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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (April 29, 2015)
12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • April 29, 2015 Polk County Sports PREP TENNIS ROUNDUP Dallas girls earn victories Dragons roll to wins over Woodburn, South Albany Itemizer-Observer staff report DALLAS — Dallas’ girls tennis team earned a pair of Mid-Willamette Conference victories, beating Wood- burn 8-0 on April 22 and South Albany 6-2 on Mon- day. No. 1 and 2 singles play- ers Marissa Brewen and Sa- vanna Poston went unde- feated during the two matches. The Dragons swept the doubles matches against both the Bulldogs and Rebels. Dallas’ match against Central, originally sched- uled for Friday, was post- poned until May 7. C E N T R A L B OYS D R O P T WO O F T H R E E : Ce n t ra l ’s boys tennis squad dropped two of three league matches. The Panthers fell to Silverton 5-3 on April 21 before defeat- ing South Albany 6-2 on April 22. Central lost to Crescent Val- ley 8-0 on Monday. Edoardo Sanna and Kevin Cable earned a pair of singles points against Silverton, before joining forces and earning a doubles point against South Albany. The Pan- LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer Dallas’ Savanna Poston looks to return a hit against Woodburn on April 22. The Dragons won 8-0. thers play at Lebanon Wednes- day (today) before playing at Silverton on Friday and host- ing Corvallis on Monday. CENTRAL GIRLS SPLIT LEAGUE MATCHES: Central’s girls tennis team de- f e a t e d South Al- bany 6-2 on April 22 be- fore falling to Crescent Valley 8-0 on Monday. Bruning The Pan- thers won three of four singles and doubles matches against the Rebels. Renee Bruning, Danielle Chance and Karlee Hernandez earned singles points, while Patience Teague and Julia Hamar, Diana Huerte and Olivia Teague and Amy Brenneman and Dani Diaz earned doubles points for the Pa n t h e r s . C e n t r a l h o s t s Lebanon Wednesday (today) and Silverton Friday at 4 p.m. before playing at Corvallis on Monday and at Woodburn on May 6. DALLAS BOYS FALL TO WOODBURN: Dallas’ boys ten- nis team dropped a Mid- Willamette Conference match to Woodburn 7-1 on April 22. Details were not provided. The Dragons’ match against Cen- tral, originally scheduled for Friday, has been rescheduled for May 7. WESTERN OREGON ROUNDUP Softball clinches tourney berth Itemizer-Observer staff report BILLINGS, Mont. — In what turned out to be West- ern Oregon’s softball team’s final regular season games, the Wolves clinched the fourth and final spot to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference softball cham- pionships on Friday. The Wolves split a dou- bleheader against Montana State Billings, falling 4-1 be- fore winning the finale 5-1. Zoe Clark and Lexi Jennings hit home runs for WOU, while Amanda Evola, Jour- dan Williams, Kelsie Gard- ner, Jennings and Clark had Jennings two hits each over the two games. Pitcher Alyson B o y t z earned a complete game vic- tory. The two teams were scheduled to play a second doubleheader on Saturday, but it was canceled due to weather conditions. WOU will travel to Yaki- ma, Wash., for the confer- ence tournament. The Wolves (21-26 overall, 13-9 GNAC) open against top- seeded Saint Martin’s (40-16 overall, 20-4 GNAC) Thurs- day at 7 p.m. before facing Western Washington or Montana State Billings on Friday. TRACK AND FIELD WINS FOUR EVENTS: Western Ore- gon’s track and field team won four events at the Titan Twi- light on Thursday. Junior Badane Sultessa won the men’s 800-meter run in 1 minute, 51.67 seconds. Kaleb Dobson placed first in the 110 hurdles in 15.16, while David Ribich won the 1,500 in 3:53.19. On the women’s side, Rebecca Laible won the triple jump with a mark of 37 feet, 3¾ inches. J u n i o r Emmi Col- lier led a Sultessa group of 10 WOU athletes at the Western Washington/Ralph Vernacchia Invitational on Saturday. Laible won the shot put with a throw of 43-9¾. The Wolves will com- pete at the Oregon State Uni- versity High Performance Meet Thursday and Friday and the Mount Hood Track Festival on Saturday. Pirates: Players improving quickly Continued from Page 10A “When we go into games each time, we’re more and more confident,” Emily Nel- son said. While confidence is key, Perrydale must turn that confidence into consisten- cy. The Pirates have scored 11 or more runs four times this season, including a 26- 10 win against Siletz Valley on Friday. But four other times, Per- rydale has been held to two or fewer runs, including a 5- 1 setback against Central Linn on April 22. “We just need to make sure we have short-term memory,” Emily Nelson said. “When we’re good, we’re playing real well, and when we play bad, we’re bad. Once you mess up, you can’t take it back, so you have to keep trying to do better.” That mentality could be the key to the Pirates’ suc- cess going forward. “We have to come into the games with the right mindset,” Anna McGill said. “The one thing I need to work on the most is the mental part. I’m probably the one who keeps focusing on a mistake, even though I know it’s not the best thing to do.” As the Pirates hope to see their improvements trans- late into more victories, coaches are confident that Perrydale is about to turn a corner in its season. “They have made mis- takes, but they are learning to just move on,” assistant coach Missy Locke said. “They are more confident with themselves and they are starting to come out and make the plays they need to.” PREP SOFTBALL ROUNDUP Dallas making progress Dragons move into second place in league standings Itemizer-Observer staff report DALLAS — The Dallas softball team outscored its opponents 44-4, as the Dragons cruised to four- straight victories last week. Dallas opened by winning a doubleheader over South Albany 20-1, 6-1 on April 21, before defeating Corvallis 15-2 on April 22 and Cres- cent Valley 3-0 on Friday. Dallas entered the week at 10-6 overall and 9-3 in Mid-Willamette Conference play to move into second place. “We had a lot of kids in new positions,” Dallas coach Al Perkins said. “We’re coming along now and get- ting better. We’re seeing the results of the kids working hard and getting comfort- able in those positions.” In two games against the Rebels, Madi Feldman recorded five hits and seven RBIs. Yasmine El-Hato earned a complete game victory against Corvallis, while also hitting a grand slam. Dallas entered Tuesday’s DAWN FELDMAN/for the Itemizer-Observer Dallas’ Madi Feldman had a combined seven RBIs against South Albany on April 21. game against Lebanon on a four-game win streak and won seven of its last eight contests. “What we’d like to do now is see consistency in our play,” Perkins said. “We don’t want to get flat hitting or lose focus. Consistency is what we really need and, I think if we do that, we’ll be very happy where we end up.” The Dragons play at Sil- verton Wednesday (today) before hosting Woodburn Friday at 4:30 p.m. CENTRAL FALLS TO SEC- OND: The Central softball team finds itself in a three- squad race for the second seed in the Mid-Willamette Conference. The Panthers de- feated Crescent Valley 10-1 on April 21 and Lebanon 9-3 on April 22, before falling to Sil- verton 11-5 on Friday. Central and Silverton’s second game was postponed in the eighth inning and will resume when the two teams play on May 12. The game is tied at 11. Jori Kerr hit a home run, while Ryanne Huffman recorded a triple against the Raiders. Huffman, Kerr, Kylie Nash and Kaitlin Noon hit doubles to lead the Panthers at the plate against Lebanon. Central host- ed Corvallis Tuesday after press time. The Panthers host Woodburn Wednesday (today) at 4:30 p.m. before playing at South Albany on Friday. Cen- tral hosts Dallas Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. PIRATES WIN TWO: The Pi- rates fell to Regis 6-5 on April 21 and Central Linn 5-1 on April 22 before cruising to a 26-10 win over Siletz Valley on Friday and knocking off Spe- cial District 2’s top team, Kennedy, 10-9 on Monday. The Pirates play at Central Linn Wednesday (today), at Gaston on Friday and at Western Men- nonite on Monday. CLASS 5A PREP BOYS GOLF Cackler, Dallas gain experience Dragons’ season ending Itemizer-Observer staff report DALLAS — As the Drag- ons prepared for their final golf tournament of the year Tuesday after press time, Dylan Cackler wasn’t down about his performance. Instead, he was hopeful for bigger and better things to come. Cackler, in his second year with the golf team, joined because a friend convinced him to come out with him. He didn’t anticipate what would come next. “I thought it was a good idea to at least try it,” Cack- ler said. “It was harder than I thought. I was terrible at reading greens (for put- ting).” This season, Cackler has ranked among the Dragons’ lowest scorers. While he’s played rounds during the offseason and worked with coaches to im- prove, during a tournament, the key is to not overthink what he’s doing and enjoy the moment. “One hole is not going to be your whole game,” Cackler said. “You try to keep moving on to go on to the next hole or shot. Don’t think about how you’re doing and just play golf and have fun.” Dallas will likely not be competing at the re- gional tour- nament later this month. The top five teams from the Mid- Cackler Willamette Conference advance, Schmidt said. The Dragons sit in sixth, five points behind Lebanon. Teams had one tournament remaining Tuesday after press time. A first place finish scores eight points. The Dragons would need to outscore Lebanon by at least six points to advance. The Dragons’ highest fin- ish this season has been sixth place. “The tournaments are re- minders that golf is an indi- vidual sport and the results are based on the outcome of the contest between one individual and the golf c o u r s e ,” D a l l a s c o a c h Henry Schmidt said. “It is not like a true team sport where if one individual is not having his or her best day, other team members are there to make up for him or her. ... The boys work hard and prepare and the results reflect this struggle.” Step: Keep your goals realistic Continued from Page 10A In fact, in eight weeks, Joynt said people can go from couch to triathlon. It just so happens that from Wednesday (today), there are eight and a half weeks until the sprint triathlon. Challenge accepted. Joynt breaks down the training cycle into three parts: Building your base, ramping up the workouts and tapering off. Building your base sounds easy enough. On the bright side, I will see significant improvement from the first day because, well, I have no base right now. “Whether you’re getting out and running for 30 min- utes without stopping, swimming four laps without stopping or getting used to riding a bike if it’s been a while, you’re working toward getting your fitness level up,” Joynt said. For the first three weeks, mixing up workouts among the three events is key. Joynt also recommends picking a time goal, and then working out for at least that much time during the week. After pumping myself up for this endeavor, I had vi- sions of sprinting toward the finish line with the Chariots of Fire music blazing in the background. I would revel in my accomplishment, and channel my inner Kevin Gar- nett and yell, “Anything is possible!” Just days into my train- ing and one thing’s clear — anything may be possible, but right now, a sprint triathlon seems about as doable as climbing Mount Everest. I did run a mile, though it felt like I had completed a marathon. I have swam for half an hour, then had trou- ble lifting myself out of the pool. As for riding my bike, well, I haven’t even touched that yet. It’s those moments after a workout that I question my sanity and wonder just what the heck I’ve gotten myself into. I am not fit enough to run away from a zombie outbreak, let alone a sprint triathlon. But, early struggles are to be expected. “Have fun and don’t get discouraged,” Joynt said. “You’re not trying to win any type of world records or anything. … Rather than trying to prove yourself to other people, you’re prov- ing to yourself that you can do this swim, bike and run.” So, no there won’t be any confetti streaming down when I finish this sprint triathlon. But after a few days of training, I can al- ready tell you when June 27 rolls around, it will be one of the most rewarding ex- periences I will feel. when you purchase and install a qualifying Lennox Home Comfort system before June 12, 2015! Offer expires June 12, 2015