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A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2017 Herald Sports Follow sports on Twitter @HHeraldSports FOUR LOCAL WRESTLERS VICTORIOUS AT STATE FINALS Wyse, Rockwell win second titles; first for Hendon, Flynn EO Media Group The Bulldogs’ hope for another team state title did not have come to fruition, but two Bulldogs, a Pirate and a Mustang all ended their high school wrestling careers as champions Saturday at Vet- erans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Hermiston’s C.J. Hendon and Valen Wyse each won their weight class in the 5A OSAA State Champion- ships. Riverside’s Aristotle Rockwell brought back his second 3A title, and Hep- pner/Ione’s Cord Flynn secured his first title at the 2A/1A level. Wyse improved to 8-0 at the state meet and won his second championship. Just one of his matches in the 170-pound bracket went the distance, and that one wasn’t close. Coming off a pair of first- round pins on the tourna- ment’s first day, Wyse started his second day in the semi- finals against St. Helens’s Colton Beisley, who made Wyse go the full six minutes for a 22-9 major decision victory. That matched him up against Milwaukie’s Mikel Bremner in the champion- ship, where Wyse would get his quickest victory of the tournament and pinned Bremner in 1:29. Hendon, at 138 pounds, had a much more tense fi- nal earlier in the day going STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s Valen Wyse throws Milwaukie’s Mikel Bremner in his 170-pound class 5A state championship match win Saturday in Portland. STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Hermiston’s C.J. Hendon throws Sandy’s Brody Diaz de Leon in his 138-pound class 5A state championship match win Saturday in Portland. against Brody Diaz de Leon of Sandy. After nearly getting pinned at the end of the first round, Hendon was able to score a reversal in the second that tied the score at 4-4. Neither scored in the third round as Hendon was un- able to get any hold to stick from the top position, and the wrestlers stood back up to start the sudden victory round. Hendon immediately shot in for a single-leg takedown, and although he landed his shot, Diaz de Leon was also quick with a headlock and when Wyse drove forward the two wrestlers tumbled to the mat in a tangle. Hendon’s momentum briefly carried him onto his shoulders, drawing an erup- tion of cheers from the San- dy fan section, but Diaz de Leon’s hold was too high and he didn’t have the con- trol needed to score the win- ning points. After rolling onto his side, Hendon got the opening he needed and popped his head out of the lock and quickly jumped on top of a prone Diaz de Leon for the win- ning points. As Hendon acknowl- edged to his own cheering section, Diaz de Leon plead- ed his own case for a take- down to the referees. After conferring with each other and the scorer’s table, Hen- don’s hand was raised for the only state title of his career. That was a moment Hep- pner/Ione’s Cord Flynn had just missed out on his junior season when he was second at 195 pounds to Culver’s Jaiden Jones. The two met for the re- match on Saturday, and this time it was Flynn celebrat- ing at the end when he beat Jones with a 7-3 score. Jones scored first, though, and was up 3-0 in the second period before an escape an immediate takedown by Fly- nn knotted the score. Flynn took a 5-3 lead into the final period when he scored a two- point near-fall at the buzzer. Flynn chose the bottom position to start, but was quickly back on top with a reversal in the first 10 sec- onds to make it 7-3, and he was able to ride out Jones for the win. It was the second time Flynn had beaten Jones this season, and made him the fourth state champion the program has produced and the first wrestler from Ione to win a state title. See CHAMPS, A9 Bulldogs hang on against Eagles Hermiston boys finish regular season with win Rambo followed up with 14 points and Hunter Walls with 13 behind four 3-pointers. Trenton Hough led Hood River Valley (7-15, 1-8) with 17 points and Eric Siekinen had 10. EO Media Group It may not have been the best game put together by the Hermiston boys basketball team on Friday night, but the Bulldogs still managed to end the regular season on the right foot. Hermiston jumped to an early 15-2 lead over Hood River Valley on Friday, but were outscored 36-28 in the second half as the Bulldogs bare- ly hung on for a 60-56 victory. The win wraps up a 16-7 record and a 6-3 mark in the Columbia River Conference for the Bulldogs.Chance Flores led all scorers with 22 points on 10 total field goals, while Xavier This week Hermiston played in a Class 5A postseason play-in game against Parkrose (10-12, 7-7 Northwest Or- egon Conference) on Tuesday at The Dawg House, but the game started too late for results to be included in this week’s print edition of the Hermiston Herald. Look for result and coverage online at www.hermis- tonherald.com. ————— HHS 15 17 14 14 — 60 HRV 2 18 19 17 — 56 HERMISTON — C. Flores 22, X. Rambo 14, H. Walls 13, A. James 5, T. McCullough 4, R. Andreason 2, J. Ramirez. HOOD RIVER — T. Hough 17, E. Siekkinen 10, B. Wilson 7, D. Kurahara 6, JJ Mears 6, M. Williams 4, C. Orr 4, J. Tactay 2. 3-pointers — HHS 7, HRV 5. Free throws — HHS 3-13, HRV 7-12. Fouls — HHS 16, HRV 16. GIRLS BASKETBALL HERMISTON 59, HOOD RIV- ER VALLEY 17 — At Hermiston, the Bulldogs girls basketball team wrapped up its regular season slate with a 59-17 blowout victory over Hood River Valley on Friday night. Up next Hermiston (13-10, 7-2 CRC) will next host a Class 5A postseason play-in game, where it will take on the Sandy Pioneers (14-9, 7-7) who finished fifth in the Northwest Ore- gon Conference. The game will be played at 6 p.m. today, Wednesday, March 1, at The Dawg House. Tigers roar into 2A tournament Irrigon’s first 3A season ends with loss to Salem Academy EO Media Group Playing their last game of the season on their home court, the No. 2 seed Stan- field Tigers weren’t hold- ing anything back as they jumped out to an early lead and never let it go to beat Oakland, 90-56, in the first round of the 2A boys basket- ball state playoffs on Friday. Dylan Grogan scored 32 points, Jose Garcia add- ed 16, and the Tigers really pulled away in the second half where they outscored the Oakers 55-27. It was the 19th straight win for Stanfield (20-1), which hasn’t lost to a 2A team all season. “We just came out fast from the start,” said first- year Tigers coach Jason Sperr. “They came out with the mindset, ‘We’re not going to lose in our Players from Echo earn spots on all-league teams EO Media Group Two players from the girls and boys basketball teams in Echo earned recognition on the Old Oregon League All- League basketball teams the league announced Friday. Earning recognition were senior Hannah Mc- Carty on the first team and Echo senior Devin Tarvin with honorable mention. Echo had two boys named to their second team in senior Klay Jen- son and junior Morgan Marcum. 2017- All-Old Oregon League Basketball Girls First team Mary Stewart (Player of the year), jr., Nixyaawii house.’ They were going to outwork the opponent.” Sperr said No. 15 seed Oakland (17-10) was no Milan Schimmel, jr., Nixyaawii Alexis Sykora, jr., Joseph Sam Kearns, jr., Powder Valley Hallie Feik, sr., Power Valley Hannah McCarty, sr., Echo Second Team Macey Tullis, sr., Helix Hannah Tanaka, sr., Pine Eagle Kaitlyn Melton, jr., Nixyaawii Sam Short, sr., Cove Emma HIte, so., Joseph Sadie Wilson, jr., Helix Honorable Mention Kim Williams, jr., Powder Valley Hannah Duby, sr., Cove Lauren Makin, sr., Joseph Savannah Nobles, sr., Wallowa Devin Tarvin, sr., Echo Savannah Stephens, sr., Powder Valley Boys First team Mick Schimmel (Player of the Year), fr., Nixyaawii Cayden DeLury, sr., Joseph Isaac Colton, sr., Powder Valley Christopher Nobles, so., Wallowa Gus McGinn, sr., Powder Valley Jake Chrisman, sr., Joseph Second team Klay Jensen, sr., Echo Tanner Eubanks, jr., Powder Valley Trent Taylor, sr., Cove Morgan Marcum, jr., Echo Jon Shaw, sr., Helix Honorable Mention Justin Williams, sr., Helix Caevan Murray, jr., Joseph Chandler Case, sr., Nixyaawii Tucker Gulick, so., Pine Eagle Ezekiel Elmer, sr., Cove pushover though, and Stanfield (20-1) was up just 35-29 at halftime. “We missed some open shots that could have bro- ken it open a little sooner,” Sperr said, “but the guys continued to battle getting offensive rebounds. We were sending as many guys as we could to the glass.” Sperr said overall, it was the best four quarters the team has played this season. The Tigers will look to maintain that high level of play next week at the state tournament’s final site in Pendleton. The Tigers are slated for a quarterfinals match-up with No. 7 seed Oakridge, which beat No. 10 Regis, 50-49, on Friday. Stanfield will play Oakridge on Thursday at Pendleton High with an 8:30 p.m. tipoff. ——— OHS 14 15 16 11 — 56 SHS 20 15 23 22 — 90 OAKLAND — N. Freeman 11, N. Chastain 10, C. Benzel 8, B. Wimberly 6, S. Winn 6, A. Harrington 4, C. Brownson 4, J. Brooksby 3, A. Saddler 2, A. Brown 2, R. Carson. STANFIELD — D. Grogan 32, J. Garcia 16, T. Monkus 7, T. Flores 7, R. Bailey 7, B. Woods 7, E. Esquivel 2, C. Hernandez, N. Sanchez, A. Gomez. 3-pointers — OHS 2; SHS 4. Free throws — OHS 12-23; SHS 15-26. Fouls — OHS 23; SHS 21. Fouled out — C. Benzel (OHS). See ROUNDUP, A9 STAFF PHOTO BY ERIC SINGER Umatilla’s Kaden Webb (1) directs the offense during a 3A boys basketball first-round state playoff game against Horizon Christian of Tualatin on Friday in Umatilla. Horizon Christian won 66-40. Vikings ousted by pesky Hawks Umatilla’s season ends in first round of playoffs By ERIC SINGER Staff Writer When the Umatilla boys basketball team pulled off the last-second win over Irrigon to claim the dis- trict title, the Vikings did so with clutch shooting and stout defense. But in Friday’s first round playoff game against the No. 9 seed Horizon Christian Hawks, Umatilla shot a meager 20 percent from the floor (13- 64) while Horizon Chris- tian connected at an in- credible 65 percent mark (24-37). The Hawks ran away with a 66-40 victory to oust the No. 8 seed Vi- kings from the postseason. The shooting perfor- mance was very unchar- acteristic for the Vikings (17-8). Following the game, Umatilla coach Derek Lete appeared per- plexed as he tried to ex- plain the team’s perfor- mance. “You know, I don’t know if the stage was too big for them or if it was just one of those nights,” he said. “But any time you shoot like that, you’re not going to win a whole lot of ball games.” Umatilla started the game with a fast tempo and quick hands on defense, forcing three turnovers on Horizon Christian’s first three possessions and taking a 3-0 lead over the Hawks at the 6:20 mark of the opening quarter. But once the Hawks took care of the basketball, they were too much for the Vi- kings to handle. Horizon Christian (20- 8) made 9 of 10 shots in the first quarter and fin- ished the final six minutes on a 22-3 run, and then continued the hot shooting in the second half hitting 16-20 shots (80 percent) to lead 39-16 at the break. “They (Horizon Chris- tian) just couldn’t miss,” Lete said. “And anytime you dig yourself that big of a hole in a state play- off game, it’s hard to dig yourself out.” The Hawks were able to use its size advantage across the board to work its offense to near perfec- tion, led by 6-7 junior An- thony Sprauer inside who finished with a game-high 28 points, 18 of which came in the first half alone. Overall, the Hawks had just two of the eight players that saw the floor that checked in at 6-feet-1 STAFF PHOTO BY ERIC SINGER Umatilla’s Sebastian Garcia prepares to take a shot during a 3A boys basketball playoff game against Horizon Christian of Tualatin on Friday in Umatilla. or shorter, while Umatilla had seven. “We knew they were bigger than us, we had scouted them pretty well,” Lete said. “We knew them inside and out, and I still believe we do. It’s just they shot well, they re- bounded well and they’re tough to defend. It just wasn’t our night.” Umatilla did not hit its first 3-pointer of the game until the 3:44 mark of the third quarter when Mois- es Garcilazo swished one from the left wing, ending an 0-18 start. Sebastian Garcia then hit 3-4 at- tempts in the fourth quar- ter to help him finish with a team-high 12 points. It was a disappointing way for Umatilla’s three seniors in Justin Maret, Sean Miller and Tyrone Morris to go out, but Lete said as a coach he is proud of the effort those three and his team overall gave throughout the season. “It’s been fun, probably one of the best seasons I’ve had,” Lete said. “All the kids are very coachable, they work hard day-in and day-out in practice and not just in game action. There’s a lot of mixed emotions now, but we return a lot and hopefully we’ll get af- ter it in the offseason and see what next year brings.” ———— HC 22 17 9 18 — 66 UHS 6 10 9 15 — 40 HORIZON CHRISTIAN — A. Sprauer 28, T. Schiele 10, C. Zralka 6, C. Wyatt 6, J. Belan 5, B. Egger 4, K. Free 3, H. Wakefield 2, T. Olson 2. UMATILLA — S. Garcia 12, K. Webb 10, T. Durfey 6, S. Cranston 5, J. Maret 4, M. Garcilazo 3, G. Armenta, J. Garcia, U. Garcia. 3-pointers — HC 8, UHS 4. Free throws — HC 10-18, UHS 10-16. Fouls — HC 13, UHS 18. ———— Contact Eric at esing- er@eastoregonian.com or 541-966-0839.
