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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 2009)
Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, January 28,2009 - SEVEN Two Heppner wrestlers crowned champions Tuesday night defeat for Lady Mustangs The Mustang wres tlers finished a busy week by competing in the 11 team Cougar Classic in Gervais. After their home tournament on Thursday, a five hour crow ded bus ride shared with the Irrigon K nights on Friday and a short night sleeping on the mats in the Gervais gym, the Mustangs got back into action on Sat urday morning. Four Heppner wres tlers made it to. the tour nament cham pionship on Saturday night. John Nel son, Jarreid Miller, Chance Day and Wacy Coil battled th e ir w ay through th eir weight brackets to compete on the finals mat. Nelson, a freshman, and Miller, a sophom ore, lost to more experienced opponents to each finish second. Miller finished 3-1 on the day in route to his second place finish, including scoring a takedown in the last second o f the quarterfinals to pull out a 7-6 decision over a Waldport opponent. His loss in the finals came from a senior 3 A state placer from Gervais. D ay w'on e v e ry match by pin or major deci sion on his way to becoming the cham pion o f the 145 pound weight bracket. Even though the finals win came by a score of 18-8, it was a tough battle through most of the match w ith the outcome in jeopardy several times until the third period when Day was able to pull away By Jennifer Wilson With the game tied at the end of the first half it could have been either team's win, but the Stanfield Tigers edged out the Mus tangs for a 47-34 win. The trouble came in the second half for the Lady Mustangs. Scoring just 16 points in the second half, the Mustangs couldn’t keep up with the Tigers who posted 29 points. Wacy Coil takes down an opponent during a wrestling match last Thursday in Heppner. -Photo by Autumn Morgan for the major decision. Coil, seeded third in the 160 pound bracket, received a bye in the first round, then proceeded to pin his way through the bracket including the number two seed in the semi finals to earn his way into the finals. A fte r s tru g g lin g through a scoreless first period in the championship bout, Coil started the second period in the top position when his Gervais opponent chose down. Halfway into the period and the score still tied at 0-0, Coil saw his opening and locked in a cradle with his long arms. He held on for the pin and his first championship in a major tournament. T he sh o rth a n d e d Tim Nelson each won all o f their matches. Lemmon had the largest bracket and picked up four wins, three by pin and one by technical fall, with none of his oppo nents scoring a point against him. It was the first time Smith or Nelson have won first place in a tournament. H arris and Lem m on are Heppner's returning middle school state qualifiers and are undefeated in the Jr. High’s last two meets. Not to Early to ORDER FOR VALENTINES Delivery to schools Thurday Februaty 12 Wedding Tables % C h r isto p lie r S y k e s & B rea n a A n clerso n Saturday, Fehruary 2Sth 3 :0 0 p.m. Pendleton Free Me tliodist C hurch M a cy Rl ie a & D a le C r e n s h a w Saturday, A pril 2 5 , 2 0 0 Q Westwood l rn ited M ethodist Church, _ were forced to foul hoping the Tigers would miss their free throws so they could regain possession o f the ball. However, the Mustangs weren't so lucky. The Tigers came together and finished the gam e with seven late game free throws. Erin Price and Bryn na Rust led the Mustangs with 10 points each, while Matilda Hakannson added nine. Pilot Rock has hot hand in Friday night face-off M u stan g s o n ly took 11 wrestlers to the tournament, but seven o f those eleven placed sixth or higher in their weight class. The oth er Heppner wrestlers that placed were Zach Yocom at fourth, Tyler Robinson at sixth and Zach Hintz at fourth. Hintz, a freshman that only started wrestling the final two weeks of last season as an eighth grader, had his personal best place ment in a tournament after winning by a pin in the con solation semi finals. A lso c o m p e tin g for Heppner were Andrew Bara, who won an exhibi tion match by pin, Conner Pappas, Garrett Gibbs and Alex Fuentes. Jr. High wrestlers compete in Boardman T he H e p p n e r Jr. High wrestling team was in Boardman on Thursday to compete against Riverside, The D alles and Irrigon. Twelve ju n io r M ustangs made the trip including sev eral that were competing for the first time as wrestlers. Overall, the team won 19 and lost 16 for the night. All but two o f the Mustangs got at least one w in. Austin Harris, Jared Lemmon, Alex Smith and Matilda Hakannson hit a free throw for a brief Mustang lead in the third quarter. Brynna Rust also knocked dow n a three-point shot to put the M ustangs up by one later in the same quarter. Shortly after that, the Mustangs went score less for more than seven minutes, allowing the Tigers to take the lead. Down late in the fourth quarter, the Mustangs Los Anqeles, CA . 2008 p re s c rip tio n p rofiles a va ila b le upon re q u e st CeCeôrating our 5Oth JAnnniversary Serving Morrow a n d ÇiCCiam Counties ^ Muwuj'i D/uu) T re s to n M ay b en also had a winning night finishing 2-1 and second in his bracket. Ross Cutsforth, Wade Matthew, Earl Proph- eter, Bryce Fowler and Ethan Ashbeck all took third place in their weight classes. Cody Beam and John Propheter, both sixth graders wrestling for the Jr. High, also com peted for the Mustangs. Mustangs top Tigers By Jennifer Wilson The Mustangs came out Tuesday night trailing the Stanfield Tigers by three at half-time and had yet to find “their” game. However, the Mustangs came alive in the third quarter and finished the game with a 72-59 vic tory. Despite a flat start to the game, the Mustangs rallied together in the third quarter and outscored the Ti gers 24-6. “We changed the defense at half-time, which made the difference,” Coach David Norton said. The M ustangs fin ished an impressive third q u a rte r, but the T ig ers w eren't done fighting and came out with vengeance in the final quarter. T he T ig ers w ere only down by 10 with more than three minutes left in the game. With Jared Hud d lesto n p lay in g a good gam e, but benched w ith five fouls, the Tigers tried to capitalize. However, the Mus tangs found themselves at the line a lot in the remain- ing minutes ot the game to help seal the win. Chris Lien led the Mustangs w ith a career-high 28 points, while Cody Orr chipped in 14. 217 North Main • Heppner • Phone 676-9158 • Floral 676-9426 Serving Heppner, Lexington & lone By Jennifer Wilson Tied for first in the Blue Mountain Conference league, with one loss a piece, the Heppner Mustangs faced off against the Pilot Rock Rockets last Friday night. Despite a hard fought game by the Mustangs, the Rock ets left with a 73-69 win. The Mustangs came out strong and led by three after the first quarter. Chris Lien and Jared Huddleston had three consecutive three- pointers to end the quarter. With two o f Pilot Rocks most dangerous play ers in foul trouble, the Mus tangs recognized what they had to do. The Mustangs earned some quick points from some one on one play to help close a fourth quarter deficit. The game was tied three separate times through out the game. The last tie happened with 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter with the score 67-67. Brent Eckman scored a two point basket to put the Mustangs within two points for the tie, but was then forced to foul to put the Rockets at the line with seconds to go in the game. Closing out the win was Pilot Rock with two last points. Pilot Rock shot an outstanding 53% from the field. Any team with a per- Brent Eckman puts up a shot during the basketball game against Pilot Rock Friday night. -Photo by Sandy Matthews centage like that is going to be hard to beat, but the Mustangs came within four close points. It could have been either team's win, but the luck happened to fall in the hands of the Rockets. The Mustangs move down to second in the Blue Mountain Conference league but still get one more chance to beat the Rockets later in the season. High scorer for the Mustangs was Chris Lien w ith 18 points, 12 o f which were from behind the three point line. Cody Orr helped out the Mustangs with 17 points. lone boys take win over Cascade Locks, lose to Echo The lone boys split their games over the week- end, taking a “feel good” w in over Cascade Locks on Friday night but falling in a lackluster game against Echo on Saturday. The Car dinals are holding on to the top spot in the E3ig Sky East with a 7-2 record. It was another slow start when the C ardinals hosted Cascade Locks on Friday night. The Pirates jumped out to a 10-2 lead before the C ardinals got dow n to business. M att Hams had eight and Zac Orem had six in the first quarter but the Cards trailed 14-16 at its conclusion. The Cards opened the second quarter w ith a 17-4 run and finished the quarter outscor- ing the Pirates 19-8 to take a 33-24 lead. The second half was all Cardinal as the team held Cascade Locks to three points in the third quarter and cruised to a 76-43 win. Matt Hams led all scorers w ith 28 points. Also in double figures was Zac Orem with 16 and Clay Morter with 13. R.I Ramos added nine. “ We started slow in the first quarter but got things rolling and never looked back,” said Coach Dennis Stefani. “Coming down the stretch we need all these games but the ones against the other side of the league always prove to be huge at the end.” Clay Morter notched another double-double w ith 12 rebounds to go along w ith his 13 points. He also had seven assists, three steals and two blocked shots to lead in those statistical categories. The team shot 54% from the field and even better, 60%, from behind the three point line. The Cards also held their turnovers to ten. On S atu rd ay , the C ards tra v e le d to Echo for their second m eeting this season with the C ou gars. Playing in Echo is al ways tough for the Cards and this game was no exception as the Cardinals struggled in their shooting straight out o f the gate. Down 15-9 after one, the Cards went stone cold in the second quarter, making just eight points to the Cougars' 19 and not even getting a score on the board until five minutes had elapsed. The Cougars led 34-17 at the half. The Cards pulled to within 11 in the third but could never close the gap to seriously threaten the Echo lead. Echo w on the contest 53-41. Matt Hams led the Cardinals in scoring with 16. Zac Orem had ten and Clay M orter added nine. M orter led the C ardinal rebounding effort with 12 boards and added fiv e steals and three blocked shots. Cory Peterson paced the team in assists w ith three. “We just didn't show up,” said Coach Stefani. “Echo beat us in all aspects o f the game. I give Echo credit— they came out and played hard and aggressive from start to finish.” “ We need to put this one behind us and move on. There is still a lot o f basket ball to play." The Cardinals trav el to Horizon Christian in Hood River on Friday and host C ondon/W heeler on Saturday. A win for the Lady Mustangs in OT By Jennifer Wilson The Lady Mustangs have e x p erien c e d som e tough losses in the past few weeks but that all changed last Saturday w hen the Mus- tangs brought hom e the win. The Mustangs beat the Weston-McEwen TigerScots 44-41 in over-time. With the Mustangs leading by nine at the end of the first quarter and then down by one at the end o f the half, the Mustangs needed to come out ready to play. They came out tough in the third quarter, outscor- ing the TigerScots by seven points. The fourth quarter was a catch-up game for the TigerScots, needing to make up a six point deficit. At the end of the fourth quarter, the game was tied 39-39. In over-tim e play, the Mustangs allowed just two points for the Tiger Scots while they racked up five for the w in. JoAnna Patton led the Mustangs w ith 12 points. Jessica Hughes chipped in 11 and Erin Price added nine points and six assists. Have a News story or Photo for the Gazette? 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