Polk County Sports
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 17, 2016 13A
CENTRAL ROUNDUP
DALLAS ROUNDUP
Girls basketball loses league games
Boys basketball falls
to last in conference
Itemizer-Observer staff report
INDEPENDENCE — With
a trip to the play-in round
locked up, Central’s girls
basketball team hopes to
end the regular season on a
high note.
The Panthers, which
played Silverton Tuesday
after press time, suffered a
pair of losses last week,
falling to Crescent Valley 55-
49 on Feb. 9 and Lebanon
45-42 on Friday.
Friday’s loss saw Central
lose a second-half lead as
the Warriors frustrated the
Panthers offensive attack.
“They made us impatient
in the half court,” coach
Julie McDonald said. “They
were pressing us. We were
beating it, but we missed a
lot of little shots. We have to
be able to make those. They
out-rebounded us, they
wanted it more than us, and
they scored more points
than us.”
Freshman guard Eliza-
beth Chavez scored a team-
high 13 points against
Lebanon.
The Panthers end the reg-
ular season at Corvallis on
Tuesday and at Woodburn
on Feb. 26. Central entered
the week in third place in
the Mid-Willamette Confer-
ence standings, but McDon-
ald hopes her team rounds
into peak form headed into
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Central sophomore post Krista Omlid goes up for a shot
against Lebanon on Friday night.
the postseason.
“Even when there is pres-
sure, we have to stay within
our offense,” McDonald
said. “We’re working on our
tempo. We are able to beat
the press; it’s what we do
after we break the press that
we have to get figured out.”
BOYS BASKETBALL NEARS
POSTSEASON BERTH: The
Panthers are on the verge of
clinching a spot in the play-in
round. Central defeated Cres-
cent Valley 49-30 on Feb. 10
and Lebanon 57-47 on Friday
to improve to 5-6 in league
play and into a three-way tie
with South Albany for fourth
place.
Central holds a two-game
lead over Crescent Valley and
Dallas with three games re-
maining. The top six teams in
the league advance to the
postseason.
“The kids have done a fan-
tastic job,” coach Tim Kreta said.
“They executed our game plan
and stuck to what we wanted
to do.”
The Panthers play at Silver-
ton on Wednesday (today) be-
fore hosting Corvallis on Feb.
24 and Woodburn on Feb. 26
to close out the regular sea-
son.
CENTRAL SWIM SEASON
COMES TO AN END: Central’s
swim season came to end at
the MWC district meet on Fri-
day and Saturday. The Panthers
fell short of seeing any swim-
mers qualify for the state swim
meet. Sophomore Daniel Glade
narrowly missed on qualifying
for state in the boys 100-yard
freestyle, placing second with a
time of 53.08 seconds. Glade
(23.88 seconds) and senior
Wyatt Rochefort (24.92) placed
third and fourth respectively, in
the boys 50-yard freestyle.
PERRYDALE ROUNDUP
Boys basketball makes school history
Itemizer-Observer staff report
TURNER — Despite a 43-
38 loss to Crosshill Christian,
Perrydale officially made
school history on Friday, be-
coming co-Casco League
champs with Crosshill and
C.S. Lewis and the first
group to win a league title in
football and basketball in
the same year.
Just don’t expect players
to celebrate.
“It was hard to convince
them we are still league
champions,” Pirates coach
Mike Lowry said. “It seemed
to look like they lost the
league title. When they look
back on it after the season, it
will mean a lot to them.”
For now, Perrydale has its
sights set on a much bigger
prize — a state title.
First up, though, is the
Casco League Tournament.
Casco League Tournament
• Perrydale’s boys and girls basketball teams will compete at
the Casco League Tournament Friday and Saturday at Warner
Pacific College. Both teams enter as the No. 2 seed.
• If the boys and girls teams win their first game, they gain
an automatic berth to the state tournament. If either loses its
first game, they will play in an elimination game on Saturday
with the winner advancing to state.
The Pirates enter the tour-
nament as the second seed
and play third-seeded C.S.
Lewis Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Perrydale and C.S. Lewis
split the season series. C.S.
Lewis won 36-31 on Dec. 10.
The Pirates earned a 49-32
victory on Jan. 22.
“I think we need to have a
sense of urgency from the
start of the game,” Lowry
said. “It seems that we wait
around a little too long and
we wait for this to happen. If
this group starts fast and
keeps that mentality
through the game, then we
can compete with anyone.”
The winner clinches a
spot to the state tournament
and advances to the league
title game against Crosshill
on Saturday. The loser will
play the winner of
Willamette Valley Christian-
Country Christian with a trip
to state on the line.
“I expect the intensity of
our group to reach a new
level,” Lowry said. “These
players still expect to win the
district title and be the No. 1
seed to state.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL: Perry-
dale’s girls basketball squad
defeated Columbia Christian
26-16 on Thursday and
Crosshill Christian 26-21 on Fri-
day to close out the regular
season.
The Pirates enter the Casco
League Tournament as the sec-
ond seed and will face third-
seeded Willamette Valley Chris-
tian Friday at 5:45 p.m. The
winner earns a trip to state ad-
vances to the league title game
against Country Christian on
Saturday. The loser plays the
winner of Falls City-Livingstone
Adventist with a trip to state at
stake.
Perrydale and Willamette
Valley Christian split their sea-
son series. The Pirates won 27-
23 on Dec. 14, while WVC
earned a 33-29 win on Jan. 26.
Itemizer-Observer staff report
DALLAS — A pair of Mid-
Willamette Conference loss-
es has pushed Dallas boys
basketball season to the
brink. The Dragons lost to
South Albany 58-52 on Feb.
10 and Corvallis 71-54 on
Friday.
Dallas has now lost five
games in a row and eight of
its last nine.
The Dragons are tied
with Crescent Valley for
seventh in the league
standings — two games be-
hind South Albany, Wood-
burn and Central for sixth.
The top six teams advance
to the postseason.
“(The league standings)
definitely does come into
our minds,” senior guard
Everett Minahan said. “But
at the end of the day, it
comes down to playing the
game.”
Dallas
h o s t s
Crescent
Valley
We d n e s -
d
a
y
(today) at
7 p.m. and
Redmond
Minahan
Friday at 7
p.m. The Dragons end the
regular season at Lebanon
on Feb. 24 and at Silverton
at Feb. 26.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
SPLITS LEAGUE GAMES: Dal-
las’ girls basketball team de-
feated South Albany 48-27 on
Feb. 9 before falling to Corval-
lis 46-43 on Friday. The Drag-
ons (11-10 overall, 6-5 MWC)
clinched a spot to the play-in
round. Dallas played Crescent
Valley Tuesday after press time.
The Dragons end the regular
season at home against
Lebanon Tuesday at 7 p.m. and
against Silverton on Feb. 26.
Finish: Swinehart
has final chance
Continued from Page 12A
Joseph began to wrestle.
Tanner and Collin soon fol-
lowed.
Collin began competing
at tournaments in sixth
grade.
Once he got to high
school, he realized the level
of intensity was unlike any-
thing he had experienced.
“The thing that’s differ-
ent is it really sucks prac-
ticing,” Swinehart said.
“You get the crap beat out
of you every day. You have
to remember your goals. If
you don’t have goals, you’ll
fade away and drop out
because you’re getting beat
up.”
In the past, losses have
negatively affected him.
This year, he’s worked to
remember why he started
wrestling in the first place.
“I read a sports psychol-
ogy book and it talks about
your confidence and how
big of an effect it can have
on you,” Swinehart said.
“You can’t let losing get into
your mind. I try and re-
member that I’m here to
have fun. That’s why you do
it.”
Swinehart’s dedication
through the years has paid
off as he’s become one of
the Panthers’ best.
“Collin is one of the
toughest, hardest working
wrestlers that we have, and
it shows in this season and
his career at Central,” Pan-
thers coach Van Holstad
said.
Swinehart is one of sev-
eral Central wrestlers who
could be a major factor at
districts.
Junior Marlon Tuipulotu
(285 pounds) and Sam
Crow (195) as well as a host
of others will be expected
to contend for a state berth.
“We are excited as we ap-
proach the tournament,”
Holstad said. “Several of the
wrestlers are wrestling very
well at the end of the sea-
son. It is important for us to
be peaking at just the right
time, not only for this week,
but for the state tourna-
ment, too.”
It was just a year ago that
Collin’s older brother Tan-
ner went undefeated to end
his high school career with
a state championship.
Collin wants to have a
similarly happy ending.
“It would mean a lot,” he
said. “It’s what I’ve been
working for.”
State: Senior aims for new Dallas: Expectations are high
school record at state meet
Continued from Page 12A
Ford earned a pair of wild
card berths after placing sec-
ond in the 200 freestyle
(2:01.62) and fourth in the
500 (5:28.91).
“It was different than I ex-
pected,” Ford said. “I was
surprised with where I was. I
did better than I thought I
was going to do.”
The junior is no stranger
to state, having qualified in
each of her three years. That
didn’t make the anticipation
— and nervousness — to see
whether she had qualified
any less.
“I was definitely all over
that,” Ford said. “As soon as I
was off of work (on Sunday)
I looked them up.”
Now, Ford and Dressel
hope their experience gives
them an edge.
“I know how to go
through this whole thing,”
Ford said. “I’ve been through
it a ton. It helps with every-
thing.”
For Dressel, it’s one last
time to experience high
school swimming — and
one more chance to set a
new personal — and school
— record.
“I’m about two seconds
off my season goal,” Dressel
said. “I’m happy to go to
state and try and get my sea-
son goal times. It’s just like
any other race. You’re racing
people who are more in your
time range which is a lot of
fun. It’s nice to do your best.”
Continued from Page 12A
“I’ve been trying to work
on my offense the most,”
Chung said. “Lately I’ve
been more defensive with
my style. I want to push the
pace on guys, take more
shots and work on my
speed.”
Chung hopes a more ag-
gressive approach leads to
an individual district title.
While the Dragons hope
to defend the team title
once more, Chung said
wrestlers have their eyes on
the big picture.
“Honestly, we’ve won it
so many times, it’s just an-
other district title,” Chung
said. “What’s more impor-
tant is the state tourna-
ment.”
The chance to win a dis-
trict title means a lot more
to others, however. Senior
Marcos Molina transferred
from Central and the
chance to end his high
school career with a district
title would mean every-
thing.
“I came from a program
where district titles weren’t
a thing,” Molina said. “We
won, but we were never
well put together enough to
win back-to-back champi-
onships. Coming from an-
other school and especially
being a senior, this is a
highlight feeling.”
As wrestlers make their
final preparations, the dis-
trict tournament serves a
bigger purpose — get its
qualifiers ready for state —
a challenge Dallas is ready
to tackle.
“In order to crack the top
three at state this year, we’ll
need to get a really high
number through our Mid-
Willamette tournament,”
Olliff said. “We’ve got the
guys to do it. We’ve just got
to get it done.”
FALLS CITY GIRLS BASKETBALL
Girls basketball earns trip to Casco League tournament on Friday
Itemizer-Observer staff report
FALLS CITY — Falls City’s
girls basketball team
clinched the fourth seed in
the Casco League Tourna-
ment after a 40-17 win over
C.S. Lewis on Friday. Allison
Kidd scored 14 points, while
Brittany Varney scored eight
points.
The Mountaineers play
fifth-seeded Livingstone Ad-
ventist Friday in the first
round of the Casco League
Tournament.
The winner advances to
play the loser of Perry-
d a l e / Wi l l a m e t t e Va l l e y
Christian on Saturday with
the winner advancing to the
state tour nament. The
loser’s season comes to an
end.
Falls City’s boys basketball
team’s season came to an
end after a 45-22 win over
Jewell on Feb. 9, a 56-41 loss
to Livingstone Adventist on
Thursday and a 38-26 loss to
C.S. Lewis on Friday.
WOU: Omlid wasn’t aware of how good WOU could be
Continued from Page 12A
“The core group of us, the
majority of us started our
first year,” Avgi said. “When
you have that, you know
you’re going to be great
when you get older and be-
come veterans.”
Avgi, the conference Play-
er of the Year last season,
grew into the team’s go-to
scorer as WOU saw on-court
success quickly.
The No. 1 ranking is the
latest in the list of accom-
plishments this group has
been able to add to the
Wolves since they arrived.
“It’s another first for our
core group being here,” Avgi
said. “Last year, we made the
tournament and won our
first GNAC Championship.
We were ranked for the first
time, now we made it all the
way to No. 1.”
Several new faces at WOU
have stepped up in big ways,
but not all of them knew the
situation they were walking
into.
The transfer
When redshirt sopho-
more Tanner Omlid decided
to come home and play for
Western Oregon, he wasn’t
aware of the Wolves’ recent
accomplishments.
Omlid was ready to attend
the Oregon Institute of Tech-
nology, but WOU’s coaching
hire changed everything.
“I didn’t know anything
(about the team),” Omlid
said. “I knew coach (Jim)
Shaw. My parents told me he
was a good coach.”
He realized after the
team’s season-opening win
over Point Loma that they
had something special.
“I thought, ‘Andy, he’s
going to be a good player,’”
Omlid said, smiling. “I didn’t
know he was already an all-
conference player. He’s un-
real. I’ve never played with
anyone so good.”
Omlid has provided a
spark both starting and off
the bench on offense and
defense.
But personal and team
success hasn’t gone to his
head. For Omlid, the team’s
rise to No. 1 isn’t the end-
goal, it’s a sign that they’re
closer to playing their best
ball.
“We have to have the
mindset that we need to
prove it every day,” Omlid
said. “Practice is a lot hard-
er, mentally. We’re focusing
more. I enjoy the ranking,
but what really matters is
that we win our last game.”