Cottage Grove Sentinel
Sports & Recreation
SOUTH LANE COUNTY SPORTS AND RECREATION
Bricen James Wins
2019 Mark Howard
Memorial Modifi ed
Nationals
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WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 28, 2019
B1
CONTACT SPORTS REPORTER NICK SNYDER AT
942-3325 OR NSNYDER@CGSENTINEL.COM
Grovers come out to meet their lions
By Ben Deatherage
Cottage Grove Speedway
Saturday, August 24
was the second and fi nal
night of the 2019 Mark
Howard Memorial Mod-
ifi ed Nationals. Over 44
drivers from Oregon and
Washington competed
in the Mohawk Metal
IMCA Modifi eds during
the weekend and pro-
duced some excellent re-
sults. Stellar action also
came from the two other
divisions on the card, the
IMCA Sport Mods and
360 Sprints.
Bricen James managed
to take full advantage of
his inside front-row start-
ing position and put his
mount in front of the rest
of the fi eld to lead the
fi rst lap. Despite the Al-
bany ace pacing the fi eld,
he had some fast compa-
ny try and overtake him.
It would be cautions ga-
lore in the fi rst half of the
race with six stoppages
in the fi rst 26 circuits.
The frequent stops took
lapped traffi c out of the
picture.
That was until the
second half of the main
event when it was an
all-out battle for the top
spot. James briefl y lost
the lead with a handful
of laps remaining until
he quickly reclaimed the
position on the next cor-
ner. Bricen held all chal-
lengers at bay to win his
fi rst career Mark Howard
Memorial Modifi ed Na-
tionals. He is the seventh
different driver to have
had the honor of accom-
plishing such a rare feat.
It is also his fourth win of
the season at CGS which
now ties him for the most
wins in the class this
year.
Collen
Winebarger,
of Corbett, was a re-
spectable second despite
running down and chal-
lenging the leader for the
vast majority of the main
event. Klamath Falls’
Nick Trenchard fi nished
second, and Nikki Biehn
owned entry on the po-
dium with a third-place
result. The top fi ve was
rounded out by Bend
native Chad Groves, in
fourth and fi fth fi nishing
B.J. Wild, of Redmond.
It was non-stop ac-
tion in the IMCA Sport
Mod feature. Vancou-
ver, Washington’s Tanner
Krohling set the tone ear-
ly and was the trailblazer
for the fi rst seven laps.
Isaac Sanders, of Brook-
ings, managed to make it
around Krohling on lap
eight and pulled away for
the rest of the fi eld.
Sanders showed a
lot of speed but had his
hands full in the last
couple of laps. Jorddon
Braaten managed to
make a fi nal lap gamble
to beat Isaac to the line
and pick up the victory.
It is the fourth win for
Braaten at “The Grove”
this, year which ties him
for the most wins at the
famed quarter-mile clay
oval. Braaten also swept
the weekend by winning
both nights.
Isaac Sander fi nished
in second while Tan-
ner Krohiling ended his
night in third. Roseburg’s
Jordan Henry got fourth
See SPEEDWAY 2A
PHOTO BY NICK SNYDER/CG SENTINEL
Student athletes from all the fall sports (football, volleyball, boys soccer and girls soccer, boys and girls cross-country, water polo and
cheer) line up to introduce themselves to local fans.
Fall sports kick off
at CG High School
exhibition event
By Nick Snyder
nsnyder@cgsentinel.com
There are always a few telltale
signs that fall is coming. The tem-
perature has yet to drop, the leaves
have yet to change, but fall sports
are undoubtedly on their way.
On the evening of Friday, Aug. 23
it was the local community’s annu-
al opportunity to preview Cottage
Grove High School fall athletics at
the Meet the Lions event put on by
the school’s athletic department.
All in all, seven teams - football,
volleyball, girls and boys soccer,
girls and boys cross-country and
cheer - took to the high school’s
athletic facilities for team photos
and exhibition scrimmages, giving
attendees eager for the sports sea-
son to begin their first look.
There was a palpable theme of
new beginnings and opportunities
for both coaches and players alike.
While most other Cottage Grove
coaches are returning for the 2019
season, for new head football coach
Chad Smith, this was his first expe-
rience at a Meet the Lions event.
“It’s been crazy just because this
is my first time and, for a lot of the
coaches, this is their first time be-
cause we only had two guys coming
back coaching-wise … so it’s just
new and it’s hectic but, you know,
we’re making it through and I know
it’s a special event for the players
and the community so we want to
make sure that we continue that,”
said Smith when asked about tak-
ing on this exhibition event for the
first time.
“We did a little bit of a dress re-
hearsal this morning. We split up
the teams as evenly as possible and
we’re just going to play as much
like a game as possible. So that’ll
be good to see. We got a little bit
of a practice in this morning so
hopefully it’ll be smooth under the
big lights,” added Smith just a few
hours before the football team took
center-stage under the evening sta-
dium lights for the first time this
year.
Smith may be new to the Cottage
Grove sidelines, but the other fall
coaches return and, in the makeup
of their rosters, they almost uni-
formly see reason for excitement
heading into the first September
games.
“A whole bunch of incoming
freshmen are doing [cross-coun-
try] with their choice this fall, more
ninth graders than I’ve ever had so
the help from them makes this a
team right now of 42, which is the
biggest team I’ve had by seven at
the beginning of the season … and
maybe before the start of the year
more will join us,” said cross-coun-
try coach Jim Settelmeyer when
asked about his roster.
A number of Cottage Grove
teams have seen recent success - a
football championship in 2017 and
a 2018 second place state finish in
volleyball, amongst others - often
born on the shoulders of experi-
enced upperclassmen, but such
is the game in high school sports
where graduating seniors remains
a constant inevitability. An influx
of youth athletes and the growth
of former underclassmen, however,
means these teams remain in good
hands.
“[Last year’s freshmen] returned
with some real dedication. It was
mostly freshman I saw, or this
year’s sophomores that I saw over
the summer that would come to the
events that we would do for condi-
tioning and stuff. There’s great lead-
ership emerging from that group
but we’ve got a couple wonderful
leaders on both the boys and the
girls team of seniors,” Settelmeyer
continued.
The head cross-country coach
was certainly not alone in this ob-
servation and his sentiments were
echoed by both third-year girls
soccer coach, Reed Levings, and
her boys team counterpart, Vern
Stewart.
“Last year, I think I only had two
freshmen come in, but this year I
See LIONS 2A
From the South Valley to South Africa
Local wrestler Adelle
Kent represents Oregon
on trip to Africa
By Nick Snyder
nsnyder@cgsentinel.com
PHOTO C/O CHRISTINA AND ADELLE KENT
Adelle Kent snaps a photo with a statue of Mahatma Gandhi during
her trip to South Africa.
Athlete of
the Week
Sports have an ability to bring
humanity together on an global
stage, from the Olympics to the
World Cup, and one local athlete
just returned from her first taste
of international travel and com-
petition.
Cottage Grove High School
wrestler Adelle Kent arrived
home in Cottage Grove on August
15 from a three-and-a-half-week
trip to South Africa. Kent, along
with 23 other boys and girls wres-
tlers, won the right to represent
the state of Oregon in the Oregon
Wrestling Association’s (OWA)
annual Cultural Exchange pro-
gram.
The OWA’s program has now
been running for over 50 years
and has sent Oregon youth wres-
Th is week’s athletes of the
week are the members of the
CGHS water polo team who
are patiently awaiting the
debut of the new Warren H.
Daugherty Aquatic Center.
tlers all over the globe to places
like Russia, Switzerland, New Zea-
land, Japan and now South Africa.
This year’s participants qualified
for their place in the program at
a March 8 tournament in Sweet
Home, Ore.
“Instead of getting a medal for
winning, you got to go on this
three-and-a-half-week trip to Af-
rica. So we just kind of wrestled
all over the country. A lot of it was
sightseeing too, but it was mostly
wrestling,” said Kent.
For a wrestler already as ac-
complished as Kent as an incom-
ing high school junior - and for
someone yet to have their first
travel experience outside the U.S.
- the trade-off of a trip for a medal
was a unique opportunity and her
company on the trip represented
much of Oregon’s best. All partic-
ipants either placed in state cham-
pionship tournaments or were
the eventual champions and their
See AFRICA 3A
Water polo
players look
on at the
Meet the
Lions event.
PHOTO BY SOPHIA EDEL-
BLUTE/CG SENTINEL