WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2015
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
SPORTS
AWARD:
trips.
For the boys, Hermiston
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in seniors Keegan Crafton
and Dillon Zimmerly.
Crafton, a 6-foot-3 for-
ward, used his athleticism
and motor to get buckets
and rebounds at the block.
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in transition got the Bull-
dogs good looks at the
hoop, even if they didn’t
go down, and easy points
if they did. He helped pro-
tect the rim on defense and
could jump passing lanes if
needed.
Zimmerly,
especially
early on, provided much of
the scoring for a Bulldog
team that sometimes strug-
gled to get the ball in the
hoop. He had a strong mid-
range game with a tricky
step-back move that was
very good at creating space.
Concluding the Herm-
iston selections was se-
nior point guard Austin
Naillon, who received a
second-team nod. He was
the catalyst for the offense
and got to the rim when his
team needed points or free
throws. The senior started
all but one game, senior
night against Hood River
Valley when Carson Lloyd
was trotted out, and consis-
tently got praises from head
coach Jake McElligott for
his desire to attack defenses
and play good defense.
ment, and he wrestled
up to expectations. His
second place definitely
continued from page A6
helped us out.”
McDonough, who would
Tarvin, though, wasn’t
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completely
unhappy
160 pounds, said he felt
with the loss. He said
like quitting but had to put
he hasn’t thought about
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the championship match
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much since Saturday. He
Wagner lost in the semis
doesn’t re-wrestle it in his
but put forth his best effort
head to figure out what
to help the team and took
he did wrong because he
third at 120 pounds.
knows he can’t change it.
“Everyone else in the
He will, though, take this
room, instead of cowering
match into next season as
down and turning away,
a bit of motivation.
people put on their big-boy
“You can’t win ’em
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all,” Tarvin said. “I was
ly a change for the Devin
happy with what I did
Bonsers of the room — kids
and the way I competed.
KATHY ANEY PHOTO
who had potential but just
It will be on my mind in
had to get over that hump to +HUPLVWRQ·V%URFN0F'RQRXJKRQULJKWIDFHVRIIDJDLQVW7RPP\:LQQLQJKDPRI&UDWHU
such a way that it’ll moti-
winning a match at state,” GXULQJWKH2UHJRQ26$$:UHVWOLQJ6WDWH&KDPSLRQVKLSVDW9HWHUDQ·V0HPRULDO&ROLVHXPLQ
vate me to say ‘Hey, you
junior and 182-pound run- 3RUWODQG
got there. What can you
ner-up Bob Coleman said.
do to improve your posi-
“It really focused them and where Bob was, it’s not son said simply, “I’ll et but moved up to 113 tion better so you can win
(they) took the responsibili- the same kid anymore. show you the way.”
pounds this year and al- that title next year?’ ”
ty that needed to be taken.” He’s come a long way
“It wasn’t just me go- most repeated.
Freshman AJ Tuia per-
Head coach Sean Wil- and, deservedly, he took ing, ‘OK, let’s flip the
For Williams, just re- formance at state is also
liams sung the praises second, but I think, with switch now,’ ” Coleman WXUQLQJ WR WKH ¿QDOV DW D notable. The 132-pounder
of Coleman, who placed a little luck on our side, said. “It was him say- new weight class was an almost missed the district
for the first time at the he could’ve been the state ing, “OK, let’s go. Here’s accomplishment in and tournament because of the
state tournament as a ju- champion.”
what you got to do.”
of itself. He said once a illness that swept through
nior. In this year’s final,
Coleman credited a for-
Coleman said Larson wrestler is a champion, he the Hermiston wrestling
Coleman, who Williams mer lifting partner turned worked him hard the last can’t go up because there team like a flood.
said was the better wres- sparring partner, among month and a half, includ- is nothing else to accom-
Hours before the dead-
tler, couldn’t score when many others, for getting ing 30-minute session plish. From there, they line to be entered into the
he desperately needed to him to this level. One day, days before the state tour- can only stay the same or 5A Special District 4 tour-
down one late in the third. Coleman was looking for nament.
go down. Tarvin, though, nament, Tuia was cleared
He managed to pull three a weight-lifting partner
“It’s kind of like he managed somehow to still by his doctor to resume
single-legs but couldn’t and found Kyle Larson. saw something or poten- improve in Williams’ eyes. wrestling. Williams was
get the dominant position They worked out together tial,” he said.
“It was a worthy ac- notified and entered Tuia,
and couldn’t score. He that day and then went up
Though
Hermiston complishment to wrestle who qualified for state.
would lose by that by a to the wrestling room and did have a repeat champ back to the finals,” Wil-
Tuia said he was burnt
single point.
sparred a bit.
— Colbray — its oth- liams said of Tarvin. “I out from wrestling before
“I think next year Bob
He said Larson asked er returning champion, think, in the finals, we state, and he wasn’t sure if
is a position where he can him if he wanted to be a Liam Tarvin, came up just were just too small to he wanted to keep going.
win it,” Williams said. “If state champ, and Cole- short. The junior won last compete, but he wrestled He credits Williams for
I just look two years ago man said he did. So Lar- year’s 106-pound brack- well the whole tourna- setting a schedule to get
him back on the mat and
competing. He followed
that schedule and redis-
covered his fire, which
he rode to his sixth-place
finish.
“When (I came back), I
felt good, like I was back,
I was ready,” Tuia said.
“During the matches, it
kind of showed that I was
capable of being able to
come back. Then having
accomplished that, I was
like, ‘Yeah, I can do this.’
So, if I ever get stuck in
this situation again, I
need to not have my mind
set to where I can’t come
back and I can’t do this.
I need to keep my mind
set on the goal and pursue
that goal.”
Of Hermiston’s 15
wrestlers, just two are se-
niors. Of Hermiston’s eight
placers, just one, Rodelo,
is a senior. That means the
bulk of Hermiston’s best
wrestlers are returning to
defend the team’s state
title and, for juniors like
Coleman and Colbray, give
them a shot to win four
team titles in four years.
For
wrestlers
like
Palmer, Emilio Landin,
Beau Blake, Wade Kirk-
patrick and Meads, the
program doesn’t appear
to be missing any beats.
“With another spring,
with another summer,
with another fall, by this
time next year, these
freshmen and sophomores
are gonna be different
kids — they’re gonna be
better,” Williams said.
“The future is bright.”
continued from page A6
performers with a sec-
ond-team nod. The soph-
omore wing slashes into
the lane off the dribble and
creates layups or foul-line
CHAMPIONS:
BIKERS:
ney of Walla Walla took the
19-39 division in 2:13.31,
and Andrew Sargent from
continued from page A6
Bend sqeaked by in the 40-
In the elite men’s cate- SOXV UDFH E\ ¿YH VHFRQGV
gory, which encompassed in 2:13.48 over Richland’s
a 36-mile race through the Greg Turpen. Evan Plews
trails outside of Echo, Chris won the men’s single-speed
Ganter of Boise won hand- race in 2:22.46, edging Mon-
ily with a time of 2 hours, roe, Washington’s Doug
5 minutes and 53 seconds. Graver by two seconds.
Colorado’s Cody Peter-
Justin Ziehnert took the
VRQ ¿QLVKHG VHFRQG ZLWK category two 15-18 race
a 2:08:51 time, just barely with a 2:01:26 time on the
nudging 19-year-old Nolan 24-mile course. Jake Szy-
Brady by two seconds.
manski of Portland snuck
In the elite women’s past Matt Browning of
category, Serena Gordon Heppner with a 1:48.39
took the race, winning by time in the category two
six seconds with a 2:24:30 19-39 race. In the category
posting. Alice Pennington two 40-49 heat, Rob An-
took second in 2:30:37, JHOR RI %HQG ZRQ E\ ¿YH
and Erika Krumpelman of seconds over Portland’s
+D\GHQ ,GDKR ¿QLVKHG George Varhola with a time
third in 2:36:09.
of 1:45.27. Eric Jenson of
The rest of the category 1 Richland took the category
placers were: Kevin Thon- two 50-59 race in 1:48.24.
COUGARS:
continued from page A6
at home and a 67-45 shellacking
at Powder Valley hurt Echo’s
ranking headed into the last
stretch, and co-league and district
titles weren’t enough to bump up
Echo for a better draw.
“We don’t drop those games,
(then) we get a little higher rank-
ing and play teams that aren’t
VIKINGS:
continued from page A6
that deserved to be (in Coos
Bay at state).”
The Vikings (19-8) were
a victim of the seeding
process as they fell from
seventh to 12th after their
district loss to Vale. That
took Umatilla out of the
top eight, which meant the
team would have hosted
a playoff game against a
more favorable matchup.
The league schedule
proved to be the highest hur-
dle for Umatilla to jump. Af-
ter coasting through its non-
league schedule, Umatilla
had no answer for Vale. In
four games, the southern Vi-
kings outscored the northern
Vikings 205-156 with the
closest coming in February
in an eight-point decision.
It was a disappointing
ending for the seniors, who,
Clinton Andring of Rich-
land took the category two
60-plus in 1:50.05.
In category three, Kevin
Anderson won the 19-39
division in 2:00.38, and
Bellingham, Washington’s
Paul Clement took category
three 40-plus in 2:02.13.
In the men’s clydesdales
division, Rob Jordan of
Lacey, Washington slid past
Mark Sturges of West Rich-
land with a time of 1:59.32.
Bruce Avery of Van-
couver, Washington, rid-
ing the 12-mile beginner
course, had the fastest time
at that length after posting a
1:03.01 time.
Caleb Trumbull of Hood
River took the category
three 10-13 division with a
time of 1:02.16, and Nathan
Glade took the category
three 14-18 heat in 1:00.38.
On the women’s side,
as good,” Brazil said. “Without
calling out other teams, I’ve
scouted quite a few of those
teams, and, yeah, we did not
get the matchup we wanted. So
I think if we had taken care of
some more of those things later
in the year, some of those games
that are a little harder to get up
for, maybe we’d be looking at
Baker right now. Either way,
we accomplished a lot. We gave
our community something to be
in four years, had never
advanced to Coos Bay. Iri
Campos, Kassandra Gal-
braith, Kelly Barajas and
Berenice Chavez are grad-
uating this year, leaving a
core led by Aleesha Wat-
son and Sidney Webb to try
again next year.
Bow said he wanted
those seniors to end their
season on a more positive
note.
“They’ve worked four
years for an opportunity
to do that,” Bow said of
the seniors getting to Coos
Bay. “It was close, being up
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two. To lose a lead like that
late in the game was very
heart-breaking for them.
“Being in that locker
room, hearing the other
team cheer in the locker
room nearby and hearing
what our locker room was
like, that’s a feeling that will
never go away,” he added.
Beth Kobza (category one,
19-39) won handily in
2:48.10, and Becky Wilson
of Walla Walla (category
one, 40-plus) won with a
time of 2:55.49.
In category two, Ala-
na Armstrong of Portland
(2:10.46), Elise Huggins
of
Portland
(2:05.38)
and Mary Dallas of Bend
(2:06.35) took the 19-39
race, 40-49 heat and 50-
plus heat, respectively.
Carrie Johnson of Port-
land (2:21.18) took the cat-
egory three 19-39 division.
Kirsten Dahlquist of Port-
land (2:17.18) had the fast-
est 40-plus time in category
three. Eugene’s Amanda
Morris (1:15.12) was the
fastest 19-plus beginner,
and Roxanna Hart of Wash-
ougal, Washington, the lone
women’s junior 10-18, re-
corded a 1:36.04.
proud of.”
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Oregon League. Its “best” loss-
es were to third-ranked Country
Christian, a decent Tri-Cities
Prep (Washington) team, Dufur
and Adrian. The Cougars beat
2A Columbia Basin Conference
champion Pilot Rock by 13 in
December and 3A Riverside in
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Though Echo loses only two
“Out of all the games we
played this year, that’ll be
the one they remember for
a very long time.”
Looking forward, Webb
will return as a senior next
year and will resume pri-
mary ball-handling duties.
seniors — McCarty and Bailey
Strofe — Brazil said it’s more
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the leadership and intangible
contributions made by those two
players.
The Cougars’ core will be
largely the same next season.
Juniors Kelsey Ranger, Erika
Parks and Lizzie Cox will step
into leadership roles. Soph-
omores Hattie Reese, Devin
Tarvin and Beth Milbrodt have
Watson will be a junior
and will again be the pri-
mary option on offense.
Courtney Dohman will also
be a senior and will have
a larger roll at the block
with Campos gone. Brenda
Campos, Iri’s little sister,
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at least a full year of varsity ex-
perience under their belts, and
freshman Taylor Swaggert will
see an increase in minutes and
responsibilities, as well.
With the majority of the ros-
ter returning, Brazil said he is
looking forward to next year
and improving on this season’s
successes.
“I think the program’s mov-
ing in the right direction,” Bra-
zil said.
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too, and Mari Paz will get
more shots.
From there, Bow doesn’t
really know what the rest of
the roster will look like. He
says he needs more depth
and has to think about how
he can replace his four var-
sity players.