“I think that when you are the defending state champions, you definitely have a large target on your back,” Kennedy High girls basketball co-Coach Kerry Hall told Our Town. “We have told the girls this season that every team is going to play their best game against us. Everyone wants to knock off the champions.”
Silverton girls basketball Coach Tal Wold knows just how Hall feels. Wold’s Foxes won last year’s Class 5A title and finished 28-0. The Trojans finished on an 18-1 run and captured the Class 2A title.
Both teams are 2-1 in the early going this season, both lost stars from the title teams and both coaching staffs think this year’s squads could develop into something special.
“It will be interesting to watch how this team comes together,” Wold told Our Town. “I am hoping that we look a lot different, in a much better way in January.”
The Foxes had just one senior a year ago, but that senior was Alia Parsons, the school’s all-time leading scorer and a two-time all-state player. Parsons is now at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.
“I really like the girls we have returning,” Wold said, “as much for who they are as people and of course what they can also do on the basketball court.”
Wold used a rotation of seven players a year ago and six of them are back: seniors Hannah Munson, Kayce McLaughlin, Hailey Smisek and Elena Smisek and juniors Brooke McCarty and Maggie Roth.
In addition, senior Ashtin Alexander, who missed last year with a knee injury, is back and Wold has added freshman Paige Alexander who, along with Roth and Munson, helped lead the Foxes to a second-place finish in the Class 5A soccer tournament.
Wold said Munson “has really looked good,” McLaughlin “is playing the best she ever has played” and that Roth “is just a stud … you can really count on her and her skills have really improved in the last year.”
Adding depth are senior Madi Ulven and juniors Vanessa Meraz and Lexy Rand.
“The conference is great again this year,” Wold said. “We had the first- and third-place teams in state last year and I think the league will be better.”
Wold put together a schedule that will severely test his squad. The Foxes lost their opener 39-37 to Tigard, which finished second in Class 6A a year ago, and the nonleague slate also features Springfield, which the Foxes defeated in the title game and La Salle Prep, which was fifth.
“This is by far the most difficult nonleague schedule we have ever had,” Wold said. “The girls will love it, they will have to compete nightly and that will prep us for a great league season.”
The Foxes start league play Jan. 6 at Central.
Kennedy, meanwhile, lost three starters to graduation from last year’s squad, Kenzie Ratliff, Lakin Susee and Taylor Brown.
“Yes, we lost some key seniors last year,” said Kerry Hall, who shares coaching duties with her husband Peter, “but these returning girls are very talented and Peter and I have no doubt in our mind that they will rise to the challenge.”
She noted that juniors Kaylee Brown, Hannah Arritola, Kaylin Cantu, Abby Frey and Molly Jaeger all have been varsity players since their freshman years.
“We may look young on paper but like we keep telling these girls … they play like they are seniors,” Hall said.
Just like Silverton, Kennedy’s lone loss, a 54-53 defeat against Portland Christian, came against a team one class up.
“This team has a great chance at being league champs again and making a run for the state championship,” Hall said. “Our league is very tough, though.”
Tri-River Conference foe Western Mennonite, the lone team to beat the Trojans during their 18-1 closing run a year ago, also made the tournament, while Regis came within two points of advancing. The league season opens Dec. 20 with Kennedy traveling to Santiam.
Wrestling: Foxes coach Keegan Davis has welcomed a strong crop of freshman to a squad that took fifth place last year in districts.
“We have had a great turnout in regards to underclassmen,” Davis told Our Town. “Our freshman squad is not only a large group but many are coming to us with a background in wrestling.”
One of the freshmen, Kaden Kuenzi, already has a tournament title under his belt this season. Other youngsters making contributions include Matthew Guenther, Hayden Roth, Nathan Kuenzi and K.C. Hitchcock.
The Foxes graduated state champion Austin Reed, but return state meet veteran Jacob Whitehead, who won three matches at state last year at 106 pounds. District placers include Zach Milstead, Chaz White, Austin Haskett, Resendo Soso and Matt Schonblacher.
“It is a little too soon to be able to make any predictions in regards to how we will fare in the Mid-Willamette Conference,” Davis said. “However, with such a large group of young, talented wrestlers I am very optimistic for the future.”
Swimming: Second-year Foxes Coach Lucky Rogers has more than 80 swimmers out for this year’s squad. The Foxes were a combined 19-3 in dual meets last season and both the girls and boys took third in the Mid-Willamette Conference district meet.
“We have an unprecedented number of swimmers out,” Rogers said. “We have many beginners, but there are always a few diamonds in the rough to be found. We have a good blend of upper and lower classmen to fill in all the varsity spots. Should be a fun year.”
The Foxes have six swimmers back with state meet experience: Jason Orr, who swam in the 200 individual medley and girls relay participants Megan Brockamp, Grace Haury, Emily Dillon, Jillian Bliss and Hannah Daly.
Orr was second in the 200 IM at districts as well as third in the 100 backstroke. Jaiden Davis also took a district third in the 100 free.
Other district placers include Davis (50 free), Ross McKinnon, Daly and Haury in the 100 breaststroke, Ethan Hunter, Kami Myers and Brockamp (200 IM) and Dillon (100 fly and 50 free).
Top newcomers include six freshmen, Blake Doerfler, Marie Tolmachoff, Samantha Zurcher, Maggie Kelley, Maddie Broyhill and Jayla Toland.
Rogers thinks his squad should be in the upper third of the MWC this season with a shot at repeating the third-places finishes of a year ago.
Run For Your Nuts: Steven Schaefer was the top finisher in the 5-kilometer run held Dec. 3 in conjunction with the Hazelnut Festival in Mount Angel. Schaefer, 35, ran the course in 18:58.8, nearly nine seconds ahead of Tim Richardson, 35, of Silverton, who finished in 19:06.4. Lindsey Stetson, 31, of Molalla took 11th overall and was the top female finisher in 22:35.7. Faith Koschmann, 44, of Silverton was second among women (and 15th overall) in 23:56.4.
Runners to watch in the future include Spencer Lovell, 10, of Colton who finished eighth overall in 22:23.3 and Soliel Sowa, 8, of Mount Angel, who finished in 42:49.4.
More than 160 runners and walkers participated.
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