got one chance at this.’ I’ve worked
so hard, putting in hours extra, and this is
what it all comes down to — ‘Do I have the
strength to hold that lead and get fi rst?’ And
Ronald Bond/Wallowa County Chieftain
Enterprise’s Ransom Peters hands the baton
to his brother, Jericho Peters, during the
boys 4x100-meter relay on Saturday, May 22,
2021, at the 2A state track meet in Union. The
relay team fi nished in fourth place.
thankfully, I did.”
His points were a major portion of a big
day for the EHS boys, who fi nished with 49
points and placed behind only state champion
East Linn Christian (67 points) and runner-up
Grant Union (53).
“I think the team eff ort was great,” senior
Jericho Peters said. “For my last senior year,
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