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