B
Section B
S PORTS
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
photo by Matt
Hollander
Lions win third-straight league title
Cottage Grove tee'd up
for state
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
C
ottage Grove golf has made quite
a tradition of winning district
titles.
The Lions shot 717 over the two-day
4A Special District 2 Tournament, held
May 11 and 12 at Tokatee Golf Club,
to capture their third-straight league
crown over Junction City (732) and
Stayton (747).
Despite the comfortable fi nal margin
of victory, Cottage Grove ended the fi rst
day with just a four-stroke advantage
over Junction City and a nine-stroke
lead over Stayton. The Tigers even held
a brief lead over Cottage Grove on day
two.
But as they have done many times be-
fore, the Lions played their best when it
mattered most. Cottage Grove shot 352
on the second day of the tournament to
pull away from all challengers. Senior
Johnny Conrad shot 78 and 79 to win
the individual title, and Cameron San-
Cottage Grove
sophomore
Jeramy Hall
(pictured),
along with
Johnny Conrad,
Nick Russo,
Cameron San-
doval and Dylan
Wooten, won
the District 2
Championship
last week and
are competing
at state this
week.
doval shot 87 and 84 to fi nish tied for
second place.
“They certainly seem to peak at the
right time,” said Cottage Grove coach
Kent Russo. “The past three years in a
row, they’ve played their very best golf
on the second day of the district tour-
nament. They did what they had to do
when it mattered.”
By virtue of winning the regular-sea-
son league title, the Lions had already
punched their ticket to the 4A state
tournament. However, there was no
Please see GOLF, Page 3B
Cottage
Grove
yields title
to Sisters
Borigo, Hammel
— district champions
— and Weybright
qualify for state
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
JUNCTION CITY — For the
fi rst time since 2012, the girls’
Sky-Em League track and fi eld
crown will not belong to Cot-
tage Grove. But the Lions left
the district championships, held
Thursday and Saturday at Junc-
tion City, knowing that it was
not for lack of effort.
“There were a few more
things that could have gone our
way today, but for the most part
we got everything we could
out of this group of girls,” said
coach Ricky Knutson.
After Thursday, Cottage
Grove trailed Sisters 46.5 to
39. But the Outlaws just had
too much fi repower left to go.
They scored 123 on Saturday
for a grand total of 169.5 points.
Junction City edged Cottage
Grove for second, 113.5 to 113.
“Things didn’t get off to a
great start this year,” said soph-
omore Hudson Weybright, who
scored 17.25 points for the Li-
ons. “They did start to pick up
[midway through the season] but
then some girls got hurt (Cot-
tage Grove was without former
state meet qualifi ers Chelsey
Bottorff and Breanna Wright at
districts). I still feel like we did
our best, though, and next year
is going to be even better as the
underclassman get a better grasp
of what they need to do and fi ll
different roles on the team.”
The Lions were within range
of Sisters after day one thanks
in part to Conner Borigo’s vic-
tory in the shot put. She threw
36-2.75 in the prelims to easily
outdistance her competitors.
Please see GIRLS TRACK AND FIELD, Page
2B
photos by Matt Hollander
Above: Cottage Grove's Michael Tharpe leans at the fi nish line of the 110 meter hurdles to claim his fi rst Sky-Em district title Saturday at
Junction City. Below: Conner Howard took a big lead into the fi nal curve of the 400 meters and held on for the victory.
Howard snuffs out candles with the competition
Geisler, Ledford and
Tharpe also advance to the
state meet
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
JUNCTION CITY — Connor Howard
sure was showing his age on Saturday.
The Cottage Grove junior celebrated
his 16th birthday with a Sky-Em district
championship in the 400 meters.
Running the event for just the fi fth
time in his career, Howard used the back-
stretch to power away from the fi eld and
held off Sweet Home’s Trey Reed in the
closing meters to capture fi rst place in
50.62. He is now tied with Jon Schneider
for the fastest automatically-timed 400 in
school history.
“It goes to show that hard work does
pay off, and it was fun to be able to show
what I can do,” said Howard, who will be
seeded third at the state meet, which be-
gins Thursday at Hayward Field. He also
qualifi ed for state in the 200 by placing
second in 23.26.
Until recently, Howard’s focus had
been on the 100 and 200. But his success
in the longest dash comes as no surprise
to Cottage Grove sprint coach Bruce Vo-
gel.
“He does a great job of getting out well
and fl oating down the back stretch. But
what I thought he did really well today
was relaxing and gathering in the fi nal
curve. With 10 meters to go the tank was
empty, but he just wanted to win so bad-
ly,” Vogel said.
Cottage Grove got another individual
victory from Michael Tharpe, who held
Athlete of the Week
Please see BOYS TRACK AND FIELD, Page 2B
Cottage Grove drops two to Sweet Home, limps to the postseason
Lions plays at North
Marion on Thursday in
the play-in round
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
S
photo by Gary Ordway Sports Action Photography
Cottage Grove's Brett Ollivant looks for a putout during the Lions
8-4 loss to Junction City on May 6.
weet Home’s Brandon Keanon
smashed a three-run homer in the
top of the fi rst inning to lead the visiting
Huskies (15-7, 11-4) to a 5-1, season-
fi nale victory over Cottage Grove on
Saturday. Hunter Harris drove in the Li-
ons’ lone run (14-11, 6-9) with a double
in the bottom of the fi rst inning.
The Huskies also defeated Cottage
Grove at home on Friday, 13-5. Pay-
ton Presley had three hits for the Lions,
who gave up nine unearned runs.
However, there is life after death for
Cottage Grove. The No. 19 Lions snuck
into the play-in round of the 4A play-
offs as the fi nal non-automatic qualifi er,
and they will face North Marion (13-3,
10-5 Oregon West) on the road Thurs-
day at 5 p.m.
While the teams have comparable
overall records, they certainly seem to
be trending in opposite directions. The
Lions are 2-9 in their last 11 games,
and both victories came against lowly
Sutherlin (3-22, 1-14 Sky-Em). Mean-
while, the Huskies have won six of their
last eight, including victories over two
playoff-bound teams.
“We’re glad to have a second chance,”
said Cottage Grove coach Dan Geiszler.
“[Despite the losses,] I haven’t seen a
lot of difference in how we’ve ap-
proached the plate; we’re still going up
with confi dence. And I think the guys
understand that we ran into a bad streak
of us playing poorly and others playing
their best.”
The Lions and Huskies had a trio of
common opponents this year. Against
Cascade, Philomath and Stayton, Cot-
tage Grove went 2-1, and North Marion
went 6-3.
“You can defi nitely learn things about
an opponent based on teams that you’ve
both played. But, unfortunately, so can
they. And since those teams are in the
same conference (the Oregon West),
they will probably share things with
North Marion about us, that they won’t
share with us about North Marion,”
Geisler said.
Geiszler said that he expects to face
a defensive-minded team based on the
Huskies' run differential.
Cottage Grove was scheduled to play
Far West champion North Bend on
Tuesday for its endowment game.
SATURDAY, MAY 23 & SUNDAY, MAY 24
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Sunday Events: 360 Sprints: Western Sprint Tour, Late
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