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Bruins head to College Baseball World Series
Tigers eliminated, yet content
Wolf places fifth to lead Bucks
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NHS boys run away with win |
The track team outdistances Tualatin; the girls
squad takes home fourth |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
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CANBY — To repeat as district champions, the Newberg High School
boys track team had to pretty much perform perfectly on two
consecutive days at the Pac-9 Conference district meet Friday and
Saturday.
Mission accomplished.
The Tigers held off second-place Tualatin by 11.5 points (126.5 to
115) to capture the district title. The victory comes on the heels
of Newberg’s dual meet title the squad captured after it’s 6-0
conference season.
Going into the meet, NHS track coach Monte Bradley predicted it
would be difficult to overcome Tualatin. He said last week he
believed the Timberwolves had more athletes who were locks for
points than the Tigers did.
“We weren’t surprised, but we knew we were very much a contender,”
Bradley said. “It was pretty obvious that it was either Tualatin or
us.”
Bradley said he thought the win was more difficult for the Tigers
than it would have been for the Timberwolves.
“I think it was a greater accomplishment for our boys to win
because they had to do better than expected,” he said. “We came
through pretty well.”
The Tigers snagged some unexpected points when a pair of sophomores
— Corey Yates and Sean Carey — won the discus event and placed
second in the shot put competition, respectively. Yates won the
discus event with a mark of 144-feet, 9-inches (a personal best from
his previous mark of 141-10), while Carey’s toss of 48-0 was nearly
two feet better than his previous personal best (46-0.5) in the
shot. Carey came into the meet with the eighth-best throw in the
conference.
“That was probably the key to the district meet,” Bradley said.
“Those were big points and they performed above their expectations.”
One of the bigger surprises of the meet was that of senior javelin
thrower Chris Fanger. As the top thrower in the state with a best
mark of 200-10, he had been out of action for the past three weeks
nursing a sore elbow. Fanger returned to action at the district meet
and made it to the finals, icing down his injury between throws. But
unfortunately for Fanger, he was unable to qualify for the state
meet.
“It was doubtful or even questionable that he was even going to
throw,” Bradley said. “He wanted to throw to be
able to go to state ... It was unfortunate for (Fanger) because he
was leading the state.“
Even though Fanger didn’t qualify for state, NHS didn’t lose any
ground. Senior Phil Zahn won the event (196-5) and NHS junior Alex
Wolff placed second (185-3).
“I hoped to get all three there,” Bradley said.
The 4 x 400 relay team of Nick Bellisario, Dan Chandler, Jon Styles
and Peter Keyser placed second (three minutes, 27.35 seconds) at the
meet and qualified for the state meet. Keyser also
qualified for the state meet with his win in the 400 (49.62), while
senior Vertin Alvarez took second and qualified for state in the
3,000 (8:47.32).
It appears that Newberg doesn’t have the overall strength to vie
for the state title, but could easily be in the running for a
trophy.
“You have blue chip athletes going to state and those are the ones
who have marks that are usually very solid statewide,” Bradley said.
“We only have the javelin throwers and I think (Keyser) is ranked
fourth (in the 400). It could be a better state meet than some of
our recent ones.”
The Newberg girls team, after a 3-3 finish in the Pac-9 Conference
this season, took home fourth at the meet. Senior Meghan
Leonard qualified for state with second-place showings in the 1,500
(4:50.31) and in the 3,000 (10:26.71).
Junior Rachel Yurkovich won the javelin event (156-1) and possesses
the state’s top throw (161-11) heading into the meet.
“They were the two who had the marks ... unless they faltered, that
we thought would go (to state),” Bradley said.
Newberg was a mere five points out of third-place and could have
garnered a few more points but senior Vanessa Schmitz suffered a
pulled muscle in the triple jump.
“That kind of sums up the whole season,” Bradley said of the girls
team. “We were a track team that never got the break that went our
way, but the girls competed really well.”
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From
May 26,
2004, Newberg Graphic
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