A8
FRIDAY
February 21, 2020
Spring Sports
SeasideSignal.com
Kayla Bucher
The Seaside Riptide. Front row, left to right: MaKenna White, Kylie Keranen, Moriah Johnson, Lily Miller. Back row: assistant coach Scott White, Ella Brenden, Mya Fenney, Carly
Corder, Kenzie Starr, Kimberly Cristabol, Sophia Bucher, coach Chris Corder.
Seaside sixth-graders win Sisters Shootout
Seaside Signal
At the high school level, the Astoria girls and
the Seaside boys will be among the favorites in the
upcoming 4A state prep tournament.
And when it comes to sixth grade basketball in
Clatsop County, the Astoria boys and the Seaside girls
will also be battling for state titles next month.
At a weekend tournament in Sisters, the Seaside
Riptide girls’ sixth grade team took first place in the
“Sisters Shootout,” defeating the Crook County Spurs
in Sunday’s championship game, 30-8.
Seaside had two wins Saturday over West Salem
(48-8) and the Albany Lady Mayhem (35-24), and a
semifinal win Sunday over Newport (33-8).
Kayla Bucher
Seaside’s Lily Miller defends the inbounds pass.
Garvin, Seaside relay teams qualify for state
Coached by Chris Corder and Scott White, team
members include Ella Brenden, Sophia Bucher, Carly
Corder, Kimberly Cristabol, Mya Fenney, Moriah
Johnson, Kylie Keranen, Lily Miller, Kenzie Starr and
MaKenna White.
In sixth grade boys basketball, the Astoria Bandits
qualified for state by winning a tournament in Kelso,
Washington last week.
The Bandits defeated a team from Longview, 46-36,
in the championship game of the gold bracket in Kel-
so’s “For the Love of the Game” tournament to earn an
automatic state bid.
Astoria’s only loss of the tournament was in pool
play to the same Longview team, 48-47.
The Oregon middle school state championships
take place in Bend next month.
Seaside falls at Valley Catholic
Seaside Signal
By GARY HENLEY
Seaside Signal
Always a favorite at the
state meet level, Newport
swept the team titles Satur-
day on the final day of the
District 1/4A swim meet,
hosted by the Cubs.
There were no team titles
for the teams from Clatsop
County. Astoria and Sea-
side only won a combined
three events, but the Fish-
ermen and Gulls had bet-
ter luck Sunday, qualifying
several more swimmers for
the state meet as wildcard
entrants.
It was the second year in
a row that Newport hosted
the district meet. The event
returns to Astoria next year.
The state meet takes
place Feb. 21-22 at Tuala-
tin Hills Aquatic Center in
Beaverton.
In the meantime, the
Cubs had a great day in
their home pool, crushing
the district competition.
The Newport girls
scored 279 points for a
team title, with Tillamook
second with 188 points, fol-
lowed by Taft (179). Asto-
ria (157) was fourth and
Seaside (131) sixth out of
eight teams.
The Newport boys
racked up 297 points to eas-
ily top Taft (198) and Sea-
side (189). Astoria was fifth
with 125.
And Newport’s com-
bined 576 points was plenty
to win the combined team
championship.
Among the Clatsop
County swimmers, Astoria
Shane Spell
Seaside swimmer Henry Garvin will take part in three events
at the state meet.
junior Tori Smith swam her
best meet, winning both the
200-yard individual med-
ley in 2 minutes, 22.98 sec-
onds, and then the 100-yard
backstroke (1:03.91) to
gain two automatic spots in
the state meet.
Smith will have the
sixth-best seed time in the
200 IM at the state meet,
and will be the eighth seed
in the backstroke.
Seaside’s lone win
belonged to junior Henry
Garvin, who won the
50-yard freestyle final in
23.90 seconds. His time of
24.79 was the second-best
in Friday’s preliminary.
“We started off a lit-
tle sluggish on Friday, but
just kept building as the
meet went on,” said Seaside
coach Shane Spell. “Hen-
ry’s win in the 50 was a
great race and punched his
individual ticket to state.”
The Seaside girls team
“continued scoring a lot
of points with not a lot of
swimmers,” he said. “Kaisa
Liljenwall finished up a
great three years of swim-
ming with a PR in the 100
(1:02.86) and strong relay
legs.
“Our distance swimmers
across the board had a lot
of good swims, dropping
some nice chunks of time.”
Other automatic quali-
fiers from the district meet
(top two in each even qual-
ify for state) included Asto-
ria’s Riley Cameron, who
finished second in the 100-
yard freestyle in 52.61 sec-
onds, the fifth-best time
going into the state meet.
Seaside’s 200-yard free-
style relay foursome of
Westin Carter, Luke Ver-
ley, Masyn McCulloch and
Garvin finished second in
1:39.68, just behind New-
port’s 1:38.69.
Luckily for the Fish and
the Gulls, the strength and
depth of the district resulted
in several wildcard qualifi-
ers Sunday.
Cameron finished third
in the 200 IM (2:13.29),
good enough for a No. 6
seed at the state meet.
And the Gulls quali-
fied a pair of fourth-place
finishers.
Garvin’s time of 55.02
was fourth in the district
meet, but qualified for state;
and the 400-freestyle relay
squad of Carter, McCull-
och, Logan Dennis and
Leif Rehnert placed fourth
in district (3:56.19), good
enough for a No. 12 seed in
the state meet.
“That shows how fast
our district is,” Spell said.
“A fourth place finish in
the 400 relay still earned a
wildcard slot at state.”
On the girls’ side, the
only wildcard qualifier was
Astoria’s Grace Peeler in
the 100-yard breaststroke
(third, 1:17.16).
Seaside had a great
opportunity to move up in
the Cowapa League girls
basketball standings Feb. 11,
but came up just short at Val-
ley Catholic.
The Valiants jumped out
to a quick lead, then held on
for an eventual 48-43 win
over the Lady Gulls.
Valley Catholic improved
to 3-2, a half-game lead on
Banks (3-3), while Seaside
dropped to 2-4.
“We battled back but
could not quite get over the
hump,” Seaside coach Mike
Hawes said of Tuesday’s
loss. “Right now, with some
injuries and experience,
we’re running six deep and
the kids just plumb get worn
out. I have nothing but praise
for their effort.”
Ruby Douglas and Lilli
Taylor scored 16 points
apiece for Seaside, which
trailed 16-11 after one quar-
ter. The teams played evenly
(32-32) over the final three
quarters.
The Gulls struggled
from the 3-point line (2-for-
12) and the free throw line
(3-of-10), which made the
difference.
“If we could have cor-
ralled a few more rebounds,
made a few more free throws,
held (Josie) Napoli in check
just a bit … but it didn’t hap-
pen,” Hawes said. “Ruby is
playing well enough to be
on a first name basis with
the coaches. ‘Guard Ruby.’
She kept us afloat, and Lilli
almost got us back to square,
but the six that played all
played well and hard.”
Gulls pound Valiants, 60-39
Seaside Signal
The Seaside boys basket-
ball team started tuning up
for the post-season with a
60-39 win Feb. 11 at Valley
Catholic.
Beau Johnson scored a
game-high 16 points, and
the Gulls scored their second
blowout victory of the sea-
son over the Valiants. Sea-
side won the first encounter
Jan. 24, 77-25.
The Gulls had three other
players in double figures:
Ryan Hague with 10, while
Brayden Johnson and Ste-
phen Snyder scored 10 apiece.
SCOREBOARD
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Valley Catholic 48, Seaside 43
SEA (43): Lilli Taylor 16, Ruby Douglas 16,
Blodgett 5, Peterson 4, McFadden 1, Doney 1.
Seaside 11 9 11 12—43
Valley C 16 9 13 10—48
SEA (60): Brayden Johnson 10, Ryan
Hague 14, Beau Johnson 16, Stephen
Snyder 10, Sibony 7, Langmo 2, Rich 1.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Seaside 60, Valley Catholic 39
Seaside 14 17 15 14—60
VC (39): Daniel Pruitt 14, Eberhart 8,
French 6, Cheung 3, Lo 3, Howard 2,
Baglai 2, Hussein 1.
Valley C 10 4 18 7—39