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.