(Part III, July-September)
JULY
Eat my dust.
A record number of runners took part in the first Nike ACG trail run and half-marathon at the 2002 Ford Gorge Games.
All told, 385 runners registered for the trail run, the largest in the event's six-year history, through scenic Hood River-area mountains.
SR0.
A record crowd watched the Gorge Games freestyle windsurfing contest at The Hatchery State Park. Canadian Nori Hubbs won the women's competition, while last year's men's runnerup, Mitch Gingrich of The Dalles, Ore., placed first.
Wind in their hair.
The Gorge Games Blowout, a 17-mile upriver race from Stevenson to Hood River, began with 135 contestants. Worth noting: the first woman to complete the race on a kiteboard, Renee Hanks of Arcata, Calif., defended her women's Blowout title.
First-time champions.
South African Steve Fisher and Shannon Carroll of Raleigh, N.C. became first-time winners of the Gorge Games' head-to-head kayaking competition. They were among the 32 men and 16 women who took on the White Salmon River's Husum Falls.
Make that two.
Steve Fisher captured his first Gorge Games Extreme Kayaking title to complete a sweep of the men's kayaking competitions. The South African made two clean runs over the White Salmon River's 25-foot Big Brother Falls to edge 1998 winner Scott Shipley of Atlanta, Ga.
One final go-round.
Shayne Arnold of Glenwood competed in her last National High School Finals Rodeo in Farmington, N.M. It was her second national finals. And just like the year before, she went in hopes of bringing home top honors in breakaway roping.
AUGUST
Head of the pack.
Eloise Zimbelman of White Salmon won the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association's State Road Championship for girls ages 13-14. She finished first at the head of a field of more than 100 racers. The race comprised two laps of a 10-mile course near Parkdale, Ore. Zimbelman completed her two laps in just over an hour.
Grandest of them all.
To come home from the annual county fair with a blue ribbon or two is quite an accomplishment for most people. To bring back nine ribbons and four trophies from one fair, however -- as White Salmon teen Roxanne McGray did in 2002 --that's a lifetime record of achievement. The 15-year-old and her equine partner, Woody, added to an already impressive collection of awards by capturing the title of Grand Champion in eight classes of youth competition.
SEPTEMBER
A home (win) away from home.
Columbia High notched its first win of the 2002 football season under most unusual circumstances. Because CHS Stadium's new grandstand was ready for occupation, the Bruins played their home opener at Stevenson High School. No matter. CHS pasted visiting Forks, 33-14, behind senior quarterback Eric Crause's three-TD, 15-8-yard effort on the ground, and a stingy CHS defense that allowed Forks 60 yards rushing.
Just plain, b
ad luck.
Football has been called a game of inches. But sometimes it's a game of bounces. One fortuitous bounce and a great athletic play in the final seconds of the Trico Division opener were all Castle Rock needed to defeat Columbia High, 32-29.
On the play -- the last of a 75-yard drive in 1:15 -- Rockets quarterback Nathan Roubicek fired a pass from 20 yards away, into the end zone. The ball ricocheted off the hand of tight end Kyle Wheeler and into the arms of wideout Scott Selby as time expired. Twice during the final march, Castle Rock converted on fourth down to keep the chains moving.
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