Daniel, Author at The Western Howl

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.”

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Track hits more NCAA qualifying times

By GUY PERRIN
 Staff Writer

The Western track team traveled to Seattle Feb. 13-15 to compete in a pair of meets in preparation for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships next week.

On Friday and Saturday, the Wolves competed in the Husky Classic, a prestigious meet that combines runners from across the country from both Divisions I and II and the Husky Open on Sunday.

During the Husky Classic, Brady Beagley and Sam Naffziger hit NCAA provisional qualifying times in the mile and 800-meter, respectively. Beagley posted a time of 4 minutes, 10.6 seconds to put him just seven seconds away from an automatic qualifying time while Naffziger’s time of 1:53.37 was just inside the provisional mark and was also good for a new personal best in the event.

“Going into the race I had a lot of confidence in myself, and I felt like I was ready to run fast,” said Naffziger. “I was also in a fast heat which definitely helped me run the time I did.”

“Another huge factor that helped me is the people I train with; they bring it every day and push me to get faster. Having a provisional is great because all the hard work is paying off, but also motivates me to continue to work hard and get into the national meet,” Naffziger said.

Badane Sultessa, Aaron Whitaker, Josh Hanna, and Beagley competed in the distance medley relay, finishing third overall with a time of 9:59.24, just three seconds shy of first.

“Getting to compete in the Husky Classic was important to me because it gave me a chance to race in a really competitive atmosphere,” Whitaker said. “As for getting ready for conference, I think that keeping that same energy and intensity that we had at the Husky Classic will benefit us as we prepare
to go to conference this weekend.”

On Sunday during the Husky Open, Western runners began strong with Dustin Camarillo and Rihei Grothmann both posting personal bests in the 60m hurdles with times of 8.92 and 8.95 respectively.

There was a trio of seasonal bests in the 800m run as Josh Dempsey (1:56.68), Chris Stash (1:58.39), and Parker Marson (1:58.97) each came within five seconds of hitting the NCAA Division II national provisional qualifying time.

For the women, Laura Patrick ran a season best time of 26.82 in the 200m dash as well as a personal best time of 8.13 in the 60m dash to cap an impressive day.

“No matter if it’s conference or any time of year, a PR gives you confidence going into the next meet and raises the excitement level,” Patrick said. “As a team going into conference, I think the goal is to just get better. We have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on. Win or lose, we can walk away with something to make us better for the next time we step on the track. The goal is to come home with some victories, whether they are big or small.”

In the high jump, Cherise Kirkpatrick (1.53) and Sam Moore (1.48) finished third and fifth, respectively, while also posting new personal records. Suzy Van Der Grift took home first place in her heat of the 600m run with a new personal best time of 1:39.56 while Rachel Crawford narrowly missed out
on the provisional qualifying time for the 800m run, finishing third in her heat with a time of 2:20.43, just five seconds away from qualifying.

The Wolves are traveling to Nampa, Idaho to compete at the GNAC conference meet Feb. 20-21.

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.

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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

Track hits more NCAA qualifying times

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