The men and women of the Western Oregon track team showed just how hard they’ve been working during the offseason in what was a historic day at Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle for the teams’ opening meet of the year, the UW Indoor Preview.
The highlight of the afternoon for the men was when the 4×800 meter relay team comprised of Brady Beagley, Josh Hanna, Sam Naffziger and Josh Dempsey put together a school-record breaking time of 7:54.22 en route to a 5th place finish.
Meanwhile, Cody Warner posted the second fastest time in school history in the 60-meter dash, running it in 6.96 seconds.
On the women’s side, Stephanie Stuckey set a school record herself, completing the 1,000-meter run in 3:02.96, narrowly beating the previous record by 1 second, to take home 16th place.
“I felt great. It was one of the first good races that I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t even know what the record was because I didn’t want to worry about time. This season, I’m all about having fun and running well. That race was a great example of how important that is,” Stuckey said.
She added, “I’m really looking forward to seeing my teammates compete and represent Western. Being a student athlete is hard. Heck, being a student is hard. It’s all about doing what you love. If you don’t love it, it gets really hard to keep going.”
In the 600-meter run, Suzanne Van De Grift finished in 1:41.14, not only cracking the top 10 all time at WOU, but also finishing 4th amongst non-Division 1 or club runners.
It was a big day for the throwers, as Emmi Collier and Alex Green finished 11th and 15th, respectively. Green’s throw of 12.45 meters was a personal best and with that, she joins Collier in the all-time top 10 for women’s indoor shot put.
The Wolves will take a week off before they look to build on their performance Jan. 30, at the Husky Invite in Seattle.
The women’s basketball team traveled north this past week to face a pair of Great Northwest Athletic Conference contenders at Western Washington and Simon Fraser University. Unfortunately, the Wolves returned home without a victory as their losing skid extended to five games.
The Wolves faced a tough task Thursday, Jan. 15, taking on a Western Washington team that has only lost twice at home this season.
The Wolves were able to battle early on to keep it close, but the Vikings (10-5, 4-2 GNAC) simply had too much of an inside presence and out-rebounded the Wolves 32-18 while outscoring them 42-30 in points in the paint en route to a 80-64 victory.
The lead ballooned to 32 points midway through the second half but the Wolves (4-11, 1-6 GNAC) were able to close strong, holding Western Washington to a mere 10 points during a 26-10 scoring run.
Forwards Angie Titus and Sami Osborne led the Wolves in scoring with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
On Saturday, Jan.17, Western Oregon traveled across the border to Canada to face the Simon Fraser Clan.
The Wolves faced a tough test having to play against the GNAC’s leading scorer Erin Chambers (22.9 ppg) without their own leading scorer, forward Dana Goularte, who missed her fourth straight contest due to injury.
The Clan (9-6, 5-2 GNAC) jumped out to an early lead, opening the game on a 16-3 scoring run, before the Wolves settled in and closed the gap to nine points by halftime.
They carried that momentum over into the second half and managed to close the gap to four points before Simon Fraser answered with a back-breaking 11-0 run that pushed the lead to 15 points.
The lead grew to as many as 23 and the Clan eventually took home the 76-56 victory.
Forward Sami Osborne once again stepped up in Goularte’s absence, leading the team with 15 points and grabbing four rebounds while guard Jordan Mottershaw chipped in 12 points.
The Wolves will return home this week as they played host to Seattle Pacific on Thursday and Montana State-Billings on Saturday in Monmouth.
For most sports franchises, the two most exciting dates on the calendar are the championship game and draft day. With MLS moving more toward the youth academy system of talent development used in the English Premier League and others like it, the super draft may soon be a thing of the past.
For now though, 2015’s draft was still front and center in the growing league. The creation of two new expansion teams, Orlando City SC and New York City FC, in addition to the recent restructuring of Chivas USA, combined to create higher than usual demand for the available young players.
The Super Draft structure is similar to drafts in other American sports and the players are still attending university at the time of the selection, although many are also attached to USL (United Soccer League) teams as well.
Orlando City SC was granted the first pick in a coin toss and selected Canadian national team regular and UConn Huskies star forward Cyle Larin. The second overall pick — forward Khiry Shelton — chosen by New York City FC has been playing for Oregon State since 2011, and he has even made several appearances for the US Men’s National team.
When Shelton begins training with his new teammates, he will join the likes of former Chelsea hero Frank Lampard, and David Villa of Barcelona fame.
Local favorites Portland Timbers FC acquired the fifth overall pick in the first round as a part of a trade deal with the Colorado Rapids for Portland native Danny Mwanga (forward).
After a disappointing 2014 campaign plagued by injuries and poor results, the Timbers looked to make waves in the off-season with their highest selection seed since 2011.
Timbers’ first pick, Nick Besler (midfield), was a regular starter of Norte Dame’s 2013 national championship team and was named to the 2014 NCAA All-American team.
With an eye for bolstering all areas of play, the Timbers also selected University of Washington’s Andy Thoma (defender), Southern Illinois’ Christian Volesky (forward), and Virginia Commonwealth’s Kharlton Belmar (forward).
With the first and second rounds of the Super Draft completed in Philadelphia, and the third and fourth rounds set to occur via conference call on Jan. 20, there is still plenty of room for new players to make their entrance into America’s premier soccer system.
The question for the MLS moving forward though is whether or not the Super Draft is really the best approach.
Instituted in 2000, the draft was an attempt to streamline the development of America’s underserved soccer talent. The league has benefited as the draft has grown alongside it, but the US Men’s National team has not benefited much and the MLS is still considered by many to be a farm league on the international scene.
There has been talk of switching over to a strictly academy style system with a draft becoming a secondary approach. For example, in England players can be selected to play in a club academy from a very young age (as young as 9). This allows the coaches of both major clubs and international teams to observe players as they develop, and it means that a wider scope of talent can be recognized and nurtured to greatness.
However, this system is greatly aided by the fact that England has roughly the same land area as Washington State. Even if an academy on the other side of the country is looking to sign a player, the transportation is still achievable. Frequently, younger players in America just don’t have access to the same level of development programs.
Regardless of where you fall on the draft, however, you can look forward to great season of MLS in 2015. The strength of the players and size of the draft pool this year indicates that soccer’s participation and fan bases are growing in America, and with the larger fan base comes a bigger group of people willing to help youth players achieve their dreams of success.
The women’s basketball team hosted the Alaskan schools this past weekend and came up just short in both games. The Wolves encountered the No. 7 ranked team in the country, Alaska Anchorage University, Thursday, Jan. 8, without forward Dana Goularte, the team’s leading player in scoring (16.2 points per game) and rebounding (10.7 rebounds per game).
While the Wolves would eventually lose 61-79, they fought to remain within striking distance for much of the game, as well as out-rebound the No. 1 ranked rebounding team in the conference 36-34.
Guards Jordan Mottershaw and Katie Goddard picked up the scoring duties in Goularte’s absence, scoring 17 and 16 points respectively while forward Angie Titus held down the paint with a game-high eight rebounds.
It wasn’t enough, however, as the Seawolves (14-1, 4-1 GNAC) pressured the Wolves into 26 turnovers, which they converted into 30 points to pull away for the
victory.
Megan Mullings and Jenna Buchanan were the only players in double figures for Alaska Anchorage, with Mullings leading all scorers with 19 points and Buchanan chipping in with 15 points off the bench.
Despite the lack of double digit scorers, Alaska Anchorage used a deep, balanced attack as nine players played at least 15 minutes, with all of them contributing on the scoring sheet.
Saturday, Jan. 10, the Wolves (4-9, 1-4 GNAC) hosted the University of Alaska in a hotly contested battle in which both teams used large scoring runs to swing momentum back and forth for the duration of the game. The Nanooks (12-4, 4-2 GNAC) pulled away at the end with a string of clutch free throw shooting to ice the game.
The Nanooks came out of the first media timeout and rattled off unanswered scoring runs of 10 and seven points to take a commanding 25-11 lead midway through the first half. The lead would later grow to 15 points before the Wolves settled in and opened up a scoring run of their own, closing the half 11-1 to cut the lead to 37-32 and carry momentum into the break.
The Nanooks, however, erupted for 14 unanswered points to start the second half, opening up their biggest lead of the game of 19 points. Though the Wolves were able to recover and fight back, outscoring the Nanooks by 14 over the next 13 minutes to come within five points with just over two minutes to play, it was too little too late as Alaska was able to hit seven of their last eight free throws to put the game away.
The Wolves got surprise contributions off the bench from guards Shyla Atkins and Sami Osborne, with Atkins providing 12 points and Osborne leading the team in points (14) and rebounds (12).
The Wolves played an excellent 3-point defense, forcing the Nanooks into eight percent shooting from behind the arc; however, the team struggled without Goularte’s inside presence, allowing the Nanooks to outscore them in points in the paint 48-32.
The Wolves traveled north Thursday, Jan. 15, to play Western Washington, who’ve won the past three games. The team then travels across the Canadian border to battle the Simon Fraser Clan on Saturday, Jan. 17.
The Western Oregon men’s and women’s track teams will open the 2015 indoor track & field season on Saturday, Jan. 17, at Dempsey Indoor Arena in Seattle, Wash.
The indoor track & field facility is located on University of Washington’s campus, and will be the site of many of Western’s competitions this season.
The Wolves, led by head coach Mike Johnson, will have the difficult task this year of replacing the production and leadership of the teams departed seniors.
With the likes of Kody Rhodes, Brett Campbell, Madison McClung and Ryan Hansen having graduated, it will be up to the returning athletes to replace their production at competitions, as well as the invaluable leadership that they provided in practice every day.
“The Dempsey arena is one of the best places to compete in the nation,” said coach Johnson. “Unfortunately that means the entry standards are very high, and we need to be ready to compete with only about 12 days of preparation.”
The men’s team will rely heavily on junior distance runner, Josh Hanna, who will be looking to defend his conference title in the 800m run, as well as returning senior distance runner, Brady Beagley, who will be able to compete for one last time this winter in the mile and 3,000m runs.
Beagley will be looking to add a gold medal to his impressive career resume.
Jeff Howard, who placed in both the 60m and 200m sprints at last year’s conference meet, will be tasked with shouldering the load for the sprinters this year as he looks to earn a spot at the podium by the end of this season.
“This year’s budget restrictions will reduce the number of competitors we are able to take to each meet, and fewer of them will benefit from this experience,” said Coach Johnson.
The women will lean on returning juniors, Audrey Hellesto and Rebecca Laible, as they look to improve on last year’s 7th place finish in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Hellesto, a sprinter, placed 3rd in the 400m sprint at last year’s conference meet by less than a second, and will look to take home the gold at the end of this season. Laible returns this year following a 3rd place finish in the triple jump last season, and she will also look to build on an impressive sophomore campaign and bring home a gold medal in February.
The women bring a deep group of distance runners that will look to surprise this year after a disappointing 2014 campaign. The team features a promising group of returners, including Bailey Beeson (7th in 800m), Stephanie Stuckey (11th in Mile, 12th in 3,000m) and Rachel Crawford (12th in Mile) as they look to be the strength of the team throughout the season.
Last week Western Oregon University’s men’s basketball team showed their perseverance and strength by finishing strong not once, but twice late in the fourth quarter.
On Thursday Jan. 8 in the New P.E. building forward Andy Avgi secured the win over Northwest Nazarene by tipping in a shot with seconds on the clock that gave the Wolves a commanding five-point lead. On Saturday Jan. 10 the Wolves found themselves in a back-to-back battle with Central Washington University that had countless lead changes. With the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s (GNAC) best free throw shooter playing for the Wolves, Guard Julian Nichols, Western Oregon was able to come out on top 78-74 in a game that was all but easy.
“Tonight’s win was gutsy,” said head coach Brady Bergeson about Thursday night’s game. “We did a beautiful job in the second half taking care of the basketball. They clamped down defensively on us and made everything hard in the second half, but we did take care of the ball. I just thought we were a little bit more detailed with our attack in the last four minutes of the game. This was a one-possession game. It could have gone any way. Our guys showed a lot of poise closing the game out.”
Thursday night’s game was led by Western Oregon’s (13-5, 5-1 GNAC) Avgi with 18 points. Guard Jordan Wiley scored all of his 16 points in the second half and came up big in the fourth quarter. Nichols had eight rebounds, 11 points, five steals, five assists, and a pair of game ending free throws.
Western Oregon combined to shoot 24-for-59 (40.7%) from the field that also included a respectable 6-for-17 (35.3%) from three-point range. They were 12-for-15 (80%) from the free throw line, outperforming Northwest Nazarenes in all categories.
Saturday night the Wolves found Central Washington (8-4, 3-2 GNAC) to be a worthy opponent as the game went on. Both teams had streaks of their own trumping the others as they met at 10-10 early, then at 28-28 late in the half. After coming back from a 10-2 run by the Wildcats, the Wolves rallied to go into the half trailing by only a single point (38-37). With 14:20 remaining in the game forward Marwan Sarhan sunk back-to-back free throws to tie the game for the 10th time.
The game was tied for its 17th and final time at 73-73 in the final two minutes of the game. Avgi went on to score six straight and with a missed free throw by the Wildcats the Wolves would pull ahead for a final time. Western Oregon won its third straight and remains to be unbeaten at home this season with their 78-74 victory.
“We had a lot of guys step up in different patches,” said Bergeson. “The quiet difference, to me, was there was a stretch of eight or ten minutes in the middle of the second half where we really dominated the boards. It didn’t show up on the scoreboard immediately, but we would have been down six or eight or nine points had we not done that, and we were at a plus ten at some point on the boards during that stretch. That allowed us to stay within striking distance. Between that and our detail and execution in the last four minutes, that’s what did it.”
Andy “big cat” Avgi was name co-GNAC player of the week as he played a huge roll in both games. Avgi averaged 20.5 points per game last week in the wins. He shot a combined 17-for-29 (58.6%) from the field that included one three pointer. He was 6-of 7 from the line. Standing at 6-foot-6, he leads Western Oregon in eight statistical categories. This is Avgi’s first career weekly conference award as he becomes the first to earn the honor since former wolf Rodney Webster on December 22, 2013.
“It’s nice to be on top after those two wins but there is still a lot of season left,” said Avgi.
Western Oregon will play only one game this week when the Wolves welcome GNAC rival Saint Martin’s to Monmouth on Saturday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
Let me start this by making it clear, I am NOT a duck fan. I’m basically the opposite of a duck fan; I’m really a duck hater, although, I am a fan of Marcus Mariota. Honestly, who isn’t? The Hawaii native is highly decorated. During the Home Depot College Football Awards show in December 2014 he took home the Maxwell Award as the nation’s most outstanding player, the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback award, the Walter Camp player of the year and scored big with the ultimate feat, The Heisman. He is also the Associated Press Player of the Year and the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year. The only thing this QB is missing is a national championship, thanks to Ohio State.
In 2014, Mariota threw for 42 touchdowns, with only four interceptions. He had 4454 yards and averaged 10 yards per toss. He threw at least one TD in all 41 games he played in at Oregon. He is also one of just four quarterbacks that threw for more than 10,000 yards and ran for more than 2,000 in his career in FBS history. During Monday night’s National Championship game Mariota became the first Pac-12 player to eclipse 5,000 total yards in a season. Seeing as Troy Aikman, Aaron Rodgers, John Elway and Andrew Luck were just some of the great QB’s to come out of the Pac-12, this is a huge accomplishment. If there is anything factual about Mariota’s season it’s simply this, numbers don’t lie.
As of Wednesday, Jan. 14, this 6’4 21-year-old announced he would forgo his senior year to enter the NFL draft. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will ultimately get the first shot at scoring Mariota for their roster, suggesting they overlook the option of Jameis Winston. How successful could Mariota be in Tampa Bay? Mike Evans, Tampa Bay wide receiver was named a member of the 2014 All-Rookie team, had 1,051 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season. Wide receiver Vincent Jackson caught 1,002 yards and two touchdowns. Although the offensive line could use some work, Mariota would have the opportunity to throw the ball in Tampa Bay, and from what we’ve seen in Eugene, Oregon, this guy can throw.
In a list amongst other 6’4+ quarterbacks including Tom Brady, Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck and Ben Roethlisberger, physically, Mariota is already in a pretty impressive category. Besides genetics in his favor, he is mobile, proving so with over 2,000 rushing yards at Oregon, and accuracy? He only threw four interceptions in a season. There’s no argument there. Whoever picks up Mariota is sure to be satisfied.
Unfortunately I am not an analysis for college football careers…yet….nor can my predictions on his professional career be taken seriously. The only thing I can say, and be quoted on, is that I am thankful for the representation Mariota has displayed for the State of Oregon and I am excited to see where his professional career will take him. Who knows, maybe one day if Mariota throws on a Saint’s jersey I just may have to throw on a Mariota Saint’s jersey as well.
