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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2016)
B S PORTS Section B South Lane County Sports and Recreation Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Boys take fi rst, girls third in Stayton Twilight Howard, Geisler, Weybright and Wright all set personal best during Friday's meet Athletes of the Week Hudson Weybright and Breanna Wright top long-distance runners Photo courtesy of Ricky Knutson The boys' track squad gathers to celebrate their win in getting fi rst place out of 23 competing teams. BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grove Sentinel It was an outstanding night for both the boys’ and girls’ track and fi eld squads on Fri- day. Cottage Grove traveled to Stayton to compete as one of the 23 teams in the annual Stayton Twilight, and the boys topped the scoreboard while the girls fi nished in a solid third place. The night saw a few season- best times from the girls’ team with Hudson Weybright and Breanna Wright in the 3000- meter race with Wright coming from behind in what head coach Ricky Knutson called a “bril- liant race” Wright would come from behind to take fi rst place. Wright overtook McKay’s Anika Rasubala to fi nish with a time of 11:16.22, and Wey- bright fi nished third with a time of 11:43.45. On the boys’ side, Connor Howard shone in his sprinting performances. The senior tied for fourth place in the 100-me- ter dash with a time of 11.22 seconds and took fi rst place in the 200-meter with a time of 23.14. Howard’s 100-meter time is a lifetime best for him and is the third-fastest time in Cottage Grove history. It places Howard seventh on the list due to several predecessors tying in second with 11.14 seconds. For this meet, Michael Tharpe rested and opted out of the 100- meter dash. “He decided that he just wanted to focus on hurdles this week,” Knutson said. “With the end of the season coming up, we want to make sure everyone is healthy and ready,” he added. Tharpe ran a fast 110-meter hurdle time, although he still stayed outside of his personal best of 15 seconds fl at, which he set several weeks ago. He fi n- ished in fi rst place with a time of 15.31, which is defi nitely noth- ing to fret about. However, Knut- son notes that there are several hurdlers in class 4A that have broken 15 seconds, and Tharpe might have to shave a few tenths of a second off of his time in or- der to win a state title this sea- son. Sophomore Hayden Glenn took ninth place overall with a time of 17.11. Glenn has had a few top-fi ve fi nishes this season and appears to be the next one to step up on the hurdles after the departure of Tharpe. Tharpe fell to Elmira’s Nich- olas Boykin and ended up tak- ing second place with a time of 40.48 seconds. Hannah Albrecht came out again with another strong per- formance, this time in the 100- meter dash. Albrecht tied for third in 13.18 seconds, a person- al best for the junior. She also placed second in the 200-meter in 27.51 seconds. On the fi eld events, Brad Geisler came away with fi rst and second-place throws in the dis- cus and shot put events. In the Please see TRACK & FIELD, Page 2B Hibbard, Wauge, Braaten, Sine and Corley capture Cottage Grove Chamber Night victories BY BEN DEATHERAGE For the Sentinel After a weekend off due to bad weather, the Cottage Grove Speedway was excited to get back to racing with gorgeous conditions in the forecast on Saturday, April 30. The historic quarter-mile clay oval hosted Cottage Grove Area Chamber of Commerce Night and at- tract another great crowd along with a very full pit area. Five classes were scheduled for rac- ing including the Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modi- fi eds, IMCA Sport Mods, Street Stocks and Qaulity RV Repair Hornets. When the Clark Printing Ex- treme Sprint feature got the green fl ag, it was all Dave Hib- bard from the get-go. Hibbard, of Medford, was able to seize the lead on the initial start and go right to work on pulling away from the rest of the fi eld. The only thing that would slow him down would be two red fl ag incidents that would bring everyone to a halt. But on the ensuing restarts, Hibbard would retain the race lead each time and stay out in front the entire distance to park in victory lane. Allison Journey, now residing in Boston, Massachusetts, would place second, while fi nishing in third was Patrick Dills. Ander- son, California teenager Chelsea Blevins crossed the wire fourth, followed by Don Waddell, from Roseburg, in fi fth. Hibbard started the night off on the right note by setting the fast time of the night, while Blevins was the Dot’s Trophy Shop Trophy Dash winner. In Photo couresy of Dirt Monkey Productions Mark Wauge stands with his family and his $500 check after his victory on Saturday. heat race competition the vic- Jasper’s Eric Ashley. to edge Mathers out of the fi rst tors would be Blevins and Thur- Wauge was the fastest in time set of turns. Braaten secured the ston’s Ricky Ashley. trials, while the victor in the lead on the back straightaway A full fi eld of IMCA Modi- Dot’s Trophy Shop Trophy Dash to come across the line in fi rst fi eds were in the house for their was Medford veteran Monte to win his second straight fea- third race of the year, and Mark Bischoff. Heat race winners ture in the class for him and his Wauge would take full advan- were Steven Sturdevant, Mark team. tage of his front row starting po- Wauge and Curtis Towns. Andrew Mathers was a re- sition. Wauge successfully navi- The iMCA Sport Mod main spectable second place, fol- gated the tricky track and build event would be an absolute barn lowed by Cottage Grove’s a sizable lead. Unfortunately burner. Springfi eld ace Daniel Shawn Hand in third. Gene for his sake, the intervals were Ray would get the initial lead Ashley, from Jasper, was fourth erased due to so many cautions on the fi rst lap. But Ray would ,while Ray ended his evening in occurring in the feature. None- get passed on the second lap by fi fth. Mathers was the fastest quali- theless, Wauge managed to mas- Andrew Mathers of Eugene. ter each and every restart and Mathers, only in his second ca- fi er, and Springfi eld’s Jayson went unchallenged to lead every reer Modifi ed race, would lead Nelson was the winner in the single lap of the main event. the charge for the majority of Dot’s Trophy Shop Trophy Dash. Heat race victors includ- Steven Sturdevant of Spring- the race. fi eld was the runner-up, while The feature came down to the ed Braaten and Mathers. A good crop of Street Stocks ending the night in third was fi nal couple of laps as Central Cottage Grove’s Curtis Towns. Point’s Jorddon Braaten began assembled for the night with The rest of the top fi ve would to reel Mathers in. The two several new faces making their be made up of Kreg Britton, cars were neck-and-neck at the 2016 debuts. Matt King, now also of Cottage Grove, fi nishing start/fi nish line at the drop of Please see SPEEDWAY, Page 3B fourth, while grabbing fi fth was the white fl ag, only for Braaten In the 3000-meter race, Wright (12) and Weybright (11) fi nished a spectacular race in fi rst and third place. Head Coach Ricky Knutson says that Wright ran "a brilliant race" after coming from behind to steal fi rst place, and Weybright fi nished strong in third place. Loss to Junction City not enough to unseat Lions A disappointing 7-6 loss puts Cottage Grove at 8-2 and still atop the Sky-Em standings BY SAM WRIGHT The Cottage Grow Sentinel Four games and less than a week and a half of play is all that is left in this year’s regular season for baseball. The Lions sit at 13-6 (pending the results of Monday’s game against Junc- tion City). Cottage Grove was on an eight-game winning streak through the beginning of April until Sisters handed the Lions a 6-0 loss on April 15. The Lions then won three in a row until traveling to Junction City this past Friday, where the Tigers handed the Lions a 7-6 loss. Yet two weeks earlier, Cottage Grove dominated Junction City in a 12-2 loss. “Baseball is sometimes one of those sports where anyone can beat anyone on any given day,” Head Coach Dan Geiszler said. He attributes the loss to not nec- essarily bad luck but a bad day. “Junction City played re- ally well and we made a few mistakes,” he said. The loss is a set back, but Cottage Grove still holds the top of the Sky- Em League and is 9-0 at home (again, pending the results of Monday’s game). Elmira (13- 5, 7-3 Sky Em) sits just behind Cottage Grove in the league standings but is still fi ve spots ahead in the state rankings at number four. The Falcons have already been beaten by Cot- tage Grove, so it is very likely that the Lions will win at least one more in the two upcoming meetings between these teams. But while the Lions have so far done better in league play than against preseason oppo- nents, the competition grows thicker as they go deeper into league play. With league opponents facing each other three times per sea- son each year, teams are able to get very familiar with each oth- er’s tendencies and strategies. Cottage Grove still boasts the most stolen bases, but their rate of stealing has slowed as oppo- nents have learned about (and paid for) the Lions’ aggressive baserunning. But that doesn’t mean the Lions aren’t looking for chances. “We’re still going to try to play aggressively and do as much as we can,” Geiszler said. Against Sutherlin, Jaydin Os- ban successfully stole two bases before a bad call put him out at third base. It was clear that Os- ban’s foot reached the base be- fore Sutherlin’s third baseman began to swing his glove toward Osban’s body (picture on page 2B), but the call ultimately did nothing to change the outcome. Last Tuesday’s game against Sutherlin displayed a strong de- fense as the Lions defeated the Bulldogs in a smothering shut- out, 10-0. Junior pitcher Brett Ollivant pitched fi ve straight in- nings with only one hit against him. On the other side, Cottage Grove has improved its batting, but Geiszler says there is still work to be done. “We’ve gotten better each game, but we’re defi nitely not where we want to be in terms of hitting,” he said. The Lions hit a .348 average in that game, but on the pre- vious game (also against the Please see BASEBALL, Page 2B Join us for Mom’s Night May 7th Mom’s only $10.00 Late Models, Clark Printing Extreme Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, Quality RV Repair Hornets Gates Open at 4pm Racing begins at 6:30pm