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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2017)
B S PORTS Section B Wednesday, MAY 17, 2017 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail sports@cgsentinel.com Sentman hangs up the blue and gold LION TRACK Blake Sentman continues senior send-offs for 2017 class TEAMS MAKE SCHOOL HISTORY By Kyle McGowen As the rain fell on and off Saturday afternoon at Sutherlin High School, the Cottage Grove Lions track and fi eld team continued to reign supreme in the Sky-Em league. For the fi rst time in school history, the boys and coed Lions teams are back-to-back district champions after Thurs- day and Saturdays events. “We were hoping to get out of here with three trophies but to de- fend your title is always hard,” Knutson said. I would say Junction City was the favorite coming in. For the boys to swing it around to pull off the win is pretty awesome.” Led by a balanced effort, the men’s team’s 162 points earned them a 1st place fi nish above Junction City. Cottage Grove had sev- en members of the boys team that scored a combined 16 points who were not seeded in scoring position going into the weekend, which were big in Cottage Grove’s fi ve point win. “It was such a team effort on the boy’s side cause while we didn’t win a ton of events we had a lot of guy’s step and score. Our depth is what won it for us today, for anyone who thinks track is an in- dividual sport, it was a total team effort today on the boy’s side. There are too many guys to even mention that stepped it up today,” Knutson said. On the track, Jacob Woods once again had a big day for the Cot- tage Grove boys, winning the 100-meter fi nal with a time of 11.37, just edging out Junction City’s Jake Rogers. Woods and Rogers once again fi nished 1st and 2nd in the 200-meter race but Rogers got the upper hand in that race. “Going into the meet we talked a lot with the kids how this meet was a lot like a boxing match, there was going to be 17 rounds. There were a couple points where I thought Junction City was go- ing to have us on the boy’s side,” Knutson added. The Tigers boys fi nished just 5 points behind the Lions, with 157 points. In the 1500 Konrad Raum’s PR of 4:18.90 was good enough for a 3rd place fi nish. James Talley and Raum had another big showing in the 3000, fi nishing 2nd and 3rd, with Raum coming just behind Sisters lead man Jordan Pollard. The Lions 4X100 Relay team fi n- ished 2nd in the fi nals on the boy’s team’s way to winning districts. The boys fi eld events were highlighted by Hunter Hall, who threw 43’ 0.25 and Joshua Clafl in throwing 40’ 6.5 in the shot put. The Javelin fi nals also saw Hunter Hall throw 157’ 8, good enough for third. But it was Tucker Porter (who also placed 2nd in the triple jump fi nals, Woods, and Erick Giffen that highlighted the men’s fi eld events. Porter and Woods fi nished 1st and 2nd in the Long jump for the Lions while Giffen’s 6’1 high jump fi nished led to a 1st place fi nish. After fi nishing 11th in last week’s Ciochetti invitational, the girls team had a strong performance, fi nishing with 170 points, second behind Sisters’ 175 points. Cassidy Herbert won the shot put event, throwing 30-10.5 while also fi nishing 3rd in discus. Melissa Pow- ers and Kaitlyn Brooks fi nished 3rd and 4th respectively in the Jav- elin fi nals while Keara Murphy’s 4’10 jump was good enough for 2nd in the high jump. “Sisters beat us up pretty good last year (on the girl’s side, we knew Sisters would be the favorite again but we thought we had closed the gap on them a little bit,” Knutson added. “To come fi ve points within a team like that…” On the track the women’s team had another excellent showing from Hannah Albrecht, Sabrina James, and Faryn Dahlen. Albrecht took the 400, while also fi nishing 2nd in the 100 and 200 meter races. James came in second in the 1500 and 3000 while Dahlen fi nished 2nd in the 100M hurdles and Tyra Gordon fi nished 3rd in the same event. Hudson Weybright also came in 2nd in the 800-me- ter race. Up next the Lions will send 18 student athletes to Hayward fi eld in Eugene for the state championships this Friday and Saturday. Knutson, who won the Sky-Em boys coach of the year award along with his assistants, said this coming week’s practices will be “a lot of recovery. A lot of attention to detail and a lot of tech- nique. It’s hard to compete with this level of intensity two out of three days so we need to make sure they are fresh for competing at Hayward fi eld.” For The Sentinel At eight years old, Blake Sentman was already on the Cottage Grove High For The Sentinel School basketball court nearly every game, running onto the court at halftime and pawing for a loose ball to shoot until the Lions returned from the locker room. “All the coaches...they just knew me as the little kid they couldn’t keep off the court,” Sentman said with a laugh. At the time, Sentman’s older brother Bryant Sentman was a member of the Cottage Grove High School’s basketball and foot- ball teams. Blake remembers attending his brother’s games, playing on the fi eld or court at halftime and hoping that one day he could follow in Bryant’s footsteps. After his older brother was recruited to Oregon Tech, Blake set the same goal to play sports at the college level. Fast forward ten years and Blake is now a senior at CGHS and a four-year letterman in both football and basketball. But he is much more than just a member of these teams; Blake is a crucial element to them. His senior year, Blake showed his prowess in football, taking home League Offensive Player of the Year honors, a First Team All- League (Offense) and First Team All-State selection for his work as the Lions’ quarterback. When football season drew to a close, Blake didn’t. His senior basketball season, he was named Sky-Em Player of the Year and made the league’s First-Team roster and earned a spot on Oregon’s 4A First Team All-State list. By Madison Layton Blake said the decision to keep up the work in the off-season in both sports, which helped him achieve these honors, wasn’t a tough one to make. “I grew up watching my brother doing that,” Blake said. “I also got to grow up getting to watch him play at the college level...I knew what I had to do to get there.” And the fi rst week of May this year, all that work paid off. Blake accepted an offer from Lewis-Clark State College in Lew- iston, Idaho to play basketball under head coach Brandon Rinta. Though he had offers from other schools for both basketball and football, Blake said it was Rinta that solidifi ed the decision to go to Lewis-Clark. “The coach drew me there just because of how much he liked to connect with his players on a personal level,” Blake explained. “During the recruiting process, you don’t really fi nd a lot of coaches that reach out to you and ask you how you’re doing throughout your day before you’ve even signed.” Rinta recently completed his sixth year of coaching the Lew- is-Clark State basketball program and said he is looking forward to having Blake on the team. “We were just really impressed with him as a person and as a player and are really excited that it worked out for him to be coming over here and that he’s going to be part of our program next year,” Rinta said. Once a student at Lewis-Clark State, Blake plans to study edu- cation with the hopes of becoming a physical education and health teacher. The path to teaching for Blake is one that has been inspired Please see SENTMAN PG B2 Athlete of the Week LEFT: Cottage Grove Lions boys and co-ed track and fi eld teams earned this weeks Athlete of the Week for bringing home the fi rst back-to-back district championships to the school. Congratulations to both teams! Photo my Kyle McGowen SATURDAY ARMED FORCES NIGHT FRIDAY KAGE KARTS Gates open at 5:00pm Event Classes Pee Wee, 5HP Open, 5HP Intermediate, 125cc, 250cc, Open Kage, Micros Gates open at 4:00 FREE general admission to all members past and present of all branches of the military to a fun night out at Cottage Grove Speedway on us! Th ank you to all of you that have served and continue to serve this great country!! Event Classes NWWT Sprints, IMCA Modifi eds, IMCA SportMods, Quality RV Repair Hornets