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.
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