Huskies stay hot, remain
unbeaten in league
Photo by Sean Patterson
Melissa Figini goes up strong in a defeat of Cascade last Tuesday
By Sean Jason Horton
Canby Herald
The Huskies of North Marion picked up their third conference
victory in as many games with a 52-35 high school girls basketball victory over Sisters
last Friday in Aurora.
The hosts jumped out to a 16-8 first-quarter lead and maintained the eight-point cushion
at halftime, 25-17.
In the third quarter, the Huskies expanded their lead to 11 at 35-24 before turning it
into a 43-26 game as junior Vanessa Perales hit a three-pointer with 28 seconds left in
the quarter. After an Outlaws basket, Perales came down and hit a shot at the buzzer to
put North Marion up 45-28 at the end of three periods.
After a stagnant four minutes, Julie Melcher hit a three-pointer with just over four
minutes left in the game to put the Huskies up 48-31. Shelby Maguire followed a Sisters
bucket with a nice six-foot jump shot to maintain the 17-point lead.
The final two minutes of the game were virtually scoreless until North Marion's Janel
Bryant hit a bucket with six seconds left.
"Hey, we're 3-0 in league," a happy North Marion coach Dennis Melcher said after
the game. "It's the first time we have started out 3-0 in league in a long time here.
The kids played well tonight. We passed the ball around the perimeter and found the open
person. They showed a lot of patience. Kelley Carpenter led the Huskies in scoring once
again with her 15 points. Her play has not gone unnoticed.
"She (Carpenter) has played well the last two games," Melcher said. "She
has stepped up and played big time."
Melcher is happy with where his team is right now, but the heavy part of the schedule is
coming up.
"The kids are coming along very well," he said. "They are playing good
basketball, but after Central on Tuesday, we go to Stayton on Friday and then have Molalla
here the following Tuesday. If we can get through the first half of the league schedule
5-1, I would be very happy. That would put us in a very good position."
Right behind Carpenter was Julie Melcher, who finished with 13 points. Melissa Figini
added 10 and Perales had eight, including two three-pointers. The Huskies are on the road
this week, at Central on Tuesday and Stayton on Friday.
Cougars get
split in
Tigard swim dual
By Sean Patterson
Canby Herald
It was a tale of two meets Thursday afternoon in Tigard. Taking on Tigard
High School in a Pacific-9 Conference dual, Canby's swim team found itself on both ends of
a lopsided score, easily winning the girls competition 109-59 while dropping a 114-56
decision on the boys' side.
Ironically, though, it was Canby's boys who were coming through with the majority of the
team's quality swims.
"The girls basically swam mediocre and won, while our boys swam well and got
crushed," Canby head coach David Biskar said. "That was just the nature of the
competition. They didn't have a strong girls team and were very deep in the boys."
The split put the Canby girls at 5-1 in league duals and dropped the boys to 4-2.
Leading the charge for the girls was Lisa Champ, who again won two events by claiming the
200-yard freestyle in 2 minutes, 4.7 seconds and the 100 freestyle in 54.14 seconds.
Also winning twice was Michelle Maier, who went 2:23.15 in the 200 individual medley and
1:14.40 in the 100 breaststroke.
Other high placements came from Kari Rittenbach, first in the 500 free (5:46.59) and
second in the 200 IM (2:30.78); Sarah Anderson, second in both the 50 free (26.38) and 100
back (1:07.73); and Ashly Scroggy, runner-up in the 200 free (2:13.09) and 100 fly
(1:12.73).
The Cougar boys, meanwhile, managed to win just two events, but they made up for it with
an overall strong performance.
Corey O'Brien's 56.24 time in the 100 fly was good for a win, and Joern VanAalst's 1:06.68
clocking in the 100 back was also a victory.
Aside from that, the best swims came from Laurance Koenig, second in the 50 free (24.38);
Alex Laskey, second in the 100 breast (1:05.35); Loren Renhard, fifth in the 100 breast
(1:19.40) in a season's best time; and Robert Street, third in the 200 IM (2:20.04).
Laskey also posted a third-place time in the 500 free (5:28.59), while O'Brien got that
same placement in the 200 free (1:57.26).
The Cougars have two more regular-season meets before district Feb. 9-10. This week, the
team is home for McMinnville Thursday at 5 p.m., and next week Newberg pays a visit on
Feb. 1.
Canby struggles
to contain Pratt, Grizzlies
By Sean Patterson
Canby Herald
Canby's inability to stop McMinnville's
penetration to the basket allowed the Grizzlies to pull away for a 67-47 high school boys
basketball victory in Pacific-9 Conference play Friday night in McMinnville.
The Grizzlies, clinging to a two-point lead at halftime, broke the game open with a 20-10
run in the third period. It seemed the Cougars could do nothing to slow post Jayson Pratt,
who slashed his way to a game-high 24 points.
As a team, McMinnville made an impressive 28 of 50 shots on the night. "I think only
seven of those shots came from outside the key," said Canby head coach Dennis Burke,
who watched his team fall to 4-10 on the season, 3-4 in Pac-9 play. "We didn't do a
good job of stopping their penetration, and on the other end we weren't aggressive. In the
third quarter, we more or less played catch with the ball rather than look for good
shots."
The Cougars, behind 17-13 after one quarter, responded with a strong second period.
Canby's execution offensively and its prowess under the boards allowed the visitors to win
the period 14-12.
Unfortunately, McMinnville came out hot in the opening minutes of the third, scoring the
period's first six points to take an eight-point lead.
Canby's Jon Warren responded with a three-pointer to cut the deficit to five, but the
Cougars missed out on a chance to pull any closer when they committed three straight
turnovers.
The Grizzlies (6-1) went on to outscore Canby by 10 in the quarter, then carry that over
to win the final period by an 18-10 margin.
Canby did get a good game from Tyler Stewart, who scored 13 points on 6 of 12 shooting. He
also led the team with seven rebounds.
Collectively, though, the Cougars only dished out five assists to the Grizzlies' 14 while
also losing the turnover battle 14-6. Canby did out-rebound the home team 26-22.
"It was if, in the second half, we left all our shooters at home," Burke said.
"T.J. (Miller) hit a nice percentage, making two of three, but other than that we
weren't hitting."
The game was essentially decided in the third quarter, when the Cougars scored on just
four of 13 possessions while McMinnville hit 8 of 13 shots and made all six attempts it
took in the paint.
Buck Stone backed Stewart with eight points, and Brandon Brown came through with eight.
Jese Kirsch added six and both Todd Ricksger and Miller finished with four.
The loss puts Canby at 3-4 in league, tied with Silverton and Newberg for fifth place.
Tualatin and McMinnville lead the Pac-9 with 6-1 records, while Dallas (5-2) and Tigard
(4-4) occupy the next two spots.
The Cougars were back in action Monday night, hosting Forest Grove. They are home again
this Friday for a 7:15 p.m. contest with Newberg.
CHS wins another
tourney
By Sean Patterson
Canby Herald
The way the season is going, the Canby High School wrestling team is
taking home championship trophies without even having to wrestle.
Such was the case Saturday at a nine-team tournament in Oregon City, where a pair of CHS
wrestlers, Lance Stewart and Chris Kyllo, met in the 135-pound final.
Rather than wrestle, however, the two decided the winner with a rock-paper-scissors
showdown that Stewart won.
Just another day at the office for the Cougars.
All told, six Canby wrestlers won their weights in helping the Cougars score a meet-high
387.5 points - enough to easily outclass runner-up Oregon City (268.5) and third-place
Hillsboro (171.5).
It was Canby's fourth tournament championship this season.
"The tournament format of combining the varsity and second varsity was awesome,"
Canby head coach Dan Nugent said. "It gave our second-varsity guys a chance to
wrestle 'varsity guys,' and seven of our second-varsity guys finished in the money."
Stewart's title was the most impressive, as he pinned top-seeded Brian Greene of Sandy in
overtime before edging Matt Jidas of Forest Grove 5-3 in the semifinals. He then won the
off-the-mat battle with his teammate Kyllo.
Also claiming the top prize in their respective weights were Canby's Stephen Schantin (112
pounds), Ian Gadberry (119), Lucas Hambleton (125), Garret Miyake (130) and Jared Wilson
(160).
Schantin was dominant, pinning all four of his opponents in the opening round, while
Gadberry came up with one of the most impressive wins of the weekend with his 3-1 defeat
of Justin Pearch, a state champ last year.
Prior to that, Gadberry pinned two opponents and beat a third with his team-leading 11th
technical fall of the season.
Hambleton, wrestling up at 125, had three pins and a technical fall, capping the run with
a first-round pin of Century's Jonathan Brookins in the finals. Meanwhile, Miyake won all
four of his matches by dominating foes on his feet, and Wilson had two falls before
claiming an 8-4 win over Hillsboro's Nick Salzman in the finals.
Canby also claimed five second-place finishes, with Pete Savory (152), Marc Koch (189),
Steve Schrader (215), Scott Doman (275) and Kyllo each winning their first three matches
before getting beat.
Savory looked sharp in winning two matches by fall and a third with a 12-3 decision over
league rival Dave Peters of Forest Grove. He lost a tough overtime match to Sandy's Kyle
Johnson in the finals.
Falls were also coming for Koch, who had two of them, and Schrader, who recorded three on
his way to the finals. Despite being ill, Schrader posted a third-round pin of Oregon
City's Chad Plaistad in the semifinals, avenging a loss from earlier in the season.
"We all know winning the Pac-9 district tournament will take team depth, and
Saturday's tournament shows we have that," Nugent said. "We still have a lot of
room for improvement the next few weeks.
''Illness really hit a lot of our team last week, but we were able to overcome it.
Hopefully, we will get back to full strength for this week's Hillsboro tournament.''
Supporting the cause Saturday were third-place winners Sam Doman (160) and Aaron Porter
(275), fourth-place finishers Keith Callaway (140), Josh Gustafson (152) and Brian Sauvain
(171) and fifth-placers Joe Kuznetsov (103) and Jason Callaway (112).
Canby, 17-1 overall and 4-0 in league duals, visits Woodburn for a Pacific-9 Conference
match Thursday at 7 p.m. The two-day Hillsboro tournament opens Friday at 9 a.m. at
Hillsboro High School.
