B
S PORTS
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
Lions wrap up summer scrimmages; play sharp against Bulldogs
Cottage Grove starters and backups get valuable reps
in fi nal 7-on-7 versus Creswell
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
O
n July 21, the Lions hosted
Creswell for their fi nal 7-on-
7 scrimmage of the summer. Cottage
Grove’s JV squad played just as much
as the varsity against the Bulldogs,
which says a lot about how far the Li-
ons have come since last year, when
every rep came at a premium for the
young team.
“We mixed it up tonight,” said Cot-
tage Grove coach Gary Roberts. “Cre-
swell didn’t have enough players to
have two different scrimmages, so
we alternated our older and younger
guys every two series. When we were
at camp (the varsity guys) got a ton of
reps; we went to Springfi eld last week
(for a 7-on-7 scrimmage) and they got
a ton of reps. I feel good about what
our kids have done this summer.”
As it has been all summer long, the
Lions' number-one offense was ex-
plosive against Creswell. Kory Parent
went 7-for-9 with three touchdowns,
and Blake Sentman was 9-of-13 with
two touchdowns and one interception.
Sophomore Joshua Clafl in was 10-for-
20 and tossed three touchdowns in fi ve
drives for Cottage Grove’s JV team.
With less than four weeks until the
start of fall camp, Roberts said that nei-
ther Parent nor Sentman has won the
starting job.
“It’s been evident that they’ve both
improved,” Roberts said of the two
junior quarterbacks. “And we’re just
waiting to see who can consistently
lead us.”
At receiver, Payton Presley was the
number-one target for both passers, as
he caught fi ve balls for 68 yards and
three touchdowns. Reily Boyce add-
ed fi ve catches for 84 yards and two
touchdowns.
Cottage Grove’s number-one defense
held Creswell to just two scores on six
possessions, and Presley (2), Sentman
photo by Matt Hollander
Payton Presley caught three
touchdowns in Cottage Grove's
7-on-7 scrimmage against Cre-
swell on July 21.
Please see Football, Page 2B
A question of style: Who will be the Lions' starting quarterback?
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
C
ottage
Grove’s
2014 season ended
in a quarterback-by-com-
mittee with then-sopho-
mores Kory Parent and
Blake Sentman. While
not an ideal situation for
a football team, the Li-
ons, who began the year
0-5 while using a primary
starter, went 2-2 down the
stretch with Parent and Sentman splitting time at
the position. Additionally, Cottage Grove’s of-
fense was also signifi cantly better over its fi nal
four games:
Games 1-5: 248.2 YPG, 8.6 PPG
Games 6-9: 307 YPG, 24.5 PPG
Not surprising, the spike in production corre-
lated with more effi cient quarterback play:
Games 1-5: Sentman 51-105, 514 yds., 8 Ints.
Parent 27-43, 173 yds. 2 Ints.
Carter wins
grand Extreme
Sprint at CGS
Games 6-9: Sentman 27-51, 341 yds.,1 Int
Parent 16-35, 222 yds., 1 Int.
*While playing receiver, Parent threw two
touchdowns that traveled a combined 125 yards
on double-pass plays.
After the season, coach Gary Roberts said he
hoped that one player would emerge as the team’s
starter for 2015; however, with just over fi ve
weeks until the Lions travel to Marshfi eld for the
season-opener, Parent and Sentman are still neck-
and-neck.
The challenge in projecting which player would
be more successful in the starting role is that Par-
ent and Sentman have markedly different skills.
It’s almost not worth doing the standard side-by-
side quarterback comparison — throwing power,
throwing accuracy, running ability, etc. — because
each player has a fairly signifi cant advantage over
the other in each category; Parent, for example,
has proven to be the far more effective runner, but
Sentman is superior on downfi eld passes.
From watching a few highlight reels of former
Cottage Grove quarterbacks Dustin Hurd and
Please see Hollander, Page 2B
Athletes of the Week: Kate Bevilaqua and Guy Crawford
Sell, Clay, Ray and Hansen also
score victories
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
C
ottage Grove Speedway had a fantastic eve-
ning of racing on Saturday, July 25. The cool-
er weather was a welcome change after several weeks
of extremely hot temperatures. Classes in competi-
tion included the Clark Printing Extreme Sprints,
Late Models, IMCA Sport Mods, Quality RV Repair
Hornets and the Late Model Lites.
The Clark Printing Extreme Sprints entrants were
driving for some big money as the folks at Herz Pre-
cision Parts put up $1,000 for the winner. The ex-
tra purse attracted teams from the states of Oregon,
Washington and California.
Chelsea Blevins, a teenager from Anderson, Ca-
lif., was veryfast for much of the race, and due to the
timing of the cautions she did not have to deal with
lapped traffi c.
Blevins lost the lead position on lap 19 to Cottage
Grove’s Colby Carter. Although Blevins stayed on his
tail tank for much of the remainder of the race, Carter
held on to win his second race of the season.
Blevins fi nish second, while Dave Hibbard from
Medford was third. Cottage Grove native Patrick
Dills placed fourth, and Jake Helsel from Monroe,
Wash. followed in fi fth.
The Late Model main event was a caution-fi lled
feature. Sweet Home chauffeur Kye Frick was the
early leader until Salem’s Brady Sell passed him on
lap 13. Sell managed to keep in front and win the race.
Amazingly, during his time trial Sell made heavy
contact with the outside retaining wall in turn four
that put the future of his night in serious jeopardy.
Frick fi nished as the runner-up, and in third was
Vernonia veteran Doug Davenport. Bend driver
Thomas Hunziker fi nished fourth, and behind him in
fi fth was Salem’s Britton Donahoo.
Kolby Clay from Junction City dominated the
IMCA Sport Mods Clay and would take the lead on
the fi rst lap and stayed there the whole way. It was
his fi rst career win in the IMCA Sport Mods in only
his second career start in the class.
Gene Ashley from Jasper was second, and Spring-
fi eld’s Jayson Nelson fi nished in third. Scott Akin
from Crow was fourth, and Cottage Grove’s Tyler
Smith was fi fth.
The Quality RV Repair Hornets main event had
several cautions and plenty of lead changes. Pleasant
Hill’s Justin Austin got out to the front early, but Dan
Jenkinson of Marcola passed him on lap four. Austin
would reclaim the lead on the ninth circuit, only to be
overtaken on lap 17 by Cottage Grove’s Mike Sim-
mons, who spun out after a restart — thus giving the
lead back to Austin.
Please see Speedway, Page 3B
photo by Matt Hollander
Guy Crawford and Kate Belivaqua formed quite the power couple at Saturday's Tri at the Grove. They both set new Olym-
pic distance course records en route to very convincing victories.
Tri at the Grove’s Sweethearts
BY MATT HOLLANDER
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
G
uy Crawford and Kate Bev-
ilaqua are living in an end-
less Summer. The professional tri-
athletes live and train together half
the year in Australia and the other
half in Boise, Idaho.
On Saturday they rode another
wave of success to the top of the
podium at the fi fth annual Tri at
the Grove.
Crawford demolished the course
record en route to victory, complet-
ing the 1,500-meter swim, 24.8-
mile bike and 6.2-mile run in one
hour, 51 minutes and 36.2 seconds.
His girlfriend Bevilaqua also set a
new course record in the women’s
Olympic distance of 2:05:49.30.
With defending champion Jesse
Thomas and two-time winner Chris
Bragg (2013 and 2012) not par-
ticipating in the full triathlon this
year, Crawford had to fi nd some-
thing else to compete against.
“Once that I found out that
Chris and Jesse weren’t racing,
I was like, ‘Well, there needs to
be a motivation for eating that
much pain,’" said Crawford, who
bettered Thomas’ record time of
1:54:58.8 set last year. “So the
course record was what I was after,
and that’s why I went deep.”
Andrew Langfi eld of Portland
fi nished second, nearly eight min-
utes behind Crawford.
“This was my fi rst time here,
and you couldn’t have asked for
a better day,” said Langfi eld. “It
was perfect weather and it’s fun to
chase someone who’s fast and fi t.”
Absent from this year’s wom-
en’s race was Emily Cocks, who
defeated Bevilaqua in 2012 and
2014. However, Bevilaqua was
hardly content with an easy vic-
tory, as the three-time champion
took down her own course record
of 2:06:21 set in 2013.
“I went hard today,” Bevilaqua
said. “There wasn’t Emily or
somebody to race against. But my
coach always says, ‘when you go
to a race you’re racing for a (per-
sonal best).’ You’re going as hard
as you can because you can do
that on your own.” This upcom-
ing weekend, Bevilaqua is tak-
ing on her fi rst Ultra Triathlon. In
training for the grueling, three-day
323-mile endurance event, she
has made Crawford join for some
much longer training sessions.
“I’m looking forward to when
we’re just doing Ironman training;
I think it will help our relation-
ship,” Crawford joked.
After so much high-volume
training, Bevilaqua, who has com-
peted at Tri at the Grove in each of
its fi ve years, said she was excited
to see if she could go fast on a fa-
miliar course.
“The location is stunning,” she
said. “You turn up here in the
morning and you forget how beau-
tiful it is. Even on the bike course
sometimes you have to remind
yourself that you’re racing and
work really hard because the scen-
ery is so beautiful.”
Please see Page 3B for re-
sults from Tri at the Grove.
Join us
August 1st
WALLBANGER CUP
Late Models, Clark Printing Extreme
Sprints, IMCA Modiϐieds, Street Stocks