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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (May 9, 2021)
INSIDE: CLASSIFIEDS, MARKET RECAP & WEATHER B S PORTS THE BULLETIN • SUNday, May 9, 2021 bendbulletin.com/sports MLS PREP TRACK AND FIELD Fans allowed for Timbers-Sounders The Portland Timbers are coming off a loss to Club América in CONCA- CAF Champions League play, and Sunday’s game against the archrival Seat- tle Sounders will be their fifth match in 16 days. Two of the Timbers’ designated players, Se- bastían Blanco (thigh strain) and Jaroslaw Niez- goda (ACL recovery), and top goalkeeper Steve Clark (thigh strain) remain out with injuries. It might not sound like the best recipe for a strong performance in a rivalry match, but Tim- bers coach Giovanni Sa- varese said he likes how the schedule lines up for his team. “I’m happy that we play them right now, coming out from the CCL, because I think we need to put that behind, and what better game than against Seattle to make sure that we concentrate on what is coming now in front of us,” Savarese said. What’s in front of the Timbers (1-0-2, 3 points) for their match at noon Sunday (TV on ABC) is an unbeaten Sound- ers team.A week ago, it looked as though the rivalry match would be played without fans. But that changed Wednesday when Oregon Gov. Kate Brown eased COVID-19 restrictions across the state and dropped Mult- nomah County from extreme risk to high risk starting Friday. The move allowed the Timbers to host fans at 15% capacity, or about 3,800 fans, at the 25,000-seat Providence Park, as they have for three other matches this season. “Having the fans in Providence Park is how it should be, and the en- vironment in Providence Park when the fans are cheering and everything’s rocking, as players it’s what you dream about as a kid,” Attinella said. It will be the first time fans will be in the stands for a Timbers-Sounders match since August 2019, and Savarese said their presence adds to an al- ready intense rivalry. Speedy sprinter Ridgeview Ravens freshman Kensey Gault is undefeated so far this season BY BRIAN RATHBONE The Bulletin SISTERS — A t a middle school track meet in 2019, a young sprinter caught the eye of Ridgeview track Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin and field coach Mark Conrad. Ridgeview High School’s Kensey Gault, center, competes in the 100-meter dash at Sisters High School on Friday. Her strides were smooth, her run- ning style efficient. Best of all, the sev- enth-grader, Kensey Gault, was fast. Really fast. Then came 2020 when COVID-19 canceled the track and field season and the future Raven sprinter faded from the coach’s mind. “She had the mechanics,” Conrad said. “All that stuff that goes into mak- ing a fast runner. Then, basically, I forgot about her until we had the fall season.” When sports resumed last fall and Conrad watched Gault race, he quickly realized he may have one of the state’s better sprinters in his pro- “(Gault) has been off to a good start. It is too bad that the season is on the short side. These kids are just getting into the swing of things and now it is almost over. But she has had a great start to the season.” — Mark Conrad, Ridgeview track and field coach gram for the next four years. Since Gault began racing this spring, win- ning everything she entered, Conrad’s hunch seems real. “She has been off to a good start. It is too bad that the season is on the short side,” said Conrad. “These kids are just getting into the swing of things and now it is almost over. But she has had a great start to the season.” Beavers wrap up spring practice with fans in stands BY NICK DASCHEL The Oregonian NHL Just in time for the playoffs, the NHL is re- laxing virus protocols for teams that reach a vacci- nation threshold. The changes take ef- fect once 85% or more of the traveling party has been fully vaccinated, the league announced Sat- urday. The changes include loosened restrictions on indoor and outdoor din- ing, testing frequency and mask-wearing and quarantine requirements. Under the new regu- lations, fully vaccinated individuals can dine out- doors or inside (in a pri- vate section or room with masked servers), visit each other’s hotel rooms and have other social gatherings without mask- ing or distancing require- ments. The NHL is the last of the major four North American pro sports leagues to announce plans to relax virus pro- tocols for teams based on vaccination levels. As of Friday, five of Ma- jor League Baseball’s 30 teams had reached the 85% vaccinated level to relax protocols. — Associated Press See Gault / B2 COLLEGE FOOTBALL — The Oregonian Protocols relaxed for some teams As a freshman, Gault is near the top of the Class 5A leaderboard in four different events. As of Friday evening, her time of 15.93 seconds in the 100 meter hur- dles at Mountain View High on April 28, is the fastest time of all 5A girls hurdlers. She has the third fastest 100 meter time (12.45), and the fifth fast- est 200 meter and 300 meter hurdle times in the state. Even for a runner who has rou- tinely won races since sixth grade, when she started running track, the early success is a bit surreal for the freshman sprinter. “It feels really good,” said Gault. “I didn’t think I would be this far up the rankings, so this year is kind of a sur- prise.” Racing Friday on the track at Sis- ters High School, Gault won the 100 (13.01) and the 200 meter (26.71) dashes, and was part of the winning 4x100 meter relay team, keeping her season unblemished. Karl Maasdam/OSU Athletics Oregon State tight end Luke Musgrave (88), a graduate of Bend High, catches a pass in front of defensive back Alton Julian (7), during the Beavers’ spring scrimmage on Saturday at Reser Stadium in Corvallis. NWSL | CHALLENGE CUP CORVALLIS — A father and son threw the football to one another in Reser Stadium’s parking lot. Several long lines of peo- ple wearing in Oregon State athletic gear waited outside of Reser’s East gates to open. A group of students ran across 26th St. on the way to the stadium yelling “ Ohhhhh-Esssssss-You … Ore- gon State fight, fight, fight!” College football took another step Saturday morning toward becoming whole again at Or- egon State. For the first time since the pandemic struck 14 months ago, fans were allowed to watch Beaver football do something in Reser Stadium. It wasn’t close to a traditional spring practice-ending scrim- mage. Coach Jonathan Smith consistently referred to the 65-minute workout as a “show- case.” With more than a dozen players out due to COVID-19 protocol and others sidelined with minor injuries, the Bea- vers were limited as to what they could do Saturday. The “showcase” highlights were five offensive series in the red zone, and defensive tackle Isaac Hodgins proposing to his girlfriend Taylor Lawson at midfield. Take your pick. Oh, and fans. A few thou- sand, maybe 3,000, sat in Reser Stadium’s seats for the first time since the 2019 football season. Combined with the band and cheerleaders, it gave the Beavers a taste of what they missed in 2020, and what to expect this fall. “It felt so much better, even having those limited fans,” said tight end Luke Musgrave, a graduate of Bend High, who caught Saturday’s lone touch- down. “We were all really happy to have them out there. The energy was noticeably higher with those fans.” See Beavers / B3 CLIMBING Thorns claim Cup after penalty shootout with Gotham FC BY ANNE M. PETERSON Associated Press PORTLAND — Morgan Weaver buried her penalty kick after Portland goalkeeper Adrianna Franch stopped Na- homi Kawasumi’s attempt and the Thorns won the Challenge Cup tournament on a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw with Gotham on Saturday. The Thorns did not drop a match in the National Wom- en’s Soccer League preseason tournament. Following the seven-round shootout, the fans at Providence Park chanted “A- D, A-D,” Franch’s nickname. “Everybody did what they needed to do to put ourselves in a good position for me to make one save, and then we brought it home,” Franch said. “But it comes way before that. If we don’t score a goal in this game, we’re not taking PKs, if we don’t keep them off the board any more than one, we’re not taking PKs.” Gotham, previously known as Sky Blue before an offseason rebrand, won a pair of group- stage games, including a 4-3 victory over the North Caro- lina Courage. “We weren’t able to possess as we wanted to. Credit to the Thorns for putting us under pressure,” Gotham coach Freya Combe said. “We weren’t quite firing on all cylinders until the second half. So it turned into a bit more of a counter-attack- ing game. But I think it’s good that we’ve got those tools in our armory with the pace that we’ve got in our front line, that we can vary up our game a lit- tle bit.” See Thorns / B3 National Park Service via AP Climbers camp on a big wall on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California. The park said Friday it would require climbers to get permits if they spend the night while climbing the granite walls of El Capi- tan, Half Dome and other iconic granite features. Yosemite climbers face new obstacle: Overnight permits BY BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Climb- ing El Capitan and the famous big walls of Yosemite National Park got a bit harder Friday. The park added red tape to cut through before climbers can begin the physically gru- eling and mentally demand- ing feat of inching up vertical granite walls that take days to conquer and require spending the night suspended on tiny platforms hundreds or thou- sands of feet above Yosemite Valley. See Yosemite / B3