Mount Hood

Incoming recruits look to make the cut

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

Every season in student athletics, players graduate and the next season sees new players join the team in their place. Next year’s crop of first-year students features some players who could make impacts on their teams sooner rather than later.
Taisha Thomas is a center transferring to the women’s basketball team from Peninsula College. She was named to her conference’s all-defensive team, averaging 8.8 PPG and 6.8 RPG last season. Jessie Brown is another center, coming from Castle Rock, Colorado where was a three-year letterwinner in basketball.

Olivia Denton is a guard from Auburn, Washington, bringing three point skills with a 9.8 PPG average last year.

Joining the baseball team is Zach Griffin, a right handed pitcher from Phoenix, Arizona.

Two local catcher recruits are coming in, looking to help replace senior catcher Boog Leach; Anthony Zellner is a left handed batter from West Salem High School and James Anderson was named to the all-state team playing for Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis and is a utility player who also plays first base.

The football team will be reinforcing its numbers with a large incoming class, as 31 student athletes declared their intention to become Wolves.

Tyler Sweet, younger brother of first-year dual-sport standout Torreahno Sweet, will be playing wide receiver. He recorded 26 receptions for 366 yards and a touchdown as a senior in Upland, California.

Jash Allen is a running back recruit from Tigard High School. He ran for 1,501 yards and 28 touchdowns in his career, notching 7.6 yards per rush attempt for the Tigers. His breakaway speed helped him pick up many big runs last year, including a 74-yard touchdown against Tualatin.

On defense, Jonah Land will be coming to the defensive line from Waldport High School. Over his career for the Irish he made a total of 244 tackles, including 97 solo and forced four fumbles.

Joining the sturdy linebacker core is Kyle Otis from Toledo. Otis recorded 239 total tackles in his career and was named the all-league defensive MVP.

Ryan Worthley is one of the quarterback recruits, and played ball with Jash Allen at Tigard. Worthley threw for 2,137 yards and 20 touchdowns as a senior to become MaxPreps’s fourth-ranked quarterback in the state. He has a calm presence in the pocket, and threw a 47-yard touchdown pass while he was getting hit against Newberg.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Outdoor track has national success

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

For the second time this year, junior David Ribich is a national champion.

After anchoring the indoor distance medley relay team that won the indoor national championship, Ribich added more hardware to the trophy room with an outdoor 1,500-meter title.

It was the first outdoor track title in Western Oregon history.
On May 27, the finals were held at the NCAA Division II outdoor track and field championships IMG Academy in Bradentown, Florida. Ribich ran the race alongside sophomore Dustin Nading. Sophomore Olivia Woods also ran the championship race of the women’s 800-meter.

All three earned All-American honors.

The first day of competition was Thursday May 25. Nading and Ribich qualified for the championship race with times of 3:50.76 and 3:51.85, respectively.

The second day featured the final contest of the triple jump, with senior Wesley Gray taking his last leap for the Wolves. His distance of 14.93 meters earned him 17th place.

The middle distance trio of sophomore Olivia Woods and juniors Megan Rose and Suzanne Van De Grift have represented Western Oregon consistently in the 800-meter this season. The 800-meter preliminary was also held on the second day of the meet.

Woods broke her own school record, as she finished in first place of the third heat with a time of 2:07.82. Her previous record was 2:08.46.

Rose and Van De Grift ran the first heat of the race but failed to qualify for the championship race. Rose’s time of 2:09.94 took her to 13th place. Van De Grift soon followed her across the finish line with a time of 2:10.64 for 16th place.

Sophomore Sheila Limas De La Cruz was the first of the Wolves team to compete on championship Saturday, representing in the javelin contest. She threw for a distance of 38.4 meters, coming in 21st place.

Olivia Woods came in third to make it to the podium for the 800-meter race.

She had fallen to seventh place at the 400-meter mark, but after passing the halfway point she dialed up the intensity and passed four runners in front of her.

Her final time was 2:07.38, and for the second day in a row she broke her own school record.

Ribich and Nading then competed in the men’s 1,500-meter.

Ribich took the lead halfway through and held on to finish 0.22 of a second ahead of the second-place runner. To seal the victory, Ribich finished in 3:49.64.

Nading came in sixth place with a 3:51.50 finish.

The only two runners competing for the Wolves men’s team on title day, Ribich and Nading picked up a total of 13 total points to earn Western Oregon men the 17th place finish on the day. Woods’ solo effort earned 6 points for the women’s team to earn 37th place overall.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Crunk at the crossroads

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

“It takes you forever to find a good walk-up song,” said the designated hitter. “It’s a very big deal. I actually didn’t decide until like the last week before our first spring games, when I had to make a decision.”

The man who agonized over his soundtrack is Joey Crunkilton, who played his final season in 2017. He walked up to the stadium country song “People Back Home” by Florida Georgia Line.
His music in 2016 was a hard reggae track: “Vampire” by Tribal Seeds.

It’s easy to understand why Crunkilton would pay special attention to his music. In addition to playing Wolves baseball, he has played cymbals for the Western drumline.

“I saw a poster, ‘Western Oregon drumline: If you know how to read music call this number, we need people.’ And I was like, ‘Well, s—, I play the drums,’” he laughs. “So I called them and ended up playing football games and stuff. That was kicka–.”

This is the can-do spirit that Crunkilton brings to his game. His positive attitude reverberated through the team this year.

“Crunk is a great guy to be around,” said Nyles Nygaard, junior third baseman. “He always has the biggest smile on his face and is a guy people can go to for anything.”

Roll back the clock a year and we would be talking about a different Crunk.

Western Oregon is his third college team, after a successful run at Western Nevada College and a less successful run at UC Santa Barbara.

“Baseball was the thing, and my ticket to get my way through school,” he says. “Because I’m a good student, but not a great student.”

Western Nevada was happy to punch the not-great-student’s ticket. For two years, Crunkilton took a scholarship to play ball in the desert mountains. Both years he earned all-conference honors. But a junior college is only a launching pad.

“I had offers from random schools,” said Crunkilton. “And I wasn’t sure, I wasn’t getting a gut feeling on where I wanted to go. So I ended up sending my own info out to WOU, and they were like ‘Yeah, we want you.’”

Then UC Santa Barbara called. “I wanted to go to a Division I school more than anything.”

Santa Barbara, however, did not go according to plan.

“Division I was much more cutthroat. I kind of got chewed up and spit out by the team. It was an eye-opening year. It’s very competitive, and if you don’t stand up and prove yourself then you get forgotten about quickly. Then they redshirted me.”
After a year of practicing and not playing, Joey Crunkilton was in a funk.

“I was talking to the coach and he was like ‘You’re probably gonna be a backup if you come back. Probably in a similar spot to where you are right now. Not a ton of playing time.’”

So he packed his bags. He had left Western waiting, but the howling of the Wolves would wait no longer.

Crunk announced himself with a home run in his debut game, a two-run smash that would prove the game winner over Azusa Pacific on Feb. 4, 2016.

Unfortunately, it would be his only homer all season. In the 13 games he played in April, he went hitless in nine. He finished the season with a .245 average, one of the worst on the team.

“I didn’t play much towards the end,” he took a pause. “I got a little nihilistic last year. It was kind of a ‘Whatever’ attitude as I stopped playing.”

As a fifth-year senior, that all changed.

“I had the thought, this is my last year. If I only play one game I’m still gonna go for it and do my best.”

For his efforts, he helped the team earn a conference championship and sweep the playoffs.

The semi-final rally against Central Washington is what Crunkilton says he’ll take away most from the season.

He recalls watching the Wildcats bat from the dugout. “I was freakin’ out. They go base hit, score a run. ‘All right, 1-1.’ Home run, 3-1. ‘S—.’ Another home run, 5-1, hit, hit, 7-1. I just got this sense of calm. We were like, ‘Screw it, let’s break some hearts.’”

Which is what they did, scoring 12 runs in the final three innings. Crunkilton scored two and added an RBI.

“And you could see Central was like ‘What the hell just happened?’” He laughed. “That game was the coolest. That was the best way to cap off the season.”

With the season done and graduation imminent, Joey faces uncertainty once more.

“I want to get out of the house, dude. Just quick as possible. Find a job first and then you can get a career later.”

What would this career be? He spitballs a few ideal career paths, from a fitness business to an online marketing company.
“I want to do something more with music. I want to really learn how to play the drumset well, and then I want to join a band. Absolute dream job: being in a rock band. That would be very fun, I think,” he nodded as he thought it over. “I also really want to learn how to fight, like boxing or jiu jitsu. I was a wrestler growing up and that was always fun. It was so much just brute effort.”

Maybe one day, Joey Crunkilton will be picking music to come out of the tunnel for a fight. Or maybe some future baseball player will walk up to the batter’s box while a Crunkilton drum solo plays.

Or maybe neither of these things. Whatever happens, you get the sense when you talk to Crunk, it’s going to be fun.

“I guess my dream would be to just make something, create a business or a product or something, that just makes people’s lives better and makes me money. Pretty simple,” and he laughed again.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Turbulence and triumph

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

In 1982, Wolves volleyball won only one game.

For their final home game, they hosted the Hawaii-Hilo Vulcans, who had won the 1981 national championship. The Vulcans trashed the Wolves 2-15, 2-15, 1-15.

Despite the margins, head coach Joe Caligure said after the game, “They didn’t impress me as being number one.”

1983 saw the program hire its third new coach in three years. The team needed a solution, and Gene Krieger was chosen to solve it.
He brought in a number of high profile recruits and transfer students.

His high rate of recruitment helped the Wolves boom from a 1-22 record in 1982 to 20-15.

Joining the ranks in 1984 was all-state high school recruit setter Jody Sunde.

To test their mettle, the Wolves traveled to Hawaii to open the season. Foremost among their competitors were third-time national champions Hawaii-Hilo. The Wolves held their own and split matches, and Krieger said they should be considered among the top 10 in the nation.

Such notoriety was slow to come. To get the attention of the NAIA polls, they had to earn it. And so they did.

By Oct. 11 they had strung together a series of blowouts: 17 wins, including an eight game streak where they didn’t lose a single set.

At the end of the year they won the conference title. Krieger was voted coach of the year and the Wolves were ranked eighth in the nation.

They opened the District 2 playoffs with finesse, taking down Pacific University, 15-8, 15-7, 15-1. They further bullied their second opponents, beating George Fox 15-7, 15-10, 15-4. For the semi-final they beat second-seed Portland 15-5, 15-12, 15-7.

The playoffs were double elimination, and Portland was still alive to face the Wolves again. This time Western fell, 6-15, 11-15, 10-15.

A sudden-death final match would decide the district title.

The Wolves pulled out a tight win, 15-13, to become champions. The road to their first ever national tournament now lay in front of them: a tri-district regional playoff.

First they faced Gonzaga, and the Wolves were easily favorited over the unranked Bulldogs. The real test would be Hawaii-Hilo, who awaited the Western Oregon-Gonzaga winner.

That test would never come. The Wolves dropped the game to Gonzaga over five sets, 14-16, 15-10, 8-15, 15-3, 8-15.

There was still great pride in what the program had accomplished in such a short amount of time: from heavy underdogs to heavy favorites in two years.

In Feb. 1985, it was revealed that coach Krieger had given money to recruits. The Wolfpack Athletic Club was forming as a way to give athletes financial aid. The money its sponsors were donating had been an important part of Krieger’s recruiting, but the club was not yet active.

“I told the kids there would be money,” Krieger said in a statement. “What was I to do? Wait for the club to get together and not give the kids the money I had promised, or give it out myself? Everything was documented. I didn’t try to hide anything.”

Above board or not, the NAIA forbade “the provision of money to players by coaches.” Krieger resigned.

He was tapped by Nevada Reno to take over their coaching job, and Jody Sunde and the all-league Sue Denison intended to transfer to Reno with him. Ultimately, Reno passed on Krieger and Sunde stayed in Monmouth. Denison still left.

The 1985 Wolves, under new head coach Jim Callender, repeated their district championship and again faced Gonzaga. This time it was a bi-district playoff. This time the Wolves only had to win once to make nationals.

This time they did.

They traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the first Western Oregon volleyball team to play in the national tournament.

Come 1987, Jim Callender took a new job at Division I Memphis and the Western Oregon coaching door continued to revolve. A local was selected this time: Judy Lovre, who had coached Corvallis High to four state titles.

Lovre inherited an experienced team. Only one player was lost to graduation, and she was replaced by Washington Huskies transfer Lori Sappington.

At the end of the 1987 regular season, Judy Lovre’s Wolves were ranked fourth in the nation, the first Western team to crack the top five. They won the conference and district tournaments. And they went all the way to the national championship game.

Though they lost to BYU-Hawaii, who picked up their second consecutive national title, the Wolves returned to Monmouth with another kind of victory. At second in the nation, no Western Oregon team in any sport had ever accomplished so much.

Jody Sunde and Lori Sappington were named All-Americans. They returned, for their senior year, the veterans on a team that lost many to graduation.
Despite a high turnover in players, the Wolves didn’t backslide. In fact, when they made it to the national tournament in 1988, they did even better, and won every single set in their group stage.

They advanced through the double-elimination bracket with ease until they faced Hawaii-Hilo. The Wolves lost to the Vulcans, 7-15, 11-15. They rebounded with a three-set win over Hawaii Pacific and met Hawaii-Hilo for the national title.

For the second year in a row, the Wolves earned second place. Jody Sunde was even named the Reebok player of the year.

Lovre remained head coach of Wolves volleyball until 2004. Over that time she amassed 489 victories, becoming the winningest coach in Western Oregon history. Lovre’s Wolves were the country’s most fearsome mainland team – the 41 NAIA tournament wins that Western Oregon recorded were third only to BYU-Hawaii and Hawaii-Hilo.

Gene Krieger made his coaching rebound at Westmont College in 1987, and since then has helmed many teams. In March, 2017, he landed a new gig. Beginning this fall, he will be the head coach of the Hawaii-Hilo Vulcans.

Contact the author at journal sports@wou.edu

Stealing Victory

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

The Victory Bell rises over the Werner University Center. It hangs dormant in its tower above Allegro Cafe as an audio file plays to announce each hour.

But there was a time when the bell rang regularly. The bell was so named because it was rang in celebration after every home win. Old college newspapers, collected in the archives at Hamersly Library, called it the “Queen of Victory.” On Jan. 16, 1953, the Queen was kidnapped.

The men’s basketball team hosted the Portland State Vikings that night. Portland State was playing their first-ever year of competitive basketball and the Wolves were happy to whip the inaugural Vikings, 77-60. A dance was held in Maple Hall after the game. Maple Hall, where the Victory Bell was then kept.

After the Oregon Collegiate Conference was founded in 1950, the bell rang often.

The 1952-1953 year accounted for the football team’s fourth consecutive conference championship, including a 40-7 victory over Portland State. Wolves volleyball won their third straight title as well.

Evidently, the Portland State kids were sick of it.

While students from the two schools mixed at the Maple Hall dance, a crew of Vikings made the bell their plunder and vanished into the wintery night.

The alumni newspaper reported, “Rumors were many and varied at the dance … But there was no trace of the bell.”

Dr. Roy E. Lieuallen, for whom the administration building is named, was registrar at the time. He received a phone call from Portland State on Monday morning, Jan. 19. It was Dr. Stephen Epler. Both men had served as officers in the Navy in World War II, and the message was passed from one old sailor to the other: we have your bell.

It was returned on Feb. 11. The Portland State students returning it brought with them a small replica to serve as a trophy between the schools, changing hands with every victory.

That night the Wolves beat the Vikings 69-55. On Feb. 24, the Wolves beat them again, 63-61.

After the final game, the Vikings pillaged their hosts once more. This time Portland State upstarts made off with the Victory Bell’s clapper, muting the bell until it too, was returned.

Men’s basketball backslid for a few years. Seasons ranged from mediocre to abysmal. The low point was 1957-1958, when the Wolves went 1-20. The only win, a 58-43 walloping of Portland State.

No matter the results, the Victory Bell remained safe in Monmouth. Today, above the corner of Church Street and Monmouth Avenue, the Queen of Victory still reigns.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Baseball crowned GNAC champions

By: Burke De Boer
Sports Editor

After playing a total of four games on home field this year, baseball returned to Monmouth conference champions.

The Wolves swept their way through the GNAC tournament, winning three games to take the trophy. Having earned the title of regular season GNAC champions a week prior, the Wolves used the May 10 through 12 playoffs to reaffirm their dominance. They outscored their opponents by a collective 26-10.

The first game was the tightest of the tournament as the Wolves pulled out the win over Montana State Billings, 4-2.

Junior pitcher Cam Walker threw a complete game for the Wolves, striking out 10 batters to set a new single game record for the GNAC tournament.

Senior Joey Crunkilton scored the first run of the day in the second inning. He was walked at the start of the inning and advanced the bases before being batted in by junior Garrett Anderson.

Then, in the fourth inning, with junior Jacob Martinez on base, Crunkilton hit a home run over right field.

The low-scoring game was the product of clean defensive play and a lethal pitching performance. Eleven straight Billings players were retired to open the game before picking up their first hit.

In a Facebook live interview broadcast by the GNAC after the game, Cam Walker said “I just felt good. Established the strike zone, up and down in and out. Just throwing everything for strikes.”

The second game was against the Central Washington Wildcats, the number two seed in the tournament. The Wolves found themselves in a bind as they trailed 1-7 going into the sixth inning. They mounted a comeback, amassing 12 runs over the last three innings to secure the win and their place in the championship game.

The rally began when Crunkilton was batted in by first-year student Torreahno Sweet with a leadoff double in the sixth inning. Sweet was later batted in for his own run by Garrett Anderson, but after six the Wolves still trailed 3-7.

They picked up two more runs in the eighth, as Sweet crossed home plate again and so did junior Nyles Nygaard. The Wolves were in shouting distance.

“Our team never gives up,” said Nygaard. “We knew what we had to do and what we have worked so hard for.”

The eighth inning would prove the explosive decider, as the Wolves put up eight runs.

Nygaard picked up his second run while Sweet scored a third time and earned a second RBI. Sophomore Justin Wakem hit a two RBI single to bat in Crunkilton’s second run and also score junior Jacob Martinez.
The final score was 13-7, Wolves.

“We took one pitch at a time and started to get big hits when we needed them,” said Nygaard. “Our pitchers did a nice job of minimizing runs late in the game and it gave us a chance to score and have a chance to win the game. It was great to be a part of.”

The championship game was against the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders.

Junior Brady Miller was the starting pitcher and struck out nine in his seven innings, while Wolves bats opened up to power the team to a 9-1 win.

Seven of the runs came in the second inning.

A single from senior Brock Pradere batted in two, as Anderson and senior Boog Leach both crossed home plate. With Pradere on base, junior Jay Leverett hammered the first pitch he faced and they rounded the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

“We had great energy from the dugout and our batters were able to slow the game down and take it one pitch at a time,” said Pradere.

First-year student Connor McCord picked up two RBIs from two singles in the third and seventh inning as the Wolves rolled to victory.

For his 10-strikeout performance, Walker was named tournament MVP.

The Wolves finish the year with a 31-15 record, the best record they’ve posted under coach Kellen Walker’s tenure.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

Track tournament held in Monmouth

By: Burke De Boer 
Sports Editor

The conference’s best came to Monmouth for the GNAC Outdoor Track and Field Championship.

The two days of competition on May 12 and 13 featured many Wolves wins, and a conference record was broken.

Senior Wesley Gray set a conference record in the triple jump competition, when he hopped, stepped and jumped to a distance of 15.5 meters, or 50’10.25”. No one had cleared 50 feet in conference history, and a new tape had to be fetched from the storage area to record the distance.

The event win earned the men’s team 10 points and replaced a 13-year-old conference record.

Senior Aaron Whitaker won his 400-meter race, crossing the finish line in 47.59 seconds, breaking his own school record time of 47.96 seconds that he had set earlier this year.

Junior David Ribich earned 20 points for the men’s team on his own, winning two events.

Ribich won the men’s 800-meter with a time of 1:52.71. He was soon followed by senior Michael Chin, whose 1:54.94 finish earned him fourth place.

Ribich also claimed the title for the 1500-meter race, finishing in 3:47.37. Sophomore Dustin Nading came in second in this event, with a time of 3:47.63, while junior Thomas Normandeau completed the race in 3:58.04 for eighth place to grab the final available point. Wolves men picked up 19 points from the 1500-meter, alone.

Nading also scored a fifth place finish in the 5000-meter, with a time of 15:34.79.

First-year student Alani Troutman won the long jump contest, leaping to a distance of 7.08 meters, or 23’2.75”. The first conference championship of Troutman’s career, it speaks to a promising future for the Western Oregon competitor.

The men’s team picked up another ten points when it won the 4×100-meter relay. Seniors Gray, Devonte Woods and Whitaker and junior Codi Blodgett made up the victory team. They finished the event in 41.62 seconds.

In the sprints, junior Cody Warner took second in the 200-meter with a time of 22.33. Blodgett finished behind him, taking fifth place in 22.81 seconds. Blodgett also claimed fifth in the 100-meter with a time of 11.15.

The women’s throwing team did well, as senior Rachael Huffman earned a second place distance in the discus, with a throw of 42.92 meters, or 140’10”. First-year student Halie Korff came in eighth in the contest, with a throw of 38.67 meters, or 124’8.25”. First-year Mariah Gronbach came in 10th with a 38-meter throw, or 124’8.25”.

Huffman claimed a fourth place finish in the shot put, throwing it a distance of 13.16, or 43’2.5,” which advances her place in the school record book from fourth to fifth.

Korff also placed eighth in the javelin, with a throw of 41.01 meters, or 134’6.75”.

The women’s team picked up a total of 12 points on the 800-meter race, with fourth, fifth and sixth place finishers. Junior Megan Rose came in fourth place with a time of 2:11.65. Junior Suzanne Van De Grift placed fifth with a time of 2:12.53 and sophomore Olivia Woods rounded out the Wolves finishers with a sixth-place time of 2:13.14.

The men’s team amassed a total of 107 points, finishing fourth overall in the two days of competition. The women’s team picked up 36 points to finish ninth out of the 10 teams. Alaska Anchorage took the conference championships, both men’s and women’s teams.

The NCAA Division II Outdoor National Championship will be held in Bradenton, Florida May 25 through 27. Multiple Wolves have posted qualifying and provisional marks over the season and now await the announcement of official selections.

Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu

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