B
Section B
S PORTS
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Aqua Lions take on
the long course
The
one-year-in
column
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
photo by Matt Hollander
MJ Raade set fi ve personal bests at the Mike Morris Invitational.
he Cottage Grove Aqua Lions sent
a host of swimmers to the annual
Mike Morris Invitational, held this past
weekend at Amazon Pool in Eugene. It
was the fi rst long-course competition of
the season, and coach Tyson Pilling said
that the results were predictably mixed.
“This meet gives us a good baseline of
where the kids are at,” he said. “We’ve
only held a few workouts in this pool so
far, but we’ll start coming up here once
or twice a week now that we’re into
summer.”
Despite the challenge stepping up
from the 33-yard length of their home
pool to the 50-meter distance at Ama-
zon, several swimmers made signifi cant
improvements on their entry times.
Competing in the girls 11-12 divi-
sion, MJ Raade cut 15 seconds in the
200 freestyle down to 3:00.71. She im-
proved by nearly four seconds in the 50
freestyle (38.15), eight seconds in the
50 backstroke (48.32), 13 seconds in the
100 freestyle (1:25.16), and a whopping
three minutes, 20 seconds in the 800
freestyle (12:56.85).
Please see AQUA LIONS, Page 2B
Athlete of the Week: Blake Sentman
F
ifty two weeks ago, I had
never been published. I’m
not sure that Jon Stinnett real-
ized that little fact when he hired
me, but he certainly fi gured it
out on the afternoon of our fi rst
deadline, when only half of my
section was complete.
Lesson number one: 12’ x
22’ pages are gigantic if you’ve
never fi lled one before.
We fi nished sometime just be-
fore midnight, and I’m sure that
we both left the offi ce thinking
we had made a mistake: him of-
fering the job, and me accept-
ing it. But I kept coming back.
He remained patient. And that’s
more or less how it went for the
next 51 issues.
I’ve learned a lot over this
past year, but it all goes back to
fi lling the page — with head-
lines, copy and art. I used to
believe that the stories were the
most important part of telling
the news, but if the other ele-
ments don’t work, then no one
will bother to read them.
Here are a few other things
that I’ve concluded after my
fi rst year on the job:
1. Covering sports is hard
Watching sports on TV in
this day and age, there’s never
a point when I don’t know ex-
actly what’s going on in a given
game: the camera puts you right
on the action; the infographics
keep you up to date all the time;
and even the announcers can oc-
casionally be helpful. This pro-
duction quality has left a lot of
us thinking — myself included
— ‘Hey, I could cover sports
too!’
I can tell you that without
anyone feeding you the infor-
mation, it can be really hard
to know what’s going on in a
game, let alone report on it with
accuracy.
2. Covering a winning team
is just better
Please see HOLLANDER, Page 2B
photo by Matt Hollander
Blake Sentman led the Lions to the end zone in each of his turns at quarterback against Springfi eld, Creswell and Junction City during
Cottage Grove's 7-on-7 tournament Saturday at Herald White Stadium.
Cottage Grove measures progress against Springfi eld
Lions show improvement in 7-on-7
scrimmages
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
C
oaches will tell you that 7-on-7 scrimmages
are more about teaching than competition. The
2015 Lions will tell you they are tired of learning and
ready to compete.
With just a handful of returning players with varsity
experience, the 2014 Lions were expected to be young
and inexperienced. But the signs of trouble began in
earnest at a 7-on-7 scrimmage against Springfi eld in
July. There, Miller quarterback Trever Watson picked
apart the Cottage Grove defense, needing but a few
throws — and sometimes only one — to lead his team
to the end zone.
On Saturday, Cottage Grove hosted six schools for
a 7-on-7 competition, including Springfi eld. The Li-
ons blew past the defending 5A Midwestern League
champions, four scores to two.
“Last year Springfi eld ate us alive, and today we did
better than hold our own,” said Cottage Grove co-de-
fensive coordinator Mike Ingman. “We may not have
done to them what they did to us, but we defi nitely
had the advantage today.”
Cottage Grove’s defense fl ummoxed Watson, hold-
ing the two-time reigning Midwestern offensive play-
er of the year to 95 yards, one touchdown and three
interceptions on 5-of-14 passing.
“I feel like our defense was making a lot of good
plays,” said senior Evan Britton, who intercepted Wat-
son twice. “It was really good for us to get some mo-
mentum heading into the offseason.”
Cottage Grove’s offense, which also struggled
against Springfi eld a year ago, showed similar signs
of growth on Saturday. Junior Blake Sentman went
10-of-17 for 120 yards, three touchdowns and no in-
terceptions against the Millers.
“I hoped that we would be competitive today,” he
Please see FOOTBALL, Page 2B
Over the weekend at the Cottage Grove Speedway...
CGS completes second Kart
race of 2015
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
C
ottage Grove Speedway hosted
some exciting action on Friday,
June 12 for the second Kage Kart race of
the season.
Coos Bay’s Tallon Dubisar led the Pee
Wee feature wire to wire for his fi rst vic-
tory of the season.
Despite lots of cautions and heavy traf-
fi c, Isaac Stere of Cottage Grove kept all
challengers at bay during the Intermedi-
ate feature to visit victory lane for the fi rst
time of the season.
photo courtesy of Dirt Monkey Productions
Scott Fox (3) sped to victory in the
Open Kage event Friday at the Cot-
tage Grove Speedway.
Please see KARTS, Page 3B
Barraza, Owen, and Maricle earn
wins at Cottage Grove Speedway on
Ladies Night
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
C
ottage Grove Speedway had one of its best crowds
of the season for Ladies Night on Saturday, June
13. All three main events were action packed, and there
was good racing all night long. Classes in competition in-
cluded the 360 Sprints, IMCA Sport Mods and Hornets.
In the 360 Sprint main event, Patrick Dills was the early
race leader. The Cottage Grove young gun lost the lead
around lap 17 to Roseburg’s Kyler Barraza, who stayed
in front the rest of the way to win his fi rst race of 2015.
In the IMCA Sport Mod main event, Gene Ashley
seemed to have the car to beat until mechanical prob-
lems took him out of the race. Cottage Grove chauffeur
Jimmy Owen inherited the lead and won his fi rst career
CGS race.
Please see SPEEDWAY, Page 3B
June 20th
FATHER’S DAY
Clark Printing Extreme Sprints,
Street Stocks, Dwarf Cars