Mount Hood

Western’s intramural sports shine

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The quick-paced and game-to-game action in Western Oregon’s intramural soccer and basketball recreational leagues concluded in championship triumph on Feb. 28 and March 1.

IM playoffs in women’s indoor basketball were played on Feb. 28, while the men’s basketball and indoor soccer culminated the very next day on March 1.  

Tournament play in indoor soccer was scheduled throughout the day and an anticipated first round matchup between We Like It Messi and The Republic started things off. The two squared off a month earlier, on Feb. 1 as We Like it Messi one-upped The Republic in their full-throttled first meeting, 5-4.

In bad timing, We Like It Messi, named after professional soccer athlete Lionel Messi, forfeited for the second time because of an inadequate number of players with three. The Republic didn’t budge for their opponents misfortune and optioned to advance. Every indoor soccer team must have four players in play or they’re disqualified.

“They were scared,” said We Like It Messi’s junior striker Hatim Alhamdin, commenting after The Republic’s decision.

A fourth player arrived later, but The Republic had already made their decision. Nonetheless, the fact that The Republic advanced was due to its togetherness all season.

“The strong point of our season was that we were real supportive of each other,” said senior goalie Keegan McMurry.

But The Republic’s team play wasn’t enough to outdo No. 1 in the division Unreal Madrid — a name in reference to the professional soccer club Real Madrid — who awaited them in the final. Unreal Madrid had not been conquered once, and waited in the final after earning a bye round in the semi-final. Madrid scored the most points on the season and showed for it, and won in penalty shots, 5-4.

Intramural basketball championships in the women’s and men’s competitive leagues were also finalized on Feb. 28 and March. 1.  

On Feb. 28, Cool Name won the title in the women’s competitive field after defeating The Bouncemasters, in a revenge match, 42-21. The two met twice before and split the meetings, 45-33 and then 48-37. Both also had significant point differentials against their foes as Cool Name owned a 72 point difference while the bouncemasters totaled 49. But the 5-2 bouncemasters couldn’t bounce 6-1 Cool Name in the final grudge match.
In men’s competitive, two teams came into the finals with 5-0 records. Both Strong to the Hole and FreeBallers, had significant margins over their competition. But there’s a reason Strong to the Hole inched ahead of the Freeballers in the final, 71-70, and that’s from the scoring output versus their opponents. Strong to the Hole outscored their counterparts all season by nearly 25 points per game, and won only one game by a single digit outcome. That more than doubled the Freeballers’s 11 ppg margin.

IM title games in co-rec soccer and basketball, as well as men’s regular recreational basketball, finish up on March 7.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: Paul F. Davis

Wolves to host West Regional after picking of GNAC Championship Tourney victory

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

Nationally ranked number three, the Wolves travelled to Alaska this past weekend, from March 2-3, to take care of business. After a strong regular season performance, it wasn’t a surprise to see Western win the Men’s GNAC Basketball Championships. After the team collected two wins in the two nights, to secure a conference championship, the Wolves have put away 22 straight opponents.
Last Friday, March 2, the team was able to defeat Seattle Pacific in the second round of the GNAC Championships, 93-70. Seniors Tanner Omlid and Vince Boumann were highly efficient, combining for 40 points; Omlid lead the way with 23, Boumann — who collected tournament MVP honors, scored 17 points.
During the game on Saturday, March 3, against national tournament bound St. Martin’s, the team was able to secure their second GNAC Championship win in three years. In a defensive battle, the Wolves pulled away with a 65-55 win.
After the wins, the team was informed that they would be hosting the West Region Championship for the second time in three years.
Heading into the regional tournament, the Wolves earned the ability to play at home after receiving a number one seed. The team’s record currently stands at 29-1 as the postseason begins.
They will be looking to continue the winning streak through a possible three game stretch this following week. The first tournament game is March 9, at 7:30 p.m. against eighth seeded Point Loma.
If the team continues to progress throughout the weekend, they will play for an Elite 8 bid on March 12, Monday, at 7:00 p.m in the final regional game. All these games would be played at home.
In other team-related news, Omlid was announced as the GNAC Player of the Year after an impressive season; he averaged 13.6 points per game, finished first in steals and had the second most blocks in the conference.

Those who’d like to attend can purchase either a three-day tournament pass or a single ticket. Tournament passes are $30, while a single game ticket is $5 for students and $10 for seniors.
All games will also be streamed live on gnac.tv.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Outdoor track and field earns six titles at first meet

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The outdoors were traversed by several Wolf athletes on March 3 in the Willamette Opener at Willamette University. The first of many outdoor track and field meets to come in the spring season, Western jumped ahead in the action by finishing first six times.
Runners got out quick in the women’s 400-meter, but it was sophomore Grayson Burke who got to the line first with a time of 59.25. The day also provided another first, as first-year Booy Rogers ran in her first collegiate meet for Western in the women’s 1500-meter, and earned herself a personal record of 5:14.93.
Another athlete who has joined the team this year is first-year Darian Wilson, who measured at 16-5 (5.00m) in the long jump, finishing second. Multiple athletes finished just shy of first place, as sophomores Moana Gianotti and Mariah Gronbach went second and third, respectively, in the women’s shot put.
The Wolves ran in packs in the cold sunshine, and were noteworthy in the short to middle distance races. Sophomore Devon Fortier and junior Codi Blodgett went one and two in the men’s 100 dash — both posting a time of 11:20 — and six teammates crossed the men’s 800 finish, in 1-5, and 7, with sophomore Curt Knott atop the list with a time of 1:55.80.
Moving up to the men’s 1500-meter, senior Josh Dempsey reached the line first in 3:50.81.
The men’s shot put also saw a pack of several Wolves together, going 1-4 in the event, with junior Brandon Bowen who bested the field after throwing for a measurement of 48-4 3/4.
Several Western Oregon track and field athletes will run in the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships from March 9-10, in Pittsburg, Kansas in an attempt to earn more top finishes and records.
Western returns to the outdoors at the Lewis & Clark College Spring Break Opener on March. 17 in Portland.


Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Can’t win them all, Wolves fall

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

Perfection almost became a 4-0 record on March 3, but Western’s lacrosse club’s work toward that goal ended in a loss to the Central Washington Wildcats, 15-11.
The Wolves ran the table early, moving the score to 3-1, thanks to sophomore face off specialist Taylor Klus’s three solos. Klus closed the second quarter out making the score 6-4, and scored five of the teams six goals in the frame, but the course changed late in the second half.
Down 11-9 with 11:44 left in the fourth quarter, fatigue fell upon the Wolves and their fire fizzled out toward the end, as the Wildcats defense stifled Western’s play.
“I think the team chemistry was down this game, but this season’s different,” said junior defenseman Bryce Hinkle. “I’m excited to get back to practice and hopefully we’ll fine tune it, and get back to winning.”
Western will look to harness that momentum they had in the team’s first three wins — one of which was the dismantling of San Jose State. They’ll head up to face the Western Washington Vikings on Saturday, March. 10 at 6 p.m. in a divisional match up. After which, they’ll play their second game of the weekend against Seattle University on March 11 at 1 p.m.
The Wolves’s 3-1 record also holds as the best in the south division of the Pacific Northwest Collegiate Lacrosse league. Its 83 goals is the highest output of any team in their conference, as well.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Wolves clinch GNAC regular season title as streak climbs to 20

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

For the third time in the last four years, the Wolves have won the GNAC regular season title.

On Feb. 22, Western took on Western Washington, the only team that stood in the way of a perfect season.

Many players understood how big the situation was, including senior forward Tanner Omlid,

“We’ve been waiting for Feb. 22 since Dec. 2.”

On Dec. 2, Western Washington handed the team their first loss of the season, 85-58.

The past 18 games going into Thursday showed that the Wolves quickly recovered and still have their sights set on a long postseason run.

From the start of the game, it was clear that the Vikings would not be able to be anywhere near

as successful this time around. With a lead as large as 29 in the second half, the Wolves dominated this revenge game, winning 89-73.

This game was a polar opposite to how the team played in December, and senior guard Demetrius Trammell was able to share his thoughts on beating Western Washington, “It’s a good feeling to get back at the only team that beat us this year. We wanted to get the

GNAC regular season championship outright,” he said.

As the season continues, the team will be playing a constant set of elimination playoff games, starting with the GNAC conference championship tournament beginning March 1 in Anchorage, Alaska. There the team will await to play a winner of a first round matchup, and play their first conference championship game on March 2.

“The team is the MVP every night,” said Omlid. “We’ve had five, seven or eight guys lead in scoring, five or six guys lead us in rebounding, or blocks and steals. Anybody at any moment can go off.”

On top of clinching the regular season conference title, the Wolves may move up in the national rankings. The no. 2 team in the country ended up losing this past week, leaving the opportunity for the team to leapfrog into the top three.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: Amber Holland

Women’s team falls just short of conference championship

Morgan Swaim | Staff Writer

After losing two tightly contested games, 73-68 to Seattle Pacific and 73-66 to Saint Martin’s, on Feb. 22 and 24, the Wolves found themselves ninth in the conference standings as the season ended.

Coming into this week with impressive back-to-back wins, the Wolves had a chance of grabbing the sixth and final spot for the GNAC conference championships. With four teams fighting for the final remaining spot, the margin for error was minimal. After losing by five against Seattle Pacific, the team’s postseason chances were out of their hands. They needed to win their final game, and for other conference opponents to lose their remaining scheduled games on the last day of the season.

Saturday’s game against St. Martin’s was the last for the Wolves season and for five seniors on the team —  Jasmine Miller, Kennedy Corrigan, Shelby Snook, Savannah Heugly and Sydney Azorr are all leaving after this year.

The results of the game did not matter in terms of grabbing the last championship spot, as the Simon Fraser Clan was able to grab the final championship berth, finishing the season on a three-game winning streak. This season, the Wolves finished with a 11-15 overall record, going 7-13 against conference foes. That is a three-game improvement from the 2016-2017 campaign.

Next year, the team will be faced with the task of replacing a large number of minutes, with the previously mentioned seniors all leading the team in minutes played. Heugly, Snook and Azorr were huge contributors this year, all averaging double digits in points per game. The team will most likely rely on underclassmen such as first-year guard Keyonna Jones and sophomore forward Natalie DeLonge to play even bigger roles next season, after having both average over 15 minutes this year.

The final stretch of this season may have provided a large amount of experience heading into next season, as the team played with their backs against the walls for a large portion of the second half. Even though the team did not find a postseason berth, the Wolves found themselves in the mix in a jumbled conference and just narrowly missed the cut but will hope to build on the momentum generated at the end of the year for the 2018-2019 season.

Contact the author at mswaim16@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

Indoor track and field stretch toward the finish

Simson Garcia | Sports Editor

The last rounds of NCAA final provisional qualifier marks, three in all, were picked up by Western’s track and field team on Feb. 24. Six personal records as well as a few changes to the school record books were also accomplished in the team’s visit to Dempsey Field in Seattle, Washington.
Two mile runners took advantage of the last chance qualifier as sophomore Justin Crosswhite and senior Nicole Maurmann reached provisional times. Crosswhite ran to a time of 4:08.79 in the men’s mile, while Maurmann finished the women’s mile with a 4:58.94 mark. Crosswhite’s run now places him fifth all-time among Western mile runners.
Senior Kennedy Rufener added more provisional qualifier times to her indoor season. After finishing first with a provisional qualifier in the 5k at Dempsey on Feb. 9, she returned to not only another provisional qualifier and win in the indoor 3k, but to a record breaking pace. Rufener broke her former school record with a new benchmark of 9:46.27.
Sprinting to the finish in the 200 meters, senior Aaron Whitaker took third for the men and attained a personal record of 22.49. And two more Wolves distanced the 200 as senior Sara Madden ran to her PR of 27.45 while first-year Michaela Yonkman passed the finish line in 27.7, also a PR.
Within the boundary that was the track, the field saw sophomore Mariah Gronbach weight throw to a career best of 16.72m (54.10ft), a measure that placed her second on the Wolf all-time list.
Ahead in track and field’s calendar is the Erik Anderson Memorial Icebreaker and the Willamette Opener, the first two outdoor events of the year, which will be ran from March 2-3.
The NCAA DII Indoor National Championships will be a week after, from March 10-11, and will take place in Pittsburg, Kansas.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Photo by: wouwolves.com

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