WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
SPORTS
Challenges hamper Bulldog swim team’s potential
BY SAM BARBEE
HERMISTON HERALD
On any given weekday,
Hermiston swim team
members board a bus to
go to practice. They pack
up their things, make
plans to be picked up or
dropped off and head out
of town.
They go to the closest
indoor pool in the area —
in Pendleton.
“We have a very lim-
ited amount of time in
the water,” Hermiston
head coach Kevin Ham-
blin said. “We get here
about 4:30 p.m. and have
only an hour in the wa-
ter. We have to share the
pool for a half hour with
Pendleton High School.
Then we have the pool
to ourselves for half an
hour. Then the Pendleton
Swim Association comes
in and practices at 5:30
p.m.”
The PSA pays for its
pool time, so it gets pri-
ority, Hamblin said. A
few years ago, Hermis-
ton and Pendleton made
an agreement that Herm-
iston can share the pool
with the Buckaroo swim
team so it gets in an hour
of practice time. That’s
still a far cry from the
other teams in the Co-
lumbia River Confer-
ence, however, who get
upwards of two hours of
pool time.
That puts the Bulldogs
at a disadvantage against
league competitors Hood
River, The Dalles and
Pendleton, which all
have indoor pools.
In turn, Hermiston
struggles to have swim-
mers qualify for the state
meet.
There is some hope in
finding a pool closer to
home, however. A bond
recently passed in the
last voting cycle to build
an $11 million recreation
center, with a pool, in
Boardman.
“It’s a shorter dis-
tance, but they’ll prob-
ably charge,” Hamblin
said.
The new problem,
then, is how the Herm-
iston swim team will
afford to play for pool
time. All the fundraising
Hamblin’s program goes
toward travel expenses,
which are numerous as
Hermiston has to travel
up and down the Colum-
bia River to attend meets
and practice. This season,
the Bulldogs had meets
in Pendleton, Hood Riv-
er, The Dalles and Baker
City. Travel expenses for
the Bulldog swimmers
top out at about $5,000,
$4,000 of which they
raise themselves. Having
to pay a pool fee would
make things tougher for
the cash-strapped team.
In the mean time, the
Hermiston swimmers, in-
cluding freshman Sydney
Tovey and junior Jacob
Snell, are preparing for
their district meet Satur-
day in Hood River.
Tovey, the daughter
of Hermiston assistant
wrestling coach Doug
Tovey, swims the 100-
and 200-meter freestyle
events. She is one of just
a few of Bulldog swim-
mers who swam growing
up, participating in Pend-
leton and the PSA.
“She’s actually proba-
bly the most-experienced
swimmer,” Hamblin said.
Snell is far less expe-
rienced. While he only
began swimming com-
petitively two years ago,
he has grown to 6 feet
4 inches tall this season
and is showing great
promise and potential,
Hamblin said.
He said he doesn’t an-
ticipate Tovey will qual-
ify for state this season
but he thinks she has a
really good chance these
next few years. Ham-
blin said Snell’s recent
growth spurt has done
wonders for his tech-
nique. “We just need to
get him in a pool year
round,” he said.
Bulldogs run away with tournament Umatilla girls
ond place with 223.5.
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Nearly every wrestler at the nine-team event with
Hermiston put on the mat 123.5 points, two champs
brought home a medal from DQG¿YHWRS¿YHSODFHUV
the Oregon City Invitation-
Hermiston’s champions
al on Saturday, allowing the were Brock McDonough
Bulldogs to run away with (160 pounds), Bob Cole-
the team title in the Bull- man (170), John-Hen-
dogs’ last tournament of the ry Line (182) and Jesse
regular season.
Rodelo (220). Two-time
Hermiston had 19 wrestlers state champ Sam Colbray
SODFHLQWKHWRS¿YHLQFOXGLQJ did not wrestle.
four champions, and scored
McDonough beat team-
304 team points to easily hold mate Julio Leiva 5-3 in
off Hood River Valley in sec- the championship bout,
EO MEDIA GROUP STAFF
and Leiva was one of three
Bulldogs to earn silver.
Robert Rodriguez (106)
and Beau Blake (220) were
the other two.
Coleman won his title
with a 16-5 major decision
over Oregon City’s Ethan
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defeated Pendleton’s Ter-
rel Platt 6-1 in a rematch of
Thursday’s overtime bout,
also won by Coleman.
Line beat Hood River
Valley’s Steven Swafford
7-0 in his title match, and
PREDICTIONS:
continued from page A6
to take, especially
considering how the Tigers
beat Heppner last time.
Obviously it didn’t affect
them that much as they
went on to pummel Pilot
Rock 75-43 a couple days
later, but those ones stick
in your head as a player
and as a coach, and it’s not
necessarily negative. I can
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will never ever foul in that
situation ever again.
That loss eliminates
some of the wiggle
room Stanfield had in
the Columbia Basin
Conference. Now, at
6-2, the team is just a
game above Heppner for
second place. I think we
can assume Irrigon will
win it, but Heppner has
games against Weston-
McEwen and Culver,
games it should win.
Stanfield has Culver
and Irrigon left. So,
if we were to look a
bit forward, Stanfield
might finish 7-3, the
same league record as
Heppner. That would
create a two-way tie for
second with Heppner
having a slightly better
overall record. I’ll do
some digging to find out
how that all works. It’ll
be interesting to see how
that league plays out, but
I wouldn’t be surprised
if Stanfield makes a run
on things for a second-
straight year. Those
kids are talking about
improving on last year’s
third-place finish and
play hungry.
The Stanfield girls are
in the opposite position.
They’re trying to build
the program up to where
the boys are.
They hold a record of
9-11 (4-4 CBC). I wrote a
column some weeks ago
about their turnaround
and how I could relate.
Well, they’re now getting
into games that will
determine how they end
the season. These games
matter, and sometimes
— especially if you’ve
never played in these
kind of games before
— they can be difficult
to play. You’re thinking
about seeding and
scoreboard-watching and
pressing. You’re doing
everything but focusing
on the task at hand:
winning a basketball
game.
SAM BARBEE PHOTO
Umatilla’s Aleesha Watson (40) looks to score against Stan-
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77-17 win earlier this season in Umatilla. While the Umatilla
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I’m not saying that’s
what these girls are
doing. On the contrary,
they seem very focused
on playing basketball.
But playing games with
lots of pressure is a
very new experience for
athletes who have never
done it before. The Tiger
girls are 5-3 in their last
eight games, so they’re
obviously getting better.
I’d say they’re probably
a couple years off from
making some serious
noise in the playoffs.
But this season was a
success already and
will be a success when
we look back on it.
Success breeds success,
and confidence breeds
confidence. The Stanfield
girls program is up and
coming.
ECHO
Since winning their
first three Old Oregon
League games of the
new year, the Echo girls
have gone just 3-4. Their
struggles have been a
combination of some bad
breaks, some sickness
and some poorly played
games, and it took Echo
from runaway league
champs to tied for the top
spot with Powder Valley
and Nixyaawii nipping
at its heels. The Cougars
have lost their last two
games — to Powder
and to Nixyaawii — so
they’ve opened the door
for someone to swoop in
last minute and snatch
away the league title.
Echo has time on its
Rodelo earned gold by a
6-2 margin over Oregon
City’s Mack Civil. Placing
third for Hermiston were:
Jack Meads (113), Robert
Crane (138), Mitchell Lin-
coln (182) and Brian Guti-
errez (195). Fourth-place
Bulldogs were: CJ Hendon
(132), Jacob Dodge (145),
Devin Bosner (152) and
Kenny Bevan (170). Wade
Fitzpatrick (126), Joey
Gutierrez (138) and Emilio
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for Hermiston.
side, though, with a home
game against Wallowa on
Friday. Echo really can’t
lose it. It can’t finish
a strong season with a
whimper and a three-
game losing streak. It
wouldn’t be catastrophic,
but it wouldn’t be
good, either. It would
be worrisome. It would
create doubt, and Echo
doesn’t need doubt.
The Cougars are sort
of in the same situation
as the Umatilla girls,
in a bit of a slump as
the schedule concludes.
My senior year baseball
team did the same thing.
We peaked early and
couldn’t recover. We won
a playoff game — barely
— but couldn’t get out of
districts. Echo should get
out of districts, but the
Cougars have a target on
their backs now, and the
question is how do they
handle that?
For the boys,
inconsistency seems
to be the biggest issue.
Now, I haven’t had many
opportunities to watch
them play, but there are
a couple of indicators that
would suggest they are
better than last year and
currently improving.
First, they reached
the 1,000-point plateau
this year. They only got
to about 800 last year.
Second, they’re in second
place in league. Look at
that. Nixyaawii has won
the league. It’s over. But
Echo can secure the second
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bye. That’s huge.
Inconsistency is still a
problem, however.
Echo has lost its last
three games but won
the four before that. The
Cougars clobbered Joseph
early last month but lost to
the Eagles at the end of last
month. The same goes with
Powder Valley. They split
with Pine Eagle, too.
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strong by winning their
last game against Wallowa,
get the No. 2 seed and win
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they’re for real. But we’ll
have to wait and see.
This year of basketball
has been fun, interesting,
exciting and kind of weird
at times. Let’s hope the
playoffs are more fun,
more interesting, more
exciting and even weirder.
— Sam Barbee is
the Hermiston Herald
sports reporter. He can
be reached at sbarbee@
hermistonherald.com
snap recent
losing streak
UMATILLA 36,
NYSSA 31
At Nyssa, on the heels
of two straight losses, the
Vikings (17-5, 5-2 EOL)
averted a third with a
comeback road win over
Nyssa (7-14, 2-5) Satur-
day.
Umatilla only managed
16 second-half points, but
the defense was relentless,
allowing just eight points
to the host Bulldogs to
snap the losing streak.
Each loss came to top-
ranked Vale.
Nyssa led by four af-
ter one quarter and three
at the half. Umatilla out-
scored Nyssa 8-4 in the
third and fourth periods.
No Viking reached
GRXEOH ¿JXUHV LQ WKH YLF-
tory.
———
UMATILLA 36, NYSSA 31
UMA (17-5) 10
10
8
8
—
36
NYS (7-14) 14
9
4
4
—
31
UMATILLA — M. Paz 0, K. Barajas 2, I. Cam-
pos 5, B. Campos 1, S. Webb 7, K. Galrbaith
6, C. Dohman 8, A. Watson 7.
NYSSA — J. Martinez 0, S. Hartley 3, M.
Mitchell 0, B. Arredondo 0, P. Hartley 4, B.
Ramirez 7, S. Jesperson 7, M. Jensen 6, C.
Lancaster 0, A. Hernandez 0, K. Hernandez 4,
K. Hashagen 0.
3-point ¿eld goals — UMA 1, NYS 2. Free
throws — UMA 11-19, NYS 3-6. Fouls —
UMA 10, NYS 15. Fouled out — B. Ramirez.
POWDER VALLEY
67, ECHO 45
At North Powder, the
Cougars (16-6, 8-3 OOL)
started slow and were un-
able to recover in their
second-straight Old Or-
egon League loss Satur-
day.
Paced by Samantha
Kerns with 20 points and
11 rebounds, Powder Val-
ley (12-8, 8-3) led 33-16
at halftime.
Erika Parks and Kelsey
Ranger each scored 15
points to lead Echo,
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season play on Friday
against Wallowa. With
the loss, Echo and Pow-
der Valley are tied for
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a game ahead of Wallowa
and a half game ahead of
Nixyaawii.
———
POWDER VALLEY 67, ECHO 45
EHS (16-6) 8
8
14
15
—
45
PV (12-8)
14
19
10
24
—
67
ECHO — Erika Parks
15, Kelsey Ranger 15,
E. McCarty 7, D. Tarvin
4, L. Cox 2, H. Reese 2,
T. Swaggart, B. Srofe, L.
Wiggins. 16-58 FG
POWDER VALLEY
— Samantha Kerns 20, A.
Feik 15, S. Stephens 10,
H. Feik 10, S. Blair 6, T.
Martin 4, M. Hufford 2, A.
Jimenez, K. Williams, S.
Sexton, T. Baker. 28-58 FG
SRLQW ¿HOG JRDOV ²
EHS 2-8, PV 0-4. Free
throws — EHS 11-26, PV
11-13. Fouls — EHS 18, PV
18. Fouled out — McCarty
(EHS), Stephens (PV).
Boys Basketball
POWDER VALLEY
64, ECHO 54
At North Powder, the
Echo boys suffered their
third-straight Old Oregon
League loss to Powder
Valley 64-54.
No further details were
reported.
With one game left,
against Wallowa, the Cou-
gars (10-10, 6-5 OOL) are
a game ahead of Joseph for
second place in the OOL.
NYSSA 61,
UMATILLA 41
At Nyssa, the Umatil-
la boys basketball team
wasn’t able to extend
its three-game winning
streak as Nyssa ran away
from the Vikings 61-41.
No further details
were reported.
With the loss, Umatil-
la (11-11, 5-2 EOL) is a
game behind Nyssa (13-
9, 6-1) for first place
and is a game up on Vale
for second place. Uma-
tilla hosts Riverside at
7 p.m. Thursday in its
penultimate game of the
season.