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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2015)
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015 SPORTS Bulldogs pound The Dalles Wrestlers go undefeated on the mat, win 77-6 BY SAM BARBEE HERMISTON HERALD Despite a score that might indicate Hermiston cruised to an easy Colum- bia River Conference dual meet wrestling win over The Dalles Thursday, the %XOOGRJV KDG WR ¿JKW DQG claw for each win. Assistant coach Doug 7RYH\ ¿OOLQJ LQ IRU 6KDXQ Williams who was away at a conference, said wres- tlers, including Sam Col- bray and Liam Tarvin, have been dealing with some illnesses, mostly colds. De- spite that, Tovey said the energy level was up and the focus good, as the Bulldogs topped the Riverhawks 77- 6. +HUPLVWRQKDGWZR¿UVW time varsity grapplers win in sophomore Robert Crane and freshman Jake Palmer. “I thought some of our young kids competed well,” Tovey said. “The Dalles is a little shorthanded, but they have some pretty good kids, some talented kids. Kids like Robert Crane — you’re a young kid, you’re wrestling up a weight, and he looked pretty good, and Jake Palmer, who’s a fresh- man — you’re out-gunned, and you do what you need to win.” At 152 pounds, Palmer IDFHG MXQLRU 0LWFKHOO :D- ters and held off a furious SAM BARBEE PHOTO Hermiston’s Sam Colbray (right) probes for an advantage against The Dalles’ third-ranked Joe Linebarger during a 220-pound Columbia River Conference match Thursday in Hermiston. Colbray won 3-2, and the Bulldogs won 77-6. third-round charge by The Dalles’ junior and won 9-7. Up 7-5 heading into that ¿QDO URXQG 3DOPHU ZDV taken down with about a minute left to cut the match score to 8-7, but Waters let him up immediately in an effort to score another two points and was unable to drop Palmer again. A match before Palm- er, Crane took on senior Colton Lee. Crane domi- nated, winning by techni- cal fall in the third round. Crane had three near falls ² RQH LQ WKH ¿UVW URXQG and two in the second — and secured the technical fall before the minute mark LQWKH¿QDOSHULRG “For those guys, that was a good thing,” Tovey said. The Bulldogs won each match. The only points gar- nered by The Dalles came by a double-forfeit at 106 because Hermiston’s wres- tler wasn’t there. Other than WKDW +HUPLVWRQ KDG ¿YH pins, four coming consec- utively. Colbray continued his march through the 5A ranks this season, topping the No. 3 wrestler in the state, Joe Linebarger, 3-2. Wrestling at 220 pounds, Colbray got a takedown in WKH ¿UVW URXQG DQG DQ HV- cape in the third to lead 3-0, but a last second takedown by Linebarger brought the count to 3-2. Colbray admitted he didn’t push himself to the brink against Linebarger, and he was just trying to “survive” the match. “Just winning here against a good guy who’s No. 3 at 220, not being full speed (is good),” Colbray said. “I know that, in my mind, if I had to pull off the match, I could wrestle there at the end. It’s just a little bit of being cautious and not wres- tling to my full potential.” Following Colbray’s close win, Hermiston got its four-straight pins. Fresh- man Beau Blake pinned se- nior Jeffery Jimenez in 3:17 at 285. At 113, sophomore -DNH 0HDGV SLQQHG IUHVK- man Ben Waters in 1:15. Liam Tarvin pinned Cole Davis in 1:18, and Joey *XWLHUUH] SLQQHG 0DYHU- ick Winslow in 1:16 in the 138-pound match. Then came Crane’s TF win, then Palmer’s nail-bit- HU %RE &ROHPDQ ¿QLVKHG off the night with a 5:44 pin over Jacob Schadt at 170 to close out the 77-6 win. “We’re getting pretty good as a team,” Tarvin said. “We wrestled pretty great. It’s getting to that time of year when things start getting tough. We just gotta stick together.” Immediately following the dual, Hermiston jumped on a bus to head to Corvallis to participate in the Reser’s Tournament of Champions in Hillsboro at Liberty High 6FKRRO0DWFKHVEHJDQ)UL- day. Results 106 — Double forfeit 113 — J. Meads (Hermiston) def. B. Waters (The Dalles), fall, 1:15 120 — The Dalles forfeit 126 — L. Tarvin (Hermiston) def. C. Davis (The Dalles), fall, 1:18 132 — The Dalles forfeit 138 — J. Gutierrez (Hermiston) def. M. Winslow (The Dalles), fall, 1:16 145 — R. Crane (Hermiston) def. C. Lee, techinical fall, 17-1 152 — J. Palmer (Hermiston) def. M. Waters (The Dalles), 9-7 160 — The Dalles forfeit 170 — B. Coleman (Hermiston) def. J. Schadt, fall, 5:44 182 — The Dalles forfeit 195 — The Dalles forfeit 220 — S. Colbray (Hermiston) def. J. Linebarger, 3-2 285 — B. Blake (Hermiston) def. J. Jimenez (The Dalles), fall, 5:17 Hermiston wrestling keeps grinding through season like there are big holes — guys not quick enough, fast HERMISTON HERALD HQRXJK 2QFH ZH MXVW ¿[ Hermiston’s wrestling the little mistakes, we’ll season, on paper, has been EH¿QHDQGEHJRLQJIXOO a breeze. speed by state,” The Bulldogs rolled As a two-time defending through the Rollie Lane state and national champi- Tournament in Idaho and on, Colbray has had a tar- the Gut Check Challenge in get on his back this season. Olympia, Wash. He’s dealt with the spotlight Bob Coleman, Sam well, as only two of his 21 Colbray and Andy Wagner matches were decided by have all won tournaments one point. in January, and the Bull- He has been sick, dogs have been near perfect though; his match against in dual meets this year, los- The Dalles’ Joe Linebarger ing just the championship Thursday was one Colbray dual at the Oregon Wres- said he merely “survived,” tling Classic last week. but he’s still happy with As good on paper as the how his winter has gone, Bulldogs have been, assis- thus far. tant coach Doug Tovey is “(It’s been) a pretty solid happy they’ve done as well season (individually),” Col- as they have. bray said. “(I’ve) pinned a “It is an absolute grind- lot of kids (and) done what er,” Tovey said of Hermis- I need to for the team and ton’s January. “This is the bring them points. I’ve won fourth week in a row that the same big tournaments I we’ve left Thursday night did last year and freshman (for a tournament). We go year. I’m on a roll.” Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Colbray isn’t the only Thursday, Friday, Saturday. guy who’s sick, though. Thursday, Friday, Satur- Tarvin was down to 111.7 day. So we are sick. We’re pounds last week after a little bit nicked. We got a bout of strep throat. some injuries and whatnot. Tovey said he “literally” We build the schedule that walked out of the hotel way on purpose because we room at the Oregon Wres- think that tests us.” tling Classic and went Since the Tri-State down to the mat “and Tournament in December, got whipped” without Hermiston has essentially any real training in the dominated its competition. 117-pound bracket. Colbray is 21-0. Coleman Tovey said that with is 19-4. Liam Tarvin is 15- these illnesses and good 4. Wagner is 23-6. recent success, perhaps “As a team, we’re bat- it’s easy to shut down a tling,” Colbray said. “Close bit. matches here and there. “I think, sometimes, That’s because we’re new. when you’ve won for so Other than that, there’s long, it’s hard to get the nothing our team can’t do. energy to win a big dual It’s just little mistakes, and, that way,” Tovey said of ZKHQ ZH ¿[ WKRVH LW¶V QRW illnesses at the Oregon BY SAM BARBEE SHOWDOWN: continued from page A1 Then they won 15 and then 21 when they missed a state title by a basket. The next year they won 26 games and the state title. The rap- id rise of Irrigon basketball LVQ¶WORVWRQ6WDQ¿HOG “Irrigon used to be a doormat in our league,” Braithwaite said. “Now they’re on top, so we want to get up there, too, and show them that we belong there, too.” Both teams are also coming in with good mo- PHQWXP 6WDQ¿HOG¶V ODVW two wins have been quality RQHV 2Q WKHLU KRPH ÀRRU last week, and without the suspended Dylan Grogan, the Tigers used a huge third quarter to race past Hep- pner. Tuesday, they held off an attacking and hungry Umatilla team in Umatilla. “The guys just kind of rallied (against Heppner),” Sharp said. “It was kind of ugly, and they just kind of SAM BARBEE PHOTO Hermiston sophomore Bob Coleman (left) looks for control just after getting his opponent, The Dalles’ Jacob Schadt, to the ground during a 5A Columbia River Conference dual on Thursday. Coleman earned a pin at the 5:44 mark. Wrestling Classic. “Hill- sboro was pretty good, (but) it just didn’t seem like we had the ener- gy, and we can blame it on being sick and those kinds of things ... but re- ally I think it’s more that we’re so used to winning, that it’s hard to get jacked up and excited, and that kind of cost us.” Tovey later said maybe that championship dual loss reinvigorated the Bulldogs and gave them new energy. What Herm- iston really has right now is depth. Tovey said that the Bulldogs brought a full complement of 14 wrestlers — two in all 14 weights — to the OWC, the first time in Tovey’s three years in Hermiston they’ve done that. He said the depth in the program is as good as he’s seen, and it’s setting up the Bulldogs to be as good — or better than — some recent Hermiston teams. “We’re really close to being really good,” Tov- ey said. “So those JV kids are probably better than we’ve ever had be- fore. We’re pretty excited about that.” rallied. That was huge for those guys. It was kind of like, ‘Hey, we’re not a bad squad, even without our best player.’ There’s some FRQ¿GHQFH JRLQJ LQWR WKLV game like, ‘We played with Heppner, (we have) our guy back.’ I just hope we play team basketball with Irri- gon. You can’t go one-on- one. They have too many guys.” %RWK 6WDQ¿HOG DQG ,U- rigon have similar styles and similar principles that dictate what they do on the court. Neither team has great size — at 6-foot- 6WDQ¿HOG FHQWHU 0LODQ Davchevski will be the tall- HVWSOD\HURQWKHÀRRU²EXW both teams move the ball around the perimeter quickly and both like to get into fast breaks and run. Both teams like to jump passing lanes, start those fast breaks and hopefully get layups on the other end. )RU 6WDQ¿HOG WKH NH\ WR the game is taking care of the ball, and not letting Irrigon get consecutive steals and layups, which has helped the Knights win this season. “I think the biggest thing for us is: Can we control our turnovers?” Sharp said. “When we’ve had a prob- lem with them in the past, not necessarily bad games, but a bad quarter where we fall apart and turn the ball over a bunch, then we get LQWR D GH¿FLW DQG LW¶V KDUG to come back. So, I think the biggest thing is we can still play that way, but we have to play smart and not let them steamroll because Irrigon capitalizes on that just so fast.” To Sharp and his Tigers, today’s game is a mid- term exam, a barometer for where they are in the sea- son at the end of January. “I think the guys kind of have a perspective, there’s a race to the top of the league,” Sharp said. “It’s a game to see where we’re at. :KHUH GR ZH ¿W DPRQJVW those teams? We had Hep- pner here the other night. Now we have Irrigon to see where we’re at.”