Photo by Steve Wlkowske

Todd Wagner soared a school-record 43 feet, 8 1/2 inches in the triple jump Friday. The senior wound up third in the event, just missing a state berth.

By Sean Patterson
of the Herald

It was a district meet of ups and downs, of highs and lows, for the Canby High School track and field team last Friday at Tualatin High School.

Taking on the rest of the Pacific-8 Conference at the competition to determine league supremacy and state qualifiers, the Cougars placed fifth on the boys' side and sixth among girls teams.

On a positive note, Canby did set four school records and qualify four individuals for this weekend's Class 4A state meet at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Making the trip will be distance runner Eric Logsdon, who ran away from the district field to win both the 1,500 and 3,000 meters, hurdlers Rob Bolton and Spencer Porter and girls pole vaulter Bethanie Evans.

Logsdon, a senior who ran the longer race in a school-record 8 minutes, 22.46 seconds on Thursday, will be involved in one of the most highly anticipated state events in years when the 3,000 commences Friday at 5:03 p.m.

At that time, Ian Dobson of Klamath Union, Erik Heinonen of South Eugene and Logsdon of Canby will be among a loaded field vying for a state title. "That's the race everyone is talking about - the one they've been looking forward to since the season started," Canby head coach Tom Millbrooke said.

"It should be real interesting to watch, because a few of those guys are capable of running around 8:18 to 8:20."

Logsdon will also run the 1,500 on Saturday at 1:50 p.m. He easily won that race at district with a school-record time of 3:53.36, a three-second improvement on his previous best.

Also setting a school mark last week was Evans, who cleared 10 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault to place second to McMinnville's Christy Strout on misses. Both vaulters went 10-6 to establish a meet record.

At state, Evans is scheduled to compete this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Yet another CHS standard went down in the triple jump when Todd Wagner soared 43-8 1/2 for third place. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to get him to state, as only the top two placers in each event qualify.

As a team, the Canby boys scored 96 points to finish behind Tigard (142.5), Tualatin (113.5), Newberg (102) and McMinnville (100). Dallas was sixth with 62 points, Forest Grove seventh with 25 and Silverton last with 19.

Joining Logsdon and Evans at state will be hurdlers Porter and Bolton, who both placed second in their respective races. The former dashed the district 300 hurdles in 41.28 seconds while the latter clocked a 16.38 time in the 110 high hurdles.

Both hurdlers will open state with preliminary heats Friday. The 110 highs heats are scheduled from between 2:05 and 2:15 p.m., and the 300 hurdles races are set from 4:35 to 4:45 p.m.

While Canby only qualified for individuals for state, several CHS athletes set personal bests and/or placed last Friday (for Thursday's results, see the May 20 Canby Herald).

For starters, Joe Snyder placed sixth in the shot put (44-11 3/4); Erik Wiesehan and Wagner got a respective fifth (11.78) and seventh (11.81) in the 100; Kevin Downing and Brian Sauvain got fifth (167-8) and sixth (165-9) in the javelin with personal bests; and Kurt Sommer and Jason Parker got fifth (2:02.45) and sixth (2:02.57) in the 800.

The boys also got a fifth place from Buck Stone in the 1,500 (4:15.88) and ended up sixth in the short relay (44.22).

"We ended up scoring in 15 of the 17 events, so the effort was there," Millbrooke said of his boys. "We were disappointed we didn't finish higher as a team, but overall I was pleased with our effort."

Canby was without its top hurdler, John Zagyva, who was unable to run because of injury.

Canby's girls, meanwhile, were led by Evans and a long relay that got fifth in 4:17.52.

The Cougars also picked up points in the 200, where Chris Beck (26.99) and Julie Garcia (27.39) placed fifth and eighth, and saw a personal mark fall when Jessica Johnston ran the 1,500 in 5:12.12 for sixth.

Beck and Garcia also placed in the 100, getting a respective fifth (13.18) and sixth (13.40), and Evans added a placing in the 100 hurdles with her 18.02 time for eighth.

Other points came from Lindsey Morgan, seventh in the 800 (2:31.45); Garcia, fifth in the 400 (61.73); Danielle Palmer and Morgan Moody, a respective seventh and eighth in the javelin (111-5 and 106-8); and the short relay team, which got eighth.

Collectively, the Canby girls scored 45 points for sixth. Tigard won the meet with 139 points, followed by McMinnville (131), Tualatin (124), Newberg (106), Silverton (51), Canby, Forest Grove (35) and Dallas (32).

IAfter proving themselves to be one of the Pacific-8 Conference's best, the Cougars are eager to show the rest of the state what they can do on the softball field.

Canby, coming off a 22-4 regular season, opened the Class 4A state playoffs Tuesday at home against Reynolds, the No. 3 team out of the Mt. Hood Conference.

A win would send the Cougars up against either the Metro League's No. 4 school or North Eugene, champions of the Midwestern Conference, this Friday.

"I think the girls were a little down after we lost to Tigard and missed out on a chance for first place," said Canby head coach Greg Herman of the May 5 showdown that ultimately determined the league's first and second seeds.

''But since then, these girls have bounced back for some pretty impressive wins. We handled Newberg well and won a couple practice games. We're going into state in good shape, and I know the girls are looking forward to the challenge."

The Cougars have reason to be optimistic. They are coming off a monster of a regular season in which they consistently played cleaned defensively and got superb pitching from a Division I-bound senior, Joanna Barstad.

At one point, the Cougars won 10 games in a row, highlighted by a 1-0 shutout of league-champion Tigard in 16 innings on May 17.

Canby later lost in nine innings to the Tigers toward the end of the year, but the girls recovered in time to knock off Forest Grove and gain the Pac-8's second spot for the state tournament.

And, earlier this week, the Cougars tuned up for the big event with an 8-0 shutout of Regis High School on Tuesday and a 3-1 defeat of Glencoe on Wednesday.

Tuesday's practice game gave Herman a chance to play everyone and experiment with the lineup. Barstad kept the opposition scoreless through seven, and her younger sister Sophie came in to shut the door.

Offensively, Lisa Allen sparked a rally with a two-run double. The Cougars were also flawless in the field.

"It was actually 2-0 through seven, but we played a couple of extra innings just to give some kids a chance to play," Herman said. "That's when we really blew it open with six more runs. They had a freshman pitcher and we put in a lot of our jayvee kids we recently called up. They did a nice job."

Canby handled the Crimson Tide a day later, as Allen doubled in a run and Lyndsay Burke delivered a two-run double to account for the run total.

Looking ahead to Tuesday, Herman said his team has a "good shot" at beating Reynolds.

"They have a decent team and a good pitcher by the name of Heidi Nutter," he said. "But if Joanna is on and our defense remains solid, we should be fine."

Game time is set for 4:30 p.m.

CANBY GAINS ALL-STAR HONORS:
For the first time on record, the Canby High School softball team had an all-league all-star selected to each of the nine positions.

Headlining the list were pitcher Joanna Barstad, catcher Burke, outfielders Allen and Shelly Steinke and first baseman Lisa Ash, all of whom were chosen to the Pac-8's first team.

Also honored were shortstop Lisa Erwert and second baseman Megan Rock, named to the second team, and honorable mention choices Kelsey Cutsforth (outfield) and Toni Herman (third base).

The bar didn't even bounce.

That's how cleanly Mark Briant cleared a meet-record height in the high jump during last weekend's Capital Conference track and field meet in Molalla - only weeks after coming out for the sport.

Briant cleared 6 feet, 8 1/4 inches Friday afternoon at Molalla High School to get the North Marion Huskies off to a good start at the district meet.

But it would not be their last high point during the two-day meet. The Huskies will send five athletes to the University of Oregon this weekend to compete in the Class 3A state track and field meet at track's golden shrine - Hayward Field.

Erin Gerhardt will join Briant in Eugene, claiming her spot at state only minutes after Briant won the high jump. Gerhardt won the 3,000 meters in a time of 11:10.16.

Friday continued to be a big day for the Huskies an hour later when Jason Ellingson improved on his best discus effort of the season, tossing the platter 137-1 to win the discus and advance to the state meet.

But the highlights didn't stop there: Saturday would produce some good performances as well. Gerhardt would make it a double-dip at state with a second-place finish in the 1,500, clocking a time of 5:08.69. Kristen Kahle would also punch a ticket to the big meet this weekend, taking second in the triple jump with a leap of 34-6 1/2 - a full foot better than her mark coming into the meet.

The Huskies also got plenty of solid work from other team members in racking up 68.5 points on the boys side and 41.5 on the girls. That gave the boys fourth place and the girls seventh.

Marissa Lapp snagged a fifth in the javelin with an 104-9 effort; Kevin Krieger was third in the pole vault with an 11-6 vault; Ryan Krause was fifth in the high jump at 5-8 and 200 meters (24.47); and Sam Vanderbeek snagged a third in the 110 high hurdles (16.57) while also running fourth in the 300 hurdles (42.57).

Alex McGladrey, after leading the finals of the 800 for almost 600 meters, simply couldn't hold on, finishing third in 2:01.9. Kahle added a fourth in the high jump with a 4-10 effort, and Eric Griffiths snagged a fourth in the 1,500 (4:13.00) and a frustrating fifth in the 3,000 at 9:12.05.

The first four finishers in the 3,000 qualified by time for the state meet, and Griffiths just missed the mark by 1.05 seconds. Both boys and girls finishes were the best in some years for the Husky squads.

The state meet begins Friday morning and continues Saturday into the afternoon.

By Sean Patterson
of the Herald

It was a game reminiscent of the one these same two schools played just a week before.

This time, however, it was Molalla that had the last laugh against North Marion in a Capital Conference high school softball playoff Saturday in Sweet Home.

The Huskies, 10-0 winners over the Indians in a regular-season matchup May 12, watched as Molalla exploded for 11 runs over the final four innings to win 11-2 and eliminate the Huskies from the postseason.

"Once they started hitting, there wasn't a whole lot we could do about it," North Marion head coach Gary Hunt said. "We were out of pitchers at that point and stuck with Stacy (Anderson). She was 4-1 going into the game and was the reason we got as far as we did. But once they started timing her, that was it."

North Marion (14-11), the No. 4 seed out the conference, simply couldn't generate much offense against the fifth-seeded Indians, although the girls did take a 2-0 lead into the fourth.

Amber Wrinkle's RBI double in the first scored Kami Christopherson with the first run, and Sarah Camp scored the second an inning later when she reached on a slap, stole second and came around on a Sara Cuddeford hit.

Unfortunately, the Huskies couldn't score again while Molalla erupted for 11 runs on 12 hits. The Indians took the lead for good in the fourth and never looked back.

They then added a punctuation mark to the victory with a five-run seventh. North Marion was without its usual starting pitcher, Kelley Carpenter, who had to miss the remainder of the season after getting hurt playing basketball.

The Indians, meanwhile, got eliminated from the playoffs with a 3-0 loss to Sweet Home in Saturday's second game.

For Hunt and the Huskies, the season was anything but a loss.

"It was a disappointing finish, and we all feel we could have gotten farther," he said. "But it was good to go 9-5 in league and tie for third place."