Polk County Sports
12A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 15, 2017
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Barba, Central earn crucial victory
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE —
Headed into Friday’s game
against South Albany, Cen-
tral’s boys basketball team
was looking for a kick start.
The Panthers had lost
three of its past four games
— including a 58-46 loss to
South Albany on Feb. 3 and
a blown 11-point lead
against Crescent Valley on
Feb. 7.
For senior Alec Barba, the
path to victory was simple.
“We need to come out
and punch them in the
face,” Barba said. “When we
come out with energy, I like
our chances.”
The Panthers threw the
first punch and never looked
back, defeating South Al-
bany 76-46 on Friday. Barba
scored a game-high 17
points as Central outscored
the Rebels by 26 in the sec-
ond half.
Barba is doing everything
he can to help the Panthers
enter the postseason in peak
form — he hopes his sense
of urgency infects his team-
mates.
“You try and show the
younger guys that urgency,”
Barba said. “Knowing it’s my
last year, each practice is
one less that I have. It makes
me want to work harder.”
—
Barba doesn’t like to win
— he needs to — whether
playing basketball for the
Panthers or one-on-one
with his younger brother.
“On or off the court, I
have to win,” Barba said.
That need has driven him
to become an all-around
threat who can affect a game
in a number of ways.
Since coming up to varsity
as a sophomore, Barba
quickly emerged as a sharp
shooter.
“Alec is our first really true
shooter to come through
since Kaj Bansen,” coach
Tim Kreta said.
Since then, he’s trans-
formed from a gifted scorer
to someone who can do al-
most anything on the court.
“As teams have eyed in on
him and taking him away
from scoring, he’s still a big
contributor,” Kreta said. “He
can grab rebounds, set solid
screens, get some assists.
He’s a true competitor.”
Barba also wanted to have
a big impact on defense and
not merely adequate.
“It’s been my goal to be a
top defender on the team,”
Barba said.
That’s not an easy task. At
Basketball
• Central’s boys basket-
ball team defeated South
Albany 76-46 on Friday.
• Alec Barba scored a
game-high 17 points.
• Brandan Lesmeister
and Peter Mason scored 12
points each. Isaiah Abra-
ham and Andrew Barry
added 10 points each.
• Central plays at Dallas
Friday at 7 p.m.
6-foot-3, Barba is taller than
most of the guards he’s as-
signed to defend, but that
comes with a drawback.
“Alec is a taller kid in a
guard’s body,” Kreta said.
“Other players might be a
little quicker than he is, so
he has to find those niches.
He has to play what we call
old-man defense. How can
old men keep younger play-
ers in front of them? You
learn the nuances of playing
defense.”
That means watching film
and understanding where
his strengths and weakness-
es as a defender lay so oppo-
nents can’t exploit them,
Kreta said.
As Barba rounds into peak
form, he hopes his team-
mates are ready for a sprint
to the finish.
—
The Panthers, which
played Lebanon Tuesday
after press time, entered the
week with a 6-4 record in
Mid-Willamette Conference
play, trailing Crescent Valley
(8-2 MWC), South Albany
and Corvallis (7-3 MWC) in
the league standings with
three league games left.
There’s a lot still to be de-
cided. The top two seeds in
the league automatically
qualify for the first round of
the state playoffs. The third
and fourth seeds will host a
play-in game. The fifth- and
sixth-place teams in the
league go on the road for a
play-in game.
Central closes the regular
season at Dallas Friday at 7
p.m. and hosts Corvallis
Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Wood-
burn on Feb. 24 at 7 p.m.
“Getting a bye is doable,
but it’s going to take a hell of
a lot of work,” Kreta said.
More important is making
sure the Panthers enter the
postseason with momen-
tum. If Friday’s game was
any indication, that message
was heard loud and clear.
“I want to go out with a
bang,” Barba said. “I want us
to make a big push in the
playoffs. I know what this
team is capable of.”
LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer
Central senior Alec Barba drives to the hoop against
South Albany on Friday night.
Ford: Senior seeded third, fifth at state meet
Continued from Page 11A
Ford is seeded fifth in the
50 freestyle and third in the
100 freestyle at the swim-
ming state championships
on Friday and Saturday at
Mt. Hood Community Col-
lege Aquatic Center in Gre-
sham.
“I don’t really know if I
have any expectations,” Ford
said. “I’m really excited to
see what will come of it.”
Ford is no stranger to the
sprint distances in the
freestyle but required a dif-
ferent kind of preparation
than the distance events.
“In a sprint, if you mess
up, you don’t have the time
to make that up,” Ford said.
“You have to be a little more
focused on what you’re
doing and when you’re
doing it.”
D allas coach D avid
Morelli said with little time
separating the state quali-
fiers, anyone can win. The
devil will be in the details.
“Unlike the longer dis-
tances, the qualifying times
State Meet
What: OSAA Class 5A State Swimming Championships.
When: Friday preliminaries, 9 a.m.; Saturday finals, 8:15
a.m.
Where: Mt. Hood Community College Aquatic Center, Gre-
sham.
Admission: Adults, $8; students, $5.
Dallas Qualifiers: GIRLS: Jolie-Rae Ford, sr. (50 freestyle, 100
freestyle).
in sprints are within tenths of
a second of each other,”
Morelli said. “Anything can
happen. This makes the start
and turn important. In dis-
tance, the focus was on pace.
In sprints, the starts and
turns have to be perfect.”
Ford was the Dragons’
lone state qualifier, but
Morelli was pleased with the
effort from all his swimmers.
Senior Ryan Kennedy fin-
ished fifth in the boys 500
freestyle and seventh in the
200 freestyle.
“It was a good finish for
him and a successful high
school career,” Morelli said.
Freshman Gabe Apple-
gate took seventh in the
boys 100 butterfly, and
freshman Isaiah Dressel
made the consolation finals
to take 15th in the 50
freestyle.
Tyler Boggs took 13th in
the 50 and 100 freestyle, and
freshman Christopher Cam-
pione took 15th in the 100
backstroke.
“I think all the new swim-
mers returning have a
greater understanding on
what it takes to be success-
ful in swimming,” Morelli
said. “They worked hard and
their dedication paid off
with their best times at dis-
tricts.”
WESTERN OREGON ROUNDUP
Track and field sets new school mark
Itemizer-Observer staff report
SEATTLE — Western Oregon’s
track and field team set a new
school record at the Husky Invite
on Friday and
Sa t u rd a y. T h e
women’s distance
medley relay
team of Suzanne
Va n De G r i f t ,
Megan Rose,
Olivia Woods and
Kennedy Rufener
broke its own
Ribich
school mark by
15 seconds with a time of 11 min-
utes, 50.03 seconds.
David Ribich and Josh Dempsey
finished first and second in their
heat of the men’s 800-meter run on
Saturday. Ribich finished with a
time of 1:50.49, the ninth fastest
time at the Division II level and an
NCAA provisional qualifying time.
Van De Grift also posted a provi-
sional qualifying mark in the
women’s 800 with a time of 2:12.87.
Western Oregon will compete at
the Great Northwest Athletic Con-
ference Indoor Championships
Friday and Saturday in Nampa,
Idaho.
MEN’S BASKETBALL DROPS TWO:
Western Oregon’s men’s basketball
team fell to Western Washington 73-63
on Thursday and Simon Fraser 68-63
on Saturday.
Ali Faruq-Bey led
WOU against West-
ern Washington
with 20 points, five
rebounds, four as-
sists and three
s t e a l s . Ta n n e r
Omlid added 19
points and four re-
bounds.
The Wolves saw
Omlid
a five-point half-
time lead evaporate against Simon
Fraser. Omlid led WOU with 13 points
and 11 rebounds. Faruq-Bey scored a
team-high 16 points, and Bryan Berg
added 10 points.
Western Oregon returns home to
host Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday and
Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. Both
games are scheduled to start at 7:30
p.m. The Wolves play at Concordia
Tuesday at 7 p.m.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL FALLS AT
HOME: Western Oregon’s women’s
basketball team lost to Concordia 69-
56 on Feb. 7 and Montana State Billings
64-60 on Thursday. Kaylie Boschma
scored a game-high 16 points against
Concordia. She also
grabbed eight re-
bounds. Sydney
Azorr added 15
points and three re-
bounds.
Jasmine Miller
led WOU against
Montana State
Billings with 15
Boschma
points. The Wolves
led by 12 in the
fourth quarter against the Yellowjack-
ets, but were outscored 26-10 over the
final 8:41 of the game.
Th e Wo l ve s h o s t N o r t hwe s t
Nazarene on Thursday and Central
Washington on Saturday. Both games
will start at 5:15 p.m.
BASEBALL SPLITS OPENING
GAMES: Western Oregon’s baseball
team split a doubleheader against
Fresno Pacific to open the 2017 season
on Thursday. The Wolves earned a 7-5
win in the opening game before falling
7-0 in the second game.
Jacob Martinez,
Tony Fonzo and
Koty Fallon each
had two hits in the
opening game as
the Wolves racked
up 10 hits and
seven RBIs in its
season- opening
vic tor y. Pitcher
Fallon
Connor McCord
earned the victory
on the mound.
A second doubleheader at Fresno
Pacific was canceled on Saturday due
to weather. The Wolves play at the Uni-
versity of California, San Diego Friday
at 6 p.m., a doubleheader Saturday at 1
and 4 p.m., and Sunday at noon.
SOFTBALL GOES 2-3: Western Ore-
gon’s softball team went 2-3 at the
Desert Stinger Classic in Las Vegas. The
PREP SWIMMING
Wolves opened the
Classic with a 3-1
loss to Azusa Pacif-
ic and a 7-4 setback
to Chico State on
Friday. The Wolves
defeated M inot
State 5-4 before
falling to Cal State
San Bernardino 5-4
Huffman
on Saturday, and
ended the Classic with a 1-0 win over
Cal State Monterey Bay on Sunday.
Ryanne Huffman and Ku’ulei Siolo
each had two hits. Ashlee Lynch hit a
solo home run against Minot State. Zoe
Clark hit an RBI groundout in the top of
the fifth to score the winning run.
Pitchers Sammi Cadwallader and
Chandler Bishop combined to throw a
four-hit shutout over Cal State Mon-
terey Bay.
Kelsie Gardner and Huffman led the
game off with bunt singles, and a line
out by Ashley Doyle scored Gardner.
WOU plays doubleheaders at Cham-
inade Wednesday (today), at BYU
Hawaii on Friday and at the College of
Idaho on Saturday and Sunday.
DALLAS ROUNDUP
Central’s season ends Girls defeat Crescent Valley
Itemizer-Observer staff report
CORVALLIS — Central’s
swim team saw its season
come to an end at the Mid-
Willamette Conference Dis-
trict Swimming Champi-
onships on Friday and Sat-
urday, but the future looks
bright for the Panthers.
Junior Daniel Glade and
freshman Grace Holstad
came close to qualifying for
state as wild card entries.
Glade finished second in
the 50-yard freestyle in 23.51
seconds. The final qualifying
time for state clocked in at
23.47.
Holstad took second in
the girls 100 butterfly with a
time of 1:08.31. The final
qualifying time for state was
1:08.19.
“We had
a great sea-
son,” coach
Jennifer
Tress said.
“In the end,
we were lit-
erally out-
Glade
touched. To
miss going to state by so little
really makes the heartache
sting that much more be-
cause I know Daniel and
Grace worked so hard all sea-
son. I think this will make
them even hungrier for a trip
to state going into next sea-
son.”
Central’s boys and girls
team placed sixth in the
team standings.
Though the Panthers
failed to qualify a swimmer
to state, Tress was happy
with each swimmer’s effort.
And for those coming back,
she is confident this experi-
ence will make them
stronger and more danger-
ous next season.
“My pride for the team is
not measured by their ability
to qualify for state, but by
the effort they put in each
race,” Tress said. “I asked the
team to swim with 100 per-
cent effort and leave every-
thing they have in the pool. I
wanted them to be able to
tell me that they left every-
thing in the water and every
single swimmer did that last
weekend.”
Itemizer-Observer staff report
DALLAS — Dallas’ girls
basketball team defeated
Crescent Valley 64-48 on Fri-
day. The Dragons opened
the week with a 69-39 loss to
Corvallis on Feb. 8.
Olivia Nelson led the
Dragons against Crescent
Valley with 20 points, four
assists and four rebounds.
Stefani Tallon recorded 11
points and nine rebounds.
Jordan Dippel added 10
points, five rebounds and
two steals.
The Dragons host Silver-
ton Wednesday (today) at 7
p.m., Central Friday at 5:30
p.m., and Woodburn Tues-
day at 7 p.m. Dallas ends the
regular season by hosting
South Albany on Feb. 24.
The Dragons (11-8 over-
all, 6-4 Mid-Willamette
Conference) entered the
week in third place in the
league standings, three
games behind Corvallis and
Silverton
and one
g a m e
ahead of
Central.
The third
a n d
fourth
p l a c e
Tallon
teams in
the MWC
will host a state play-in
game.
BOYS BASKETBALL
BREAKS LOSING STREAK:
Dallas’ boys basketball team
defeated Milwaukie 45-40 on
Feb. 8 before falling to Crescent
Valley 60-55 on Friday. The
Dragons opened the week
with a 61-57 loss to Corvallis on
Feb. 7.
Dallas’ win over Crescent
Valley snapped a six-game los-
ing streak.
Carter Weisensee scored a
team-high 17 points against
Milwaukie. Jason Richey added
14 points.
Dallas played Silverton Tues-
day after press time. The Drag-
ons host Central Friday at 7
p.m. before playing at Wood-
burn Tuesday at 7 p.m. Dallas
closes out the regular season at
South Albany on Feb. 24. Dallas
entered the week in eighth
place in the MWC with a 2-8
mark in league play. Woodburn
and Lebanon entered the week
with a 3-7 mark, while Silverton
had a 4-6 record. The top six
teams from the league ad-
vance to the postseason.