PAGE LABEL
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
A9
WEDNESDAY
May 19, 2021
Grant Union takes top spot at home golf tourney
Devon Stokes posts
the best round at 88
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant Union’s golf team took
the top spot Friday to win its
yearly invitational.
With a team score of 378, the
Pros bested Heppner with a score
of 407, Enterprise with 451, Wal-
lowa with 459 and Echo with 510.
Prospectors head coach Ron
Lundbom said Devon Stokes was
the top medalist with an indi-
vidual score of 88. Enterprise’s
Jacob Amaro came in with an 89
and Grant Union senior Maverick
Miller followed with a 94.
Lundbom said Prospectors
scorers were Tanler Fuller with a
101, senior Parker Manitsas with
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Grant Union senior Devon Stokes makes a chip shot onto the green Fri-
day during Grant Union’s yearly invitational at the John Day Golf Course.
Stokes posted the best score at the tournament, 88.
a 95, Preston Boethin with a 119
and Bridger Walker with a 125.
On the girls side, he said Enter-
prise had the only complete team,
and they shot a 548. Top medal-
ist was Sasha Koewn, Heppner,
98, followed by Billy Radinovich,
Grant Union, 114, and Mackenzie
Rose, Echo, 124. Scoring for the
GU girls were Audry Walker, 130,
and Layla Wenick, 138.
“The match today was the
ﬁ rst match for some of the GU
kids, and they all did a great job,”
Lundbom said.
He said the Pros stepped up
knowing that this was the last
match for the seniors. And he said
Grant Union came out “on top.”
“The last two years have been
hard on the kids,” he said, “and to
have the dedication and desire to
compete through all this has been
admirable. I am very proud of
these kids.”
Lundbom, who’s been at the
helm of the Grant Union golf pro-
gram since 2006, said that golf
brings a lot of life lessons to the
kids.
“A lot of good life lessons
come out of golf for these kids,”
he said. “They get a lot of self
conﬁ dence.”
Prospectors softball team
competing in state playoﬀ s
S HOOTING THE B REEZE
Line of sight
W
hile scrolling a certain social
media feed, I saw a video of a cer-
tain nimrod who after taking aim
over the hood of his Ford Ranger pickup pro-
ceeded to cut loose with a rapid four or ﬁ ve
shot string from his semi-automatic riﬂ e.
Only after doing so did he notice what we
viewers could already see — the bullet holes
he drilled through the hood of his vehicle.
Sights exist to align the barrel of the weapon
with the intended target. They are not the bar-
rel itself, only something we
shooters can use to direct our
projectiles to the point where
the line of bore intersects with
the line of sight. For some
weapons this all takes place at
relatively close distance, and
for others it’s much farther.
Dale Valade
Some sighting systems are
very adept at enabling us to arrange collisions to
way out there, while others are not.
The shotgun bead for example is a very
short range proposition while the variable
power riﬂ e scope dramatically increases our
reach. One sight system that has nearly gone
into obscurity is that of the side mounted tele-
scopic sight. In the Korean War, M1 Garand
riﬂ es were altered and ﬁ tted with a 6x side
mounted riﬂ e scope for the obvious intention
of sniper/counter sniper work. At a glance, it
seemed to have had nearly the reach, albeit
not the accuracy of the Springﬁ eld bolt-action
riﬂ es, which were also still in use. Soldiers
armed with these M1C or M1D riﬂ es quickly
found out that the side mounted scopes,
not centered over the same axis as the bore,
would shoot more or less straight only out to
certain distances where the axis of the line of
sight and line of bore would intersect. How-
ever past those distances, the bullet would
continually travel to the left of the point of
aim, in a criss-cross sort of fashion, increas-
ingly worsening the greater the distance.
While we don’t see side mounted scopes
hardly at all these days, long-range shoot-
ers do see similar problems but to a smaller
degree with canted scope reticles. This how-
ever isn’t the majority percentage of line
of sight errors. Like the now-famous fel-
low mentioned at the outset of this column,
more often it’s due to shooters not ensuring
their barrel is high enough to clear would-be
obstructions. Once as a young man I wit-
nessed a fellow put a bullet into his pickup
bed railing. He leaned over the box to shoot
at a ground squirrel, and not ensuring his line
of bore was clear like his line of sight, he
shot a hole in his pickup bed.
Line of sight to line of bore relationship
can also be frustrated by limbs, brush, tall
grass and rocks. Don’t blow your big game
hunt or raise your auto insurance rates by
failing to mentally ﬁ le your bullet’s ﬂ ight
plan before shooting!
We want to hear from you! Write to us at
shootingthebreezebme@gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local country gent with
a love for the outdoors, handloading, hunt-
ing and shooting.
SPORTS ROUNDUP
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Grant Union’s Halle Parsons pitches during a game on May 15.
Team shuts down Weston-
McEwen in double header
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he Grant Union/Prairie City
softball team is competing in
the state playoﬀ s.
The Prospectors were
scheduled to make their play-
oﬀ debut Tuesday past press time. The
winner of that game will play again Thurs-
day with times to be announced.
The Prospectors dominated both
games against Weston-McEwen on May
15 with wins of 10-0 and 17-1.
Grant Union softball head coach Zach
Williams said the team played well as they
focused on every pitch every inning. He
said Grant Union’s pitching was great,
and the team made sure their defense was
on point.
“Our pitching has been great all sea-
son,” Williams said. “Both freshmen,
Drewsey Williams and Halle Parsons,
kept us in every game. The only game
we dropped was because we haven’t just
made routine plays routine.”
The girls defense halted any oﬀ ensive
momentum from Weston-McEwen in the
ﬁ rst game of the doubleheader. The ﬁ rst
game ended 10-0 after six innings.
The Lady Pros carried the momentum
into the second game where there defense
remained on point. The ﬁ rst inning quickly
passed as Parsons pitched and kept the
ball down so the girls could quickly tag
out three players to ﬁ nish the top of the
ﬁ rst. At the bottom of the ﬁ rst, the Lady
Pros began building their moment with
3 runs. Williams drove in two runs, and
The Eagle/Rudy Diaz
Laken Mckay bats May 15.
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Coach Zach Williams congratulates the
team on their victory.
another run was scored before the end of
the inning.
Parsons maintained the strong defense
by striking out two batters at the top of the
second inning. At the bottom of the sec-
ond, the Lady Pros ran with the game with
a total of 12 runs at the end of the inning,
14-1.
Weston-McEwen continued to push
back against the Lady Pros’ defense, but
Grant Union maintained their lead and
added an additional 3 runs at the end of
the third inning, 17-1. After the top of the
ﬁ fth inning, the game concluded with the
Lady Pros victorious.
Williams said one improvement the
team could make is adjusting to pitch-
ers and keeping the oﬀ ense shown in the
game against Weston-McEwen.
“We haven’t done that all season —
we’ve been winning 2-0, 3-1 type games
because their defensive pitching is tough
— but we ﬁ nally got onto the pitcher and
put an inning together,” Williams said.
“We’re not making adjustments quickly
enough at the plate. Every pitcher you see
is a diﬀ erent speed. We did better today.”
Grant Union qualiﬁ es 12 for state
track meet
Grant Union came away from the district
track meet with ﬁ rst-place trophies and ath-
letes going onto the state meet.
Grant Union track and ﬁ eld head coach
Sonna Smith said that Jordan Hall posted a
16.42 in the 110 hurdles that moved him to
ﬁ rst in the state 2A division by over a second.
Smith also said that the 4x100 boys relay
also posted a best in the state time for 2A
with a 46.03.
Smith said that the following athletes
qualiﬁ ed for the state track meet:
Justin Hodge: 4x100, 100, 200, shot put
Quaid Brandon: 4x100, 100, 200
Luke Jackson: 4x100, 400 meters
CJ Glimpse: 4x100, Triple Jump
Jordan Hall: 110H, long jump, triple, javelin
Eli Wright: 300H, high jump, javelin
Brady Dole: 3,000, 800
Quinn Larson: 110 hurdles
Drake Euting: high jump
Abby Lusco: discus
Kate Hughes: 300 hurdles
Katie Rigby: triple jump
Carson Weaver: 100 meters, high jump
Grant Union’s track and ﬁ eld team will
make their state appearance at 10 a.m. Sat-
urday at Union High School.
Long Creek girls place second at
Prairie City’s Twilight Track Meet
Long Creek’s girls varsity team took sec-
ond place at Prairie’s Twilight Track Meet.
Prairie City’s girls team took fourth.
Nolan Garinger of Long Creek tied for
the top spot in the 100-meter dash with
Crane’s Austin Ward.
Prairie’s boys team took ﬁ fth, while
Long Creek’s boys took fourth.
Prospectors split doubleheader with
Weston-McEwen
The Grant Union Prospectors baseball
team lost to Weston-McEwen 3-2 in the ﬁ rst
game of a doubleheader Saturday and won
the second game 13-5.