SPORTS
Wednesday, OctOber 16, 2019
HerMIstOnHeraLd.cOM • A9
PREP ROUNDUP
Hermiston girls drop
soccer game
to Clarkston, 5-0
HerMIstOn HeraLd
Luella Skinner scored four first-half
goals Saturday to lead the Clarkston Ban-
tams to a 5-0 nonleague win over visiting
Hermiston in soccer.
Lauren Johnson had two assists for
Clarkston, while goalie Erika Pickett had
three saves in the shutout.
Hermiston (1-11 overall), which had
three shots on goal, got 10 saves from
keeper Lanie Gomez.
The Bulldogs will play at Pasco on
Thursday.
WALLA WALLA 2, HERMISTON
1 (OT) — Sophomore midfielder Sydney
Seavert helped the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead
at the half, but the match was all Walla
Walla coming out of the locker room
Thursday night.
The Blue Devils scored a goal to knot
the score in the second half, and another
in overtime to rally past Hermiston in the
Mid-Columbia Conference match.
“We outplayed them the whole game,”
Hermiston coach Freddy Guizar said.
“We had possession of the ball 55% of the
time. It just wasn’t in our favor.”
Volleyball
Walla Walla improved to 9-0 in
the Mid-Columbia Conference stand-
ings with a 25-21, 25-11, 26-24 victory
over the visiting Hermiston Bulldogs on
Thursday night.
Kendall Dowdy led the Bulldogs (3-6
MCC) with 13 assists, 6 digs, four kills
and two aces, while Grace Vertrees had
six kills, five aces and five digs. Daisy
Maddox had six kills; Halee Stubbs 22
digs; and Emma Combes 10 digs.
Swimming
Hermiston finished sixth at the Tri-
City Championships on Saturday, with
Abigail Sharon leading the way with a
fourth-place finish in the 200 freestyle.
Georgia Stevenson was seventh in the
100 backstroke, and the 400 free relay of
Laly Morfin, Bailey Young, Stevenson
and Sharon finished fourth with a sea-
son-best time.
At a meet Thursday, Halle Thomas
qualified for district in the 100 back-
stroke. The Bulldogs have 13 swimmers
who have qualified for district.
Hermiston
volleyball
team goes
pink for a
good cause
the volleyball team is raising money
for the side-Out Foundation
By ANNIE FOWLER
staFF WrIter
October is Breast Cancer Aware-
ness Month around the country, and the
Hermiston volleyball team is doing its
part in helping bring awareness to the
cause.
The Bulldogs will host Pasco on
Thursday in a Mid-Columbia Confer-
ence match. The players will wear pink
shirts, have pink shirts for sale, have
gift baskets of goodies to raffle during
the match, and have a serving contest,
where contestants will pay $1 per serve
in an attempt to hit a target on the other
side of the net.
“Volleyball, more than any other
sport, has championed breast cancer
awareness and research,” Hermiston
coach Amy Dyck said.
“This is my fourth year with the pro-
gram, and we have done this every year.
They were doing it before I got here,”
the coach added.
The money raised will go to the Side-
Out Foundation, which unifies the vol-
leyball community to drive change in
the way that breast cancer is treated.
The Side-Out Foundation, created in
2004, is a nonprofit charity that raises
awareness and funds for the treatment
of metastatic breast cancer.
Side-Out’s Dig Pink movement has
raised more than $14,000,000 with the
support of more than 9,000 volleyball
teams across the nation.
“Wearing pink is a great way to
start a conversation,” Dyck said. “We
were at Walla Walla last week, and it’s
cool to look back at the film and see so
many girls wearing pink. They are teen-
age girls who have a responsibility and
opportunity to be part of something big-
ger than themselves, and take pride and
ownership of it.”
The Bulldogs also will honor breast
cancer survivors at the game. Several
have received help through the Sister’s
Influencing Survivorship program in
Hermiston.
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Cydney Sanchez and Amand Nygard, of Hermiston, run a hill during Thursday’s Bulldog Fest cross-country race. Nygard won in 20:08.60 and
Sanchez came in second with a time of 20:12.50.
Nygard hasn’t missed a step
By BRETT KANE
staFF WrIter
Last year, Amanda Nygard
was faced with a tough choice.
The Hermiston High School
athlete, both a soccer player
and a cross country runner, was
forced to conform to one of
the Washington Interscholastic
Activities Association’s biggest
rules: All varsity athletes are
allowed to compete in just one
sport at a time.
And so, the question stood:
cross country in the fall, or soc-
cer in the fall?
“I love soccer,” said Nygard,
now a junior. “I wanted to play it
for one more year before focus-
ing on cross country.”
Nygard joined the Bulldogs’
soccer squad to cap off her soph-
omore year, much to the dismay
of Hermiston XC coach Troy
Blackburn.
“I told her, ‘You’re making
a mistake,’” Blackburn joked,
“but she figured it out after a
year.”
Since Nygard made her
return to the cross country team
this fall, she’s made her presence
known throughout the Mid-Co-
lumbia Conference.
She currently holds the No.
2 spot in the girls’ standings in
league action with her personal
record of 19:23.30, which she
earned at the Brooks Fort Steila-
coom Invitational in Lakewood,
Washington, at the end of Sep-
tember. She’s placed in the top
10 in all six of her varsity meets
so far this season, including a
first-place finish at last Thurs-
day’s Bulldog Fest with a time
of 20:08.60.
“We talked a lot about it,”
Blackburn said. “It’s been a
good decision for her. In cross
country, individuals shine, and
she’s a great leader. There’s
no one that works harder than
Amanda. That’s the best thing
about having her back. When
you have an athlete that works
hard like that, it trickles down to
everyone else.”
Nygard shares team captain
duties with fellow junior Ellie
Ernst.
Nygard’s teammate, soph-
omore Cydney Sanchez, is the
No. 3 runner in the MCC stand-
ings. She also earned her PR
at the Brooks Fort Steilacoom
Invitational (19:37.30).
Wednesday, Nygard and her
team will compete against some
of the area’s best at the MCC
Meet #2 in Kennewick.
Among the lineup of racers
are the MCC’s best — Ella Nel-
son of Walla Walla, Geraldine
Correa of Kennewick, Natalie
If you go
What: Mid-Columbia Confer-
ence Meet #2
Where: Lawrence Scott Park,
Kennewick, Wash.
When: Wednesday, Oct. 16,
3 p.m.
Ruzauskas of Richland and Dev-
erie Gutierrez of Kamiakin, who
just edged Nygard at the Fort
Steilacoom race.
“There’s a lot of fast runners
(in the MCC),” Nygard said.
“But that’s good for me — I can
push myself. There’s more com-
petition. I didn’t start out being
the top runner in the MCC. I
worked my way up.”
Starting strong
Nygard first got a taste of
cross country glory in eighth
grade, when she won the state
title while on the Sandstone
Middle School team.
“I was like, ‘Wow, that was
kinda cool,’” she recalled. “Troy
started talking to me about join-
ing his team right away.”
As a freshman, Nygard fin-
ished fifth at the Columbia River
Conference district meet, qual-
ifying for the Oregon Class 5A
state championships. She placed
29th at state in a time of 20:13.
With her focus now solely on
running, Nygard and her team
maintain a strict weekly practice
routine: On Mondays, they run
five 1,000-meter dashes at Echo
Hills Golf Course. On Tuesdays,
they do a base run. On Wednes-
days, they cycle through 10 200-
meter runs at Sandstone. Thurs-
days are for lighter base runs,
and Fridays include a 5-mile run
and four 200-meter returns.
“I like how physical it is,”
Nygard said of cross country. “I
love the competitive nature of
running.”
A look ahead
Although Wednesday’s sec-
ond MCC meet of the season
hosts an array of top tier ath-
letes, Nygard has built the confi-
dence up to withstand such rigid
competition.
“I know a lot of the bigger
girls are going,” she said. “I’m
going to keep up with them and
kick ‘em in the end.”
After all the success she’s
seen so far on the course this sea-
son, which uniform will Nygard
don for her senior year?
“Probably cross country,” she
said.
“We’re like a family. They
help me become a better runner,
and I help them, too.”
Dawgs take the lead at Bulldog Fest
By BRETT KANE
staFF WrIter
In a cross country meet that
pitted 10 area schools against
each other, it was Hermiston
who emerged the top dogs.
Hermiston, who hosted
Thursday’s Bulldog Fest at Butte
Park, placed three boys and two
girls at the top of their respec-
tive races, and took first in the
team standings, outrunning ath-
letes from Pendleton, Heppner,
Weston-McEwen, Walla Walla,
Umatilla, Riverside, Nixyaawii,
Helix, Pilot Rock, and Condon.
“It was great to see our kids
focus on pack running,” Hermis-
ton coach Troy Blackburn said.
“To see all of our kids improve
— it built confidence. This will
help us going back into league
— both the guys and girls. It’s
always fun to see your kids win
races.”
The 5K course, which
wrapped around the Butte, the
Good Shepherd Medical Cen-
ter and back, was led by Herm-
iston runners from start to finish.
Greg Anderson, a senior, swept
the competition, finishing at
17:24.60 — nearly 30 seconds
ahead of Bulldogs sophomore
Jackson Shaver (17:53.20).
“This is a really good meet,”
Anderson said. “It’s a tune-up.
Our guys were all working on
negative splits — we wanted
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Greg Anderson, of Hermiston, leads Thursday’s Bulldog Fest cross-
country race. Anderson won with a time of 17:24.60.
to run each mile faster than the
last.”
Hermiston rounded out the
top three with sophomore Jack-
son Shaver at third (17:54.60).
Heppner newcomer Trevor
Nichols placed fourth, crossing
the finish line at 18:00.70.
“There was some really good
competition here,” said Nich-
ols, a freshman. “It pushes you.
It’s hard, but it’s nice. Everyone
ran hard and pushed each other
today.”
Sophomore James Thatcher
was Pendleton’s fastest run-
ner, turning in an 18:14.60-fin-
ish for fifth place. Right behind
him was Mustangs sophomore
Joseph Sherman at 18:18.40.
Hermiston placed two more
runners in the top 10: fresh-
man Miguel Duron at seventh
(18:29.60) and senior Freddy
Ibarra at ninth (18:34.60).
“It was great to see Greg run-
ning with our No. 2 and 3 guys
(Shaver and Springstead),”
Blackburn said. “Those two
have made great strides.”
The Hermiston boys’ first-
place team finish was earned
with 21 points, leaving Pendle-
ton well behind them at second
with 63. Walla Walla took third
(84), Heppner fourth (97), Riv-
erside fifth (128), and Umatilla
sixth (135).
Junior Amanda Nygard
led the way in the girls var-
sity race, breaking away from
the group for good just before
their first turn around the Butte.
She placed first, clocking in at
20:08.60.
“We run here all the time,”
she said. “I know how to run
these hills. It’s like our home
base.”
Sophomore Cydney San-
chez finished behind Nygard at
20:12.50. Heppner sophomore
Hailey Heideman finished third
at 21:01.40, and junior team-
mate Madelyn Nichols was
fourth at 21:17.80.
The Pendleton girls got their
day’s fastest run from junior Jor-
dyn Murphy, who placed fifth
with a time of 21:27.80.
The Bulldog girls placed
first in the team standings with
35 points, followed by Pendle-
ton at 51. Heppner earned third
place with 54 points, followed
by Helix at 103.