Sports & recreation
Cottage Grove Sentinel
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
South Lane County Sports and Recreation
Talley takes
18th place at
state meet
Section B
Contact Sports, 942-3325 or e-mail zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Cottage Grove takes second at state
Cottage Grove cross
country runner left
wanting more from
final race of season
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
Saturday at the state cross
country meet, junior Jim-
my Talley, Cottage Grove’s
lone state-qualifier, finished
in 18th place. It was an im-
provement from his 58th
place finish his freshman
year and his 33rd place finish
last season but for Talley, the
final race of the season was a
disappointment after having
run the fastest time in 4A this
season.
“It was just not a good
race,” he said after the 5K.
Talley started out among
the top runners but after the
trip through the first mile’s
“Poison Oak Alley” had
dropped back to fifth place.
As the race progressed, Talley
fell back and finished in 18th
in a time of 17:05. While the
state course is not consid-
ered a fast course meant for
personal records, running at
LCC at the district meet, Tal-
ley ran a time of 16:04. In his
first-place finish at districts,
he defeated Marist’s Joey Pe-
terson who took the individ-
ual title on Saturday.
“I knew I was going to be
dead, I knew I was going to
be tired. I didn’t know what
to expect, I was going to try
to go with my original plan
but as soon as I hit the first
mile my legs just got really
heavy,” said Talley.
For Talley, in the run-up
to the state meet, his train-
ing did not taper off but fea-
tured what he considered
“the hardest week of the en-
tire season” including multi-
ple days running hills and a
speed workout that saw him
limping around school in
pain throughout the week.
“In the week coming in to
practice, you don’t want to
let down too much, too soon.
So you come in, you start the
early-week with a pretty good
workout and then as the week
goes you kind of cut off little
pieces of the workout,” said
head coach Jim Settelmey-
er. “There were some issues
during the week where we cut
off more of the workout then
normal but came in where
Jimmy was feeling pretty
good.”
When asked about Talley’s
comments about not feeling
good as the result of a week
of hard workouts, Settelmey-
er said, “No comment.”
“It just didn’t work out for
him on this particular day to
do the run that he has been
capable of doing lately,” said
Settelmeyer when asked
about what he would remem-
ber from this race.
During track season, Talley
finished second in the 3,000
behind a 19-second personal
best at the state champion-
ship.
PHOTOS BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Clockwise from to top left: Matty Ladd gets a kill against Tillamook in the quarterfinals; Cassidy Herbert celebrates her third-straight ace in the fifth set against Tilla-
mook; the Lions react to losing in five-sets to Valley Catholic as the Valiants celebrate across the net; Reilly Kelty rises above the Valley Catholic blockers as she goes for
a spike during Saturday’s final.
The Cottage Grove volleyball
team falls in championship
match; best finish in school
history
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
All season the Cottage Grove volleyball
team checked off boxes on their to-do list
as they put together the most success-
ful season in school history. They rolled
through the non-conference sched-
ule, were crowned league champions,
amassed playoff victories but the final
box went unchecked as the Lions fell to
Valley Catholic in five sets (25-23, 21-25,
26-24, 22-25, 11-15) Saturday night in
the state championship at Forest Grove.
“I told them, look, second sucks and it’s
going to hurt. And it’s going to hurt and
you’re going to cry – try not to cry for
the picture – but the thing is, we walk out
as third or sixth, we’re walking out with
smiles. But we’re walking out with second
with medals around our neck,” said Cot-
tage Grove head coach Kendra Ander-
son. “I’ve been to state tournaments as a
player and a coach and I’ve never walked
out with anything on my neck. And they
have a trophy and a ball and they had a
huge crowd that was proud of them and
I hope they remember that. Right now,
it hurts and it hurts because they really
wanted it. But they accomplished a lot.”
Cottage Grove’s final-site playoff
journey started Friday afternoon when
the third-ranked Lions took on elev-
enth-ranked Tillamook in the quarterfi-
nals. Cottage Grove was victorious (25-
10, 23-25, 19-25, 25-15, 15-8) in their
first five-set match they have played this
season. With experience from playing
at the state tournament last season, the
team came out ready to go.
“They knew what to expect. They
hadn’t been in this gym last year, they
hadn’t experienced that. So they seemed
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
have right now going into this fifth set,”
said Anderson. “We’ve got to check it off,
enjoy it, embrace the pressure and I think
that’s where they realized oh we like it.
Let’s enjoy it instead of try to push it away
which is where the tightness sometimes
comes from.”
In the semifinal match against sec-
ond-ranked Sweet Home – a team that
had lost just two games entering the
tournament – the Lions were determined
as they defeated the Huskies in straight
sets (25-23, 25-16, 25-23).
As a team, the Lions had 10 blocks on
the game (Ladd four, Avery Hutchins
two, Kelty two and Herbert two). Kelty
had 17 kills and 18 digs while Herbert re-
corded 16 digs, 13 kills and a pair of aces.
Witty had 46 assists.
Then came the championship game –
Cottage Grove volleyball’s first appear-
ance in the title game. They faced a famil-
iar opponent in Valley Catholic. The two
VOLLEYBALL see B2
Gladiators take down Lions in first round
Cottage Grove football stays close
until the end against second-ranked
Gladstone
By Zach Silva
zsilva@cgsentinel.com
The 17th ranked Cottage Grove football team just
wanted a chance. They wanted to be in the game against
second-ranked Gladstone in the first-round of the play-
offs last Friday on the road Down five points in the clos-
ing minutes of the contest, the late rally from the Lions
fell short as the Gladiators won – in a misleading final
score of – 37-25.
After staying close throughout the game, the Lions
were down five with less than five minutes to play and
were driving. A pair of Cottage Grove penalties and
a sack pushed them back and the Lions faced third-
and-42. Able to pick up 23 yards to set up 4th and 19
from the Gladstone 34 but Dylan Graves came up in-
complete on a pass to Erick Giffen.
“We had a shot. I’m not one to – the officials didn’t
cost us the game – but the fourth down play, Erick
Giffen was absolutely held. So really bad. And they just
swallowed it, didn’t even throw the flag and that killed
us,” said Roberts. “It should have been a first and 10 with
the ball inside the 20 or inside the 10 with a couple min-
utes left.”
Athlete of
the Week
Cottage Grove's Jimmy Tall-
ey heads to the finish line at
Saturday's state meet.
a little looser,” said Anderson. Cottage
Grove was dominant early including a
10-1 run to close out the set.
But after a fast start, facing troubles
with serve-receive and the intensified
play of Tillamook’s outside hitters, the
Lions dropped the second and third set
and were now on the brink of heading to
the consolation side of the bracket.
The Lions rose to the occasion with
big performances across the board. Reil-
ly Kelty had 25 kills, Cassidy Herbert 15
kills, 14 digs and eight aces and Lauren
Witty had 56 assists. Matty Ladd added
six kills and four blocks while Sam May
had 14 digs. After cruising to a fourth-set
victory, the fifth set started off right for
the team with three aces from Herbert on
the way to a wain.
“They’re mature and they handled
that pressure. And we talked about that,
that’s another thing that we said. All of
you who wanted pressure in checkoff,
there’s no more pressure than what we
Instead it was Gladstone converting on a third down
to all but seal the victory and then a 37-yard touchdown
run for the Gladiators to send home Cottage Grove.
“We gave them everything we could and I’m proud
of my kids. I think if you put – and I’m just being hon-
est, this isn’t a shot at our kids, this is a complement to
our kids – if you lined up our top 22 and their top 22, I
think anybody passing the eyeball test would take their
22,” said Cottage Grove head coach Gary Roberts. “But
not me. Our kids fought and they fought hard. I’m su-
per proud of them, they have nothing to be ashamed of,
everything to be proud of.”
The game quickly became a contrast in styles as both
teams became one-dimensional. For Gladstone, with a
strong offensive line, they relied on a ground attack that
was good for 406 yards on the day – 170 yards from
Sabastian Peiffer and 124 from Mason Scheehan – and
four touchdowns. Gladstone passed the ball just five
times in the game.
“We’re just a little out-manned upfront on defense
and that cost us. We just couldn’t matchup inside. But
tip your hat to them. I mean, that’s, they have big, phys-
ical kids and they used that to their advantage tonight,”
said Roberts.
For the Cottage Grove offense, it was a different story
as they turned into a rather successful air-raid attack.
On the day, the Lions had 449 yards through the air with
Dylan Graves going 28-for-42 for 377 yards and a pair
This week’s athlete of the
week is Arianna Helgren
of North Douglas who
was named to the 1A
tournament team over the
weekend. To read more
about the Warriors, turn to
B3.
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/CG SENTINEL
Cottage Grove’s Matt Zumwalt races for a 72-yard
touchdown. Zumwalt finished with four catches for
two touchdowns and 191 receiving yards.
of touchdowns. Erick Giffen added 72 yards of passing
on a touchdown completion to Matt Zumwalt. Zumwalt
had four catches for 191 yards and two touchdowns.
Giffen had 17 catches for 167 yards.
“We moved the ball. Dylan played a really good
FOOTBALL see B3
North Doug-
las’ Arianna
Helgren re-
cords a kill in
the quarter-
finals against
Days Creek
on Friday in
Redmond.
PHOTO BY ZACH SILVA/
CG SENTINEL