A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2017
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Hermiston wins in final strokes
Hermiston Herald
The four swimmers on
Hermiston’s 400-yard free-
style relay “B-team” came
through big in what was
likely their final event of
the season. Their fifth-place
finish delivered a team title
for the Bulldogs boys at the
Columbia River Confer-
ence district meet in Hood
River.
Caleb Jorgensen, Jose
Roman, Lane Stevenson
and Alexis Perez weren’t
one of four Bulldogs to
earn a spot at the state fi-
nals, but their combined
time of 4 minutes, 22.31
seconds was enough to fin-
ish ahead of Pendleton’s
second relay unit, and the
four points they earned to-
ward the team tally put the
Bulldogs over the top.
Hermiston edged Pend-
leton 93-91 in team points.
The Bulldogs arrived at
their championship point
total despite winning just
one event thanks to 24 top-
six finishes. Pendleton’s
boys, meanwhile, won six
gold medals but had just 17
total placers.
The Buckaroos earned
14 points by winning the
400 freestyle relay, but
trailed Hermiston by six
coming into the last event.
Hermiston’s
district
champion was Ryan Bar-
nard, who easily held off
Pendleton’s Avery Madril
to win the 200 individ-
ual medley in a time of
2:11.84.
Barnard also placed sec-
ond in the 100 freestyle
(52.44) and swam for the
Bulldogs’ state-bound 200
freestyle relay team that
placed second (1:37.97)
along with Carson Wrath-
all, Seth Buck and Ean
Buck.
Wrathall also qualified
for state by placing sec-
ond in the 200 freestyle
(1:55.69). None of the Bull-
dogs’ other second-place
finishes were quick enough
to meet the qualifying times
for state, although the sea-
son may not be over yet for
Roman and Perez, who are
listed as alternates for the
200 freestyle relay.
The state finals begin
at 9 a.m. on Friday at Mt.
Hood Community College
in Gresham.
PHOTO BY MIKE WEBER
The Hermiston High Bulldogs boys swimming team won the
Columbia River Conference District Championship Saturday
at the Hood River Aquatic Center in Hood River. Bulldogs
swimmers include Ryan Barnard, Ean Buck, Seth Buck, Ivan
Cardenas, Caleb Jorgensen, Ryan Middleton, Keaton Mikami,
Alexis Perez, Jose Roman, Carson Wrathall, assistant coach
Kerri Hodges and head coach Kevin Hamblin. Hermiston
team members not pictured include Lane Stevenson, Preston
Strong and Ryan Wiley.
DAWGS ATTEND TO TASK AT HAND
After winning district
titles, top wrestlers
look to state meet
Hermiston State Qualifiers
106 - Ruben Madrigal (3rd)
113 - Gage Shipley (4th)
126 - Jesus Rodriguez (4th)
132 - Oscar Lopez (2nd)
138 - CJ Hendon (1st)
145 - Adrian Tuia (1st)
145 - Wade Kirkpatrick (2nd)
170 - Valen Wyse (1st)
170 - Julio Leiva (2nd)
182 - Joey Gutierrez (1st)
195 - Sean Stewart (4th)
220 - Kenny Bevan (2nd)
220 - Corey Mason (3rd)
285 - Beau Blake (2nd)
By ERIC SINGER
Staff Writer
HERMISTON — The Herm-
iston Bulldogs wrapped up four
individual district championships
on Saturday evening, but none of
the four champions seemed too
ecstatic about the feats.
“It’s just another day,” said ju-
nior Joey Gutierrez, who won the
182-pound bracket, “The bigger
picture is state, but it’s a good
feeling for now. Monday it’s time
to get back to work.”
“I’ve experienced this two
times before,” senior C.J. Hen-
don, who took the 138-pound
title, “so it’s nice I guess, some-
thing that I’ve earned.”
But for a program that heads
to Portland in two weeks with
a goal of earning its 11th state
championship, winning a dis-
trict title is just another accolade.
Hermiston head coach Kyle Lar-
son said that mindset from his
team is pleasing to see.
“I like that their heads are
on straight,” he said. “I’m glad
(state) is already in their minds
… we expect a lot out of these
guys, we’ve won 10 state titles
and we absolutely expect to win
our 11th.”
As a team, Hermiston finished
in a tie with Redmond for the
district championship with 333
points.
The Bulldogs had two chanc-
es to seal the solo victory as
both Kenny Bevan (220) and
Beau Blake (285) wrestled in
the championship matches, how-
ever both Dawgs lost by fall to
keep Redmond in it. The Bull-
dogs will be sending 14 wrestlers
to the state tournament and had
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Hermiston’s A.J. Tuia attempts to pin Pendleton’s Mycheal Pointer in the 145 pound weight class Friday at the
district tournament in Hermiston. Tuia went on to win the district title on Saturday after he defeated teammate
Wade Kirkpatrick by a 7-2 decision.
15 wrestlers place in the district
tournament.
Hermiston’s first victory of
the day came with Hendon at 138
pounds, who took down Pendle-
ton’s Jeff Kovach by fall at the
3:23 mark to earn his third dis-
trict title of his career. Hendon
said that going against a Pend-
leton opponent mixed with the
tight race his team was in with
Redmond got him pretty fired up
for the match.
“Since times have changed the
rivalry with Pendleton isn’t as
strong but to me it’s still there,”
Hendon said. “And plus it was
more than just a rivalry with that
match, we needed the pins we
need the bonus points.”
Senior Valen Wyse was
pleased to have the district tour-
nament at home this year because
he liked hearing the loud cheers
from the home crowd.
“It’s been very comfortable.
I like having our fans come out
and watch us perform,” he said.
“It kind of gets the fire going un-
der you so you can go out and
give the fans something to cheer
about.”
Wyse, wrestling at 170
pounds, had a familiar opponent
in the championship match as he
took on fellow Bulldog Julio Lei-
va. Wyse ended up winning the
championship by pinning Leiva
at the 3:53 mark in the second
round, and admitted afterward
that it’s always a little odd to
wrestle a teammate in a champi-
onship match.
“It’s difficult because the fans
are cheering for both of you, so
you just have to tune that out
and put on a good show,” Wyse
said. “But it’s really encourag-
ing to know you’re from one of
the toughest programs and that
we have two guys in the finals.
But now I fully expect to meet
up with Julio in the finals at state
again too because he’s a contend-
er, a great competitor and a great
training partner.”
Hermiston also had another
pair in the finals at 145 pounds,
as Adrian Tuia met up with Wade
Kirkpatrick with the title on the
line. Kirkpatrick controlled the
match through the first round, but
as soon as the second round start-
ed, Tuia took over and earned a
7-1 decision victory.
Larson said overall, he was
mostly happy with the way his
Bulldogs wrestled over the two-
day tournament. And as for his
star of the tournament, he singled
out not one of his champions,
but the runner-up at 132 pounds
Oscar Lopez. Lopez started the
tournament as a No. 6 seed, and
upset the No. 3 seed and No. 2
seed in the bracket to advance to
the title, where he eventually lost
to Pendleton’s Alex Rendon.
“Oscar, that’s my guy coming
in as a six seed … that’s absolute-
ly wrestling above his potential
and that’s what we like to see,”
Larson said. “At the beginning
of the year Oscar started at 152
pounds and now he’s finally at a
weight where he feels comfort-
able and can compete.”
Now Hermiston will return to
mats for a grueling week of prac-
tice to prepare for the state tour-
nament, and it feels confident in
its abilities to add another banner
to the walls in the Dawg House.
“I think we’re sending the
right number of people to state
as we expected to,” Wyse said.
“We’re going to have to come in
and wrestle tough for sure, but
we’re just preparing and getting
ready to put on a show at the state
tournament.”
Hoops recap: Hermiston can’t cool Pendleton’s hot hand
Hermiston Herald
Pendleton senior guard
Caden Smith hit three
straight three pointers and
sank Pendleton’s first 11
points of the fourth quarter
Thursday, and his team-
mates hit their free throws
in the final minutes for a
47-39 win over Hermiston.
Until his three-pointer
with 25 seconds to play in
the third, Smith was just 2
of 11 from the field with
four points guarded by
Hermiston sophomore Jor-
dan Ramirez.
“Jordan’s 5-foot-10 and
100-whatever pounds, he
doesn’t weigh much, but
the kid works his butt off,”
said Hermiston coach Ca-
sey Arstein. “He’s proba-
bly the best defender in the
conference when it comes
to guarding the best play-
er.”
Hermiston came out
driving to the rim almost
at will in the first quarter to
take a 13-6 lead, but found
the points much tougher
to come by the rest of the
game. Hermiston’s Xavi-
er Rambo scored eight of
his 11 points in the first,
and Chance Flores had five
of his 11 in the frame, but
Hermiston was forced out-
side when the Bucks shifted
to a zone defense and went
5-of-22 from behind the
arc.
Hermiston will cele-
brate senior night at its next
home game on Friday, Feb.
17, when they take on Hood
River at 7 p.m. They played
The Dalles Tuesday but the
score was not available by
press time.
STANFIELD 63, PI-
LOT ROCK 59 — The
Stanfield Tigers held off a
late charge by the Pilot Rock
Rockets to hang on for a vic-
tory to end the regular season
for both teams on Saturday
night.
The victory was the 17th
consecutive win for the Ti-
gers, who now head into the
district tournament as the
No. 1 overall seed as well
as holding the No. 1 OSAA
ranking in Class 2A.
Ryan Bailey led Stanfield
(18-1, 8-0 CBC) with 14
points and Thyler Monkus
had 12. Brody Woods and
Tony Flores each scored 11
points apiece. Tracker Denny
led all scorers with 22 points
for Pilot Rock (11-9, 4-4).
Stanfield has a bye in the
district tournament, and will
play for the title on Saturday
at 3 p.m. at the Pendleton
Convention Center.
On Friday Jose Garcia
poured in a game-high 24
points and Dylan Grogan
added 20 as the Tigers pulled
away early on senior night
to beat Weston-McEwen 99-
70.
UMATILLA 57, RIV-
ERSIDE 41 — At Uma-
tilla, the Vikings clinched
the Eastern Oregon League
championship and an auto-
matic berth to the state post-
season with a win over rival
Riverside on Friday night.
Three Vikings reached
double figures in the game,
led by Kaden Webb with
13 and followed by Sebas-
tian Garcia and Justin Maret
with 12 points apiece. Eon
Castillo led Riverside with
13 points, the lone Pirate to
reach double figures.
The team followed the
performance Saturday with a
68-52 win over Vale in Uma-
tilla to close out the regular
season.
Tyrone Morris started his
first game of the season for
Umatilla and led all scorers
with 21 points, while Kaden
Webb put up 18 points.
“The boys are on a mis-
sion now,” Umatilla coach
Derek Lete said. “They knew
wins and momentum were
huge going into districts and
they played well tonight.”
Umatilla now will await
the winner of Burns and Ir-
rigon in the district semifinal
game on Tuesday night, and
will play for the district title
on Friday night.
ECHO 52, WALLOWA
29 — At Echo, the Cougars
took down Wallowa on Fri-
day to close out their home
slate for the 2016-17 season.
Devan Craig and Klay
Jensen each scored 12 points
apiece for Echo, and Morgan
Marcum and Ty Mulder each
scored 11 points.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
HERMISTON
62,
PENDLETON 31 — In their
previous meeting, Pendleton
had erased a 16-point fourth
quarter deficit for a stunning
victory. Hermiston was hav-
ing none of that on Thursday.
Hermiston freshman Jaz-
lyn Romero came up big for
her team in the fourth quarter
and the Bulldogs continued
to extend their lead until the
buzzer finally sounded on a
62-31 rout.
“We knew that we had
to keep going, pushing, we
couldn’t let up,” said Rome-
ro, who scored eight of her
team-high 21 points in the
fourth quarter. “I’ve just got
to thank my teammates for
getting me the shots open and
passing me the ball, it was a
great team win.”
Hermiston coach Juan
Rodriguez said it was pretty
much how it was supposed
to go down back on Jan. 31
in Pendleton when the Bucks
came back from 16 down to
win 62-31 and snap a 26-
game unbeaten streak in the
rivalry for the Dawgs.
Maddy Juul added 12
points and six rebounds, and
Kynzee Padilla chipped in 11
points, seven rebounds and
four steals.
Hermiston (10-9, 4-1
CRC) created havoc for
Pendleton’s offense with its
half-court defense, and the
Buckaroos finished the game
with 24 turnovers. Ten of
those were in the first quarter
as the Bulldogs raced out to a
19-10 lead.
PILOT ROCK 58,
STANFIELD 26 — At
Pilot Rock, the Rockets
finished out their regular
season schedule with a big
58-26 win over Stanfield,
while celebrating senior
night on Saturday.
Kendra Hart and Natalia
Esquivel each scored eight
points apiece to lead Stan-
field (4-16, 1-7).
On Friday the Tigers
kept a better handle on
Weston-McEwen
guard
Chelsea Quaempts this
time around, but the junior
TigerScot still managed a
game-high 20 points to lead
her team to a Columbia Ba-
sin Conference win 46-31
on Friday night.
Brittin
Braithwaite
carried Stanfield with 10
points and 13 rebounds,
and Shyanne Connell add-
ed nine rebounds to go with
five points.
VALE 40, UMATIL-
LA 22 — At Umatilla, the
Vikings finished off the
season with a 40-22 loss
to Vale on Saturday night.
Aleesha Watson finished
off her career with a game-
high 14 points for Umatilla
(6-17, 1-9 EOL) and Lau-
ryn Journot had six points.
Vale was ahead 19-9 at
halftime and Umatilla was
held below 30 points for the
third straight game.
On Friday the River-
side Pirates ended their
2016-17 season by sweep-
ing the season series over
rival Umatilla with a 44-
23 win.
Lacey Mashos led Riv-
erside (9-10, 3-7 EOL)
with 13 points while Alon-
dra Caldera added eight
and Skylar Wightman
seven. Aleesha Watson
carried Umatilla with 16
points.