By James Day
How good a program do you have if you finish first or second in the state for 15 consecutive years? What words can you use? But that’s what we have here folks. The Stayton Highlights dance and drill team took second behind Valley Catholic on March 21 in the Class 4A large division. Valley Catholic totaled 88.53 points, with Stayton finishing with 88.08.
Stayton, under Coach Robin Meier, won 12 consecutive titles from 2003-2014. In 2001 and 2002 the squad also took second. In addition, Stayton, under previous coaching regimes, won a state in 1987, the first year dance and drill was an OSAA activity and also scored titles in 1988 and 1992 as well as a runner-up finish in 1990. Meier, meanwhile, also took home a second in 1998 and a first in 1999 while coaching at McKay in Salem.
Wrestling: What a weekend the Crawford family had awhile back. On Feb. 28, Cascade senior Spencer Crawford capped a stellar high school career by capturing the Class 4A championship at 182 lbs at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
The next day, Spencer’s older brother Cody, helped lead Oregon State University to a fourth consecutive Pac-12 championship by winning the conference title at 197 lbs. Cody, a redshirt freshman at OSU, then went on to split four matches at the NCAA championships.
Crawford finished fifth or better at state all four years, winning the 2014 title at 160, taking second at 152 in 2013 and scoring a fifth-place medal at 126 in 2012, his freshman year. The Cougars also claimed the team title in 2012.
Cascade finished sixth at state this season with 89 points. Logan Humphrey (120), Kade VanDeHey (132) and Malachi Gonzalez (220) all finished fourth.
Cascade basketball: Both Cougars squads took home trophies in the Class 4A tournament, which was moved this year to Hillsboro. The girls finished third, while the boys took home fourth.
“I thought we played very well at the tournament,” veteran girls Coach Mark Stevens said. “We probably did not play our best game against Sutherlin (in the semifinals). We came back and played well in the third-place trophy game against Valley Catholic and beat a very good Gladstone team to open the tournament.
“One of a number of factors for our success was that I feel we continued to get better throughout the season. Some teams … spin their wheels. They were very self-motivated.”
Cascade freshman Halle Wright was the lone unanimous first-team all-tournament selection. Senior Alix Biddington was on the second team. Wright was second in scoring (45 points), led the tournament in rebounding with a 10.0 average and finished with eight steals. Biddington was third in scoring (42), tied for the tournament lead in assists and added five 3-pointers.
The Cascade boys lost a wild triple-overtime game to top-seeded North Bend in the opener but rallied strongly to take down No. 4 Marshfield and Madras to win the fourth-place trophy.
Garrett Coffey tied the North Bend game 64-64 with a 3-pointer with six seconds left in the first overtime and John Schirmer knocked in a 3-pointer to tied it 70-70 with 14 seconds left in the second extra period. North Bend, however, pulled away in the second OT for a 75-72 win.
Stepan Zavydovskyy had 13 points, eight rebounds and eight blocked shots in the 71-47 win vs. Marshfield, and Schirmer scored 22 in the Madras win. Schirmer averaged 15.3 points per game, tied for the tourney lead in 3-pointers with nine and was a second-team all-tournament selection. Zavydovskyy was second in rebounds (27), led the tournament in blocks (18), tied for fourth in steals (seven) and played 108 minutes, second in the field. Oddly enough, the Cougars SHOULD have beaten North Bend in regulation. A scoreboard error that was not caught until the next day showed Cascade leading 57-56.
“North Bend was given an extra point late in the third quarter that we did not catch and it never got corrected on the board,” Cascade coach Steve Ball told Our Town. “This team should have gotten its shot at the title instead of playing in the consolation bracket. The way they played and finished the tournament was a true showing of the character of this team. They played great no matter what.”
Regis basketball: The Rams’ girls program, which had won five consecutive state titles, advanced to the Class 2A state tournament but was denied six in a row. Regis, which finished third in the Tri-River Conference, fell 45-38 to rival Kennedy in the quarterfinals and lost 51-41 to Vernonia in a consolation game.
The Regis boys, meanwhile, took third in the tournament. The Rams opened with a thrilling 80-78 double-overtime win vs. Oakridge, fell to eventual champion Irrigon in the semifinals and defeated Heppner 50-45 in the battle for third place. Blake Minten of the Rams, who was third in the tourney in scoring with 50 points, was named first-team all-tournament. Sam Nieslanik was a star in the clutch vs. Oakridge, tying the game at 60-60 with two late free throws and winning it in the second overtime on a three-point play with six seconds left.
Stayton basketball: The 2014-15 season marked a resurgence for both Eagles programs. The boys, who finished 5-18 overall and 1-9 in the Oregon West a year ago, turned it around with a 6-4 league season and advanced to the play-in round in Class 4A., where the Eagles were defeated 45-40 by Madras. The girls squad, which had not had a winning season since 2008-09, when they finished fourth at state, also turned in a 6-4 league record and advanced to the play-in round before losing 54-45 to Baker.
