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About Polk County itemizer observer. (Dallas, Or) 1992-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2017)
Polk County Sports Polk County Itemizer-Observer • February 15, 2017 13A Dragons: Dallas has four district champions Continued from Page 11A “I knew it was going to be a tough match,” Treve said. “I knew he wanted it really badly because it’s his senior year. ... (Winning) means a lot. It’s nice to go up a weight class and be successful, it feels really good.” Winning alongside his brother was something he yearned for. “It’s awesome,” Treve said. “I want to be like him. It’s fun to win during his senior year.” Janssen, who earned a 9-3 deci- sion over Woodburn’s Karson Christiansen in the finals, saw the culmination of the hard work and support from all those around him. “It meant a ton to me,” Janssen said. “I’ve had a lot of support from my family and my teammates. I felt like I had to do whatever it took.” Ryan Bibler (106) and Clay Coxen (182) finished second. Dawson Barcroft (113), Joseph Foster (126), Bryce Miller (132), Joseph English (138) and Nicholas Nelson (152) took third, and Devon Floyd (160) placed fourth. The top four wrestlers in each weight class advanced to state. While the Dragons enjoyed their district championship, they know their work is far from finished. The state wrestling champi- onships will be on Feb. 24-25 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. For some, like Tanner, who took second at state last season, this is a final opportunity to bring home an individual title. “I still have unfinished busi- ness,” he said. But the Dragons also know they have a chance to challenge for the team title. “We’ll have about the same number as the Hermistons and Redmonds,” Dallas coach Tony Olliff said. “Crater will have more, but I think they will have a lot tougher first day than we will.” For those moving on to state, the focus remains on fine tuning. “Whatever your kryptonite might have been, you have to work on it,” Janssen said. “We have to find our weaknesses and eliminate them.” For Olliff, the weeks leading up to state means keeping wrestlers healthy, and mentally and physi- cally prepared for a grueling two- day tournament. “I think we have to vary the schedule and style of workout so it doesn’t become mundane,” Ol- liff said. “It’s not about three rounds anymore. There’s going to LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer Dallas’ Treve Earhart, left, defeated Central’s Sam Crow in the district finals on Saturday evening. be a lot of overtime matches at state. You have to know going into an OT match that you have what it takes. We have to put them in that situation and have them be able to function in those lung burning situations.” Dallas entered the district championships with high expecta- tions. The Dragons didn’t disap- point. They’re hoping for a similarly strong showing at state. “We all have to do what we can,” Janssen said. “We have to do our part to get us close to a state title and put ourselves in the best situa- tion we can.” PERRYDALE ROUNDUP Boys, girls basketball prep for postseason Itemizer-Observer staff report PERRYDALE — Perry- dale’s boys and girls basket- ball teams are headed to the postseason. They face very different paths to the state playoffs. The boys team won the Casco League regular season title, earning an automatic spot to the league tourna- ment title game on Saturday at Corban University. They will face the winner of Crosshill Christian vs. Willamette Valley Christian. Both teams in the title game advance to state. The winner gets the higher seed at state — something that could be of critical importance given the quality of teams the Pi- rates could face. “We had a meeting on Monday to talk about the importance of what they are facing,” boys coach Brian Domes said. “Saturday is a setup for what we’re trying to do. We told the seniors that if and when they play their last game, it will be their last of high school. We want the young kids to un- derstand, yeah you get to play next year, but you won’t get to play with this caliber of a team. We want them to understand how hard we need to push the next cou- ple of weeks.” Domes said the plan was to go hard for a couple days and look at film from the team’s three losses — a re- minder that nothing is a given. “We want to remind them Casco League Tournament • The Casco League Tournament will take place Friday and Saturday at Corban University. • Games will begin each day at 2 p.m. with scheduled start times following at 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. • Falls City’s boys team will play Livingstone Adventist Friday at 2 p.m. The winner advances to the third-place game on Sat- urday. The loser is eliminated. • Falls City’s girls team will play the fourth seed with winner advancing to the third place game and the loser eliminated. • Perrydale’s boys clinched a spot in the league title game. • Perrydale’s girls team will enter the league tournament as the third or fourth seed. that you guys are beatable,” Domes said. “You don’t just get to show up and expect it to happen.” GIRLS The girls team’s spot in the league tournament is clinched. But what seed they will enter as remains up in the air. Jewell played Living- stone Adventist on Monday and faced Oregon School for the Deaf Tuesday after press time. A pair of wins by Jewell would force a tiebreaker game against Perrydale at Gaston High School Wednesday (today) at 4:30 p.m. The winner would enter the league tournament as the third seed with the loser would enter as the fourth seed. If Jewell loses to Oregon School for the Deaf, the Pi- rates clinch the third seed. At the league tournament, the winner of the second seed/third seed matchup clinches a spot at state and advances to the league tour- nament title game. The loser plays the winner of the fourth seed/fifth seed matchup with a spot at state on the line. For now, Perrydale will prepare as though a matchup against Jewell on Wednesday is looming. Either way, the Pirates will enter the league tournament needing at least one more victory to clinch a spot to state. “If we play against Jew- e l l , w h a t we w i l l r u n against Jewell will be the same thing that we run against Willamette Valley Christian or Crosshill Christian,” girls coach Terry Newton said. “I’ve ex- plained to the girls that they need to be ready for playoff basketball. The good thing about this team is they’re highly competi- tive as a group. They’ve all had a fair amount of suc- cess in basketball and they’ve been playing for al- most four months now. They’ve gained a lot of ex- perience.” FALLS CITY ROUNDUP Boys basketball earns a pair of victories Itemizer-Observer staff report FALLS CITY — Falls City’s boys basketball team ended the regular season with a pair of wins, beating C.S. Lewis 58-47 on Friday and Jewell 60-37 on Saturday. Jeremy Labrado scored a team-high 18 points against C.S. Lewis. Austin Burgess added 14 points and Zach Varney scored 11 points. The Mountaineers shot 20 for 26 from the free-throw line. Labrado scored 16 points against Jewell. Dylan Young and Varney each scored 14 points. “Dylan Young has really played well the last two games,” coach Micke Kidd said. “He’s really stepping up in leadership and in his of- fensive and defensive ef- forts.” The boys opened the week with a 47-37 loss to Willamette Valley Christian on Feb. 7. The boys open the Casco League Tournament Friday at Corban University. The fifth-seeded Mountaineers will play fourth-seeded Liv- ingstone Adventist at 2:45 p.m. The winner advances to play the loser of No. 2 Crosshill Christian vs. No. 3 Willamette Valley Christian on Saturday. The winner of Saturday’s game advances to state. GIRLS Falls City’s girls basketball team fell to Willamette Val- ley Christian 54-30 on Feb. 7 and Jewell 33-16 on Satur- day. The Mountaineers enter the Casco League Tourna- ment as the fifth seed and will face the fourth seed Fri- day at 4 p.m. The winner ad- vances to play the loser of Willamette Valley Christian vs/Perrydale/Jewell on Sat- urday. The loser is eliminat- ed. The winner of Saturday’s game advances to state. Central: Panthers see three Panthers defeat wrestlers make district finals Crescent Valley PREP BASKETBALL Continued from Page 11A Sam Crow (195) and Caleb Sedlacek (285) placed sec- ond. “Our three finalists have not only grown as wrestlers, they have also grown as leaders,” coach Van Holstad said. “They have dealt with success and failure with dig- nity and humility.” Sedlacek felt that the mo- ment got to him in the dis- trict finals, but is ready to learn from the experience. “I was super nervous,” Sedlacek said. “I let the crowd get to me a little bit and got caught in the mo- ment more than I should have, but making it to state means a lot. One of my goals was to make it to state and rock it at state.” Noah Worthington (106) and Chris Polanco (160) fin- ished third and AJ Morales (170) and Erik Vasquez (182) took fourth. Polanco’s journey to state has been a long one. Polanco, a senior, earned a 6-4 decision over Dallas’ Devon Floyd to take third. A year ago, Polanco lost to teammate Gabriel Arreguin in the fourth-place match at districts. Arreguin advanced to state. Polanco did not. This season, with his last chance to go to state, noth- ing would stop him. “Everything was at stake,” Polanco said. “I lost my semifinals match. I got fired up. To face a Dallas wrestler, it’s two rival teams. It was all on the line.” With his first trip to state secured, Polanco is excited to experience the competi- tion first hand. “It’s not just about the wrestling,” Polanco said. “It’s everything. It’s the atmos- phere. It’s a nice feeling (to know I’m going).” But all of the Panthers’ qualifiers aren’t satisfied with simply making state. “(Districts felt pretty good),” Worthington said. “… Now I want to get top three at state.” The Panthers finished fifth in the team standings. “For the most part, we did LUKAS EGGEN/ Itemizer-Observer Central senior David Negrete won his second-straight district title on Friday and Saturday. just about how we expect- ed,” Holstad said. “Of course, we wanted a better team finish and more quali- fying wrestlers, but we were competitive.” Now, the attention turns toward state when Holstad said they will maintain a reg- ular schedule to maintain their peak. The Panthers didn’t quite send as many wrestlers to state as they had hoped, but Holstad said he was proud of the way each wrestler bat- tled over the weekend. “As always, we wanted more to qualify, but seven isn’t a bad number to take to state out of a very tough dis- trict tournament,” Holstad said. “Unfortunately we have to leave a few kids who have worked very hard to make big improvements home, but are proud of them none theless.” Itemizer-Observer staff report INDEPENDENCE — Central’s girls basketball team defeated Crescent Valley 49-23 on Feb. 8 before falling to Wilsonville 53-45 on Saturday. Elizabeth Chavez scored a game-high 18 points against Crescent Valley. Mea- gan Mendazona added 16 points and 12 rebounds. Mendazona scored a game-high 21 Chavez points against Wilsonville and Chavez recorded 14 points. The Panthers host Lebanon Wednesday (today) at 7 p.m. before playing at Dallas Friday at 5:30 p.m. and at Corvallis on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Central enters the week in fourth place in the Mid- Willamette Conference.