Notebook: Castillo earns top honors for Bearcats

It also looks like the "everyone makes the playoffs" rule will be going away, at least in the 5A, where the bottom five teams in the rankings at the end of the season will be dropped out, instead of competing in play-in games.

While current high school athletes wait for the chance to shine in state competition, a few former Hood River-area high school athletes continue to make a name for themselves in the college ranks, particularly in track and field. College track season is nearing its end and a couple of former Eagles were on dueling teams at last week's Northwest Athletic Conference league track meet.

Willamette's Leo Castillo was chosen as male athlete of the meet after winning the 5,000 meters in 15:08.80 and the 10,000 meters in 31:17.13, representing half of the Bearcats' individual championships at the event.

The Willamette men finished second as a team.

Also running in the 5,000 meters was Alex VanSlyke, who finished 15th in the event for Linfield.

That was not his best finish of the competition, though.

VanSlyke finished third in the steeplechase with a time of 9 minutes 34.76 seconds. The finish earned him all-league honors and was the top individual finish by a Linfield runner on the first day of the meet.

The Linfield men finished fifth in the team standings.

Another part of the HRV class of 2008 had a big week. Running for Oregon State, Erin Jones set a career-best time in the 5,000 meters with a 17:39.40 at the Oregon Relays to finish 39th in the event.

Also competing at the Relays was Rachel Perry for the University of Oregon. In the shot put she finished seventh with a throw of 42-11.50, a season-best mark.

Kari Hidle of Southern Oregon University finished 11th in the 200 meters and 15th in the 100 meters. Her 200-meter time of 26.72 was a season-best.

Lauren Lloyd helped the Cornell University Medley distance relay team to the sixth best time in school history with a 3:57.50 at the Penn Relays last week. Lloyd ran a 2:10.9 relay split in the 800-meters as Cornell finished sixth in the race.

In crew, Rachel Schlosser earned first-team all-Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association, after helping Gonzaga to a second place team finish in Sacramento over the weekend.

Elliott Sherrell helped the Lane Community College baseball team to a doubleheader split with Southwest Oregon with a sacrifice fly and RBI last week.

Andy Baldwin is now 2-2 on the season after allowing three runs in each of his last two starts for the Rochester Red Wings, the AAA Affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.

Finally, for your trivia: Which service academy leads the all-time series in the Army-Navy football game?

A: Navy, with 55 wins to 49 losses and seven ties.

That is reason No. 1,890 to be glad I am your local sports reporter.