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