Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, February 11 2009 - SEVEN
Mustang earns outstanding wrestler award Mustangs w in huge
games on the road
Heppner hosted its
first ever major wrestling
tournam ent on Saturday
Fifteen teams competed in
the Bank of Eastern Oregon
Invitational including all
10 o f the teams in Hepp-
ner’s wrestling district plus
Colton, Baker, Riverside,
Umatilla and Irrigon
Competition began
at 10 am and lasted until 8
pm Baker edged out River
side for the team first place
trophy by a score of 185-
175 The Mustangs finished
sixth overall, third among
2A teams and second against
their district competition
Two Mustang wres
tlers fought their way to the
championship finals, Chance
Day at 152 pounds and Wacy
Coil at 160 pounds Day is
ranked fifth in Oregon and
Coil is ranked eighth, but
both wrestlers would have
to face a higher ranked op
ponent for the gold medal
Day faced his friend
from Irrigon, Kyle Sullivan
who is ranked third in Or
egon Day has never been
able to beat him in their
previous m eetings This
time however, in front of
the home crowd with the
gold medal on the line. Day
dominated from the opening
whistle, ultimately winning
by a major decision 19-7
Most of Sullivan’s points
came from Day giving him
a free one point escape
Sullivan is known
for being a punishing leg
rider and for his quick switch
to get on top Day avoided
being in the defensive down
position the whole match
Top Photo: Andre» Bara goes for the pin during a match in Sat
urday’s wrestling tournament. Bottom Photo: Jarreid Miller
takes his opponent to the ground. -Photos by Sandy Matthews
by repeatedly giving the
free escape and then taking
him down for two points It
proved to be a winning strat
egy For his performance,
Day received tournament
O utstanding W restler, an
accolade awarded by vote
from all the attending head
coaches
In the next match.
Coil faced the sixth ranked
w restler in Oregon from
Adrian In what could be
a preview o f the district
championship at 160, the
two wrestlers battled back
and forth and in the end Coil
came away with a silver
medal and second place
The other medalist
for H eppner was Jarreid
Miller at 125 pounds After
losing his first match to Zach
Cody from Crane, Miller
fought his way through the
wrestle back to face Cody
again in the consolation
championship At the end of
the regulation six minutes,
the score was tied 10-10
and the match went into
overtime Neither wrestler
scored for the first 50 sec
onds of the 60 second sud
den death round Then after
a flurry of action, Miller
came out on top with a two
point takedown to win the
bronze by a score of 12-10
H eppner had thir
teen wrestlers compete in
the tournament and seven
placed in the top five Be
sides Day, Coil and Miller,
the Mustang placers were
Cody Nelson, Grant Smith,
Dillon Lutcher and Tyler
Robinson, each of whom
placed fifth
Andrew Bara and
Zach Hintz, two of the most
improved wrestlers on the
team this year, also scored
important team points by
w inning m atches for the
Mustangs
Also competing for
Heppner were Zach Yocom,
Conner Pappas, Drew Bran
non and Alex Fuentes
“ This was a great
show ing for this young
team,” said Coach Morgan
“Last year we placed eighth
out of 10 teams at districts,
and before that we were
tenth To finish second in
this tournament among our
district team s shows the
strong growth of this pro
gram A tournament like this
goes a long ways toward
gaining respect and putting
Heppner on the wrestling
map We owe a lot of thanks
to all of the volunteers who
gave up their Saturday to
make it happen We received
many com plim ents from
other teams, coaches and
officials Many co u ld n ’t
believe it was our first home
tournament and that most of
the help had never done this
before It went better than
we had dared hope ”
Cards finish first in Big Sky East Division
The lone Cardinals
split their weekend games,
cruising to a win in Arling
ton Friday night and losing
a heartbreaker on Saturday
against Condon/Wheeler in
Fossil The win on Friday
sealed the deal on a first
place finish in the Big Sky
East Division for the Car
dinals
The Cards ran out to
a solid 25-4 lead in the first
quarter at Arlington, playing
an opponent with just six
players dressed down. With
the outcome never in doubt,
the Cards worked in the en
tire bench and tried different
player combinations on the
way to the 58-29 win
Zac Orem led the
team in scoring with 13
points Matt Hams had 12
and RJ Ramos had 11 The
C ardinals dom inated the
boards 46-14 led by Clay
Morter with 11, Alex Riet-
mann with seven and Gun
ner Jessen with five Cory
Peterson and Alex Rietmann
each dished out four assists
and Zac Orem had three
blocked shots to lead the
team lone shot 45% from
the floor in the contest
“ This was one of
those games we needed to
have,” said Coach Dennis
Stefani The kids came out
and took care of it early, al
lowing a lot of playing time
for everyone ”
On Saturday, the
Cardinals traveled to Fossil
for a rematch with Condon/
Wheeler The Cards defeat
ed C/W when they played in
lone last week The Knights
Cory Peterson goes up for a shot against Condon in Fossil on
February 7. Photo by Theresa Crawford
led by nine midway through
the first quarter before two
RJ Ramos buckets in the
last 1 30 narrowed the lead
to five The Cards scrapped
back to within one before
hot three point shooting by
the Knights stretched the
lead out to 10
With 1 47 remaining
in the half, Condon made a
three point play to take their
biggest lead of the day, 37-
26 The Cards put up three
points before the Knights hit
another basket to build the
lead back to 10 with under
a minute to go With 36 sec
onds on the clock. Gunner
Jessen drove the key, made
the layin and was fouled
When he hit the free throw,
the Knights’ halftime lead
was a bit smaller, 39-32.
T he C a rd in a ls
opened the third quarter
with an 11-2 run and out-
scored the Knights 23-14 in
the period to take a 55-53
lead into the final frame The
last quarter was nothing but
high adventure The game
was tied four times but the
Cards held the lead until the
Knights hit a pair of free
throws with 1:28 remain
ing to go up by two Clay
Morter's fifth foul with 29 6
seconds left sent the Knights
to the line again Making
just one, they held a three
point margin
C o ry P e te rs o n
knocked down a pair be
fore the Knights went back
Heppner JV boys fall to Enterprise, beat Huskies
By Jennifer Wilson
The M ustangs had
a tough third quarter Friday
night and gave up a 46-33
win to the Enterprise Out
laws
At h a lf tim e, the
score was tied at 16 but the
Outlaws came out with full
court pressure in the third
quarter and scored three
t
times with no answer from
the Mustangs
At the end o f the
third quarter, the Outlaws
had outscored the Mustangs
by 12 points “ We gave
up some costly offensive
rebounds to them and they
made a run and we couldn't
recover,” said Coach Ken
Grieb “ I was pleased with
the overall effort but we
came up a little short ”
Dan Jeffries led the
Mustangs with nine points
while Jake Bowles added
in six points The Heppner
ju n io r varsity boys team
then traveled to Elgin on
Saturday for a win against
the Huskies
to the line again, and again
made one Trailing by two, a
Matt Hams jumper rimmed
out but the rebound fell right
into Cory Peterson’s hands
P e te rso n ’s shot fell ju st
short and in the melee, the
Knights were fouled with
3 2 seconds left Hitting one,
they built their final margin
of victory, 73-70.
Matt Hams led the
team in scoring with 23
points Clay Morter chipped
in 15 The Cards scratched
their way to a 44-32 re
bounding edge over the tall
C ondon/W heeler squad
Clay Morter led the charge
with 17 while Tanner Riet
mann added nine and Gun
ner Jessen had six Cory Pe
terson led the team with five
assists and Clay Morter had
three blocked shots lone
shot 42% from the floor (28-
67) and Condon/W heeler
shot 43% (27-63.)
“All in all, I thought
our kids played well,” said
C o ach D en n is S tefan i
“ Playing in Fossil on the
small floor shut down our
running game and Condon
took advantage of that with
their big kids being able to
set up on defense Our kids
played hard and I was proud
of the heart and effort they
gave ”
The Cardinals will
finish out the regular sea
son hosting Helix on Fri
day night and traveling to
Maupin for a showdown
with the number one team
on the West side of the Big
Sky, South Wasco County
By Jennifer Wilson
The Mustangs earned
a 71 -64 victory over the Out
laws Friday night After get
ting beat by the Outlaws on
their home court, the Mus
tangs wanted revenge They
played so hard to get the win
that three players shed some
blood and one even lost his
lunch, but in the end, the
Mustangs proved to be the
better team
“We came out and
played intense for 32 min
utes and that’s what we need
to do to w in,” said Jared
Huddleston
Chris Lien started
out the game with a three-
point shot, but w ith the
Outlaw “big guys” making
their presence known in the
key, the M ustangs trailed
15-12 at the end of the first
quarter
The Mustangs capi
talized on the bonus and then
double bonus situation at the
end of the second quarter,
picking up six points from
the free throw line Kyle
Fuchs had four of those six
free throw points
To wrap up the third
quarter, Jared Huddleston
made a three point bucket
Enterprise answered back
with three points of their
own in the last remaining
seconds of the quarter mak
ing the score 54-43 in favor
of the Mustangs.
Enterprise refused to
surrender in the fourth quar
ter, outscoring the Mustangs
21-17 With seconds left on
the clock and the score 71-
61, Trenton Neil put up the
last shot from behind the
three point line to make the
final score 71-64 Despite
the effort by the Outlaws,
the Mustangs were able to
pull away for the win
“ T his was a hard
fought game and a great
atmosphere for high school
b a sk e tb a ll,” said Coach
David Norton “We played
great team defense and took
care of the ball Our fan sup
port tonight was a huge part
of our success ”
Jared H uddleston
led the Mustangs with 24
points, w hile Chris Lien
added 18 points
The Mustangs (10-2
BMC) traveled to Elgin last
Saturday night for a close
86-83 victory The Elgin
Huskies shot 12 for 19 from
the three point line while
the M ustangs shot 13 for
21 Needless to say, it was a
hard fought win
“ It was a track meet
Both teams shot the lights
out This is a big win going
into Pilot Rock this week,”
said Coach David Norton
Jared H uddleston
led all scorers with a career
high 33 points Chris Lien
had 24 points while Brent
Eckman added 17 points
Cody Orr posted a double
double with 12 points and
12 rebounds
Lady Mustangs split
weekend match-ups
By Jennifer Wilson
The Lady Mustangs
traveled to Enterprise on
Friday to take on the Out
laws but couldn’t pull off
the win as the Outlaws took
control in fourth quarter
The O utlaw s sealed the
46-37 victory with a solid
second half effort
The M ustangs led
at the end of the first and
second quarter Taighler
Dougherty led the defensive
efforts of the Lady Mustangs
in the second quarter with a
stripped ball and great hustle
to tie up loose balls
By the time the third
quarter started, the M us
tangs were down by three
but still in the game
The Outlaws scored
a quick basket in the begin
ning of the fourth quarter
and immediately stole the
inbounds pass for another
bucket, which set the pace
for the Outlaws The Out
laws led by as much as 12
points in the fourth quarter
and it proved too much for
the Mustangs to overcome
Erin Price led the
Mustangs with nine points
Jessica Hughes added in
seven points
Traveling back out
of the mountains Saturday
morning, the Mustangs re
mained hopeful for a win
against the Elgin Huskies
With a great defen
sive effort, the Lady Mus
tangs took the 35-21 win
over the Huskies Matilda
H akansson led the Lady
M ustangs with 8 points
The Mustangs are now 6-6
in the Blue Mountain Con
ference
Lindsay named Hoop Shoot
District Champion
HHS Basketball
Schedule
F o llo w in g is the
Heppner High School bas
ketball schedule for the 08-
09 season
-•Tuesday, Feb 10:
vs Pilot Rock JV/V at Pilot
Rock, 3 p m
-•Friday, Feb 14
vs Union JV/V at Heppner.
3 pm
•denotes a league
game
Jacob l.imlsay of Heppner captured the ('Ik's Hoop Shoot District
Championship on Saturday, January 31. in Hcrmistnn. Jacob
made 20/25 shots to earn him the title. He »ill trasel to Salem
on February 14 to compete in the state competition. Contributed
Photo
I