Polk County
Sports
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • March 15, 2017 12A
SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15
Baseball: Central at
Yamhill-Carlton, 4 p.m. Cor-
ban at Western Oregon, 2
p.m.
Softball: North Marion
at Central, 4:30 p.m.
Track and field: Cres-
cent Valley at Central, 3:45
p.m. South Albany at Dallas,
3:30 p.m.
THURSDAY, MARCH 16
Baseball: Central at
Stayton, 4 p.m.
Boys tennis: Dallas at
Central, 4 p.m.
Girls tennis: Central at
Dallas, 4 p.m.
Softball: Dallas at Philo-
math, 4:30 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 17
Baseball: Central at
Elmira, 4:30 p.m. Dallas at
Gladstone, 7 p.m.
Boys tennis: Dallas at
Cascade, 4 p.m.
Softball: Marist Catholic
at Dallas, 4:30 p.m.
SATURDAY, MARCH 18
Baseball: Central Wash-
ington at Western Oregon
(DH), 1 p.m.
Softball: Western Ore-
gon at Montana State
Billings (DH), 11 a.m.
Track and field: Falls
City at Estacada Small
School Invite, 10 a.m. West-
ern Oregon at Lewis & Clark
Spring Break Open, all day.
SUNDAY, MARCH 19
Baseball: Central Wash-
ington at Western Oregon
(DH), noon.
Softball: Western Ore-
gon at Central Washington
(DH), 1 p.m.
MONDAY, MARCH 20
Boys golf: Central, Dallas
at Trysting Tree (Corvallis),
11 a.m.
Girls golf: Central, Dallas
at Mallard Creek (Lebanon),
noon.
Baseball: Perrydale at
Kennedy, 4:30 p.m.
TUESDAY, MARCH 21
Baseball: Corvallis at
Central, 4:30 p.m. Dallas at
Woodburn, 4:30 p.m.
Boys tennis: Woodburn
at Central, 4 p.m. Dallas at
Crescent Valley, 4 p.m.
Girls tennis: Woodburn
at Central, 4 p.m. Crescent
Valley at Dallas, 4 p.m.
Softball: Central at Sil-
verton, 4:30 p.m. Lebanon
at Dallas, 4:30 p.m.
2016-17 ITEMIZER-OBSERVER ALL-REGION BOYS
BASKETBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Sharp
Shooter
Barba grows into
complete player
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
INDEPENDENCE — The jump
shot. It’s a part of every basketball
game and something every player
does at one point or another.
But when you fancy yourself a
shooter, like Central senior Alec
Barba, the jump shot isn’t just a
part of your game — it’s a part of
who you are as a player.
“I hate missing,” Barba said. “I
don’t like missing shots because
that could have been two or three
points for your team.”
Luckily for the Panthers, misses
didn’t come too often for Barba.
The senior led Central in scoring,
averaging 13.5 points per game,
while shooting 50 percent on two-
point field goals and 41 percent
from three.
But it’s his growth in other areas
that made Barba such a critical
piece of the Panthers’ puzzle —
and the Itemizer-Observer’s Boys
Basketball Player of the Year.
—
Shooting just came naturally for
Barba. Some of the earliest home
videos of Barba as a young child
feature Alec shooting baskets
alongside his dad.
Prior to high school, relying on
his shooting was good enough to
get by.
See BARBA, Page 13A
By The Numbers
13.5
41
2.8
The number of
points per game
Barba averaged.
The senior led
the Panthers in
scoring.
Barba’s shooting
percentage on 3-
point shots.
Barba led Central
in 3-pointers
with 67.
The number of
rebounds per
game Barba av-
eraged for the
Panthers during
the season.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Wakem, Wolves off to fast start
By Lukas Eggen
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 22
Baseball: Central at
Corvallis, 4:30 p.m. Wood-
burn at Dallas, 4:30 p.m.
Waldport at Perrydale,
4:30 p.m.
Softball: South Albany
at Central, 4:30 p.m. Dallas
at Crescent V alley, 4:30 p.m.
Waldport at Perrydale, 4:30
p.m.
Track and field: Central
at Woodburn, 3:45 p.m. Dal-
las at Silverton, 4 p.m.
—
Schedules Subject to Change
QUICK HITS
Middle school
basketball team
wins state title
BEND — Dallas’ eighth-
grade boys basketball
team defeated Keizer 54-52
to win a state title on Sun-
day in the Silver division.
Dallas also had wins
over Crook County (51-48),
Bend (38-27), Jefferson (59-
51) and Summit (65-57).
WOU softball
games postponed
MONMOUTH — Western
Oregon’s softball team
postponed home games
against Simon Fraser and
Western Washington due
to weather.
The Wolves were sched-
uled to play Simon Fraser
last Saturday and Western
Washington on Sunday.
The games have been
rescheduled.
Western Oregon will
host Simon Fraser for a
doubleheader at 2 p.m. on
April 17.
WOU will play in Belling-
ham, Wash. for a double-
header against Western
Washington at 1 p.m. on
April 21.
The Wolves will be the
designated home team in
both games.
www.polkio.com
Home, sweet home
The Itemizer-Observer
LUKAS EGGEN/Itemizer-Observer
Western Oregon’s Justin Wakem leads the Wolves in total hits.
MONMOUTH — Justin Wakem
was ready for his moment.
The Beaverton High graduate was
participating in a college recruiting
camp, and he was ready to show off
his skills as a catcher. He was about
to take part in a drill that required
him to track down a baseball to
throw to second base.
“It was my first time and I wanted
to impress them and record a fast
time,” Wakem said.
He took off — before his cleat got
stuck in his shin strap.
“I just fell forward,” he said with a
chuckle. “It wasn’t my best showing.”
But, as baseball can tend to do,
learning to deal with the bad is all
part of the intrigue.
“It’s humbling,” Waken said. “It’s a
game of failure. Baseball helps me so
that when I do fail, it allows me to
stay calm, regroup and try again,
whether that’s in baseball or in life.
I’m not afraid of failure because of
this game.”
Things have turned out alright
• Western Oregon’s baseball team
will host Central Washington for a
pair of doubleheaders. First pitch
will be 1 p.m. Saturday and noon on
Sunday.
since then. Wakem, a redshirt soph-
omore, plays catcher for Western
Oregon’s baseball team and appears
to be in the midst of a breakout sea-
son.
—
Wakem played in 15 games as a
redshirt freshman and put up
pedestrian numbers — a .278 bat-
ting average with 10 hits.
“Last season, I was a little bit jit-
tery,” Wakem said. “They were my
first college at-bats. I think I’ve ma-
tured since then and I want to be a
veteran leader. You can’t do that by
being out of control at the plate.”
Through 10 games this season,
Wakem has recorded more hits (13)
and is batting .433 — a team-high
among batters with at least five plate
appearances.
See WAKEM, Page 13A
COLLEGE TRACK AND FIELD
Distance medley relay edges out Adams State by .001
Wolves win a national title
By Lukas Eggen
The Itemizer-Observer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —
They say that every second
counts.
Western Oregon’s dis-
tance medley relay team of
Dusting Nading, AJ Holm-
berg, Josh Dempsey and
David Ribich found out
every tenth, hundredth and
even thousandth of a sec-
ond can make a world of dif-
ference at the NCAA Divi-
sion II Indoor Track and
Field Championships on
Friday.
“When we came in with a
9 minute, 45 second (quali-
fying time), we ran that one
time and we only did one
relay all
y e a r, w e
said each
of us can
easily take
two sec-
onds off
our split,
and we
Nading
planned to
come out and run a 9:40,”
Ribich said. “But the prob-
lem was we didn’t expect
other teams to come out
here and run 9:40.”
The distance medley
relay, consisting of a 1,200-
meter first leg, 400-meter
second leg, 800-meter third
leg and 1,600-meter an-
chor, became a battle of
wills between the Wolves
and de-
fending
champion
A d a m s
State.
By the
time the
two an-
chor run-
Holmberg
ners —
Ribich from WOU and Oliv-
er Aitchison — crossed the
finish, they were in a virtu-
al dead heat.
Both teams finished with
a time of 9:40.14 — setting
a new NCAA Division II in-
door record.
But the Wolves finished
in 9:40.144. Adams State
crossed in 9:40.145.
“I’ll be sitting in a retire-
m e n t
home rem-
iniscing
and telling
the stor y
about the
time we
won a na-
t i o n a l
Dempsey
champi-
onship and set the national
record,” Dempsey said.
Nading ran the first leg,
followed by Holmberg,
Dempsey and Ribich.
“I couldn’t, in any sce-
nario, have chosen a better
group of guys to win a na-
tional championship with,”
Nading said.
The quartet’s success
was the culmination of
www.facebook.com/pages/Polk-County-Itemizer-Observer/205062686252209
n e a r l y
t h r e e
months of
training.
“ T h i s
champi-
o n s h i p
w a s n’ t
earned (on
Ribich
Fr i d a y ) ,”
Holmberg said. “It was
earned in December when
campus was empty and we
were the only ones there.”
With all four members of
the relay team set to return
next year, the Wolves figure
to be in a prime position to
defend their title, but that
will be a challenge for an-
other day.
See WOLVES, Page 13A
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