Sports

Wildcat varsity and JV boys won their divisions in last Thursday’s one-day Wildcat Relays. With mild temperatures and sunny skies to buoy their spirits—and their first real opportunity to field a whole team—the Cats took charge and racked up the points, led by outstanding performances from Bill Koetting, Saul Escamilla, Twister Kelton, and Rhet Pennington.

The biggest news in rodeo last week was the cancellation of RodeoHouston due to the coronavirus...but Canadian’s own professional barrel racer, Tamara Reinhardt, made a little news of her own.

On Monday, March 16, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) abruptly and immediately suspended all UIL-sanctioned contests due to the outbreak of COV- ID-19 in Texas. The suspension was ordered to continue through March 29.

Canadian’s Disc Golf Park got a workout Sunday as a few hardy souls—hailing from Canadian, Borger, and Amarillo—braved the chill for the Canadian Community Center’s 2nd Annual St. Paddy’s Disc Golf Tournament.

The Canadian Wildcats competed at the Canadian invitational on Wednesday, March 4 and at the Childress tournament on Tuesday, March 10. The Lady Cats showed out at the same events on Mondays, March 2 and March 9.

Canadian High School Senior Grant McCook (#10) was named the 2019-20 All-District 1-3A MVP. This year’s Offensive MVP went to Nathan Welch of Bushland. Acqtavian Baty, a junior from Dimmitt, was selected as Defensive MVP. River Road senior Malikih Gillum was named the Newcomer of the Year Joining McCook on the 2020 All-District team are juniorJosh Colwell (#00), and seniors Bill Koetting (#30) and Saul Escamilla (#05).

Former Canadian Wildcat Cameron Copley—a five-time state champion during his high school career, and now a standout performer on Lubbock Christian’s Chaps basketball team—was one of five Lubbock Christian men’s basketball players named to the Lone Star All-Conference team last week.

On Friday, March 6, the Wildcats and Lady Cats traveled to Borger to compete in their second track meet of the season. The weather was warm and sunny for the majority of the day, and the wind only picked up later in the afternoon. Both teams were at full strength, although, the boys who finished up their basketball season on March 3 were confined to field events.

Nine members of Canadian’s tennis team played at a tournament in Spearman on Monday, March 2 and Wednesday, March 4, and they dominated the competition. In mixeddoubles, Hayze Hufstedler and Audrey Abraham won each game by a wide margin and played their teammates Stephen Pulliam and Emma Waters for the championship, sweeping the tournament.

The Lady Cats were back in Childress on Monday, but they struggled to find their footing this time against the Bobcats. Six runs from Childress early on in the game were too much for the Lady Cats to overcome, and they lost 11-0. The Bobcats were able to score on a triple, a single, and two errors in the first inning Although they struggled against Childress’s offense, the Lady Cats did have a momentum-changing play when Vivianna Salas hit a double in the second inning. Salas led the Lady Cats in hits, finding her mark on two of three at bats. Pitcher Jessica Stiner only allowed nine hits and struck out three batters. The Bobcats had no errors in the field. In a twogame series, Canadian’s Lady Cat Varsity and the Gruver Greyhounds will play back-to-back games-the first, at home in Canadian on Tuesday, March 17 at 1:30 pm, and the second one at Gruver on Wednesday, March 18, starting at 2 pm.