WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A9
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OSAA goes with six-level structure
Committee
narrows focus
with deadlines
approaching
By MATT ENTRUP
Staff Writer
The Oregon School
Activities Association an-
nounced on Thursday it will
go forward as a six-classifi-
cation entity, based on the
show of support for main-
taining the status quo from
a majority of the state’s ath-
letic directors.
The choice between
five and six classifications
boiled down to which
would create the most com-
petitive balance, and since
more athletic directors be-
lieved it would be the cur-
rent six-class system, the
OSAA let democracy rule.
“After lengthy discus-
sion and review last Mon-
day, the (Classification and
Districting Committee) be-
lieves the time has come to
narrow their approach to
one classification system
as there is plenty of work
still to be done with cutoff
points, league alignments
and school placements pri-
or to the group finalizing
their recommendations to
the Executive Board and
Delegate Assembly,” the
OSAA said in its most cur-
rent update following an
April 24 public meeting in
Sunriver, the eighth of the
process to determine high
school classifications for
the 2018-22 block.
During that meeting each
classification presented its
vote from private meetings
held the previous night, and
the 6A model won by a to-
tal count of 94-88. (Class
1A did not vote on a class
model, but instead voted
23-16 in favor of a cutoff of
95 enrollment between 1A
and 2A.)
Class 6A athletic direc-
tors were “virtually unan-
imous” in their support of
a five tier system, and 5A
ADs voted 22-3 in favor of
the six class model.
For Hermiston, the argu-
ment may be a moot point
as the Bulldogs remained
steadfast in their desire to
join Washington Interscho-
lastic Activities Association
for 2018. Attempts to reach
Hermiston athletic director
Larry Usher for comment
were unsuccessful.
Hermiston is still wait-
ing for the green light
from the WIAA to make
the move, though, and
in the OSAA’s most cur-
rent proposal would be a
Class 6A team playing in
the six-team Inter County
Conference with road trips
to Gresham and Bend for
league games.
Pendleton would go into
a five-team Class 5A Inter-
mountain Conference along
with teams from central
Oregon as well as current
league foes The Dalles and
Hood River Valley.
The 4A and 2A athletic
directors were largely in
favor of keeping the current
system with tweaks to al-
low for teams to petition to
play down, or to determine
which schools should be
playing up despite a lower
overall enrollment.
Class 3A was a near
split, though, with the vote
coming out 21-19 in favor
of the current structure.
Umatilla Athletic Direc-
tor Scott Bow said it was
mostly private schools and
those on the edge of bump-
ing down to 2A who want-
ed to eliminate a class.
He said the 5-classifica-
tion model did nothing to
alleviate his school’s trav-
el issues, and would only
put them into a league with
even more travel where
they’d be the smallest
school.
Bow said he did under-
stand the concerns of his
fellow ADs, though, and is
looking for the OSAA to
do even more to balance
the playing field by taking
more factors than total en-
rollment into account when
placing teams in their clas-
sifications.
“From here it’s just go-
ing to be talking about the
per diem, how they’re rating
the competition in sports,”
he said. “It’s really going to
be curios to see where their
final numbers do come out,
if they do make some major
changes.”
Hermiston Herald
Thomas
McCullough
and Patrick Wicks finished
off an undefeated Columbia
River Conference season
on Thursday when Herm-
iston boys tennis went to
Hood River to take on the
Eagles.
Despite the strong lead
from their No. 1 doubles
team, the Bulldogs were
unable to get the win and
were trailing in the final two
matches that were called
early due to lightning.
Hood River took the
4-2 victory, and Hermis-
ton’s only other win was
by Koby Grigg and Jason
Morris at No. 2 doubles.
“It’s been a tough sea-
son, losing the top half of
our lineup (to graduation)
and having kids step in to
replace them that haven’t
had a lot of court time,” said
Hermiston coach Shann
West. “We’ve got guys that
are fighting, and sometimes
they fight too much and it
bites them in the rear.”
That wasn’t the case for
Wicks and McCullough,
which represent the Bull-
dogs’ best chance at a state
berth this season and beat
twins Adam and Luke Har-
ter, 6-1, 6-1.
“These guys headed into
districts have a shot, and
hopefully we can get them
prepared this week,” West
said.
Grigg and Morris beat
Charlie Bickford and Soren
Rajani 6-2, 7-5.
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs won’t
have another match until
the district championships
on May 12-13 in Sunriver.
———
Singles
Sawyer Bogard (HR) def. Kaleb Jorgensen
6-2, 6-0
Simon Harsani (HR) def. Jose Mendoza
7-5, 6-0
Doubles
Patrick Wicks/Thomas McCullough (HM)
Adam Harter/Luke Harter 6-1, 6-1
Koby Grigg/Jason Morris (HM) def. Charlie
Bickford/Soren Rajani 6-2, 7-5
Arnoldo Perez/Reese Carroll (HR) def.
Matt Eckhardt/Austin Garcia 6-2, 6-2
Jay Fielder/Ben Fick (HR) def. Alan Zepe-
da/Eli Muniz 6-4. 6-3
Hermiston softball upsets Eagles
Jones’ home
run proves to be
enough for Bulldogs
Hermiston Herald
The Hermiston softball
team earned itself a huge
victory on Friday after-
noon, outlasting the Hood
River Eagles, 1-0, at Rocky
Heights Elementary.
The only run of the game
came in the second inning,
when Hermiston (8-15, 2-8
CRC) senior Ellery Jones
blasted a solo home run to
lead off the inning. After
Jones’ hit, it was a pitching
duel between Hermiston’s
Julissa Almaguer and Hood
River’s (13-9, 7-2) Hannah
McNerney, with Almagu-
er coming out on top. The
junior lefty allowed just six
hits and one walk in sev-
en innings to go with two
strikeouts.
“Julissa threw lights
out,” Hermiston coach
Kate Greenough said after
the game.
Bulldogs catcher Bailee
Noland had a solid game
as well, as she collected
two hits with a double and
BULLDOGS GET LATE-SEASON
WIN AGAINST HOOD RIVER
Hermiston wins
crucial game
against league-
leading Eagles
By ERIC SINGER
See OSAA, A10
Bulldogs duo caps undefeated run
Hermiston boys fall
in league match
to Hood River
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston’s Jordan Ramirez and Kaden Caldwell converge on the ball in right field during
Friday’s game against Hood River Valley at the Armand Larive baseball field.
a stolen base on offense,
and also threw out two
runners on the basepaths.
Amanda Barron and Kalei
Smith also collected hits for
Hermiston.
The win snaps a three
game losing streak for
Hermiston and snaps a
four-game winning streak
for Hood River, who had
been tied for first in the
CRC with Pendleton.
—————
R H E
HRV
000 000
0 — 0 6 0
HHS
010 000 X — 1 5 4
W — Ju. Almaguer. L — H. McNerney.
2B — B. Noland (HHS). HR — E. Jones
(HHS).
Staff Writer
With a mere three
games remaining in the
regular season, the Herm-
iston baseball team gath-
ered for Friday’s game
needing all the wins it
could get as it aims to earn
a postseason berth.
However, getting a win
on Friday would not be
easy as standing in Herm-
iston’s way was the Co-
lumbia River Conference
leader Hood River Eagles.
Though, that did not in-
timidate the Bulldogs who
had beaten the Eagles in
the teams last meeting on
April 18. And just like the
prior meeting, Hermiston
was the team that came
out on top on Friday as
the Bulldogs came back
from an two-run deficit in
the first inning and held
off the Eagles for a 5-4
victory on a blustery day
at Armand Larive Middle
School.
“We’re ecstatic for the
W,” Hermiston assistant
coach John Christy said
afterward. “I felt like we
played loose and played
our game rather than tight-
en up and let the moment
take a hold of us. I feel like
we did a good job of just
being relaxed and coming
back.”
The Bulldogs (10-13,
4-6 CRC) rode a fantastic
pitching performance by
junior Lukas Tolan, who
lasted six innings and
struck out four while al-
lowing nine hits and just
three runs. He allowed
two runs in the first in-
ning helped by a defen-
sive error, and gave up
one unearned run in the
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Hermiston pitcher Lukas Tolan winds up during Friday’s
game against Hood River Valley at the Armand Larive
baseball field.
sixth, which bookended
four innings of mastery.
Tolan allowed five hits in
those innings, but strand-
ed six runners to keep his
team in the game.
“I just knew I had to
trust my defense and it
would all work out,” To-
lan said. “I knew I had
to hang in there and they
would make some plays
for me.”
“Lukas really pitched
his butt off today,” Chris-
ty said of his pitcher.
“The second inning on,
he really focused on
working down and let-
ting his ball move and he
settled right in there.”
Though it was very
early, perhaps the biggest
moment of the game for
Hermiston came in the
bottom of the first inning.
Having surrendered the
2-0 lead in the top of the
frame, the Bulldogs man-
aged to get a run back
thanks to an RBI single
up the middle by Wyatt
Noland which helped the
Bulldogs re-gain some
momentum.
“When I think about
that first inning, giving
up two but getting one
back was huge for us,”
Christy said.
The Bulldogs then
tied the game in the sec-
ond inning on an RBI
groundout by Jordan
Ramirez which scored
Daniel Gossler from
third base.
As the game moved
along, the high winds
that rolled through the
area continued to get
stronger, with gusts of
20-25
miles-per-hour
blowing straight out to-
ward centerfield. Those
winds made it tough on
both defenses, especial-
ly for fly balls and in the
fourth inning it played
into Hermiston’s favor.
See BASEBALL, A10
Challenge accepted by runners
Hermiston Herald
More than 150 men,
women and children gath-
ered at Butte Park on Sat-
urday morning for the an-
nual Butte Challenge.
Runners and walkers
participated in the four
different races — a 5K
run, 5K walk, 10K run
and a shorter Kid’s Butte
Scoot — though only 114
of them completed their
respective races. The 5K
run was the most popular
of the day, with 61 finish-
ing with an average time
of 32:01 to finish the three-
mile course.
Angie Treadwell, a
41-year-old from Herm-
iston, was the overall 5K
champion as she crossed
the finish line in 20:35. She
had a 28-second cushion on
the second place finisher
Melody Sanchez who fin-
ished at 21:03. Jaysen Ro-
driguez of Hermiston was
the men’s 5K champion as
he finished in 21:30, edg-
ing out Joe Hodge (21:31)
who took second place.
In the 5K walk, 58 peo-
ple began the race and
34 finished with Garrett
Stone, of Hermiston, lead-
ing the pack with a time of
26:31, while Taylor Black-
burn was second, Kristy
Blackburn (30:59) third,
Nick Jones (31:44) fourth,
and Tamara Bock (35:01)
was fifth.
And of the 19 finish-
ers of the 10K race, Ath-
ena-native
Stepahnie
Hodgen claimed overall
victory as the 33-year-
old ran the race in 27:23,
nearly four minutes ahead
of second place finisher
Jennifer Jensen (31:11) of
Hermiston. Cairo Puzey of
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
was the men’s top finish-
er at 31:44, while Tommy
Rivers Puzey (38:24) was
second.
The annual event, which
completed its 18th year
this year, is a fund-raising
event for the Hermiston
cross country program to
pay for travel costs and
meet fees for the team. As
of deadline on Tuesday.
This year’s event raised
about $3,000.
Full results can be
found online by visiting
ButteChallenge.ItsYour-
Race.com.
—————
Butte Challenge
Top Finishers
5K Run
Women
1. Angie Treadwell (20:35)
2. Melody Sanchez (21:03)
3. Alaina Lemmon (23:49)
4. Sandra Aguilar (24:05)
5. Hailey Gardner (25:13)
Men
1. Jaysen Rodriguez (21:30)
2. Joe Hodge (21:31)
3. Cody Radant (22:14)
4. Juan Sanchez (22:45)
5. Damian Carillo (22:49)
5K Walk
Women
1. Taylor Blackburn (30:57)
2. Kristy Blackburn (30:59)
3. Tamara Bock (35:01)
4. Lynne Uitto (42:06)
5. Danita Smith (42:38)
Men
1. Garrett Stone (26:31)
2. Nick Jones (31:44)
3. Wesley Carnahan (42:41)
4. Brad Knight (43:53)
5. John Ballard (49:26)
10K Run
Women
1. Stephanie Hodgson (27:23)
2. Jennifer Jensen (31:11)
3. Katie Puzey Hendrickson (36:16)
4. Amy Puzey (38:49)
5. Rosa Holt (44:51)
Men
1. Cairo Puzey (31:44)
2. Tommy Rivers Puzey (38:24)
3. Cameron Bendixsen (43:48)
4. Larry Palmer (49:48)
5. Wyatt Morris (49:53)
STAFF PHOTO BY KATHY ANEY
Amy Puzey races to victory
in the Butte Challenge
women’s 10-kilometer run
on Saturday morning at
Hermiston Butte Park.