Season 3 (spring sports) got under way this week at Lebanon High School and East Linn Christian Academy.
Baseball, softball, track and field, golf and tennis started at Lebanon, while East Linn is competing in baseball and track.
Lebanon had a tough “fall sports” season, but East Linn had some success, particularly in boys soccer and cross-country.
The long layoff from sports may have taken a toll on the Warriors, who finished Season 2 without a winning record in any activity.
The football team finished 1-2 in league, 1-5 overall, following a 25-0 win over South Albany and close losses to Estacada, Sprague, and North Bend. The Warriors’ only really bad loss was a 28-0 defeat by North Albany.
In volleyball, Lebanon was 2-7 in Mid-Willamette Conference play, and 3-10 overall, with a win at home over North Salem, and wins on road at McKay and Crescent Valley followed by a 3-2 loss at home to Dallas in their final match.
Boys soccer went 0-6-2 in league, 0-8-2 overall.
The Warriors finished 1-7 in MWC girls soccer play, 2-7-1 overall, with a win at Central and a win at home over McNary.
In cross-country, junior RJ Kennedy was third out of 54 runners (16:42.49) in the MWC End of Season Showdown, held April 10 at Cheadle Park. The boys finished sixth as a team.
For the girls, sophomore Payton Drummond was 11th (22:51.00) out of 34 runners. Lebanon did not have enough girls running in the race to score as team.
East Linn finished at the top of Special District 3 in boys soccer (the Eagles don’t field a girls team, but had several girls playing with the boys), with a 3-1-1 record and 5-4-1 overall. They lost 4-2 to Western Christian/Amity in the quarterfinals of the 3A Culminating Week tournament in a game held at Santiam Christian, a neutral site.
East Linn finished 1-9 in Special District 3 volleyball, 2-10 overall.
In cross-country, the Eagles didn’t have enough runners to score as a team on either the boys or girls side, but they hosted both the District 2 championships (April 1) and the small schools state meet (April 10) at Cheadle Park.
Seniors Brandon Williams finished 1-2 for the boys in the district championships, Williams running 17:54.40 and Slayden 18:10.
Sophomore Bethany Pool was the girls’ top finisher at districts, placing 11th out of 70 finishers.
In the 2A/1A championship race, Williams was second in 16:27.87, behind Stanfield/Echo’s Sisay Hurty (16:25.99). Slayden was 10th (17:22.19) .