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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2016)
B2 Sports Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, November 2, 2016 G RANT C OUNTY SPORTS ROUNDUP By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle Pros run full teams to close cross country season Grant Union cross country crossed a goal off their list to close the season. “It was the first time Grant Union has had a full girls and full boys team at district cross country since 1999,” said head coach Sonna Smith. The Prospectors traveled to the District 5 Championships Friday, Oct. 28, at Pendle- ton Community Park. Competing in the event were athletes from 16 schools from Class 1A to 3A. There were 82 boys and 63 girls compet- ing in the varsity events. Top placers for Grant Union were Tanner Elliott for the boys with a time of 19:31.4 and Ericka Dickens for the girls, recording a time of 24:16.2. Several Grant Union athletes earned personal records at the meet: Trejan Speth, 20:15.1; Braden Spencer, 21:31.2; Gage Brandon, 21:39.6; Ginni Frazier, 24:51.8; and Sierra Cates, 31:10.5. “We had a fun season and are learning how to be more competitive in our racing,” Smith said. She said she’s losing three seniors to graduation this year, including Speth, Fra- zier and Reitta Wyllie. “Trejan has been with me since I start- ed the program back up,” Smith said. “He FAN contributed a strong leadership presence throughout the season. Ginni and Reitta were just hitting their stride in racing, and we are going to work on keeping strong until track season. My large group of underclass- men are going to have to step up for next season.” Burnside Memorial Wildhorse Invite in Pendleton with a time of 10:57.6, competing with 176 runners. Chuck said the competition will be plen- tiful for Mark next year as a varsity runner. “I think he’ll do all right,” Chuck said. “It’s something to look forward to.” Monument’s Mark Thomas shines at state cross country meet Season ends for Prairie City/Burnt River and Monument/Dayville teams Monument middle school cross country runner Mark Thomas finished his season with flying colors. The eighth-grader from Kimberly earned 13th place out of 257 runners in the Super Champs 3,000-meter race, a faster division of runners. Another 299 boys raced in the Champs race. Thomas finished with a time of 10:50.5 at the race held Oct. 23 at Western Oregon University in Monmouth. “He didn’t PR (reach a personal record) in that race,” said coach Chuck Thomas. “The course was really muddy, but it was a good race.” The coach said Mark ran aggressively and reached his goal of finishing in the top 20. “When you’re racing against that many runners, you have to go out fast or you’re going to get bogged up,” Chuck said. “He ran a good race.” Mark finished third at the Oct. 13 Kyle The Prairie City/Burnt River Panther/ Bulls and Monument/Dayville Tigers junior varsity football teams planned on one more game to close the season, but, due to a lack of Tiger athletes, the game was canceled. “It was a good season — a little dis- appointing to not get a win, but the guys showed a lot of heart and determination to keep playing through the whole season,” said Tiger head coach Nathaniel Ashley. Ashley said his team was a great group and fun to coach. “I would like to thank all of our fans who traveled all over the place, watching our games,” he said. “That means a lot of all of us on the team.” Panther/Bull head coach Darrel McKrola said the team was looking forward to run- ning the new plays they’d been practicing. The team won multiple matchups this season, and he said his team had been grow- ing with each game. “I’m proud of all the boys,” he said. Continued from Page B1 for season tickets — he was in the 70,000-range down the list. “Three years ago, I got a phone call from a ticket representative,” he said. “At first, I thought it was a hoax.” Sharp’s childhood friend Jim from Illinois foot the bill for the season and post-season tickets, and they’ve shared them, his friend giving them to clients and employees. Earlier in the season, Sharp enjoyed trips to Chi- cago with his wife, Becky, and two daughters, Josie and Riley, to attend games and visit Jim. “Jim and Julie are really nice people — we’ve been friends forever,” Sharp said. “It was a cool expe- rience to see them after all these years.” He said there were 40,000 people in the stadi- um for the game and just as many outside the facility for Friday and Sunday’s games. “Friday’s game was a loss, but the atmosphere was 10 times magnified, compared to the regular season games,” he said. “In Sunday’s game, the tension in the crowd was way worse because it was an elimination game. There was no way of relaxing, and everybody was excited to be there.” He said his favorite part of Sunday’s game was “ev- ery second.” He also enjoyed “being a part of history and shar- ing that with my uncle,” he said. For Tuesday night’s Game 6, the Cubs were set to face the Indians in Cleve- land at Progressive Field, and this time Sharp plans to watch the game from the comfort of his home. “It will still be nerve racking, but more comfort- able and warmer,” Sharp said. He said he’s taking a realistic approach to the game. “I want them to win, but only one team can win,” he said. “If they lose, you’d like to think it’s just another step to the next level — you never know what’s going to happen.” 11. Steelers vs Ravens WEEK 8 OF 13 6. USC vs Oregon 8. Lions vs Vikings 4. Kansas State vs Oklahoma State 15. Cowboys vs Browns 2. Texas A&M vs Mississippi State 13. Panthers vs Rams 12. Saints vs 49ers 9. Jets vs Dolphins 10. Jaguars vs Chiefs 5. Oregon State vs Stanford 14. Titans vs Chargers 1. Washington State vs Arizona $40.00 Unlimited month of Tanning 7. Ohio State vs Nebraska Congratulations to Seth Cooksey Seth picked all 15 games correctly. A perfect score! 3. Grant Union vs Reedsport Ken Gillihan & Kirk Ausland came in second with 14 out of 15 correct. Good luck next week!
