2015 – Page 46 – The Western Howl

By GUY PERRIN
Staff Writer

Brady Beagley, Badane Sultessa and Stephanie Stuckey will all travel to Birmingham, Ala. to compete at the D-II national indoor meet on Mar. 13-14. Beagley and Stuckey will both race the mile while Sultessa will compete in the 800.

Beagley is ranked 13th in the field of competitors with the third fastest time in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference this season at 4:08:53. His time is also a school record, 0.46 faster than former Wolf Chris Reed who set the record during his 2011 season. Beagley will compete against 16 runners with the top 10 advancing to finals.

Sultessa, in his first season at Western, is ranked eighth with his second all-time school history time of 1:51.22. His time is also the second fastest time in GNAC history. A past GNAC track athlete of the week, Sultessa is racing his way to becoming just the third NCAA All-American in this event for Western. Also one of 16 runners in the preliminaries, Sultessa must finish in the top eight to advance to finals.

Stuckey enters the mile ranked 12th with a time of 4:56.18, a second all-time in school history mark, behind Selina Stanton, a former Wolf who set the record in 1988. Stuckey is one of 18 runners to compete in the preliminaries of the mile with the top 10 moving to the finals.

“Running at nationals is such a blessing,” Stuckey said. “I will be running with and against terrific competition and represent Western at a national level. I have been so overwhelmed with this journey to nationals because it happened so fast.

“I went from running in the slow heat at conference with no time for the mile and then national qualifying in a matter of days,” Stuckey said. “I am so thankful for this opportunity. It just goes to show where hard work can take you.”

Outdoor season starts with Willamette Opener

Western’s track team competed in their first outdoor meet of the season this past weekend, traveling to Salem to run on the campus of Willamette University Saturday, March 7. The men and women both took home victories, with the men’s team winning by 35 points and the women securing a 49-point victory.

In the field events, a trio of throwers took home victories and also hit NCAA D-II provisional marks with Amanda Short and Justin Larson winning the women’s and men’s javelin events and Emmi Collier in the shot put. Collier was the first among five Wolves that finished in the top five in the shot put and also took home the victory in the women’s hammer throw event.

In the men’s discus, Kenny Klippel and Jeremy Moore took first and second place with throws of 41.26 and 41.02 meters, respectively. In the men’s long jump, Cody Warner jumped 6.42 meters to claim victory.

In the track events, Warner placed first in two events, winning the 100 meter with a time of 10.68 seconds as well as the 200 in dominating fashion, clocking in at 21.51.

The women swept the podium in the 400-meter hurdles race as Audrey Hellesto, Sara Madden, and Felicia Covey finished 1-2-3 with times of 1:06.37, 1:07.99, and 1:09.21 respectively.

Stephanie Stuckey and Bailey Beeson finished first and second in the women’s 800, finishing in nearly identical times of 2:15.58 and 2:15.73, with a five-second personal best for Stuckey.

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EN ROUTE TO NFL

By HAUNANI TOMAS
Managing Editor

Showing all signs of discontentment with the Momiji menu, Tyrell Williams closes it. A firm believer in cooked-through foods, Williams settles on chicken katsu. The Salem native prefers burgers to sushi always, his favorite being McMenamin’s bacon cheeseburger for as long as he can remember.

Since the age of seven, Williams was running routes and dreaming of National Football League stardom. Countless drills, practices and circuits later, he is prepped for one of the biggest days of his life: pro day.

Formerly a Philadelphia Eagles fan, his new favorite team has become “whatever team signs me.” In his career at Western, he was named to the GNAC first team thrice, among being named player of the week an innumerable number of times – in addition to being a national track standout.

Distracting himself with smaller matters, Williams tastes the miso soup. His dislike for Japanese cuisine is confirmed. When his chicken katsu arrives, his reaction is anything but that of an empty-stomached man.

“That’s not gonna help me lose any weight,” says Williams. Worrying about shedding a few pounds before pro day is just one of many aspects that have consumed his attention.

When describing Williams, the term “committed to the game” is an understatement.

He is better described as hungry. Hungry for success, hungry to fulfill his dreams, and hungry for more. Always hungry for more. Hungry – all six feet and 200 pounds of him.

On football

“The first time I played football was in second grade; it was flag-football and I sprained my wrist. I pursued college football because I always had a dream of playing in the NFL. Obviously, college was the first step. Once I saw my brother get a scholarship for football, I knew that I wanted to follow his footsteps. If I weren’t playing football, I’d be playing basketball.”

On staying motivated

“My family has always been there, and I want to make sure I can take care of them for the rest of our lives and repay them for everything they’ve done for me. I look up to my dad and brother. They do everything the right way. They’ve always been there for me for everything. They’re great role models.”

On training

“I’ve been working out and doing circuits with [Cori] Metzgar, and I went to New Jersey for 16 days for [NFL Prep]. I did track for a couple of weeks. I’ve just been running routes with Trey [Shimabukuro] and [Oregon State quarterback Sean] Mannion. My shoulder surgery hasn’t really affected my training. I just wasn’t able to run for eight weeks after my surgery.”

On Pro Day

“I haven’t been sleeping well. I had a dream that I ran slow. I’m most excited for the chance to prove myself coming from a small school. I’ve always been a very competitive person. I always want to be great at whatever I do.”

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Bats come alive on the diamond

By GUY PERRIN
Staff Writer

The Western softball team hosted their first series of the young season on campus this past weekend as they took on the Crusaders of Northwest Nazarene. The four game series began with a doubleheader on Friday, Mar. 6 and finished with another doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 7.

The series also marked the beginning of conference play for the Wolves.

On Friday, Northwest Nazarene took a quick two run lead in the first half of the second inning before the Wolves (7-11, 4-0 GNAC) responded with four runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead. Western then used two home runs by outfielder Emma Alfonso to run away with a 6-2 victory in the first game of the doubleheader.

Pitcher Alyson Boytz pitched a complete game, striking out seven batters to get the victory for Western. In Friday’s second game, the Crusaders once again jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead before Western broke out with seven runs in the third and fourth innings to blow the game open and take their second victory of the day, 8-3. The Wolves got another complete game effort from their pitching staff with Pitcher Lizzet Dominguez throwing 93 pitches to pick up the win.

“We had a week off from games and we really just changed our mindset and attitudes and relaxed,” said Botyz. “We took our preseason games and used them as learning experiences to grow from .Our biggest problem from preseason was not finishing our games. Conference was a fresh start and we really worked on competing all seven innings and finishing every inning and every game.”

On Saturday, the day began with a close, hard-fought, 3-1 victory as the Crusaders and Wolves were deadlocked in a 1-1 tie for much of the opening innings. In the bottom of the fourth, third baseman Destiny Kuehl singled home two runs to give Western the lead they would never relinquish. Boytz threw 132 pitches in another complete game performance to star for the Wolves. In the final game of the series, the Wolves’ bats came alive in a 14-2, 5-inning thrashing of the visitors to complete the sweep. The Wolves had three players hit home runs, including their pitcher, Jourdan Williams, who also pitched four innings in relief for the victory.

“It was a team win,” said Kuehl. “It wasn’t just one person who won the game. Everyone came together and picked each other up because in our first game our hitting wasn’t doing so well, so our defense and pitching kept us in the game and in the second game when our defense made a few mistakes, our offense came together and scored.”

Softball swept Northwest Christian University in a doubleheader on Tuesday, Mar. 10 in Monmouth 2-0, and 10-4 improving to a seven game win streak concluding their non-division II games. Infielder Kelsie Gardner went a combined 4-for-7 with three runs scored, leading the Wolves offensively. Boytz also pitched her third straight complete game allowing just four hits in the opening game with a game-high five strikeouts.

The Wolves pick up with GNAC play this weekend, hosting Simon Fraser for a doubleheader on Saturday, Mar. 14 at 1 p.m. and then again on Mar. 15 at 12 p.m with Western Washington.

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KWOU kickback

Photo and Article By STEPHANIE BLAIR
Staff Writer

Under alternating flashes of red, blue and green light, KWOU’s winter kickback dance and fundraiser was held Friday, March 6 from 7-10 p.m. in the Werner University Center’s Pacific room.

DJs from the station, Tobi-Wan Kenobi, ItsThaGman, DJ Dang, and DJ Rockslide, were able to show off their ability to alter and mix music live, on stage, while 25 patrons danced to the customized Electronic Dance Music.

Outside of the dance room, there were glowsticks for sale and attendees were automatically entered into a drawing to win gift cards from local businesses such as Crush, Yang’s and Burgerville. Ticket buyers had to be in attendance when called to receive a prize.

The loud and dark atmosphere was not enough to get all the attendees off their feet and dancing, but once encouraged by DJs (and warned that not dancing could mean losing their chance for a prize, regardless of being called), more people began to groove with their friends.

“We thought it would give people one last opportunity to burn off stress before Dead Week and Finals Week,” said Iain Dexter, KWOU station manager. “The dance had the right atmosphere to attract a wide range of students, but we unfortunately didn’t have the numbers we hoped for.”

About 50 tickets were sold. Profits from the dance will be used to create a mobile app for students to listen to KWOU on their phones or in their car.

To listen to KWOU’s 24-hour radio station, visit wou.edu/kwou
All KWOU DJs are Western students.
If interested in becoming a member of the staff, please email kwou@wou.edu.

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Stachtastic: the return of the mustached man

INFOGRAPHIC BY CARLY FISTER | Designer *Information courtesy of americanmustacheinstitute.org, howtogrowamustache.com, and medialcaldaily.com — INFOGRAPHIC BY CARLY FISTER | Designer
*Information courtesy of americanmustacheinstitute.org, howtogrowamustache.com, and
medialcaldaily.com

At work the other day, I looked up to find a 20-something-year-old man sitting in front of me, stroking his waxed, handlebar mustache like it was his prized possession. Caught off guard by this image, I ended up watching him as he casually spoke with his friends, drank and ate, and generally went about his normal business, all while stroking his mustache.

Even after he had gone, I kept remembering the mustached man, unable to put my finger on why he stuck with me. It may be because a small part of me kept picturing him as the villain in an old black and white film, twirling his mustache as he laughed maniacally before the damsel tied to the train tracks met a very rough end. Or maybe it was just the sheer amount
of times he touched his own mustache — 15 that I noticed.

But I had this nagging feeling that while those both seemed odd, they were not what fascinated me so. It finally hit me as I was about to fall asleep that night…I hadn’t seen a fully- grown mustache such as that in a long time, especially on someone who was roughly my age.

With this new thought, I decided to do some digging, as anyone would. It turns out, I was right: the mustached man has been a rare site for the last several decades. Of course there are always the outliers, but the majority of society had abandoned the mustache and all its glory.

So what made it return?

Some exploration led me to the American Mustache Institute’s web page, which was full of information and interesting facts about mustaches. But more than facts or statistics, it gave explanations, such as a timeline of the mustache throughout history. Through this timeline, one can begin to determine the trend of the mustached man.

A number of factors have surely contributed to the rise of the mustache: the popularity of No-shave November, or Movember as it is fondly known, the media or TV shows that prominently feature mustached men, such as Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy or Ron Swanson.

But it’s more than that.

The traditional adult is no longer what we picture as children, which sort of looks like the cast of “Mad Men,” all business people with power suits and important jobs. Not to say there are not still people like that, but it is no longer the norm. Having a full-time job does not always mean working from 9 to 5. Being a parent doesn’t mean you hide your tattoos, but display your sleeve with pride. A mustached man is not Ron Burgundy and the channel 4 news crew, against the progression of women and society.

So who is he?

Perhaps he is a hipster, growing his ironic facial hair to emphasize his creativity and open-mindedness. Perchance he wants to be a powerful man, or is a powerful man and wants to have facial hair he feels accurately displays what he wants to say to the world. Maybe he just really hates shaving. But whatever the reason, the mustached man is making his comeback. I, for one, applaud him!

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Women’s basketball earns home split

Emilie Howey (32) looks to pass the ball to a teammate during their game against Western Washington University. PHOTO BY STEPHANIE BLAIR | Staff Photographer

By GUY PERRIN
 Staff Writer

The women’s basketball team returned home from a three-game road trip this past weekend to host Simon Fraser University and Western Washington University. The Wolves came away with a split as they defeated Simon Fraser 68-45 on Thursday but fell to Western Washington 81-48 on Saturday.

On Thursday, Feb. 12, the Wolves put together their best shooting performance of the season, shooting nearly 60 percent from the field, including a sizzling 68 percent in the second half to handle Simon Fraser 68-45. Led by forward Dana Goularte’s 15 points, the Wolves (6-15, 3-10 GNAC) were able to take advantage of the absence of Simon Fraser’s second leading scorer, Meg Wilson (13.4 ppg), and dominate down low, outscoring the Clan (12-10, 8-6 GNAC) 38-22 in points in the paint.

“Beating Simon Fraser gave us a confidence boost knowing that we can play with and beat any team in our conference,” said guard Jordan Mottershaw. “Our goals for the last few games are to execute all of the game plans and really focus on controlling everything we can control. If we do that, I know we can get a few more wins.”

Western opened the game with an 11-2 scoring run and never looked back en route to a commanding 33-15 halftime lead. The Wolves were able to add suffocating defense to their hot shooting as they held Simon Fraser to just 27 percent shooting as well as 20 percent from behind the 3-point line, which included a 1-11 performance in the first half.

“We played as a team,” Goularte said. “We offensively shared the ball well and defensively played team defense. We are concentrating on playing to our best ability as a team.”

On Saturday, Feb. 14, Western Oregon was unable to continue their hot shooting against the conference’s third best team, Western Washington, shooting just 39 percent from the field including 28 percent from behind the 3-point line to lose 81-48. The team’s leading scorer, Goularte once again led the team with 12 points and seven rebounds, but it wasn’t enough as Western Washington (17-7, 11-4 GNAC) shot nearly 50 percent from the field and went a perfect 10-10 at the free-throw line.

The Wolves (6-16, 3-11 GNAC) wore pink jerseys to support the Play4Kay breast cancer research foundation in honor of Kay Yow, the women’s basketball coach at NC State who died in 2009.

Western faces a daunting road trip next week as they travel to Billings, Mont. on Thursday, Feb. 19 to play Montana State-Billings before traveling to Seattle to play Seattle Pacific University on Saturday, Feb. 21.

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Wolves improve to No. 15 in the country

By JACOB HANSEN
 Staff Writer

Aired as the ROOT Sports Great Northwest Athletic Conference Game of the Week, the men’s basketball team defeated GNAC rival Saint Martin’s University 66-56 on Feb. 11 — a win that clinched the conference’s first berth to this year’s GNAC tournament. The No. 15 Wolves are now the highest-ranked West Coast team in this week’s poll.

“To be in the Top 20 nationally is a great honor not only for the program, but for the university as well,” said Head Coach Brady Bergeson. “Our guys have worked hard all season and to be recognized on a national stage is such an honor.”

Bergeson was featured in Monday’s edition (Feb. 16) of the Orange County Register, which is a newspaper that serves the Southern California communities of Anaheim, Long Beach, San Juan Capistrano and more. Bergeson’s career, family and team at Western are referenced in the article.

The Wolves (21-3 overall, 13-1 GNAC) were once again lead by offensive juggernaut forward Andy Avgi who was 10-of-11 from the field and had a game-high 22 points. Avgi has scored double figures in 23-of-24 games this season alone and has scored 1,130 points during his 71-game career as a Wolf.

Guard Julian Nichols did his part contributing 11 points, four rebounds and four assists. Forwards Marwan Sarhan and Lewis Thomas had eight rebounds a piece. Sarhan had eight points of his own.
“Just look at what the big men did, they really pulled though,” Nichols said.

Nichols ranks second in the GNAC in both assists per game (with an average of 6.0) and in free-throw percentage, hitting 86.7 percent (72-for-83) of his shots when fouled.

As a team, Western combined to shoot 26-for-51 (51 percent) from the field which included 61.5 percent (16-for-25) in the first half. The Wolves also shot a combined 3-for-15 (20 percent) from beyond the three-point line and 11-of-17 (64.7 percent) at the free throw line.

The Wolves hosted Western Washington on Thursday, Feb. 19 (The Journal went to print before the end of the game). For the final home game of the season, the Wolves host Simon Fraser Saturday, Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. for Senior Night, honoring their four seniors.

“We have to keep the streak going,” Sarhan said. “All of the faculty and staff will be there and we want as many students as possible to come too. These are big.”

Western Oregon University’s Land Acknowledgement
Western Oregon University in Monmouth, OR is located within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya. Following the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (Kalapuya etc. Treaty), Kalapuya people were forcibly removed to reservations in Western Oregon. Today, living descendants of these people are a part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians.

Accessibility Public Records Privacy Student Consumer Information

WOU prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression in all programs, activities and employment practices as required by Title IX, other applicable laws, and policies. Retaliation is prohibited by WOU.

Trio to compete at Nationals

EN ROUTE TO NFL

Bats come alive on the diamond

KWOU kickback

Stachtastic: the return of the mustached man

Women’s basketball earns home split

Wolves improve to No. 15 in the country

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