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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 2016)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, March 2, 2016 Bordeaux second, Lions fi nish 13th overall at OSAA state tournament The boys fi nished in a decent position overall, and the team saw a fi rst-place win from its female participant BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel The Cottage Grove wrestling team sent seven boys and one girl to the OSAA state tourna- ment this past weekend after fi nishing fi fth in the district tournament. It was a highly anticipated tournament, since last year Andrew Bordeaux fi nished in fourth place and his brother Alan fi nished in sixth place while the team fi nished 12th overall. The Bordeaux brothers were hunting for state titles in their respective weight classes and unfortunate- ly fell short once again, but not without signifi cant improve- ment. In the 182-pound weight class, Andrew Bordeaux swept three of his opponents to make it to the fi nal round. However, in a tough battle against Josh Ham- mers of Mazama, Bordeaux lost in an 8-4 decision and ended his high school career with a second-place fi nish. In the 170- pound weight class, Bordeaux’s brother Alan found himself with a little less success than his sibling but still performed well overall. After losing his fi rst match in the fi nals, Bordeaux went on to beat three opponents in a row to qualify for the third-place match, where he lost in a close 6-3 decision to Justin Knight of Phoenix. Aside from the boys, how- ever, the one girl competing for the Lions took advantage of her position and came away with a fi rst place victory in the girls’ 170-pound weight class. Kath- erine Dennis pinned her way to a state title. After pinning soph- omore Noemi Mosso of Bend within the fi rst half of the fi rst round in the semifi nals, Dennis faced off against Aniseta Acosta of North Medford. Dennis once again pinned her opponent, only this time in the second round. Although the Bordeaux broth- ers were the top fi nishers from Cottage Grove for the boys, that isn’t to say other participants didn’t fi nd success. In the 126-pound weight class, Bryce Allen found himself bat- tling for fi fth place against Aus- tin Weeks of Tillamook. Allen was pinned in the early parts of the second round but still walked away with a sixth-place seed. Notable efforts came from Aaron Boitz, who lost two in a row and fi nished 14th in the 113-pound weight class. Rodney Chamberlain also lost two in the fi nals bracket but placed ninth in the 138-pound weight class. Two losses excluded Chance Rolston from the top eight, but he still secured 10th place out of 16 in the 106-pounders. The heavyweight of the Li- ons was Elijah Farrell in the 195-pound weight class. After losing to second-place fi nisher Trace Vega of Phoenix, Farrell defeated Bret Couch from Scap- poose, only to lose to Clay Pena of Banks and fi nally place 15th. Cottage Grove ended up plac- ing 13th overall out of 35 teams. While they fell one spot from last year, some individuals im- proved, coming close to win- ning a state title, and of course, Dennis winning her state title. Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Athlete of the Week Katherine Dennis takes fi rst place at state wrestling tournament Cottage Grove track stars invited to prestigious Indoor Classic BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel As many track and fi eld en- thusiasts may already know, the World Indoor Track Cham- pionships will be taking place in Portland later this month. However, before the profession- als take the stage, several lucky track athletes from Cottage Grove will be able to compete at the Portland Indoor Track Clas- sic, an invitational event that brings high school athletes from Oregon, Washington and Idaho to compete unattached to their school. The competing athletes from Cottage Grove were selected based on their skill set shown from previous seasons and com- petitions. The fi ve from Cottage Grove are Hudson Weybright, Michael Tharpe, Connor How- ard, Trevor Layne and Tyler Ledford. Head Coach Ricky Knutson will bring his fi ve ath- letes to Portland on the weekend of March 11 and 12. “It’s really a once in a life- time experience for these guys, once it’s done, the facility will be moved, so it’s a really rare opportunity,” Knutson said. The World Indoor Championships haven’t been held in the United States since the early 80s, mak- ing this competition all the more uncommon. On the same days of the high school competition, the USA Track and Field championships will be taking place to decide who will be on Team USA to compete in the International As- sociation of Athletics Federation World Indoor championships. The senior freestyle wrestler took fi rst place in the 170- pound weight class. Dennis is also a cheerleader and an equestrian, maintaining a high GPA while competing in different sports. Player of the Year, Coach of the Year comes with Sky-Em Championship Before playoffs begin, the Lions were awarded with many Sky-Em League accolades, including Kory Parent and Donn Pollard as player and coach of the year BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel With the boys’ basketball team going 18-5 in the regular season and winning the Sky-Em League, it was expected that the team would receive a lot of post-season awards this year. For starters, Head Coach Donn Pollard received the Coach of the Year award for the league, an award he has earned once before in the 2013-2014 season. Pollard started his coaching career in Forest Grove, where he was a sophomore coach for the high school before mov- ing to Sunset to coach junior varsity. He then moved to Cot- tage Grove to head-coach the Lions in 1981, where he would coach for 19 years straight. Pol- lard then stepped away from coaching basketball and became the high school principal for a number of years while his son, Bart Pollard, stepped in as head coach of the Lions. Pollard then came back in to assist his son with the Lions, and then once again became head coach after his son moved to Marist, where he is still coaching today. Pollard humbly accepted the award and noted that the award comes with the success of his team’s effort. “It’s an honor, but these awards usually come with win- ning the league, and that’s be- cause of all of the players,” he said. The Lions improved this sea- son, having gone 5-19 in the 2014-2015 season. And he notes that it wasn’t so much his doing, but the players. “They’re all a year stronger, a year faster and a year smarter,” he said. “Even when games got close, they were able to dig in and come out with the win, I’m really impressed with them.” Pollard gives all of the credit to his players, but some strate- gic adjustments from last year may have also had a role in the Lions’ success. Defensively, Cottage Grove used to put pressure up front on the outside lanes last year, but this year, they changed that strategy to defending the gaps down the court. It’s diffi cult to defi nitively say that the strat- egy was much better, but from watching the games, the Lions’ defense was a well structured and disciplined force that didn’t allow many points inside the paint. But Pollard is right, the skill set of his team has undoubt- edly improved from last year, and that can be seen in the All- League rosters. Junior Kory Parent won the Sky-Em Player of the Year award. Just within league play, Parent scored 151 points in total with an average of 15.1 points per game. That all comes with his time of strug- gling with health issues during games he scored fairly low on. Junior Blake Sentman was unanimously voted on the First Team All-League roster. Hayden Martinez and Josh Hutchinson from Junction City were also on the team, along with two others from Elmira and Sisters. Sentman had 136 points total in league play (13.6 point aver- age). Senior Chance Hopkins was selected for the Second Team All-League, a team with only seniors. Hopkins fi nished league play with a total of 130 points. Honorable mentions from Cottage Grove included senior Jayden Tucker and junior Tucker Porter, who had 60 and 39 total league points, respec- tively. Now the Sky-Em champions look to play Baker in their fi rst playoff match of the postseason, and Pollard is preparing each day. “I’m always concerned with every team we play,” he said. “But now we’re down to the top 16 teams, so there’s not go- ing to be a team we play that isn’t good.” It will be an excit- ing time to watch the Sky-Em champions pave their road to- ward a state title. Player of the Year No. 13 Kory Parent fi nished league play with 151 total points in just 10 games. Varsity Chess fi nishes fi fth, JV third BY STEVE KILSTON AND TAYLOR WILHOUR For the Sentinel In the Oregon High School Chess Team Association annual competition, held last Friday and Saturday at Junction City High School, the Lions play- ers each played fi ve games with two-hour time limits, a strenu- ous effort but a great learning experience for fi ve of the play- ers for whom this was their fi rst major chess tournament. Cot- tage Grove players were senior Ben Bauml, juniors Chris Gles- mann and Justin Long, sopho- mores Spencer Falk and Alex Reimann, and freshmen Alex Istudor, Zeak Bray and Tay- lor Henry. In the tournament’s Open Division, the three Lions ninth-graders joined players from Pleasant Hill to form a shared team and captured the second-place trophy with a re- cord of two wins and a tie out of fi ve matches. Cottage Grove tied its varsity match against Junction City but lost close hard-fought matches to Clackamas, Crescent Valley, Sheldon and Willamette. Alex Reimann achieved our team’s best individual result, scoring three wins and a draw in his games. The state championship was won by an undefeated team from Portland’s Lincoln High School. Coincidentally, that school will be the site of next year’s state tournament. For the fi rst time our local Kennedy Alternative H.S. fi eld- ed a team at the tournament too and fi nished with 1.5 points in the Open Division including a win over a team from Coquille and a tie with Clackalamette (a team comprised of players from Clackamas and Willamette). At the end of the local Mid- western League season the Cot- tage Grove H.S. varsity chess team fi nished in fi fth place out of seven teams with a record of two wins (against Junction City and Marist) and four losses (against South Eugene, Willa- mette, Pleasant Hill and Shel- don). In junior varsity competi- tion, the Lions team fi nished in third place with a record of four wins and two losses (to Willa- mette and Pleasant Hill). The joint Open team of Cottage Grove and Junction City stand by their trophy. The three players at left are Zeak Bray, Alex Istudor and Taylor Henry.