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Tigers make history; grab share of
Pac-9 title
Late goal salvages tie for NHS
Must-win game looms for NHS
Joyce, Walter leads Tigers
Tigers take care of Timberwolves on
the road,
score 11-6 triumph
| NHS
eyes one more |
The boys cross country team will seek its
third straight district meet title Thursday |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 Despite all the times, personal
bests records, distances and splits, there are only two numbers that really say it all
about the Newberg High School boys cross country team — 32-0.
The 32-0 isn’t a time. It’s a record. In fact, it’s the record
the Tigers have accomplished in the last four years of Pac-9 Conference competition. The
Tigers, who earned an 8-0 record this season, have proven themselves the past four seasons
as the conference’s elite program.
Senior Sage Canaday has been the team’s leader the past two seasons and
has been an integral part of the success of the Tigers the last four years. Not suffering
a loss during the conference season is something that makes the Tigers proud.
“It’s pretty amazing that we kept up our winning tradition,”
Canaday said.
Prior to 2000, Newberg hadn’t seen a cross country team qualify for the
state meet since 1975. But the Tigers turned the program around and have qualified for
state the past three seasons; they are a heavy favorite to return to state this season
when they travel to Clackamas Community College at 3:30 p.m. Thursday for the district
meet. Through the past three seasons, Canaday has done it all for the Tigers.
“He’s been on all of those teams that went to state,” said
coach Bruce Sinkbeil. “As a matter of fact, when he was a freshman he was third or
fourth, depending on the meet. When he was a sophomore, he was second or third and last
year he was was No. 1 and 2, so he’s actually been in the top three or four every
year. It’s not just being on the team, he’s been a vital part of all of those
(teams).”
Sinkbeil said Canaday suffered through injuries last season but came on
during the district meet to claim the individual title. At the state meet he took home
18th, the third-best finish in school history.
“He’s having a really good year, which is nice to see because he
had kind of a tough year last year until the district meet,” Sinkbeil said. “At
district and state, he had awesome races but up until then, he had been struggling a
little bit. He had been running decent times but he was physically hurting when he did
them. He had a little bit of a chemical imbalance that he got straightened out, but this
year he’s been really fit and so it’s been nice for him to do that because he
deserves it with all of the work he’s done.”
Newberg’s success in the past four seasons has been unparalleled in the
conference.
“It’s been fun,” Sinkbeil said. “It’s just a
combination of being lucky to have some good runners who like to go out and run with each
other. They run in the summer like they’re supposed to and then being in a league
where we’re able to do that is a part of it too. If we were in the Metro League, that
wouldn’t happen but we’ve been fortunate. We’ve stayed healthy. We’ve
got good team chemistry.”
The combination of skill, training and chemistry are things the Tigers put to
use again Thursday. Canby looks to be Newberg’s biggest challenger for the
championship.
Even though the Tigers picked up a dual meet win over the Cougars earlier
this season, a dual meet and a conference meet present different problems. While Newberg
has quite possibly the conference’s three top runners — Canaday and seniors
Vertin Alvarez and Nick Bellisario — the team’s fourth and fifth runners need to
close the gap on Newberg’s top runners.
“We were pretty tough at 1-2 last year and then the gap between our
first and seventh was a lot smaller last year,” Sinkbeil said. “This year,
we’ve got a 1-2-3 that’s almost and could be as good as the one we had two years
ago and then there’s a little bit bigger gap between our 3-4 than last year and that
makes it a little bit different. We’re really tough up front and we’re solid
4-7, but there’s a pretty big gap between 3-4, but that’s going to happen if
your third guy is good.”
The places Newberg’s fourth and fifth runners complete the race in will
more than likely determine the winning team. That puts some pressure on Peter Keyser,
Trevor Arsenault and Daniel Alvarez.
“There’s going to be a lot of runners close to them, not that there
should be,” Canaday said.
For a majority of the season, Newberg’s No. 3 runner has been
Bellisario. A relative rookie to the sport, Bellisario took up cross country as a junior
last season. The strides Bellisario has made have made a big impact for the Tigers.
“He’s probably had the biggest improvement over last year, Sinkbeil
said. “Last year was his first year out as a junior and he was a little inconsistent,
but him and Vertin live close to each other and ran all summer, pounding the miles.”
This season, Bellisario has been consistently running in the 16 minute,
40-second range.
“He has a lot of natural speed,” Sinkbeil said. “What
he’s done hasn’t surprised me. I know other (Pac-9 coaches) are surprised, but I
don’t think anybody on the team is that surprised because they know what he did this
summer and what kind of athlete he is.”
The off-season training has paid off for Bellisario, who ran 50 miles a week
during the summer.
“I trained a lot with Vertin,” he said. “I was going to do
soccer, but they told me that if I joined cross country we’d go to state. I liked
that and so I just trained really hard this summer with Vertin. I wanted the team to do
well at state.”
Alvarez has also been a major key for Newberg. He’s ran varsity for
three years, the past two seasons at the No. 2 position.
“He’s run under (16 minutes) and he’s only the seventh guy in
Newberg to ever run under (16 minutes) so he’s been really, really consistent,”
Sinkbeil said.
With all of the credentials the Tigers boast, they still have to fend off the
opposition Thursday.
“Last year, I thought there were three or four teams that could have
come up and gone to state,” Sinkbeil said. “This year, it seems like it’s
us and Canby. There’s quite a break in between those two teams and No. 3.
It’s a little bit different than last year in that Canby seems to have
improved quite a bit, but we have too. It’s just kind of strange because we’re
really tough up front and then they put in a bunch of guys in between our third and fourth
(runners) and our fourth and fifth (runners) get in front of their fifth (runner) at the
dual meet. So it’s a lot different than last year where their fifth guy really hurt
them ...”
Newberg and Canby could finish in the same order as the two squads did when
they met earlier this season. But there’s still a possibility the Cougars could pull
off a victory if other runners from other teams don’t intervene.
“It’s kind of different because we could run really well and beat
them dual meet-wise, but they could still outscore us at the district meet just because
there’s nobody between our third and their second,” Sinkbeil said.
“It’s just one of those weird things, but it’s nice to be in that position
where you can at least try to run for a district championship.”
Sinkbeil said the Tigers are ready for the competition.
“Canby will come out and race tough and so will we ...,” he said.
“There’s just a lot of different things that can happen ... Whatever happens,
happens. We’re ready to go right now. The guys don’t want to lose, I know that.
There’s a lot of pride. They don’t want to be the ones to not do it.” |
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From Oct. 22,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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