Lots of sports news to catch up on. Here goes!
Wrestling: The Bischoff brothers of Regis helped lead the Rams to an eighth-place finish in the Class 2A-1A championships Feb. 24-25 in Portland. Thomas Bischoff took first at 170 pounds, pinning top seed Jake Doman of Crane in 5:42. Brother Luke made the final at 160 before dropping an 8-4 decision to top seed Jacob Beauchamp of Central Linn.
Also scoring for Regis, in just its second year of offering wrestling, were Noah Emch, who went 4-2 at 220 and Logan Kirsch, who won one match at 182.
The Cascade boys sent 15 wrestlers to the Class 4A event and took home sixth. The Cougars scored 111 points and two wrestlers, Blake Perlichek and Nicholas Lopez, advanced to the finals.
Perlichek, the No 3 seed at 195 pounds, took second, falling 8-1 in the final to Wyatt Anicker of Scappoose. Lopez, No. 4 at 285, lost via fall in the final to Matthew Evans of Astoria.
Also making strong showings for Cascade were Tucker Melton (fourth at 182), Brody Copple (sixth at 126) and Trenton Wymore (sixth at 145). Melton and Wymore advanced to the semifinals in their weight classes before dropping into the consolation bracket.
Also winning matches for the Cougars were Drew Baker (106), Tayton Miller (138), Connor Stapleton (145), Ethan Coates (160), Matthew Hinkle (160), Caleb Darby (170) and Andrew Snyder (195). Payton Burlingame (113), Cole Drager (120) and Brett Welch (182) also participated.
Stayton, meanwhile, scored 27.5 points and finished 18th in Class 4A. Conrad Baxter (120) advanced to the final before losing to Dylan Clark of Henley by decision. Leonard Michel (126) and Lyric Burroughs (160) also won matches for the Eagles, while Oscar Areceneaux (138) also participated.
In the 4A-3A-2A-1A girls competition Evelyn Wirfs (170) took third and Chelsie Howard (190) was sixth for Cascade and Riley McCalmant took eighth at 145 for Stayton.
Boys Basketball: Regis finished 21-11 overall and took home sixth place at the Class 2A tournament in Pendleton. After an 11-4 regular season in the Tri-River, the Rams played conference foes 5 more times in the playoffs and won three of the five games.
Regis downed Blanchet Catholic and Western Christian in the league playoffs before falling to Santiam. The No. 11 Rams then moved on to Pendleton with a 93-81 playoff win at Stanfield. Once in Pendleton the Rams lost to Tri-River foe Salem Academy in the quarterfinals before besting Tri-River foe Santiam in the consolation bracket. Regis then lost to No. 1 seed Mannahouse Academy of Portland in the game for fourth place.
Rams senior guard Diego Aguilar led the tournament in scoring with 55 points, an 18.3 per game average. He hit 9 of 25 3-pointers, tied for the tourney lead in assists with 11 and was named first-team all-tournament (eight of the ten honorees were from the Tri-River). Aguilar had loads of help. Sophomore guard Isaiah Koehnke averaged 17 points per game and led the tournament with 11 3-pointers. Senior forward Josh Blish was a tower of strength on the boards, with a tournament-leading 40 rebounds.
Stayton, meanwhile, finished 17-8 after falling 56-52 at Crook County in the Class 4A round of 16. The Eagles were 5-5 in the Oregon West, which sent Cascade and Philomath to the 4A title game. Garrett Callsen (first team), Gavin Berning (second team) and Jace Aguilar (honorable mention) represented Stayton on the all-OWC squad.
Girls Basketball: Cascade, the undefeated Oregon West Conference champions finished 14-7 overall after a 50-41 loss to Madras left the Cougars one win shy of the Class 4A tournament in Forest Grove. Stayton, meanwhile, wound up 13-11 after a 52-40 play-in round loss at Klamath Union.
