B
S PORTS
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Howard sweeps individual events, 18
qualify for state as Lions shine at districts
The boys won the
league title for the
fi rst time in fi ve
years; girls took
second with Albrecht
and Wright making
statements
Athlete of
the Week
Connor Howard:
Most Valuable Track
Athlete
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Rain came pouring down on
the Wally Ciochetti track this
past Saturday, as the Sky-Em
district meet was wrapping up
its fi nal day. Usually, the rain
can be a huge hindrance on per-
formances, but that was not the
case for Cottage Grove.
The Lions dominated a wide
variety of events. The boys’
squad took fi rst place over an
extremely competitive Junction
City team that rivaled the Lions
throughout the entire meet. The
girls’ team placed second and
just under Sisters, the defend-
ing champs, and fi nished 59.5
points ahead of Junction City in
third place.
It was the fi rst time in fi ve
years that the boys have won the
league title, and Head Coach
Ricky Knutson said it was one
of the best district champion-
ships Cottage Grove has ever
seen.
Despite the disagreeable
weather, the Lions saw person-
al records set and a total of 18
athletes (11 boys, seven girls)
qualify for the state meet.
Perhaps the story of the sea-
son came from senior sprinter
Connor Howard, who won the
most valuable track athlete for
the district championship.
Howard took fi rst place in the
100, 200 and 400-meter sprints
Photo by Sam Wright
Connor Howard gains the edge in the 100-meter fi nal, the senior broke records while qualifying for state.
and took second place in the
The 400-meter run had a did on Saturday,” Knutson said. 14.98 seconds. He also placed
4x100-meter relay. His original similar pattern. Howard lost to “Not only how he placed, but fourth in the 100-meter sprints,
personal best in the 100-meter Trey Reed of Sweet Home in the fact that he did it in a league qualifying for state with a time
was 11.22 seconds, a time that the preliminary races, yet he that has a crop of some of the of 11.30 seconds (the automatic
was the third-fastest in Cottage still managed to take fi rst in the best sprinters in the state,” he qualifying time is 11.37 sec-
Grove history. On Saturday, fi nals. Both Howard and Reed added.
onds).
Howard fi nished the fi nal race improved their times from the
And Knutson is right. Four
On the girls’ side, Hannah
in 11.15 seconds, 0.03 seconds preliminary run; however, How- sprinters from the Sky-Em Albrecht took home four silver
slower than his preliminary ard improved a whole lot more. League are ranked in the top 10 medals by placing second in the
time.
In Howard’s fourth and fi nal for 100-meter sprinters.
100, 200 and 400-meter races as
In the 200-meter preliminary, event, the 4x100-meter relay,
Howard stole the spotlight, well as the 4x400-meter relay.
Howard actually placed third be- his team took second place, but but that is not to say that other Although she didn’t take any
hind two of Junction City’s best, their time of 43.72 seconds still Cottage Grove athletes didn’t gold medals, the junior Lion
Zach Rogers and James Palodi- broke a Cottage Grove record shine.
was well decorated with her
chuk. But in the fi nals, Howard that had been standing for 12
Michael Tharpe took fi rst wide range of medals.
gained the slightest edge on years.
place in the high hurdles, break-
Rogers and managed to steal
“Howard should be named ing his personal best and the
Please see TRACK & FIELD, Page 2B
fi rst place in 22.95 seconds.
athlete of the year for what he 15-second mark for a time of
Pitch, Hit and
Run winners
head to
Portland Sat.
Cottage Grove secures Sky-Em
League title after Elmira rout
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
On May 7, the MLB’s Pitch Hit and Run
program came to Cottage Grove for area
youth to test their fundamental baseball skills
and earn a trip to Portland for the sectional
competition.
For the girls, only one age group competed
,and it was Addie Ruckwardt that came away
as the all-around champion with a score of
444. Ruckwardt scored 150 in the pitch event,
134 in the hit event and 160 in the run event.
The boys’ side saw a little more competition
but still only had nine participants in total. In
the age 9-10 group, Christian Spear was the
all-around champion across the board, scor-
ing 225 in pitching, 214 in hitting and 310 in
running for a total score of 749.
In the 11 and 12 age group, Luke Horn-
ick came away as the all-around champion
but was only the hitting champion for his age
group. Hornick hit off of a tee for a score of
224. Logan Ruckwardt (Addie’s brother) was
the pitching champion with a score of 225,
and Walker Williams was the running cham-
pion who ran the bases for a score of 303.
Matthew Zumwalt put on an impressive
performance in the 13 and 14 age group, as
he won the age group and swept the board.
His combined score as all-around champion
added up for 817, the highest score of the
day.
Spear, Hornick, Zumwalt and Ruckwardt
will make their way to Portland on Saturday
to compete in the sectional competition. The
sectional competition will take place at Sun-
set High School and will determine who will
head to Seattle to compete at the Mariners’
stadium. Winners from that regional tourna-
ment will be invited to compete in the com-
petition at the All-Star game in San Diego.
Photo by Sam Wright
TJ Bellamy gets the forced out at third and tries for the double play at fi rst against Elmira on Friday.
Lions see season-high batting average as they demolish Elmira on the road
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Throughout the season, Elmira
seemed to be the only Sky-Em oppo-
nent that could topple Cottage Grove.
The Falcons were ranked higher in
the state rankings and statistically out-
matched the Lions in most areas of the
game (even bases stolen). But the Li-
ons did not shudder. They had already
beaten Elmira in April, and there was
nothing to say that they couldn’t repeat
that once more.
And Cottage Grove didn’t even need
to beat them twice. One win would
have secured the Sky-Em, but that
won’t stop the competitive instincts of
these athletes.
Tuesday’s matchup made it clear
who the real dominant program of the
Sky-Em was. The Lions marched in to
Falcon territory and blew them away,
17-5, with a season-high score and a
season-high batting average of .514.
The team scored in every inning except
for one, and three players had an aver-
age of .750 (Lukas Ward, Brett Ollivant
and Ryan East), six out of the 10 batters
hit for an average of .500 or better. The
team totaled 19 hits.
This is the type of hitting perfor-
mance Head Coach Dan Geiszler has
been looking for throughout the season.
The Lions rely heavily on their ability
to steal once on base, but their batting
averages have sometimes been on the
slightly lower side of average.
Brett Ollivant showed that he can
Please see BASEBALL, Page 2B
Howard had consistently
placed high in previous
meets throughout the
season, but at the district
meet, he put on one of
the best performances of
any athlete. Howard won
three gold medals in the
100, 200 and 400-meter
sprints and then contrib-
uted to take second place
in the 4x100-meter relay,
breaking a Cottage Grove
record with a time of 43.72
seconds.
Boys' Golf
takes third at
districts, state
results to come
Junction City is this year’s
Sky-Em boys’ golf champion,
Sutherlin is the runner up and
Cottage Grove reached its goal
of taking third place in the dis-
trict tournament. The Lions,
headed by coach Kent Russo,
have placed well enough to
qualify for the 4A state tourna-
ment. The state tournament was
held this Monday and Tuesday,
but results have yet to be re-
leased.
In the district tournament,
Nick Russo fi nished third over-
all in individual scoring and was
the only medalist for the Lions.
A few uncharacteristic holes put
him in a tough spot, but Coach
Russo said that his “mental
toughness kept his round from
exploding because he struggled
on the front and started the back
double bogey and triple bogey.”
Russo ended up scoring 86 and
89 to take his third place.
Another strong performance
came from Jeramy Hall, who
shot a 95 on day two of districts.
Russo explained that the greens
at Tokatee golf course are ex-
tremely fast, making things like
putts and chips more diffi cult.
Trey Husko then shot 99,
breaking 100 for the fi rst time.
On the front nine, Husko shot
42, however he struggled on the
back nine and hit 57.
“He has some rough stretches
and those will lessen with time,”
Russo said.
Overall, the team was very
satisfi ed with their third place
fi nish. As mentioned earlier,
the state tournament fi nished
up early Tuesday afternoon, and
the results will be in next week’s
issue.
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