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
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claw for each win.
Assistant coach Doug
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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and two in the second —
and secured the technical
fall before the minute mark
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“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
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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
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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
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man Ben Waters in 1:15.
Liam Tarvin pinned Cole
Davis in 1:18, and Joey
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ick Winslow in 1:16 in the
138-pound match.
Then came Crane’s TF
win, then Palmer’s nail-bit-
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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
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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
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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
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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
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“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-
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two wins have been quality
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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
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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.”
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rigon have similar styles
and similar principles that
dictate what they do on
the court. Neither team
has great size — at 6-foot-
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Davchevski will be the tall-
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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.
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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
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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.
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those teams? We had Hep-
pner here the other night.
Now we have Irrigon to see
where we’re at.”