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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2018)
B S PORTS Section B Lions win one, lose two Wednesday, May 2, 2018 South Lane County Sports and Recreation Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com Running for a cause – and ice cream Win against Elmira followed by losses to Junction City as playoff race heats up By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com It was another up and down week for the Cottage Grove baseball team. After winning at home last Tuesday against Elmira, the Lions dropped a pair of games to Junction City on the road. With the wins, the Tigers are now a game up on second place Sweet Home and two games ahead of fourth place Cottage Grove. On Tuesday April 24, in the fi nal home game of the season, the Lions welcomed in the winless-in-league play Falcons in what felt like a must-win game to keep pace with the rest of the league. Using small-ball to the best of their ability, Cot- tage Grove was able to grind away a 4-2 victory. “I guess, a win is a win. Sometimes you can win ugly and I guess that’s good,” said head coach Dan Geiszler. “Good thing we got some bunts down and they made a few mistakes because if that wasn’t the case we would have been in trouble. We just didn’t swing the bats very well at all.” The Lions recorded two hits on the day. In the top of the fi rst, the Falcons got things going right away as they got run- ners on base early and came away with a pair of runs in the inning. Cottage Grove provided an answer when Wyatt Sayles hit a grounder to shortstop that was over- thrown to fi rst scoring Pay- ton Frieze. After a shaky fi rst inning on the mound, Sayles locked down Elmira in the second inning, as he recorded two strike outs, and for the rest of the game. Sayles fi nished with fi ve strike outs on the day. Cottage Grove's batting woes continued in the third inning after Emry Foster and Frieze got on base to start the inning. A double steal put runners on second and third but three straight strikeouts ended the inning early for the home team. “I think there is some- times, when you’re dealing with high school kids espe- cially, the aspect of, ‘Well they’re not very good so of course I’m going to hit it’ and ‘oh crap, I didn’t.’ Ver- sus when you know you’re playing good pitchers, you really focus more on your, you’re into it a little more,” said Geiszler. In the fourth inning, Cot- tage Grove was buoyed by bunts to take the lead back. With a pair of runners on base, Matt Zumwalt put down a bunt that led to an overthrow that tied the game at two runs apiece. After a Lions strikeout, Foster then laid down a bunt that result- ed in both an out but and a run that put the team up for the fi rst time in the game. “We battled, that’s all I can say. I’m proud of them for battling and getting some quality bunts down and just putting pressure on them. And we made them make the mistake,” said Geiszler. It was another Zumwalt bunt leading to an over- thrown ball, this time in the sixth inning, that scored Ja- cob Dunn for the fi nal run of BASEBALL continued on B2 PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL Friday at Cottage Grove High School, runners from Lincoln Middle School and around the area participated in The Great Ice Cream Bowl. The run/walk features three courses for participants to run with the promise of an ice cream sundae at the fi nish. The free event is associated with Peggy’s Primary Connection – a group that provides assistance with early education, insurance and childcare. Left: Racers excitedly sprint out to a fast start on Friday. Top right: A young runner fi nishes off the race. Bottom right: Participants are rewarded with ice cream sundaes after their run. Yoss steps down as girls' basketball coach After three years as head coach at CGHS, Kevin Yoss resigns By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com The Cottage Grove High School girls’ basketball coach, Kevin Yoss, re- signed from his coaching position last Wednesday. “This can be a diffi cult job in that you are required to do a lot more than basketball. If it was only basketball and that was all I had to deal with, I would be back,” said Yoss. “I would say the big things are fund- raising and time away from your fami- ly. And I will end it there for right now.” Yoss has coached in Cottage Grove at varying levels for 25 years and has been involved with coaching basketball at CGHS for the past 18 years including stints as the coach of the freshman and JV boys’ teams. “We want to thank him for his service to Cottage Grove High School. Not just the girls team but for more than 15 years besides that,” said athletic director Gary Roberts. “He took over a young pro- gram and certainly did a good job to get us better. He is a hard-working guy and he put a lot of effort into our program.” The past three seasons Yoss has coached the varsity girls and compiled a record of 32-39 and in the 2016-17 season, was named Sky-Em coach of the year. Last season, the team tied for fi rst in league and fi nished ranked 16th in state. “In his time leading the girls pro- gram, Coach Yoss’ teams steadily im- proved each year. His teams went from 4-6 his fi rst year to tying for the league title and only losing one league game this past season,” read part of the school district’s statement that announced his resignation. While it will be an adjustment to not be around basketball as he has been for Mastering the marathon By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com The 2018 Boston Marathon was a day of terrible weather. Temperatures hovered in the up- per 30s and lower 40s, gusts of wind reached up to 40 mph and there was a constant onslaught of rain. A perfect day to run 26.2 miles. With partially melted snow, mud pits and puddles all coalescing, Cot- tage Grove’s Miriam Udosenata head- ed to the start line. *** The term Boston Marathon, once – relatively recently – meant nothing to Udosenata. The race that has come to represent the pinnacle of the sport in the Unit- ed States (though there are races with faster qualifying times and more run- ners) was an unknown to Udosenata who was brand new to running. After running her fi rst marathon in 2009 and nearly qualifying for the presti- gious Patriots’ Day run that has been taking place since 1897, Udosenata started to learn about this race. “I was like, ‘what’s Boston?’ I had no idea. I totally ran by myself, totally self-coached. So then I was like, ‘oh, I guess I could go to Boston because that sounds like kind of a big deal, I guess,’” she said last week after com- pleting her second Boston run. Miriam Udosenata is all smiles during the rainy Boston Marathon last month. Athlete of the Week In the time since learning about this historic race, Udosenata has com- pletely fallen in love with the sport. From running 12 offi cial marathons, three 50 K ultra-marathons (31 miles) and being a pacer at the Eugene mara- thon last weekend, running is not just something she does but has been wo- ven into who she is. *** As the rain continued to fall in Boston, Udosenata was prepared for whatever the day was going to bring. “I was by myself at this point and I just kind of said, ‘Well, this is going to be an adventure today.’ And you know, I’m listening to people say ‘I’m throwing my goal out the window’… ‘There goes my race plan.’ And I’m like, no,” she said. “I think I’m still going to try my race plan and just see kind of how long I can hold on to that race plan.” Heading out in the second wave of runners, Udosenata was just looking to fi nd her rhythm – a task that can be hard when there are nearly 30,000 runners around you. The start wasn’t perfect. In an ef- fort to stay warm, she raced the fi rst two miles in her husband’s oversized sweatshirt and just .67 miles into the race, her trusty watch that had guided her throughout her training bumped into her training partner. The lap function had been hit which meant for the remainder of the race her watch beeped every time she completed .67 miles. In addition to incessant beeps, the weather still hadn’t changed. “There were standing water pud- dles on the road and it was just tor- rential rain in your face. And then you would say to yourself, it really can’t rain any harder at this point and then the sky would just open up and like somebody dumped a bucket on all of us,” she said. “I mean, it was MARATHON continued on B2 This week’s athlete of the week is Cottage Grove’s Jacob Woods. Woods was dominant at the Stayton Twilight Meet last Friday taking fi rst in the 200 while fi nishing second in the 100 and long jump. To read more about his performance and how the team did, turn to B2. the last quarter century, Yoss thinks he will be ready for it. “Well, I think I will enjoy the time off. I don’t think I will have any prob- lems with that...There’s enough stress in life that I can deal with a little less from for now,” he said. “It’s been great. I really enjoyed it. I’ve enjoyed especially the interaction with the kids. That’s the part I’m going to miss the most is the interaction with the kids. Not the wins and losses, it’s the kids and seeing them every day and the growth you see from the beginning to the end is what I enjoy.” Aqua Lions prepare for swim-a-thon By Zach Silva zsilva@cgsentinel.com For the fi rst time in years, the Cottage Aqua Lions swim club is holding a swim-a-thon. The event – that has the swimmers raise money on a per lap basis – is back throughout the day on Saturday at the Warren H. Daugh- tery Aquatic Center. The group is looking to raise money for the club, the renovation and to offset costs for pool fees for next year when the pool is closed. During the yearlong closure, the group will be traveling to swim at pools across the area such as Amazon Pool or River Road Pool in Eugene or the pool in Drain. The details have not yet been fi nalized for where the teams will practice but head swim coach Tyson Pilling noted that the school teams have been told the district will be taking care of transportation costs. There are three age groups for the swim- a-thon with kids who are younger than high school age swimming from 7 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., high school students swimming from 8:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. and alumni and community mem- bers swimming from 11 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. The swim-a-thon will have over 70 partici- pants with the goal of raising at least $5,000. If individuals are interested in donating money or being a part of the event, they can call the aquatic center at (541)-942-5533. Cottage Grove's Jacob Woods com- petes in the 100 earlier this season. PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/ CG SENTINEL