The high school spring sports season has sprung.
But before diving head first into baseball, softball, track and field, tennis, golf and lacrosse, it is worth taking one final look back at what was a thrilling winter season for Central Oregon teams and athletes.
Here are 10 moments that defined the last four months:
Redmond stuns field at state wrestling
Leading into the state wrestling tournament in Portland Feb. 24-26, The Bulletin published a story noting that five Central Oregon wrestling teams had chances to claim team titles. One team not mentioned, Redmond, went on to shock the 5A field to win its first state wrestling title since 1959. Ansen Widing won the 126-pound weight class as Redmond’s only individual champion.
La Pine won its third consecutive 3A state team title and fourth since 2019. Sophomores Landyn Philpott (132) and Devon Kerr (138) repeated as state champions for the Hawks, while Tag Deluca won the 160-pound title.
There were four additional individual champions from Central Oregon: Culver’s Wylie Johnson (2A/1A, 285 pounds), Mountain View’s Drew Jones (5A, 132) and Scout Santos (120), and Crook County’s Gavin Sandoval (4A, 152).
Bend, Summit claim state swim titles
Bend, Mountain View and Summit girls teams finished first, second and third, respectively, in the Class 5A state swimming championships in Beaverton Feb. 18, while the Summit boys won their 11th state title.
The Bend-area schools dominated the three relays. Mountain View’s 200-yard medley team of Sienna LeFeber, Kinley Wigle, Emma Bronson and Lexi Williams broke the girls 5A record with a time of 1 minutes, 46.89 seconds. Bend’s Kamryn Meskill, Jaquelyn Horning, Maddie Thornton and Grace Benson broke the 5A record in both the 200 (1:36.42) and the 400 (3:29.70) freestyle relays.
The champion Lava Bears also got individual state title-winning performances from Meskill in the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly, and Benson in the 100 backstroke. Thornton won the 100 backstroke, while Summit’s Ginger Kiefer won the 500 freestyle.
Caldera got its first boys state champion with Campbell McKean winning the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke. Summit, while winning the team title, had just one individual state champion in Liam Gilman, who won the 100 breaststroke.
Storm boys hoops in state title game again
The Summit boys basketball team advanced to the state championship game for the second consecutive season.
Unfortunately, the Storm lost again in the final, falling to Wilsonville 43-36 at Gill Coliseum in Corvallis on Friday. They lost the 6A state championship to Tualatin last season.
The Redmond boys also won a 5A state trophy after reaching the semifinals for the second straight year. The Panthers ended up finishing fifth after falling to Crescent Valley 52-50 in the third-place game.
The Crook County boys, champions of the Tri-Valley Conference, capped off one of their best seasons in program history by finishing fourth at the 4A state tournament in Forest Grove.
Koehler, Booster and Townsend eclipse 1,000 points
Central Oregon had three basketball players eclipse the milestone of 1,000 career points this winter. Mountain View’s Kasey Booster, Summit’s Rose Koehler and Mountain View boys player Quincy Townsend all joined the 1,000-point club. Booster and Townsend can add to their total next season as seniors.
Making the feat more impressive was that all three players had their 2020-21 seasons cut in half by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Year of firsts for girls wrestlers
Girls wrestling is still a relatively new high school sport in Oregon, and this winter several Central Oregon female wrestlers reached milestones.
La Pine won its first girls wrestling team title in 4A/3A/2A/1A, as the Hawks became the first wrestling program to have both its boys and girls teams win team titles in the same year. Kira Kerr (155 pounds) became Central Oregon’s first two-time girls state champion.
Redmond’s MacKenzie Shearon (6A/5A, 140 pounds) and Crook County’s MaKenna Duran (4A/3A/2A/1A, 120 pounds) also became the first female wrestlers to win state titles for their programs.
Local teams claim alpine and nordic ski titles
The Summit alpine ski team won the combined boys and girls state title at the state championships at Hoodoo March 2-3.
At the nordic skiing state championships at Mt. Bachelor Feb. 24-25, the Bend High girls and Summit boys won state team titles. Neve Gerard won the individual overall state championship for the Lava Bear girls, and Reed Wuepper won the individual overall title for the Storm boys.
Flack and Potts win at Reser’s wrestling tourney
At one of the most challenging wrestling tournaments in Oregon, in which all of the state’s six classifications competed, two Central Oregon wrestlers had their hands raised as champions at the Reser’s Tournament of Champions Feb. 3-4 in Hillsboro.
La Pine’s Tyson Flack (106 pounds) and Mountain View’s Jackson Potts (160) each won his weight class. Flack became the first Hawk wrestler to win at Reser’s, while Potts went on to win the same weight class at the Class 5A state tournament.
Mountain View girls have historic hoops season
For the first time in program history, Mountain View girls basketball won a league title, overcoming a 2-3 start in Intermountain Conference play to win 11 of its final 12 league games and capture the IMC crown. The Cougars beat Lebanon in the first round of the 5A playoffs to reach the state tournament for the first time since 2011. Additionally, Booster was named the IMC Player of Year.
Bend ends Summit’s streak in boys hoops
The winning streak the Summit boys basketball team had over the other Bend-area schools had reached 14 games and spanned nearly four seasons.
That streak came to an end on Jan. 16, when Bend High knocked off the Storm 62-58. The last time Summit lost to Bend was in February 2019. Mountain View also got its first win over the Storm since 2019 with a 71-64 win on Jan. 30.
Three IMC boys hoops teams make tourney
The six-school IMC conference proved to be a gauntlet for boys basketball. With each team having to face one another three times in a two-month span and no team making it through league play with fewer than two losses, the conference certainly showed its depth. No conference in 5A had more teams reach the state tournament site than the IMC, as Summit, Redmond and Mountain View were all in the eight-team field.
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