Tri-Cities senior breaks WA state football record for receiving yards

Liberty Christian Aiden Lesser had a game last Friday night against DeSales.

The senior receiver, who has received an offer to play for Whitworth University, finished Friday’s 64-28 win over the Irish with (at the time) looked like 16 catches for 354 yards.

But it was close enough to the state 8-man record for catches and receiving yardage in a game that it needed to be reviewed in the film.

After Liberty Christian head coach Craig Lukens — and then an assistant — reviewed the film, it turned out Lesser actually had 18 catches and 381 yards.

The 18 catches ties a state 8-man record with Colton’s Brody Chadwick from 2015, but the 381 is a new state mark.

▪ River View got an outstanding game from Braulio Mendoza on Saturday night in the Panthers’ 54-14 2B Eastern Washington Athletic Conference football win over visiting Mabton.

Mendoza had 190 all-purpose yards, and scored four touchdowns three different ways — two rushing scores, a receiving TD, and a kickoff return for a touchdown.

New head coach Kris Welch — a River View grad who played linebacker at Eastern Oregon University and was most recently head coach at Umatilla High — added that Mendoza was a terror on defense too, with five solo tackles, three of them quarterback sacks.

Mendoza is also the team’s kicker, and had four kickoff touchbacks, and was blood on six of eight PAT attempts. For added measure, Welch said Mendoza had a pancake block.

The Panthers moved from Class 1A down to the 2B ranks this season, but they have some familiar foes they’ll see, including Tri-Cities Prep and their long-time rivals, Columbia-Burbank.

“Yes, we are excited to be in the 2B league and get our old rivalry back,” Welch said. “Last week was a great team win, had a little adversity in the first half from not playing football in a year and a half. The players stepped up. They believe in our structure and the result was great.”

Prep cross country

Kamiakin’s Isaac Teeples and Kennewick’s Macy Marquardt were the top finishers in Saturday’s Mid-Columbia Conference cross country meet in Walla Walla.

Teeples, who won the 2019 boys 3A state title, was the fastest boy among the three separate races, covering the 5,000 meters in 16 minutes, 15.40 seconds.

Meanwhile, Marquardt finished in 18:57.70 to be the fastest girls varsity runner. For her efforts, Marquardt was named the state girls cross country runner of the week by The Runner WA website.

Teeples was the website’s boys runner of the week the previous week for his performance at Hanford High.

Finishing behind Teeples was teammate Grayson Wilcott (16:33.20) and Walla Walla’s Brody Hartley (16:43.00).

Led by Owen Stigge’s 16:57.90 time, Chiawana scored 33 points to edge Southridge’s 35 in the day’s tightest team race.

Because of the pandemic, the races were broken up into sections, with three schools competing at the same time.

Behind Marquardt on the girls’ side was Richland’s Natalie Ruzauskas (19:01.80) and Richland’s Andrijana Fundak (19:43.30).

Walla Walla’s girls were without senior Ella Nelson, who was out taking care of a sore hip. Wa-Hi track coach Eric Hisaw said “it was nothing serious. It’s 100 percent precautionary.”

Nelson already has signed to run cross country and track for the University of Oregon next year.

Here are the boys’ team scores: Chiawana 33, Southridge 35, Richland 57; Hanford 21, Hermiston 36; Kamiakin 19, Walla Walla 48, Pasco 67.

Top 11 boys’ times: 1. Isaac Teeples (Kamiakin), 16:15.40; 2. Grayson Wilcott (Kam), 16:33.20; 3. Brody Hartley (WW), 16:43.00; 4. Owen Stigge (Chiawana), 16:57.90; 5. Micah McCollum (Southridge), 16:58.30; 6. Ethan Stout (Hermiston), 17:00.60; 7. Joel Martinez (Richland), 17:08.40; 8. Ehzoe Chavez (Chia), 17:12.60; 9. Jordan Sanguino (Kam), 17:20.50; 10. Troy Russo (Hanford), 17:23.50; 11. Nathan Crumby (Southridge), 17:23.60.

MCC girls team scores: Hermiston 32, Hanford 40, Kennewick 56; Richland 17, Southridge 52, Chiawana 59; Walla Walla 25, Kamiakin 31, Pasco 79.

Top 11 girls’ times: 1. Macy Marquardt (Kennewick), 18:57.70; 2. Natalie Ruzauskas (Richland), 19:01.80; 3. Andrijana Fundak (Rich), 19:43.30; 4. Sariah Hepworth (WW), 20:17.80; 5. Madilynn Carr (Rich), 20:20.60; 6. Amanda Nygard (Hermiston), 20:34.30; 7. Emma Summers (Rich), 20:40.80; 8. Alexia Serna (Herm), 20:40.90; 9. Megan Joyce (Herm), 20:44.40; 10. Mia Beightol (Hanford), 20:44.90; 11. Brooklin Seadore (Southridge), 20:45.10.

More prep notes

We’re just into the second week of fall sports in March, but spring sports practices begin March 22. That’s what happens when all sports are bunched together.

Athletes for baseball, golf, boys soccer, fastpitch softball, tennis and track and field are next up.

Mid-Columbia Conference girls soccer matches this week — most of them, anyway — will start to count in the standings if anyone is interest in keeping track of standings. We are, and will. … MCC volleyball matches on Saturday will start counting for the standings.

College sports

▪ Chiawana grad Talia von Oelhoffen did enough damage in her short stint with the Oregon State women’s basketball team (8 games) that she was an honorable mention selection for the Pac-12 Conference all-freshmen women’s basketball team, announced Monday.

Von Oelhoffen scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished off three assists in Sunday’s upset 88-77 win over Oregon to finish the regular season. The Beavers open Pac-12 Tournament play at 11 a.m. Wednesday against California, tag the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

OSU is 6-2 since von Oelhoffen graduated early from Chiawana and joined the team in January.

▪ Chiawana grad Summer Yates scored two goals for the University of Washington women’s soccer team in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the University of Colorado.

▪ McKaley Goffard (Southridge) scored a goal and an assist, and goalie Kelsee Winston had two saves in her 15th career shutout Sunday in Eastern Washington University’s 5-0 women’s soccer victory over the College of Idaho.

For their efforts, Goffard was named the Big Sky Conference women’s soccer offensive player of the week on Monday; while Winston was the Big Sky’s defensive player of the week.