Perry claims top spot in Eagle Cap Extreme

JOSEPH — Clayton Perry was in fourth place and well behind the race leaders coming into the final checkpoint of the Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race.

One of his fellow mushers in the 200-mile race, Bino Fowler, asked him a question before he took off.

“He came over and asked if I was making a move,” Perry said of Fowler.

The move to have his dogs pick up the pace and really test them paid off, and Perry crossed the finish line at 2:38 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, as the winner of the ECX in its return from a one-year hiatus.

“(I) took a high risk that they might not finish at all or get it done,” Perry, the 2017 100-mile winner, said.

Perry was down nearly half of his team, as he started the race Jan. 20 with 12 dogs. He finished with seven, losing five along the way to soreness.

But he trusted in the rigorous training he and his partner, Morgan Anderson, had put in. They had done several lengthy runs and, Perry said, put in more than 1,200 miles in recent months. He knew his team was capable.

“(I) had a lot of confidence,” he said. “This year’s training with Morgan Anderson gave us a lot of confidence. We knew they could do it.”

Perry has been close in recent years, taking fourth in each of the last two Eagle Cap Extremes. He called the win “totally unexpected.”

“Because there’s a lot of competition. It’s not easy to get done. I’m older. Most of the other competitors are half my age,” the 62-year-old Perry said.

Also claiming first leg was Nicole Lombardi, another Montana-based racer who was the victor of the 100-mile race in her first time at the ECX.

“I was a little nervous, but felt fully supported by the community, the race committee, veterinarians and fellow mushers,” Lombardi said.

Another first-timer took the 31-mile, two-day race — California racer Jesika Reimer.

“The plan was just to get my yearlings some experience. All my adults have raced before,” Reimer said. “They just plowed up those hills and loved the downhills.”

Crawford reflects on 33 years with Enterprise

Mike Crawford rode a wave of emotions — as one would expect — in the days and weeks following his last game on the sidelines for the Enterprise girls basketball program.

Crawford, who retired at the end of the season after 33 years leading the Enterprise girls basketball program, said in an interview with the Chieftain in March he needed to shift his focus away from the fact his time on the sideline is over.

The normal thing for Crawford would be planning next season.

In fact, he said that on Feb. 27 as he was driving the bus back from the Outlaws’ hard-fought 65-58 loss to Gervais a day earlier in the first round of the 2A state playoffs — the loss that ended his career at 520-275 — he was formulating lineups in his mind.

“I’m always thinking about lineups and the team. I had completely put together next year’s team in my mind,” he said.

As to the question of why retire now, he said the time is right because he and his wife, Tammy, are ready for some time away.

“Tammy and I have talked for a long time about going south, spending some time in the warmer weather, the advantages of that, (and) I like to golf, too,” he said. “I like to fish. We just decided this is the time. I think I told you, but I sat down and made reservations for Kauai next year at the end of January/February right there, a little 10-day stretch, and when I made the reservations, I decided I was going to be done.”

Interestingly, his career may have actually been extended by the COVID-19 pandemic, an event that shut down so much over the past two years. Crawford noted that he likely would have wrapped his career in 2021 had it not been so marred by the coronavirus.

“I wanted it to be as normal as possible, and I thought this was a perfect year to go out. I had a quality group of kids,” he said. “The unfortunate part is that no matter what, when you walk away, you walk away from kids that are still in the program. I have regret there, but I would have regret no matter when that happens. And I hope they understand.”

Knapp signs to run at University of Idaho

Zac Knapp put together a career that rivaled the best in the history of the Enterprise cross-country and track and field programs.

Now, he’s running at a collegiate level that he didn’t think was possible a year ago — Division I.

Knapp signed to run for the University of Idaho, and his joining the Vandals adds another Northeastern Oregon runner to the program.

“Immediately when they started telling me about their philosophy and how they treat their athletes, I knew I could buy into that and do that four more years,” Knapp said. “They had a long track record of a lot of fantastic athletes. I know I can be like them in a year or so.”

Knapp had a senior campaign to remember in cross-country, winning every race he took part of — and each in dominant fashion. Nobody stayed within 20 seconds of him.

Knapp helps Enterprise boys take second in track

Zac Knapp did what everyone expected of him.

As a result, he came home with two individual state championships, a third as part of a relay team and helped the Enterprise boys get back on the podium.

Knapp swept the 1,500- and 3,000-meter runs and ran a leg of the winning 4×400 relay race, and the EHS boys finished with 49 points to take second place in the 2A state track meet May 19-20 at Hayward Field in Eugene.

The senior standout set a 2A state meet record in winning the 3,000, with his time of 8:40.32 crushing the field by more than 27 seconds. He was tested a bit more in the 1,500, but still ended up winning the event by more than five seconds with a time of 4:04.04.

The University of Idaho signee also was with Levi Ortswam, Andrew Nordtvedt and Weston Wolfe as they wrapped up the state meet late on May 20 with a win in the 4×400 relay with a winning time of 3:36.78, edging district rivals Weston-McEwen by 0.08 seconds and Heppner by 0.18 seconds.

By that point, the Outlaws were already assured second place — it was just a matter of how close they would end up to state champion Bandon. The Tigers finished with 56 points, just seven ahead of Enterprise, while the wild finish in the 4×400 resulted in Heppner, Weston-McEwen and Sheridan all tying for third with 31 points.

Joseph boys track in title run before settling for third

The Joseph boys track and field team was in the running for a 1A state championship well into the evening Friday, May 20, at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

And although the Eagles were eventually surpassed by Adrian and Powder Valley in the team standings, the third-place finish was among the best in program history, just behind the second-place effort turned in by Joseph in 2019.

In all, the Eagles got a state championship from Reece Nelson, two runner-up efforts by Bayden Menton and a strong effort by Kale Ferguson to help boost them to 49 points — a total that surpassed the 48 scored by the team when it took second three years ago.

Nelson had a solid weekend for the Eagles, and helped kick things off with two third-place finishes Thursday in the high jump and the long jump, when he posted efforts of 6 feet and 19-feet-7, respectively.

He saved the best for last Friday, the final day of his prep track career, by posting an effort of 43-7¼ inches on his fifth attempt in the triple jump. It was one of four attempts that surpassed his previous personal best of 42-5, and one of two efforts that saw him jump better than 43 feet. His individual title was the first for the Joseph boys in an OSAA state track meet since Tyler Homan took the 300-meter hurdles in 2019.

Outlaws conclude successful softball season

Rilyn Kirkland homered three times and finished with five RBIs, powering the Wallowa Valley softball team to a victory in a high-scoring first-round playoff game against Dayton on Wednesday, May 25, 9-7, for its first state playoff game victory in eight years.

Kirkland finished the day 4-for-4 and added a double in the win. She also scored four times. The senior accounted for roughly half of the team’s offense on her own, as she had four of the team’s nine hits and runs, and had five of eight RBIs credited to the Outlaws.

Abby Straight added two RBIs, Cooper Nave had two hits and Liz Rowley scored twice for the Outlaws.

The last time the program won a playoff game in softball was in 2014, a 6-5 victory earned over Santiam Christian. The team lost in the quarterfinals that year, interestingly, to Dayton.

Rowley tossed a complete game in earning the playoff victory despite a rough day in the circle. The senior allowed seven runs on just five hits, walked eight and struck out four. Two of the runs were unearned.

On May 27, the Outlaws saw their season end with a 10-0 road loss in the quarterfinals to Yamhill-Carlton, the same team that eliminated Wallowa Valley from the playoffs in 2019.

Bull rider doubted he’d recover enough to ride

When it comes to getting astride 1,500 pounds of violent, angry bull and hoping to stay there for eight seconds, Derek Kolbaba has just one thing to say:

“You’ve got to love bull riding,” he said during a telephone interview Wednesday, July 27.

Kolbaba, a three-time winner of the bull riding at the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo going into this year’s competition and a many-time participant, was driving home from a competition in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was that competition — and his recovery from it — that determined whether he actually would be up to competing during July 30’s bull riding in Joseph.

“It all depends on how my arm’s feeling. I got stepped on, so I’m on the fence at the moment to see how I feel,” he said Wednesday. “There are a lot of factors that come into play.”

He said that during the Cheyenne ride, “A bull stepped on the back of my arm, so my arm’s all swelled up and pretty black and blue. That makes it a little tough to move it at the moment.”

It turned out well for Kolbaba, as he ended up the only bull rider to hang on for the full eight seconds Saturday and won the buckle for the event.

Safety issues force Cougars to cancel season

It was not a decision that was easy to make, or one that was taken lightly.

Ultimately, though, player safety was at the forefront of the minds of the Wallowa High School administration and coaching staff in deciding to cancel the remainder of its football season, a decision that was posted on the OSAA’s website on Oct. 4, just a few days after the Cougars’ third game.

“When we started the season we only had 11,” Wallowa Athletic Director Marvin Gibbs said. “We had a couple more boys come out (after).”

Injury and illness hampered the Cougars almost from the get-go, and within a week of the season opener, a game had to be canceled.

“Our first game we had two concussions and another injury,” Gibbs said. “We played one game, then we couldn’t play.”

Wallowa dropped its opener to Ione/Arlington on Sept. 3, then six days later canceled its contest at Sherman/Condon. The Cougars again took the field Sept. 16 against Elgin, but then were forced to forfeit the following week against Adrian.

In a Sept. 30 contest against Imbler, which ended up being the final one of the season, the Cougars saw players once again forced out.

“We had 11 boys when we started the game against Imbler last week. We had nine at halftime,” Gibbs said.

It was just days later that the difficult decision to cancel the season was made.

Freshmen-laden Outlaws claim girls cross-country title

Another cross-country championship trophy came to Wallowa County.

This time, it is the Wallowa Valley girls who did the honors — and possibly started a dynasty in the process.

The freshmen-laden Outlaws had three top-20 finishers and six in the top 30 to run away — literally and figuratively — with the OSAA’s 3A/2A/1A state title Saturday, Nov. 5, at Lane Community College in Eugene.

“Everybody, they competed so well today,” said an elated head coach Dan Moody. “They just took off.”

It’s the fourth year in a row Wallowa Valley has claimed a cross-country crown after the boys won the prior three years, including a title during the COVID-19 pandemic that wasn’t sanctioned by the OSAA.

It’s also the second championship in program history, with the girls also winning in 2017. In five of the last six years, Wallowa Valley has had a state champion on either the boys’ or girls’ side of the spectrum.

“It’s wonderful, most wonderful,” senior Maddie Nordtvedt said. “I think everybody did so good.”

It very well may not be the team’s last championship, either, as six freshmen made up the seven runners at state.

“It’s tremendous what these kids accomplished,” Moody said. “It was a total team effort, the kids who ran and the kids who didn’t run (at state).”

As has been the case all year, the freshmen led the way, and as has often been the case, it was a different runner atop the pack.

Saturday, it was Piper Harvey crossing first in 11th place with a time of 20:03.2. Abigail Hurley was right on her heels in 13th at 20:12.8, and in 20th was Mary Hellinger in 20:27.1.

“We love running together,” Hurley said. “That’s what keeps us going. We’re fine with passing each other and encouraging each other through the run.”

Owyhee Harguess, the fourth runner across for Wallowa Valley, was 24th in 20:45.4, and the lone non-freshman running at state — Nordtvedt — rounded out the top five in 20:51.3.

Impressively, the entire top five for the champion Outlaws was across the finish line before the third-place runner for state runner-up Oregon Episcopal, and all seven were done before any team got its fifth runner to the tape.

The Wallowa Valley boys team was overlooked all season long, having lost several seniors from its three-peat team.

While the championship run ended, the Outlaws proved their doubters wrong, as a team not expected to claim a trophy ended up putting together a fourth-place finish at the state meet in Eugene.

“Our boys, nobody gave us any credit. They competed so well today,” Moody said.

Wallowa Valley finished the 3A boys championship with 91 points, just behind third-place Santiam Christian.

“I think most of us wanted to prove them wrong, especially at state,” freshman Jonah Lyman said. “We were ranked sixth, and ended up getting fourth.”

What’s more, the Outlaws took down a team in Sisters that had defeated it just a week prior in the district championships. Sisters finished outside of trophy range, coming in sixth.

“They went after Sisters. I can’t believe — they just attacked Sisters. Xander (Perry) passed three of them just before they came on to the track. And Andrew (Hurley) passed them (earlier). Those kids gave them everything they have. It’s nice to beat the team that beat you in district.”

Siuslaw scored 52 points to claim the state championship.