B
S PORTS
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Section B
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com
Ward, Harris, Presley all make All-Star series,
Presley honored at SportsTown awards
Three seniors from the Cottage Grove baseball team will play in the annual 4A All-Star
series under their very own Dan Geiszler
Athlete of the Week
Presley is SportsTown Athlete of the Year
Photo by Gary Ordway
Hunter Harris gets the forced out on fi rst base against Baker in the fi rst playoff match.
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
The 4A baseball All-Star se-
ries will take place in Roseburg
on June 18 and 19, giving Cot-
tage Grove baseball another
chance to shine.
The Lions will be represented
by three players and head coach
Dan Geiszler, making Cottage
Grove tied with Henley for the
most represented team on the
roster.
The South team’s roster will
have the privilege of hosting
Hunter Harris at fi rst base, Pay-
ton Presley on an undecided
position in the infi eld and Lucas
Ward at an undecided position
in the outfi eld.
Although Brett Ollivant won
the Sky-Em’s Pitcher of the Year
award, the star junior unfortu-
nately didn’t qualify. The pitch-
ers for the south will be Trevor
Bennett from Baker, Hunter
Buchanon from South Umpqua
and Brad Haga and Tyler Las-
key from North Bend.
Each team (North and South)
hosts 18 players each along with
two coaches. Geiszler will be
coaching alongside Tim Cleland
of Henley, the head coach of
the team that won the 4A state
championship over Estacada.
The series will have a total of
three games between the North
and the South. One nine-inning
game will be played on June 18,
followed by two seven-inning
games on June 19. The All-Star
series will mark the end of the
high school baseball careers of
Harris, Ward and Presley, and
Geiszler will be taking a break
from summer league practice
to participate. However, this
won’t mark the end for the base-
ball careers for players such as
Presley. Come fall, Presley will
be attending Pacifi c University
where he will continue to play
baseball in the spring.
.
The fi rst annual SportsTown awards were hosted by
Eugene Cascades and Coast Sports Commission, a
marketing organization under Travel Lane County. Pay-
ton Presley was presented the male Student Athlete of
the Year award for his athletic ability and his dedication
and volunteer work with South Valley Athletics to help
organize, coach and referee the youth of Lane County.
Hidden Valley Men's Club gives golf course a fresh new look
McKenzie River Golf Course provides fresh sod for Hidden Valley
BY SAM WRIGHT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
Avid golfers around Lane
County may already know that
the McKenzie River golf course
in Springfi eld has been closed
for a few weeks now. The clos-
ing is due to owner Rod Omlid
selling the land to developers,
who plan to construct a 27-
home subdivision.
But Cottage Grove Golfers of
the Hidden Valley Men’s club
saw this as an opportunity to
help out their own greens.
Due to a streak of extremely
hot weather a few weeks back,
some of the green at Hidden
Valley was withering and didn’t
hold its usual lush appearance
as it usually does.
That’s when the men’s club
of the golf course took a total
of eight members to the closed
McKenzie River Golf Course,
where they received permission
to take as much sod as possible
and transfer it to the less-healthy
areas of Hidden Valley.
The group provided their
own sod cutter and stripped the
greens before rolling it up into
several trailers and bringing it
to Cottage Grove. The whole
process took several days, as the
entire men’s club, not just the
eight who cut the sod, put in ef-
fort and support to the project.
The men transplanted the sod
onto their own course.
Dan Nord of Hidden Valley
Golf Course praised the efforts
of everyone involved.
“I’m just so grateful to have a
men’s club that cares about the
greens so much,” Nord said. “It
speaks volumes to their dedica-
tion and care for the facilities.”
Nord says that the course now
looks “awesome.” The efforts of
the eight men who were able to
do the physical labor were sup-
ported by those who couldn’t.
“It probably would’ve taken
an entire maintenance crew a
week to do what they did,” Nord
added.
With the newly added sod,
Hidden Valley is back in top
form in appearance and in golf-
ers. The dedication and hard
work of the men’s club saved
the course a lot of aesthetic grief
along with maintenance costs.
Photo courtesy of Dan Nord
Craig Royce, Steve Pratt, Cliff Vincent, Dale Martin, Dale Mukavetz, Herb Williams,
Donn Pollard and Jerry Avery all helped to transplant sod from McKenzie River golf
course.
Dills, Brewster, Frisbie, Williamson, J. Corley and Martinez earn wins At CGS
BY BEN DEATHERAGE
For the Sentinel
A full pit area of over 90 cars
were in attendance at Cottage
Grove Speedway on Saturday,
June 11 for the prelude to the
Wallbanger Cup. A whopping
six classes were on the card,
featuring the Clark Printing
Extreme Sprints, Late Mod-
els, IMCA Sports Mods, Street
Stocks, Quality RV Repair Hor-
nets and Dwarf Cars.
Cottage Grove’s Patrick Dills,
stormed to the front and cap-
tured the lead on lap two in the
Clark Printing Extreme Sprints.
Dills was briefl y bottled up in
lapped traffi c but remained in
the coveted position. It was the
second straight victory for Dills
and the team.
Darren Coffell from Bend
led the opening circuits of the
Late Model main. He was then
passed on lap four by fellow
central Oregonian Ron Brews-
ter. Brewster would remain in
the top spot the rest of the dis-
tance to put his vehicle in the
winner’s circle.
The IMCA Sport Mod feature
was a caution-plagued affair.
Despite having to deal with sev-
eral restarts through the course
of the race, Vancouver, Wash-
ington’s Chris Frisbie was the
car to beat. Frisbie blazed the
trail for every single lap to win
his fi rst career race at CGS.
It would take Corvallis chauf-
feur Kevin Williamson eight
laps to get in the top place po-
sition in the Street Stock main.
Williamson then took care of
business and distanced himself
from the main body of the pack
to win the race. It was the fi rst
feature win for his team in 2016
at Cottage Grove.
Westfi r driver Josh Corley re-
turned to top form in the Qual-
ity RV Repair Hornets. Corley
got to the front on lap fi ve and
stayed there for the remainder
of the distance. It would be the
fourth win of the current cam-
paign for Corley.
Last but not least was the
Dwarf Cars. Obtaining the lead
late in the feature on lap 22 was
Ryan Martinez, who would take
off after that point. The Port-
land driver eventually claimed
the victory in the Dwarf Cars
race.
Monday, June 13 and Tues-
day, June 14 saw Cottage Grove
Speedway host the Wild West
Modifi ed Shootout. There were
some of the best IMCA Modifi ed
drivers in the country, as well as
Canada, that made their way to
Cottage Grove for two nights of
racing. Results can be found on
the Speedway website.
541-942-7561
www.cottagegrovespeedway.com
Courtesy photo
Ryan Martinez speaks with a commentator after his big win on Saturday.
Join us
Friday - Go-Karts FREE General Admission
Saturday - Wallbanger Cup
The biggest street stock race on the west coast!
Also 360 Sprints, Late Models, Sportmods,
and quality RV Hornets