By James Day
The Silverton High boys basketball team has won the Mid-Willamette Conference championship.
The Foxes took a hard-fought 57-54 overtime win Feb. 20 at Central High School to improve to 11-1 in league play, three games in front with just two games to play.
It was the second overtime win of the season for the Foxes against the Panthers. Silverton is 16-4 overall and ranked No. 4 by the OSAA.
The Foxes will play a home playoff game March 6 against a team to be determined. A win there would put Silverton into the Class 5A state tournament at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis.
The Foxes started league play 9-0 and were on a 12-0 overall run when they took their first league loss, a 55-49 defeat Feb. 13 at Corvallis.
Since then, Silverton has defeated South Albany and Central to nail down the outright title.
“How the season ends will depend on our improvement down the stretch, as well as maintaining our focus on today, rather than looking ahead,” Foxes Coach Steve Roth told Our Town.
Girls hoops: The Silverton Lady Foxes are on the verge of its first league championship since 2008.
The Lady Foxes handed Corvallis its first league loss in a hard-fought 27-23 win Feb. 13 on the Spartans’ home floor and – barring an upset this week – the two teams will tie for the Mid-Willamette title.
“It was a very physical and hard-fought game,” Foxes second-year Coach Tal Wold told Our Town. “It had a bit of a playoff feel to it, baskets were hard to come by and the refs let us play. I was really proud of the girls and how they kept their poise.”
Alia Parsons led the way for Silverton with 17 points and seven rebounds.
“She came to play on both ends,” said Wold, who also praised Brooke McCarty and Haley Smisek for their defensive work on Corvallis point guard Hannah Creswick.
“It was a nice win, but there is a lot more that this team wants to accomplish,” Wold said.
Silverton was 15-7 overall and 11-1 in league heading into the final week of the season.
The sixth-ranked Foxes almost assuredly will host a playoff game March 7, and a win there would put them in the Class 5A state tournament in Corvalls.
Kennedy, meanwhile takes its 20-6 overall record and No. 2 state ranking into a Saturday, Feb. 28, 12:30 p.m. home playoff game with Gold Beach.
The Trojans, who finished second behind Western Mennonite in the tough Tri-River Conference, will advance to the Class 2A state tournament in Pendleton with a win vs. Gold Beach.
Wrestling: Silverton took third at the Mid-Willamette district meet and are sending seven athletes to this weekend’s OSAA tournament in Portland. Austin Reed (126) and Cody Gubbels (220) won district championships for the Foxes, with Jacob Whitehead (second, 106), Boston Merrifield (third, 113), Braden Sinn (third, 160), Camryn Clokey (third, 285) and Valentin Garcia (fourth, 106) also advancing to the state meet.
Adding valuable team points for Silverton were fifth-place finishers Chaz White (120), Nathan Butsch (132), Tabor Tarpley (138) and William McMahon (182) and sixth-place finishers Trevor Ayres (145), Ryan Wells (182), Dakota Daniels (195) and Zach Milstead (285).
The Foxes finished with 296.5 team points, just 2.5 behind runner-up Lebanon. Dallas scored 455 to easily win the district title.
“As a coaching staff we are extremely pleased with our performance,” Foxes assistant Coach Jesse Davis told Our Town.
“There were a couple bumps in the road the took us out of the position to place second as a team. However, we are an extremely young and talented team. We look forward to going up to Portland to compete in the (state tournament).”
Swimming: The Foxes took fourth as a team in the Mid-Willamette district girls swimming championships. The boys team took fifth.
Top finishers included the girls 400 free relay team of Charlotte Jones, Kiera Hagler, Hannah Brunkal and Lindsey Orr, which took third in 4:18.16 and the boys 200 medley relay squad of Adrian Krouze, Ross Mackinnon, Cole Hacket and Jaiden Davis (fourth, 1:56.03). The top individual finisher was Krouze, who took fourth in the 100 back in 1:02.37.
Other individuals earning spots in the top six were Jason Orr (fifth, 200 IM, 2:29.57), Hacket (sixth in 100 fly 1:03.34 and 100 back 1:05.13), Davis (sixth, 100 free, 56.05 and Alli Ritchey (fifth, girls 100 breast, 1:27.32).
College signing: Kennedy athlete Logan Sprauer has signed a letter-of-intent to participate in track and field at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.
“They recruited her pretty hard and gave her a nice offer,” Trojans Coach Steve Ritchie told Our Town. “I think it is a good fit and she might go in as their No. 2 sprinter.”
Sprauer won the 100, 200 and 400, all in school-record time, last May to lead Kennedy to the Class 2A state track and field title. She also took third in the high jump.
Want more sports news? Visit Our Town’s Facebook page to keep up with the local high school teams and more.
Follow me on Twitter.com @jameshday. Got a news tip? Email me at
[email protected]
