Mount Hood

Softball opens season at 3-2

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Wolves softball is back again on the diamond. The 2017 GNAC championship contenders emerge once again and have another season to look forward to. In January they were picked in the preseason coaches poll to finish third in the conference. From Feb. 2-4, they returned to the turf in the Desert Stinger invitational in Las Vegas, Nevada, to open their first five games of the season.
The Wolves started things off right on their first day of competition on Feb. 2 in two games against Eastern New Mexico, 7-2, and Sonoma State, 4-3. Things flipped and the Wolves fell twice on Feb. 3 versus Concordia-Irvine, 12-0, and Cal-State San Bernardino 11-8. Finally, the Wolves went up against Notre Dame de Namur sealing the weekend off correctly in a win, 13-6.
Batters were surely up against New Mexico and so was the ball. Home runs set the tone for the Wolves in the second and third innings to go up 3-1. If it wasn’t homers, it was hard slugging as first-year outfielder Ayanjmna Arceneaux run batted in junior infielder Jenna Kelly off double to right-center field to a score of 4-1 in the fourth. Then in the fifth, Arceneaux helped again by scoring on a single from first-year utility player Tyler Creach to put the game away.
The offensive momentum transferred onto the defense as junior pitcher Haley Fabian threw a complete game earning a win in the process and striking out nine players.
The later game against Sonoma State saw the Wolves down early 3-0 by the fourth inning. Unable to get things going with a mere two hits, the fifth had the Wolves revive their wounds after an Arceneaux single to left that ran in senior outfielder Zoe Clark. After a single rounded Arceneaux to third, she advanced home on a Sonoma error to further ensure the deficit at 3-2.
Inning six came around and so did the Wolves. The Wolves got their fourth homer of the day from freshman catcher Mariah Deleon to win the game. Senior pitcher Lizzet Dominguez got the start and win by throwing a complete game and allowed only three hits in the comeback.
An opportunity to stay undefeated closed the next day. No openings for a score were present against Concordia as the Wolves went hitless. A pop-up or walk was all the Wolves could conjure up and in all, nine batters struck out. The Eagles, who were just lurking on the outside of the top-25 Division II preseason poll offed the Wolves’s defense scoring 12 unanswered in the last three innings to shutout the Wolves.
In the fourth game against Cal-State San Bernardino, the Wolves continued their struggles giving up five early runs. Three more runs extended the Coyote lead by the top of the fourth. Down 9-3 in the bottom of the sixth, back-to-back singles to center field via the Wolves scored two. But Cal-State outpaced the Wolves stretching the lead to 11-5 in the seventh and final inning. A make-or-break situation for the Wolves in the bottom half had them RBI three but a ground out and strikeout ended hopes. Fabian played her second complete game, with her first loss of the season.
The Wolves faced off against Notre Dame de Namur for their fifth and final game where the Argonauts pushed out to a 3-0 lead early. But the bottom of the second was in the Wolves’s favor as eight batters in total locked in and the resulting home-run by junior infielder Ryann Huffman scored two to grab the lead at 4-3. After scoring two more, the Argonauts knotted the game at 6-6. But a 5-0 Wolf run in the sixth established a comfortable lead and the win. Dominguez completed the game with her second win of the invitational to put her at 2-0.
The 3-2 Wolves will now look ahead as they’ll play six more games from Feb. 9-11 in the West Texas A&M Lady Buff.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Keeping it going: men’s team extends win streak to 14

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

As the regular season winds down, every game becomes more important for the men’s basketball team. Luckily, this past week’s two victories on Jan. 30 versus Concordia, 86-72, and Feb. 1 against Montana State-Billings, 71-60, showed that the Wolves are one of the teams to beat across the nation.

The Wolves grabbed the first victory at home despite Concordia’s best efforts. In that first game, junior guard Riley Hawken, who played at Concordia during his first year of college, was able to get hot against his former team. Scoring 11 points in 16 minutes, Hawken’s offense helped the team jump out to a 45-31 lead at halftime.
Throughout the second half, the Wolves were trying to break the game open even further. At one point the lead was 20, but the Cavaliers were able to keep the game from becoming a blowout due to the effort of senior forward Christopher Edward, who scored 33 points in an attempt to upset the Wolves.
The key to maintaining a large second-half lead was strong bench play. Senior guard Demetrius Trammell had another great game as a reserve, shooting 4/5 from the 3-point line and scoring 14 points in the second half alone.

The second game was on the road where four players reached double figures on the offensive side of the ball in the comeback.The first half provided some adversity for the Wolves, as they found themselves staring at an eight point deficit going into the final 20 minutes. Trailing 42-34, the team came out in the second half on a mission.
The Yellowjackets were only allowed to score 18 points, shooting only 22 percent. The Wolves were locked in with their winning streak on the line, and outscored Montana State Billings 37-18 in the second half to keep the streak alive at 14.

Next week, the Wolves will have back to back home games. On Thursday, Feb. 8, the Seattle Pacific Falcons make a visit. The game will take place at 7:30 p.m. The first matchup of the year was extremely tight, as the Wolves won 83-79, one of their closest games of the year.
On Saturday, Feb. 10, the St. Martin’s University Saints will also make an arrival to Monmouth. The Saints have a winning streak of their own right now currently at seven. With St. Martin’s sitting at third place in the GNAC conference this game will be one to watch, as it is one of the key matchups left in the GNAC conference-regular season.
Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Federer wins his 20th Grand Slam

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The tennis world was in for another Roger Federer show at the Australian Open finals this past Saturday. On Jan. 28, the No. 2 world ranked Swiss rallied to defeat the No. 6 ranked Croatian, Marin Čilić, in five closely battled sets: 6-2, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.
After weeks of anticipation, the championship was finally here — but for Federer, the tournament up until then looked like smooth sailing, having never lost a set. For part of the finals in particular, he looked to be the Federer of old, and in other parts looked to be old Federer.
The first set was prime Federer, and was a quick and momentous one. To gain advantage, it only took a few rallies for the 36-year-old to score it at 3-0 before finishing off the set comfortably at 6-2.
Viewers who might have switched stations assuming Federer would get the easy victory in another dominant performance had another thing coming.
Čilić made it a game and pushed Federer like only few have. After some intense interchanging of leads, the 29-year old Čilić gained traction in the second set taking Federer to a long tie break and overcoming him, 7-6, to tie the match at 1-apiece.
Then, Federer hit back in fed fashion dominating the third set, 6-3. He struggled, however, serving against Čilić in the fourth set. The tense back and forth action of the match continued including a very long rally of 18 shots before Čilić won three straight games to go up 6-3.
Three games into the final set could have gone either way but Federer found his serve and stride en route to a 6-1 win and 20th Grand Slam title.  

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: theguardian.com

Records set by wolf track runners

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Record setting performances were produced yet again as Western’s track and field teams took to the University of Washington invitational to display such feats on Jan. 26 and Jan. 27. Numerous changes were made in the record books for Western track including three school records, and one change to the national Division II list for the mile run. Five NCAA provisional qualifying marks were also generated throughout the weekend.
Western senior David Ribich finished third overall in the mile run and came to the finish in just under four minutes with a time of 3:58.88. That is second all-time in NCAA Division II history and the fastest time in 32 years for a Division II mile runner. In doing so, he was the 495th runner in U.S. history since 1957 to record a sub-4 minute mile finish.
Right behind him was junior Dustin Nading, who ran in an earlier heat of the men’s mile and accomplished his personal best time of 4:04.5, also a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and second all-time in the GNAC.

Nading and Ribich, along with teammates AJ Holmberg and Aaron Whitaker ran the distance-medley-relay event the day before winning there and earning an automatic qualifying mark finishing just ahead of four Division I schools. Holmberg, Nading and Ribich were part of the historical distance medley relay at the 2017 Indoor Championships where they were crowned national champions.
Adding more provisional qualifying marks were last year’s All-Americans for track in Olivia Woods and Suzanne Van De Grift. In the 800 meters, Woods and Van De Grift ran to 11 and 17th place finishes, respectively, earning times of 2:10.62 and 2:11.80.
Woods and Van De Grift then coupled with Megan Rose and Kennedy Rufener in the DMR to finish in eighth place with a time of 11:48.58 — also a NCAA provisional qualifying mark and school record.
Rufener, who ran individually in the cross country national championships in December, ran the 3,000 meters to a 9:56.05 time, another provisional qualifier mark to round out the multitude of Wolf achievements.
The Wolves return to the University of Washington on February 10-11 to compete in the Husky classic/open.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Wolves drop two games to finish home stand

Morgan Swaim | Sports Editor

The first game of the week on Thursday, Jan. 25, for the women’s team had a high amount of late tension, with the game needing five extra minutes to declare a winner. Northwest Nazarene pulled away from the Wolves in that game during the closing minutes to a final score of 72-67. The second game against the Central Washington Wildcats on Saturday, Jan. 27, concluded the Wolves’s four game homestand going down in the process, 79-67.

From the start of the battle with the Nazarene Nighthawks, three point shooting was hard to come by for the Wolves. The team shot 20.7 percent (6/29) from beyond the arc as they tried to maintain pace with the Nighthawks. The shooting from three-point was the main obstacle in capturing a win as the game came down to just a few shots going in the opposite direction of the Wolves. As the Wolves faced a 61-59 deficit with time winding down, junior Ali Nelke tied the game with just one second left to force overtime. The momentum did not carry over into the last five minutes as Nazarene edged out the Wolves in the final result. Offensively the team was led by forward Savannah Heugly with 18 points, and guard Shelby Snook with 14 points, both seniors on the team.

The Wolves came into the second game on Jan. 27 trying to halt Central Washington — extending their winning streak to four, and attempting to avoid a three-game losing skid.

The balanced attack from the Wildcats proved to be too much. Five of the Wildcats’s players scored in double figures, as the Wolves could not keep up the scoring pace. Early on the Wolves were facing a deficit — being outscored by seven points in each quarter of the first half, trailing 47-33.

After the Wolves cut the lead to nine at the end of the third quarter, the game continued to swing Central Washington’s way as it carried on late. The difference in bench points was a dominating factor in the game, with a 41-20 advantage in favor of the Wildcats.

With the streak of home games now being over, the Wolves sit at 8-10 overall on the season, with a 4-8 record against GNAC conference opponents. The team will resume action on Feb. 1, on the road against Western Washington. On Feb. 3, the Wolves take on Simon Fraser in Burnaby B.C.

Contact the author mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Wolves ranked 4th in the nation after pushing win streak to 12

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

This past week was a pivotal one for the Wolves. With a ten game winning streak on the line, the team traveled up north to play two GNAC teams located in Alaska. On Jan. 25, the University of Alaska Fairbanks had the first attempt to face the Wolves, who started the week ranked sixth nationally. The Wolves dominated that match up in a 81-54 blowout. During the second road trip, against the University of Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 27, the two teams mostly traded baskets back and forth, but the 12-point lead established by the Wolves early on kept the game out of reach, 72-62.

The Wolves wasted no time jumping out to a lead on Fairbanks and held the lead the entire game, outpacing Fairbanks 16-6 in the first six minutes. The lead extended to 27 by the time the game was over. Senior guard Dustin Triano found a high amount of success off the bench this game, logging 25 minutes and scoring 13 points.

The second game of the week had the Wolves pitted against the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves. The team was lead by superb defensive play in the first half, holding the Seawolves to just 19 points on 6/22 shooting. Senior Tanner Omlid had an excellent all-around performance, scoring 22 points while adding seven rebounds and four assists. On the defensive side, Omlid also recorded three steals and two blocks in the victory.

This past week was beneficial for the team. The Wolves moved into the top spot of the GNAC standings with a 11-1 record in conference play. Western Washington had been undefeated against conference rivals, but saw that streak snap as they lost back to back games this week. These wins also move the Wolves up in the national standings, going from six to four, with an overall record of 19-1. This also comes after the fifth ranked Bellarmine University Knights dropped their second game of the season last week.

On Feb. 1, the team will be traveling to visit Montana State Billings in an attempt to extend the winning streak even higher and climb up national ranks.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Western baseball crowned preseason conference favorites

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

Wolves’s baseball has caught the eye of GNAC coaches around the conference as the team to beat heading into the 2018 season. This comes as no surprise, as the team has garnered respect due to previous success. Over the past five years, the Wolves had captured the GNAC title three times, including last year’s conference championship.

This year’s team will look to continue dominating opponents with their deep pitching rotation, despite the absence of last season’s ace, Brady Miller, getting drafted to the MLB in June 2017. The Wolves will have four returning pitchers from last year’s squad, with seniors Jake Simmons and Cam Walker leading the way.

A big part of the team’s chances to retain the conference championship is the play of key returning seniors, catcher Justin Wakem, and infielders Jay Leverett and Nyles Nygaard. Wakem was able to garner First Team All-GNAC honors last year, as he posted the second highest batting average (.368) in the entire league.

Returning infielder Jay Leverett will be looking to build upon his First Team All-GNAC junior season as well, hopefully receiving similar recognition for his play in 2018. Nygaard, who was a crucial part of the team’s past success in 2017, led the team in hits (51).

The rest of the GNAC conference will make it difficult for the Wolves to repeat,

with three other teams in the conference receiving at least one first place vote in

the first preseason poll. The team will begin their journey to back to back league

titles starting on the road in California on Feb. 8, against Biola University.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

The LeBron vs Durant saga continues

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The game of basketball has fallen into the hands of many greats. While it may have been passed on from athlete to athlete, there were few that took it to the highest standard. There were athletes, and then there was LeBron James, and Kevin Durant, who are now exceeding the game to an even higher echelon. It’s them above everyone else, but clearly, for them, there’s a superior, there’s one who’s fitter, there’s a better.
Since his Akron, Ohio days, nobody had ever seen anybody like the former in “King James.” At 16 years old, he was already the ultimate basketball stud. He was fast, strong, had very high IQ basketball awareness for his age, and was imposing on the court. What is seen in James at age 33 now is the completion and maturation of the aforementioned.
Convincingly, he took the basketball world to a new level. Passing others with three state championships. He then passed one of the greatest draft classes in 2003, his class; passed the MJ and Kobe eras; passed the many failed attempts at surpassing a championship-less legacy; and passed, to where he’s settled now, with three championships, multiple MVP’s and “best player” to his resume; passed, like a jump to the next paragraph.
Then along came a spider, weaving his way about concurrently while James was developing his game until completion. Kevin “The Durantula” Durant, James’s rival in every sense of the competitive word, also went from being a high-school standout, to having little to no college experience before hitting the NBA. He too, was moving the game along and convincingly; winning league scoring titles, earning an MVP and planting his flag as one of the NBA’s best.

A collision course was inevitable — it was only a matter of time before the two met on the big scene. The 2012 finals, and the two then vets, followed much anticipation when their two respective teams in the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat met.
But it was a tale of two journeys. James left Cleveland, a place he made his lair for years — abandoned for what many had claimed was an easier route to the top. He joined Miami an already stacked team with Dwyane Wade. Hate and scrutiny followed him. But perhaps wrongly so, as he executed a carefully crafted plan for the future. There he was able to fully develop as a player, finally reigning in an era of dominance, but this dominance was unlike the dominance of before. This was championship trophy dominance.
After Miami/James defeated the Thunder/Durant in dominant fashion, four games to one and winning another championship in 2013, James returned to Cleveland two years later. This second run with Cleveland brought with him finals experience along with a blossomed repertoire of skill sets that helped win Cleveland’s first ever championship. It was James’s time. He was clearly the Jordan of this era.
After numerous unsuccessful NBA finals restorations, Durant too jumped ship and onto a winning environment. The same scrutiny followed him into Golden State with the Warriors, his new grounds. But having left Russell Westbrook, who won the league MVP following Durant’s departure, he knew he had to follow in Golden States’ direction, since only few teams like the Warriors had what it took to beat James’s Cavs, having already beat them in the 2015 finals. The fit came synchronously while KD was finally hitting his stride.
A 2017 finals bid between the Cavs and Warriors was set then, and the James versus Durant saga continued.
Only this time around, a shift in momentum occurred as Durant would finally maneuver past his ringless legacy, and passed James, once the Warriors bested Cleveland, 4-1.
The matchup happened again this past Christmas, with the Warriors again out gaining the Cavs. And again, the Warriors got the better on Martin Luther King Jr. day, sweeping the season series.

This rivalry may have tilted just a bit in Durant’s favor. He’s got the defending championship team to his arsenal that includes potential MVP nominee Stephen Curry, and has clearly outplayed James in their recent matchups. The head-head matchup says otherwise and says James is ahead in the win-loss matchup, 14-6. They’re close in points-per-game but James has a slight lead in rebounds. James’s also a better passer averaging three more assists than Durant. But Durant’s Warriors (37-10) are clearly better than the Cavs (28-18) right now. The NBA world has yet to see more of this matchup.


Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wsj.com

Know Your Enemies: Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Two foes head into town on Jan. 25 and 27 to play the women’s basketball team. Enter first the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks who don a 12-3 overall record and 8-2 conference mark, both good for third place in the GNAC.
Enter the Central Washington Wildcats who are in the middle of the pack of the GNAC, presenting a 10-8 overall mark while creating a 6-4 conference figure.
Historically since entering the NCAA-DII era in 2000, Western’s been unable to gain advantage when facing these two opponents. The Nighthawks have produced a dark cloud over the Wolves via the 10-7 record through visits to the campus. And the head-head battle favors the Nighthawks overall at 23-12.
To show for it this season, Northwest Nazarene has been an offensive juggernaut, sporting the highest points per game average in the GNAC at 79.7. The rain over Monmouth may remain if the Wolves can’t hone in on NNU’s field goal percentage, another league best at .448. And two markswomen from the perimeter for Northwest Nazarene are number one and two in the league. In that category, Avery Albrecht is shooting at 48-percent and while Mckenna Walker is making 46-percent of her attempts.
In their past encounter on Dec. 30, Northwest Nazarene displayed this feat draining three-pointers throughout to get the blowout victory, 94-67.
The previous Wolves’s confrontation with Central Washington on Dec. 19 also included difficulty. They dealt with the Cats’s full court press defense unsuccessfully and turnovers turned in a final score of 72-65 which made it eight straight games in favor of the ‘Cats. Central Washington looks to front that defense again as they lead the league with 3.8 blocked shots per game.
Western has a few things in store to fight off their opponents. The 8-8 Wolves have a balanced offensive attack and get to the free throw line with efficiency, where they lead the GNAC in that shooting category. They also fare better playing at home at 6-3. Both games are scheduled for 7 p.m.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Wolves come away with one after returning home

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

After taking a long road trip to Alaska, the Wolves finally returned home on Jan. 16 to play the Concordia University Cavaliers and the Montana State-Billings Yellowjackets on Jan. 18. Coming into the game against the Cavaliers, both teams found themselves locked right in the middle of the GNAC conference standings, with the Wolves gaining a game on the Cavaliers in the 68-51 victory. But they got stung in the game against the Yellowjackets, 65-56, suffering their third home loss of the year.
The first game was a back and forth affair until the end of the third quarter, with the Wolves clinging to a 43-40 lead. In the fourth, the team ran away with the game. This was lead by five minutes of superb defense that produced turnovers and forced missed shots on the Wolves’s end. Concordia only managed four points during that time frame.
The defense helped the Wolves jump out to a seven point lead in the final five minutes, and by that point, there was no looking back. With the game barely out of reach as time was winding down, all the Wolves had to do was continue to knock down free throws. Junior guard, Sydney Azorr, had 7 of her 15 points in the last two minutes as the team poured on points late to ice the game. Over the course of the game, the Wolves shot 19 of 20 from the charity stripe, which comes as no surprise as they lead the entire conference in free throw shooting percentage.
The Wolves versus the Yellowjackets was a race neck and neck heading into the fourth. This time it was the Wolves who started slow in the fourth, being held scoreless for the first 4:53 of the final period.
The scoring drought proved to be too much to overcome as the Yellowjackets jumped out to an eight point lead and kept the game out of reach. Junior, Natalie DeLonge, lead the way for Western as she scored 16 points and hauled in six rebounds. Azorr was also able to find success, primarily on the glass were she grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
The past week of games brings the team’s record to 8-8 with another slate of home contests on the schedule for this week. On Thursday, Jan. 25, the team will be hosting Northwest Nazarene. Then, the Wolves will be looking to defeat Central Washington on Saturday, Jan 27. Both games will be at 7:00 p.m.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

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