Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 2014)
HeppnerGazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, December 17,2014 -TH R E E Smith takes first at La Grande tournament H eppner M ustangs competed at the Muilen- burg wrestling tournament in La Grande Friday and Saturday. The Muilenburg included 22 teams from Oregon, Washington and Idaho ranging in size from 6A down to 1A with many weight classes involving 32-man brackets. The Restore College Wrestling committee had chosen to feature this year's Muilenburg tournament in its campaign and had in attendance several hall-of- fame coaches and wrestlers, state politicians and the president of Eastern Oregon University. The M ustangs fin ished second behind Bums among the eight 1A/2A Heppner’s first-ever Muilen burg Tournament champion Ryan Smith on the podium at the La Grande tournament last Saturday. It was also Ryan’s 17th birthday. -C on tributed photo teams. Overall Heppner was fourteenth and ahead o f 4A Baker and 5A The Dalles-Wahtonka. Six of the seven Mustangs who competed won matches; five won at least two. It was ju n io r Ryan Smith’s birthday on Sat urday and he celebrated by winning a Muilenburg championship. And he did it in dramatic fashion. The returning state champion and number-one ranked wrestler breezed through his 113-pound bracket on Friday. In the Saturday morning semifinal bout, how ever, Smith trailed Mustang boys gallop away with tournament title Mustang w restler Jorgen Anderson grapples with an opponent during the La Grande tournament last weekend. Anderson, an exchange student from Norway, had no exposure to wrestling before attending Heppner High School. With only a week of practice prior to the wrestling season, he seems to be catching on w ith a couple of pins under his belt. -Photo by Kandy Boyd home-town La G rande’s Corey Isaacson 2-0 with just six seconds left in the match. When the official restarted the action. Smith did a granby roll on the whistle to come up with a two-point reversal plus three-point near fall and a berth to the finals. “ That was about as improbable as running a final play kick-off back for a touchdown and the win,” Coach Mark Lem mon said o f Smith’s semi finals match. “We actually worked on that scenario in practice this week and Ryan struggled with the timing and execution. It's a pretty high level move that many wrestlers only succeed in their dreams. For him to pull that off on that stage, in that situation, would be too incredible for a fictional story. There are a bunch of hall-of-famers that now know where Heppner is.” In the championship bout Smith faced Tristan Hinkley from Weiser in a back and forth battle that included four lead changes. In the end Smith was on top 8-6 and the owner o f the coveted Muilenburg cham pion’s belt buckle. Senior Jesse Boyd won two matches by fall in the 138-pound championship rounds and Will Lutcher (145 lbs) and Jacob Moses (152 lbs) also contributed team bonus points with pins in championship brackets. Cord Flynn (195 lbs) and John Propheter (220 lbs) had two wins apiece on the consolation side. Jorgen Andersen also competed for the Mustangs. Heppner wrestlers have a busy week ahead with a home meet at 4 p.m. on Thursday and the Mac Hi Christmas tournament at 10 a.m. Saturday in Milton- Freewater. Jacob Moses works to pin an opponent during the La Grande tournament over the weekend. While only Ryan Smith brought home a medal in his weight bracket this week, all of the boys wrestled hard, with several improving their performance over last year's experience at this tournament. -Photo by Kandy Boyd The Heppner Mustangs boys basketball team kept their record perfect (4-0) with a sweep o f games at the Heppner Kick-Off Tournament this weekend. The M ustangs won the championship of their own tournament by beating the Crane Mustangs by a score of 76-35 and then defeating the Dufur Rangers 72-57. In the game with Crane, Heppner shot 51 percent from the field and had 21 assists on the 30 baskets they made in the game. The tough man-to man defense that the Mus tangs played held Crane to no more than 10 points in each quarter. Heppner led 21-10 after one and 40-19 at halftime. They stretched the lead to 59-29 after three quarters and cruised the rest of the way to get the victory 76-35. Logan Grieb had the hot hand for the Mustangs, as the sophomore guard scored 20 points in the game. He also recorded 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Pat rick Collins had a double double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. CJ Kindle had 12 points and 4 assists to go along with 2 rebounds in the game. Jesse Corbin scored 9 points and had 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists on the night. Weston Putman tal lied 7 points and crashed the boards for 11 big re bounds. Ross Cutsforth was next with 5 points and 6 rebounds, while Jeremiah Petzoldt had 3 points and 3 rebounds. Kevin Murray and Kolby Currin each had 2 points for the Mustangs. Murray also had 3 rebounds and Currin grabbed 1. Ca- den Hedman recorded 3 rebounds and 4 assists in the game and Jake Lindsay snagged 1 rebound and also had an assist. In the matchup with Dufur, the Mustangs knew they would be in for a tough contest. The Rangers like to press, run a fast break, and they shoot the ball well. Dufur did all of those Heppner's Patrick Collins (#15) brings it home over the heads of the Rangers. Collins had the hot hand with two double doubles over the weekend, scoring 16 points and 12 rebounds versus the Crane Mustangs and 33 points with 17 rebounds during the contest against the Dufur Rangers. -Photo by San dra Putman things to start the game and led 23-16 after one quar ter of play. The Mustangs made some adjustments, at tacked the Ranger press and scored many uncontested layups. Heppner outscored the Rangers 17-11 in the second quarter to trail at halftime 34-33. The second half was a back and forth contest that saw the lead change many times. Heppner out- scored Dufur 18-12 in the third quarter and 21-11 in the fourth to get the win by the score of 72-57. The Mustangs shot 52 percent from the field for the game and out-rebounded Dufur 38-20. Having a m onster game for the M ustangs was Patrick Collins. He scored many of his points early and often on great passes after Heppner broke the Dufur press. He scored 33 points and had 17 re bounds on the night. Grieb was next with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Grieb made 6 crucial free throws down the stretch to help put the game out of reach. Putman came up big again with 11 points, 5 re bounds and 2 steals. Kindle and Cutsforth both had 4 points and 3 assists in the game. Cutsforth also had 2 rebounds. Hedman scored 2 points, had 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Corbin was big on the boards with 5 rebounds and he also had an assist. The H eppner boys team has a busy schedule coming up. They host the Imbler Panthers on Friday night and then travel to John Day on Saturday to take on the Grant Union Prospec tors. They then face the South Wasco County Red- sides at home on Monday night, December 22. Local players fill ranks of all-state teams Eight Heppner players receive all-state honors; Collins named Defensive Player o f the Year Several Heppner play ers have received the hon or of being named to the 2014 All-State 2A Football Teams. Heppner junior Patrick Collins has been awarded 2014 Defensive Player of the Year. Burns collected other yearly honors, with Bums seniors Austin Feist and Clayton Bentz receiv ing Offensive Player of the Year and Lineman o f the Year, respectively. Bums coach Terry Graham was named Coach of the Year. Heppner players also filled the ranks of the All- State teams, as follows: For 2A All-State First It’s time to start planning for next year’s season. And, now's a good time (wink, wink) to come talk to us about operating lines of credit, term loans, and ag & commercial real estate loans. Call today! O ur entire^ o r g a n is a tio n jo in ts to g e th e r t o w ith/yow ¿r yo u ry a very, Merry ChrLytmay ¿f a h ea lth y and/protperovoyNew Year! We/loxyh fxyrward/to yervlrtg-yow itv 2015 ! Team Offense: Brian Rill, Running Back; CJ Kindle, Wide Receiver; Patrick Collins and John Propheter, Offensive Lineman. For 2A All-State Sec ond Team Offense: Kaden Clark, Quarterback. For 2A All-State Hon For 2A All-State Sec- ond Team Defense: John Propheter, Defensive Line- man; Weston Putman, Line- backer. For 2A All-State Hon- orable Mention Defense: Logan Grieb, Defensive Back. Heppner boys start young to master wrestling H eppner boy K eegan Chitty (right) grapples with an opponent at the ORWAY (Oregon Wrestling Associa tion for Youth) tournament in Union last Saturday. Along with Keegan, local youth Carson Brosnan, Blane Mahoney and Jace Coe also wrestled com petitors from Pendleton, La Grande, John Day, and Baker City. All the boys wrestled well, and the Heppner team came away with one first-place and one second- place finish. The Union tournament was the last of ORWAY's regular season. Regional finals will be held Dec. 20 in Baker City. -Photo by Damon Brosnan B i r t h d a y ! j o in Heppner 541-676-9125 lone 541-422-7466 orable Mention Offense: Jesse Corbin, Wide Re ceiver. For 2A All-State First Team Defense: Patrick Col lins, Defensive Lineman; CJ Kindle, Linebacker; Jesse Corbin, Defensive Back. US! Ron Haguewoocfs 80th Birthday Party We Print Letterhead & H eppner Elks Lod ge D e ce m b er 27th 1-4 www.beobank.com Joe Perry Loan O fficer Bank of Eastern Oregon Member FDIC Join us for food, drinks, and old stones. No g iß please , just good i I
