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SPORTS Wednesday, February 5, 2020 HerMIsTOnHeraLd.COM • A9 Echo-Stanfield’s Lemmon signs with EOU wrestling Bombers race through Bulldogs By ANNIE FOWLER sPOrTs edITOr By BRETT KANE sTaFF WrITer Richland may not be the top team in the Mid-Columbia Conference, but they are among the fastest. The Bombers lit up the court for a 25-point second quarter Saturday, holding the Hermiston Bulldogs to just 15, to give them enough distance in the second half to stay ahead and hand the Dawgs a 74-53 Mid-Columbia Confer- ence home loss. “They’re known for just how fast they are,” Hermiston coach Drew Pre- uninger said of Richland. “It’s tough on us. We have to work on our transi- tional defense. That hurt us a little bit. And their speed hurt us a little bit, too.” The Bulldogs trailed just 14-10 at the first quarter’s buzzer, but the Bomb- ers came to life in the second, shooting a combined 7-for-8 at the free-throw line and getting key 3-pointers from Andrew Albrecht and Jase Vopalensky. Junior Miguel Moreno and sopho- more Tyler Lin both went 2-for-2 at the line for Hermiston in the second quar- ter, and sophomore guard Chase Elliott hit a 3-pointer and a basket to con- tribute five points to his team’s 15 for the quarter, but the Dawgs still trailed 39-25 at the half. “At the beginning, we started our 1-3-1 that helped us a lot,” Preuninger said, “but then (Richland) started hit- ting 3s. It was tough to match up with them.” Richland outscored Hermiston 20-13 in the third quarter to stay well ahead. The Bombers strung together a five-point streak with four min- utes remaining in the fourth quarter to threaten a 30-point advantage at 70-44, but Hermiston closed out the game with a seven-point run, capped off by a trey at the buzzer from freshman Dax Davis. Senior Trent Pitney led the Bull- dogs (2-16, 1-13 MCC) with 15 points on the night. Elliott followed with 11. Richland (11-8, 8-7 MCC) got a game- high 17 points from Vopalensky. “They’ve mastered their run-and- gun game,” Pitney said of the Bomb- ers. “It was nice to watch, but it wore us out. They’re a great team.” Staff photos by Kathy Aney Hermiston’s A.J. Ramos-Barron prepares to go to the hoop as Jase Vopalensky of Richland defends during Saturday’s game at the Dawg House. Hermiston’s Chase Elliott brings the ball downcourt during Saturday’s game against the Richland Bombers at the Dawg House. Elliot scored 11 points. BOX SCORE RICHLAND — 14 25 20 15 — 74 HERMISTON — 10 15 13 15 — 53 RICHLAND — Vopalensky 17, Albrecht 13, Fewel 13, Dan- iels 10, Rew 7, McClelland 6, Wager 4, Schuster 2 HERMISTON — Pitney 15, Elliott 11, Rangel 8, Davis 5, Jamie Ramirez 5, Jayden Ramirez 3, Lin 2, Moreno 2, Car- rillo 2 PREP ROUNDUP Dawgs topple Blue Devils HerMIsTOn HeraLd Hermiston recorded six pins and won two matches by forfeit to finish the Mid-Columbia Conference regu- lar season with a 57-16 road win over Walla Walla. Oscar Cota (113), Adrian Del- gado (126), Hunter Dyer (132), Jordan Franklin (145), Daniel Faaeteete (182) and Dustyn Coughlin (285) all won by fall. Coughlin had the quickest pin of the night in 33 seconds over Erick Enriquez. Trevor Wagner (170) and Sam Cadenas (220) picked up forfeit wins. The Bulldogs finished the MCC sea- son 6-2. Chiawana won the regular-sea- son MCC title with an 8-0 record. Boys basketball HEPPNER 58, PILOT ROCK 44 — The Mustangs rallied from a 16-6 first-quarter deficit to hand the visiting Rockets a Blue Mountain Conference loss — just their third of the season. Heppner pulled within 27-26 at the half, and then used a 32-17 run in the second half to pull away. Casey Fletcher led Heppner (9-8, 4-3 BMC) with a game-high 16 points, while Joe Sherman added 12 points. Jackson Lehman added seven points, four assists and six rebounds. “We got down early and my second unit came in and gave us lots of energy and got us back in the game,” Hep- pner coach Jeremy Rosenbalm said. “I’m extremely proud of my team for keeping their poise when we got down early. We could have quit, but instead we kept fighting. We had lots of guys step up and make plays.” Payton Thurmond led the Rockets (15-3, 5-3 BMC) with 13 points and five rebounds The Mustangs will play at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Grant Union. Pilot Rock will play at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Union. RIVERSIDE 60, UMATILLA 53 — The Pirates led by just four points at 15-11 after the first quarter, but a 23-10 Staff photo by Ben Lonergan Umatilla’s Chris Self (0) looks to pass the ball during Thursday night’s game against the Riverside Pirates in Boardman. second quarter put the game well out of reach as they scored an Eastern Oregon League home win on Thursday. Umatilla was led by Edwin Ortiz and Oscar Campos, who each had 11 points. Riverside (12-6, 3-2 EOL) hosts Nyssa on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. Uma- tilla (10-9, 3-2 EOL) welcomes Burns on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Girls basketball HEPPNER 54, PILOT ROCK 27 — Sydney Wilson and ZaBrena Mas- terson each had 12 points, and Mar- lee Mitchell added 10 as the Mustangs cruised to a home victory over the Rockets in Blue Mountain Conference action. “They focused on stopping Syd,” Heppner coach Robert Wilson said. “We talked about others stepping up to score, and they did.” Heppner (10-6, 3-4 BMC) led 15-7 after the first quarter, but it was a 22-8 run in the third quarter that put the game out of reach. Emily Lambert led the Rockets (5-13, 1-7 BMC) with a game-high 15 points. Heppner will play at 4 p.m. Satur- day at Grant Union. The Rockets will play at 4 p.m. Saturday at Union. HERMISTON 57, WALLA WALLA 16 106 — Izake Sanchez (W) md. Aiden Favorite, 10-2. 113 — Oscar Cota (H) p. John-Mark Whitaker, 4:59. 120 — Zayne Helfer (H) d. Ruben Lozano, 7-3. 126 — Adrian Del- gado (H) p. Mateo Caso, 3:48. 132 — Hunter Dyer (H) p. Camrin Henzel, 4:41. 138 — Donny Birdwell (W) p. Isaac Montes, 4:56. 145 — Jordan Franklin (H) p. Jack McVey, 2:27. 152 — Emmanual Carrillo (H) d. Alex Mata, 5-3 (OT). 160 — Jake Humphrey (W) p. Bodie Braithwaite, :34. 170 — Trevor Wagner (H) won by forfeit. 182 — Daniel Faae- teete (H) p. Matthew Gradwhol, :39. 195 — Blake Betz (H) d. Omar Cruz, 2-1. 220 — Sam Cadenas (H) won by forfeit. 285 — Dustyn Coughlin (H) p. Erick Enriquez, :33. Women’s wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports in the nation, and Katelyn Lemmon is part of that movement. Lemmon, one of two girls on the Echo/Stanfield wrestling team, signed a letter of intent Thursday to wrestle at Eastern Oregon University. “I emailed them, and they called me,” said Lem- mon, who plans to major in pre-med. “I’m nervous. I haven’t been wrestling very long, and it will be way harder.” In fact, this season is Lemmon’s first on the mats. She competes at 130 pounds, but will occa- sionally wrestle some- one heavier just to get in a match. “She is definitely one of the hardest workers in the room,” Echo/Stanfield coach Monte Toombs said. “She has mental tough- ness, and puts in 110% all the time. With her work ethic and better practice partners in college, she will do well. I think she will surprise the Eastern coaches.” The EOU program, under the direction of first- year coach Michael Ayala, is in its fourth season. The Mountaineers had two NAIA All-Americans last season. Lemmon, a senior at Stanfield, has watched her younger brother Isa- iah wrestle since he was 4 years old. He is a freshman this year. “It looked like fun,” Lemmon said. “I wish I would have done it sooner, but I didn’t want to wres- tle guys.” According to Toombs, Lemmon is the first Echo/ Stanfield wrestler, boy or girl, to move on to the col- lege level. “I wish we would have Staff photo by Annie Fowler Stanfield senior Katelyn Lemmon signed a letter of intent to wrestle at Eastern Oregon University. had her a lot younger and been able to get her more practice time and good practice partners,” Toombs said. “She will see suc- cess with her wrestling at Eastern.” Last summer, Lemmon went to a team camp at EOU with the rest of the Cougars. There, she was able to compete with other girls. “She beat all the girls up there but one,” Toombs said. Lemmon, who also runs cross-country and track, will compete in a tourna- ment in Heppner on Satur- day, and then will compete in the regional qualifier the following weekend at Cen- tury High School in Hills- boro. The top four in each weight class will advance to state. Whereas Washington has a strong girls wrestling program, complete with 16-person brackets in 14 weight classes at the state tournament, Oregon had its first official girls state tournament last year. Each weight class had just four competitors. This year, there will be eight per weight class. There are approxi- mately 140 schools in Ore- gon with girls wrestling, but most have just a hand- ful of athletes. Hermiston’s Deike to wrestle at EOU pletely infatuated with it,” she said. “It was my first year, and it was a lot of Not long ago, Jazmin trial and error. This year, I Deike thought about giv- talked to Hall about what I wanted to do after col- ing up wrestling. She missed a tour- lege (special education nament and a couple of teacher). He said I could practices before go college and do both. That com- she returned to the peting in a sport wrestling room. would help bal- Tuesday, the ance things.” Hermiston senior For Hall, it signed a letter of shows other girls intent to wrestle Deike what is possible. at Eastern Oregon “I hope to University. “I needed to refocus attract girls who have myself mentally,” Deike not thought about wres- said of the brief hiatus. “I tling,” he said. “There decided where I wanted to are opportunities to get go (to college) and what I scholarships if you put in wanted to study. It had an the work. There are more impact. I came back better and more programs open- than ever. Things fell into ing up, which means more place, and I knew where I opportunities.” With Hermiston mov- stood with the team.” The EOU program, ing into the WIAA, it has under the direction of first- meant better competition year coach Michael Ayala, for the girls, especially at tournaments. is in its fourth season. “We see our normal “What set them apart was their culture and how teams, but at bigger tour- they define their team,” naments, we see girls who Deike said of EOU. “I pin you in 20 seconds,” want to be part of some- Deike said. “That’s when thing that is going to grow. you know what you have I’m really excited. I’m to do to get to state.” Deike also has partic- sure Eastern has some 170 and 190 girls and I won’t ipated in swimming and have to wrestle (coach track at Hermiston, and she also is part of track coach Andy) Hall.” The Hermiston girls Emilee Strot’s weight lift- program, coached by Hall, ing program for girls. “Last season, I was is just in its second year, but Deike has talents that injured, but being able to go beyond two years of lift and stretch was pretty good,” Deike said. “It has work. “Jazmin has been a hard helped me a lot.” Deike and her team- worker,” Hall said. “She’s at every practice and every mates will compete at sub- workout. She had a little regionals this weekend at hiccup along the way, but Liberty High School near Spokane. The top three she’s back.” Deike is just in her sec- advance to regionals the ond year of the sport, but following week. “My goal is to get out of it’s one she has grown to regionals and go to state,” love. “Last year, I was com- Deike said. By ANNIE FOWLER sPOrTs edITOr
