There has been a changing of the guard with Stayton High girls basketball.
Wendi Nyquist, who has served as the
top assistant during the past two seasons, will take over the head job from Darren Shryock.
Shryock, the school’s athletic director, led the squad to a pair of Class 4A tournament appearances and the 2019 Oregon West Conference title in his three years in the post. But he always planned to return to just focusing on his AD job.
“It is time for someone else to take over the girls’ team,” Shryock told Our Town. “My goal in taking over was to bring stability to the program. With what we have accomplished the past three years
I think I have done that.”
Nyquist has been a head coach at Toledo and West Albany and also served as an assistant at Class 6A Oregon City.
“Wendi has tremendous knowledge of the game and is a person of great integrity,” Shryock said. “The girls are in good hands, and I look forward to watching continued success with the program.”
Northwest Shootout: Stayton standouts Kaleb Anundi and Riley Nichol were the lone Class 4A players on the Oregon Squad at the prestigious Washington vs. Oregon hoops contest April 13 at Liberty High in Hillsboro. The 6-7 Nichol played a team-high 24 minutes for Oregon, which lost 120-102. Nichol played his usual excellent all-around game, scoring 9 points and adding 5 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block. Anundi led Oregon with 2 blocks, while adding 3 points and 3 rebounds.
Baseball: Santiam is off to an impressive start. Loaded with veterans from successful football and basketball campaigns the Wolverines are 10-5 overall and ranked No. 7 in Class 2A-1A by the OSAA.
But on April 23, Santiam ran into an overpowering pitcher in the first game of a three-game series with No. 2 Kennedy.
Trojans sophomore righthander Dylan Kleinschmit outdueled Santiam senior righthander Wyatt Lyon, finished with a no-hitter and struck out a phenomenal 17 batters to lift Kennedy to a 1-0 Special District 2 win against the Wolverines. The Trojans also won game 2 of the series on April 24, 8-1, dropping Santiam to 5-3 in league play. The final game of the series was played April 26 after
Our Town’s presstime.
“That was a good, old-fashioned pitcher’s duel,” Wolverines coach Clint Forste told Our Town after the blazing fast 92-minute contest on April 23. “(Kleinschmit) threw great. He threw lots of strikes, was around the zone all day and he had good velocity. We knew it was coming and we didn’t make the adjustments.”
“He did fabulous,” said Santiam senior catcher Dustin Keys, the cleanup hitter. “He worked the frame and mixed it up. He had us on our heels. Kudos to him.”
Keys also had positive words for his own pitcher, Lyon, who finished with a 3-hitter and 8 strikeouts. “He was working the zone just as good as Dylan,” Keys said. “I’m very proud of him.”
Kleinschmit needed just 94 pitches.
He took a perfect game into the top of the sixth before walking No. 9 hitter Connor Forste on a 3-2 pitch with two out. Forste then stole second base with leadoff hitter Jesse Sendlinger at the plate. Kennedy coach Kevin Moffatt chose to intentionally walk Sendlinger, setting up a force at all 3 bases. The ploy worked as Kleinschmit retired Colin Thurston on a ground ball to second
and the score stayed 0-0.
Kennedy struck for its lone run against hard-luck losing pitcher Lyon in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double by Brady Traeger.
A Keys slow roller down the third base line in the top of the fifth was the biggest threat to Kleinschmit’s no-hitter.
Regis, meanwhile, is off to a 13-3 start and a 6-1 Special District 3 record. The Rams are ranked No. 13 in Class 2A-1A and trail top-ranked Monroe (8-0) by 1.5 games in the league standings.
Softball: Santiam is 5-1 in Special District 2, trailing only 7-0 defending state champion Kennedy. The Wolverines are in good shape to receive one of the district’s 3 automatic playoff berths. Stayton is 8-4 and currently third in the Oregon West. The Eagles will need to move up a spot to avoid the play-in round in Class 4A.
Soccer: Alyssa “Bizz” Smart, a standout midfielder for the Stayton girls soccer squad, has signed to play in college at Chemeketa.
Alumni report: Here is a look at how athletes with Stayton and Santiam Canyon ties fared in college during the winter season:
Damian Ball (Cascade): The 6-7 freshman center at Corban University redshirted this season
Alix Biddington (Cascade): The senior guard at Oregon Tech was unable to participate in her final campaign for the Owls because of a knee injury. Biddington played all 32 games and started 21 for OIT in her junior season.
Casey Bunn Wilson (Stayton): Now in her fourth season as head coach at Linfield College, the former Oregon State University standout and international professional led the Wildcats to a 12-14 season and an 8-8 record in the Northwest Conference.
Kelsey Clark (Santiam): The 5-5 freshman guard at Linn-Benton Community College played in 23 games, starting 9 for the Roadrunners, who finished 12-16 overall and 6-10 in the Northwest Athletic Conference. Clark averaged 4.0 points per game, 2.2 rebounds and shot 41.2 percent on 3-pointers.
Julian Downey (Santiam): The 5-10 guard at Warner Pacific, who was a 3-point ace on Silverton’s 2015 Class 5A state championship team and also led Santiam to the 2017 Class 2A title, redshirted this season.
Shelby Ferry (Aumsville): The 5-10 senior guard at Corban played in 5 games, scored 4 points and added 2 assists in 26 minutes of playing time. Ferry transferred to Corban from the College of Southern Idaho after playing high school ball at Salem Academy.
Mariah Hollenbeck (Stayton): The 5-8 sophomore guard at Chemeketa Community College played in 7 games and started 3 for the Storm, who were 13-14 overall and 8-8 in the NWAC. Hollenbeck averaged 4.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game.
Ryan Ninman (Stayton): The sophomore wrestler at Eastern Oregon University turned in a 7-12 record at 133 pounds for the Mountaineers.
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