Sports
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Forler and
Bloom shine
at Speedway
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Creating her own destiny
By Ben Deatherage
CG Speedway
The final night of the 2018
Marvin Smith Memorial
Grove Classic would be a
thriller on Sunday, May 27th.
Despite only two classes on
the schedule both divisions
would thrill the crowd the en-
tire night. Those two divisions
were the 360 Sprints and the
Street Stocks.
Michael Kofoid, piloting
the Doug and Kathy Rutz
owned entry, would seize
the initiative of the forty-one
lap 360 Sprint feature on the
opening start. The Penngrove,
California teenager would
have his hands full when he
hit slower traffic around lap
three. Despite having to make
the split second decisions and
constant pressure from be-
hind he would retain the race
lead for quite some time.
However, on lap fourteen
Jason Solwold would make
an incredible pass for the
lead. Solwold, racing for car
owners Mike Anderson and
Monica Baca, kept his mount
ahead of the field but unfortu-
nately would get caught up in
an incident after the caution
flag waved on lap twenty-two.
The Burlington, Washington
veteran was able to restart
but was put to the tail end of
the field and it gave first place
back to Kofoid.
Michael Kofoid again
would try and pull away from
the rest of the pack but again
he would have challengers
rise to the occasion. Logan
Forler, of Boise, Idaho, man-
aged to put himself in a po-
sition to challenge late and
obtained the top spot on the
thirty-eighth circuit.
Two consecutive red flag
stoppages, both of which in-
volved drivers running inside
the top five, would keep the
drama building in the final
stages. On the ensuing restart
Forler would master the tim-
ing and propelled himself to
a comfortable lead. He would
go on to win the feature and
become the fourth different
driver in five years to win the
prestigious event.
Jason Solwold tried to
challenge late but was a no-
ble second while Clarksburg,
California’s Justyn Cox placed
third. The balance of the top
five would consist of fourth
finishing Lucas Ashe, of Cot-
tonwood, California, and
Quilcene, Washington driver
J.J. Hickle, in fifth.
Earlier in the evening Lu-
cas Ashe and Michael Kofoid
were the quickest drivers in
their respective groups while
Kofoid would go on to win
the dash and start on the
pole. Heat race winners were
Medford’s Seth Nunes, Tyrell
Mead of Winston, Mill Creek,
Washington chauffeur Cam
Smith, and Sutherlin teenag-
er Cooper Desbiens. Allison
Journey, from Lincoln City,
won the consolation feature.
In the Street Stocks Aaron
Houseman, of Monroe and
racing for Roy Moore, got
out in front early. Jasper’s An-
drew Langan made it around
Houseman on lap four and
began to pull away from the
pack. He would be hunted
down by Ray Bloom, from
Cottage Grove, in the last half
of the race. Bloom managed
to track Langan down and
pull off a last lap upset with
a big win for himself and his
team.
Andrew Langan was a re-
spectable second followed by
Eugene’s Hunter Bloom, in
third. Aaron Houseman end-
ed his evening in fourth while
SPEEDWAY see B2
Destiny Dawson, the javelin record holder for OSU, competes at a meet at Oregon State earlier this season.
Cottage Grove alum has
had a journey to the NCAA
Championships
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
While at Cottage Grove High School,
Destiny Dawson was a good athlete.
The 2014 grad was on varsity soccer,
basketball and in her sophomore year,
was convinced to go out for track and
field.
Dawson dabbled in a little of every-
thing; she sprinted, she jumped, she
threw and even, for a brief moment, con-
sidered pole vault. She was fine at every-
thing but not yet great at anything in the
sport.
“The coolest thing about her story is
that in high school, she wasn’t necessarily
a star,” said Cottage Grove track and field
coach Ricky Knutson.
“She was going to go to the state meet
but you don’t necessarily think, ‘This
is going to be a kid that is going to be a
D1 NCAA qualifier.’ That’s the awesome
thing about her story.”
Dawson is representing Oregon State
University at this week’s NCAA Track
and Field Championships at Hayward
Field. And while there are plenty of sto-
ries of athletes finding their event and
instantly becoming a phenom, that is not
quite Dawson’s story with the javelin. It
took time to get there.
After her first year of throwing javelin
in high school, Dawson, who had a per-
sonal best of 98 feet, had to convince her
coaches to let her continue to compete.
“My coaches told me I wasn’t allowed
to be a javelin thrower when I started ju-
nior year because they said I’m not a jav
thrower until I throw at least 100 feet,”
recalls Dawson. “So, I think I might have
thrown 100 feet the first or second meet
of the season and they’re like, ‘Okay, you
can be a jav thrower now.’ So, that’s when
I fully changed over to javelin.”
Her junior year she took second at
districts and seventh in state while, her
senior year, she was again second in Sky-
Em and then finished fifth in state.
“It was cool,” she said of competing at
Hayward Field for the state meet. “Truth-
fully, I don’t remember much except I
wish I had done better both times.”
Dawson’s personal best at the time of
128-09 was good for a distant third place
on the all-time Cottage Grove javelin list
and for a walk-on at University of Hawaii
at Mānoa. University of Hawaii checked
the boxes of being not in Oregon, hav-
PHOTO BY DAVE NISHITANI/OREGON STATE ATHLETICS
ing both an engineering and architecture
program and a track and field program
that she could join. After communicating
with a coach who then left the program,
the new coach didn’t know who Dawson
was.
She joined the team all the same.
But as nice as Hawaii was, it was also
full of hard work.
“Everyone assumes you’re going to
just live in paradise. I think I went to the
beach once a month, maybe. When I did
go, it was amazing and it was what every-
one says it is. But it’s not as leisurely as
everyone thinks,” she said.
Struggling throughout her first season,
Dawson finished the year with a fifth-
place finish at the Big West Champion-
ships that saw her set a personal record of
less than a foot better than her high
DESTINY see B3
A grand time at the Gran Fondo
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Riders fill Main St. at the start of the Gran Fondo on Saturday morning.
Cyclists flock to Cottage
Grove for annual event
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Last Saturday, Cottage Grove wel-
comed over 250 cyclists to town for the
sixth annual Gran Fondo. Meaning “big
ride” in Italian, riders from around the
state and five different states rode one of
four courses that had lengths of 40 miles,
71 miles, 117 miles or 134 miles. The
route started and finished on Main St.
“Cycling is something most people
don’t see themselves doing after child-
hood,” said event organizer Mike Ripley.
“These folks have not given up a child-
hood dream. It’s fun, it’s playful.”
The event, in its sixth year in Cottage
Grove, is part of a three-part bike series
around the state that include the Oregon
Coast Gravel Epic and the Sasquatch
Duro.
During the race, Ripley served as a
“grocery store on wheels” as he drove
through various checkpoints on the
course offering what he could to the rac-
ers.
Athletes of
the Week
“Between the six aid stations and get-
ting every single individual their supplies
including bike racks, water jugs, and
food -- oh hell,” said Ripley. “The course
spread out over 130 miles of road, that is
a unique logistical challenge.”
It was well worth it for Ripley who got
to fulfill his dream in providing a per-
sonal favorite at one of the aid stations
in the form of a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich with a glazed doughnut as the
bread.
“The most amazing thing ever,” he said.
In addition to those competing in the
event, the Gran Fondo also relied on over
80 volunteers throughout the course. The
volunteers did everything from handing
out water at aid stations along the route
to announcing riders crossing the finish
line.
From Ripley’s perspective, nearly ev-
erything went right for the race except
for several markers being stolen from the
course and causing riders to get lost.
“Somebody took the main corners
down during the event. So we had some
riders that got off course and went to
Drain. So that was the first time we had
the community sabotage the event,” he
said.
This week’s athletes of
the week are Cottage
Grove’s Jaace Cross
(left) and Payton
Frieze (right). The
pair were named to
the first team Sky-Em
baseball team.
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL