WEDNESDAY April 27, 2016 The Eagle/Angel Carpenter Running the 100-meter dash, Monument’s Sophie Pettit, right, takes first place with a time of 12.87. Grant Union’s Kaylee Wright, left, finishes second (13.32), and Prairie City’s Amaya Zweygardt, second from left, is fifth (14.37) at the April 19 Grant Union Small Schools Meet. GC athletes tear up tracks Prairie City girls place third at Crane contest By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle CRANE — The Prairie City and Long Creek track and ¿ eld teams competed at last Friday’s Ranchers Invitational against ¿ ve other small schools. Prairie City and Monument schools also trav- eled to Saturday’s 10th Annual Pepsi Invitational in Union where they faced 18 other competitors, including 4A schools. Rancher’s Invitational — Crane Prairie City track and ¿ eld head coach Joe Weymouth said his team’s best performance was at Crane’s Ranchers Invitational last Friday. “We had ¿ ve of si[ athletes with personal re- cords,” he said. The Prairie City girls team placed third out of seven teams. Beating their personal best scores were Haley Pfefferkorn in the 100-meter dash and javelin, Me- gan Camarena in shot put and Amaya Zweygardt in the triple jump. For the boys, Wyatt Williams made a personal record in the 100, and Garrett Hitz also increased his time in the 300 high hurdle and his mark in the high jump, clearing the bar at 6 feet. The Long Creek boys and girls each ¿ nished ¿ fth in Crane. See TRACK, Page B10 The Eagle/Angel Carpenter Long Creek 4x100 runners Adam Rajabaliev, left, and Aaron Yeung place third in their event, along with relay teammates Philipp Dessau and Kirill Borisov. GU baseball gaining momentum Lady Prospectors have sweep and loss in softball action GU confident about second half of season Grant Union hosts Umatilla on Friday By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle By Angel Carpenter JOHN DAY — The Grant Union Prospectors hope to keep their momentum swinging in the right direction after a shaky start to the season. With two league games down — both wins — the Pros- pectors stand with a 7-8 overall record. In most of their losses this season, Grant Union was down by two to three runs. “The season didn’t start the way we wanted, and part of that was ¿ nding our identity and combinations that work,” said head coach Brian Delaney. “I feel that we’ve taken a turn for the better and no better time than ¿ rst week of league.” Delaney said his team is full of talent but sometimes strug- gles with con¿ dence. “When these boys are fo- cused, it seems like all three as- pects of the game go well,” he said. “On offense, we swing the bat well, we play good defense and we pitch well.” Delaney has been the team’s head coach for seven years, with his assistant coach Kyle Myers there for those seven years, and David Blood for two years. See BASEBALL, Page B2 Blue Mountain Eagle The Eagle/Angel Carpenter Seniors on the Grant Union baseball team, from left: Wyatt Weaver, Brady Burch, Garrett McConnell, Hayden Young, Clayton Vaughan and Ricky Weickum. Grant Union Prospectors shut out Union 12-0 GU wins home game in five innings Blue Mountain Eagle JOHN DAY — Grant Union Prospector Zack De- iter had an impressive day at the mound and the plate in Friday’s game against Union/Cove. The Prospectors won the game - in ¿ ve in- nings. From the mound, Deiter put the game away in ¿ ve innings, striking out ¿ ve and allowing no runs on four hits. Deiter also doubled in the second inning and tripled in the fourth, and scored twice in the game. See SHUTOUT, Page B2 JOHN DAY — The Grant Union/Dayville/Prairie City softball team battled against Echo/Stan¿ eld last Friday, but fell 2-8. Game Two was canceled due to lightning, and the make- up game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday in John Day. Grant Union head coach DeAnna Nash said they will evaluate prevented the team from playing solid defense. “I’m still encouraged that we play the No. 3-ranked team in the state, don’t play as well as we have been, and yet we were never out of the game,” she said. “We will rebound and play better through the ¿ nal three weeks of league.” Echo/Stan¿ eld, as of Tues- day morning, ranks No. 4 and Grant Union No. 19. Prospector Cody Jo Mad- den pitched the ¿ rst four in- nings with Mariah Moulton taking over in the ¿ fth. Grant Union had four hits and eight walks, giving up sev- en hits, ¿ ve walks, one hit bat- ter and ¿ ve errors. The Prospectors scored in the second inning and again in the si[th. Grant Union’s Tuesday, April 19, game was a different story, the Prospectors dominat- ing in a 14-4 and 12-2 sweep over the Nyssa Bulldogs. But it wasn’t without a ¿ ght. Nyssa threatened with three runs in the third inning of Game One, but the Prospectors put their foot on the gas. See SOFTBALL, Page B2 GU golfers take on Buffalo Peaks competition Stokes and Vandehey shoot season bests By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle UNION — Last Friday, the Grant Union golfers competed in the Buffalo Peaks Invitation- al in Union. Twelve teams with over 100 boys and girls took on the windy par 72 championship course. The Vale boys team won with a score of 359, followed by Heppner with 373, Ni[y- aawii with 380 and Burns with 388. Low medalist was Riley Lankford of Ni[yaawii with 82. Grant Union’s Duane Stokes was tied for seventh with 87. On the girls side, Heppner was the low team with a 431, followed by Baker with 447, Enterprise with 502 and Burns with 529. The ladies low medalist was Trinity McCarthy of La Grande with 86. Grant Union’s Tiana Allen tied for eighth place with 113, and Grant Union’s Rose Van- dehey had 130. “I was happy with the way the team played,” said head coach Ron Lundbom. “Al- though we were unable to ¿ eld a boys team this week, Duane shot his season best by 10 strokes and out of ¿ rst by only ¿ ve strokes.” He added, “Tiana was only nine strokes out of placing, and Rose shot her personal best this season also. The girls had nev- er played there, and it was only Duane’s second time. So, all in all, we were right in there, and it was a cool, windy day which made scoring a challenge.”