Vic Wild, a native of White Salmon who competes for Russia, won the bronze medal Tuesday in parallel giant slalom snowboarding at the Winter Olympics.  Wild defeated Roland Fischnaller of Italy in the bronze medal race, with Fischnaller unable to complete the course.  Wild finished ninth in qualifying runs, then topped Russian teammate Dmitry Loginov in the first knockout round and nipped Korea’s Sang-Ho Lee by one-one hundredth of a second in the quarterfinal.  He lost the semi-final to Tim Mastnak of Slovenia.  The 35-year-old Wild was a gold medalist in 2014 in both the parallel slalom and the parallel giant slalom events.  He placed 10th in parallel giant slalom in 2018, with parallel slalom having been dropped from the Olympic program.

State health officials announced Monday Oregon will remove general mask requirements for indoor public places no later than March 31.  By late March, health scientists expect that about 400 or fewer Oregonians would be hospitalized with COVID-19, the level of hospitalizations the state experienced before the Omicron variant began to spread.  Mask requirements for schools will be lifted on March 31.  However, Oregon state epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said the mask requirements need to remain in place for now as COVID-19 hospitalizations crest and Oregon’s health care system strains to treat high numbers of severely ill patients.  Oregon has the third lowest cumulative COVID-19 case rate in the nation and the seventh lowest COVID-19 death rate since the start of the pandemic.  Health experts are strongly recommend high-risk individuals continue wearing masks in indoor public settings after mask requirements are lifted.  Once requirements are lifted, employers and businesses may continue to establish their own mask requirements to protect employees and customers.

Klickitat County Public Health Director Erinn Quinn says COVID-19 case counts in the County are starting to trend downward after reaching a peak in January.  Quinn says there were 788 reported COVID cases in Klickitat County in January, more than in the first 13 months of the pandemic.  But she says they are seeing evidence of the numbers going down, noting COVID trends in Klickitat County have tended to run a bit behind the western part of Washington.  Quinn added local hospitals are doing well at this point, but transfers to higher levels of care in larger cities remain difficult.  

Vic Wild, a native of White Salmon who competes for Russia, will compete tonight in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom.  The 35-year-old Wild was a gold medalist in 2014 in both the parallel slalom and the parallel giant slalom events.  He placed 10th in parallel giant slalom in 2018, with parallel slalom having been dropped from the Olympic program.  Wild began to compete for Russia after marrying a snowboarder from the country, and seeking to leave the American snowboarding program due to what he considered a lack of funding and support for the Alpine portion of the program.  Qualifying runs take place at 7 p.m. Pacific time this evening.

Boys Basketball

Hood River Valley 73, Pendleton 67

The Dalles 59, Crook County 49

Castle Rock 62, Columbia 33

South Wasco 74, Dufur 51

South Wasco 73, Horizon Christian 53

Dufur 61, Lyle-Wishram 40

Lyle-Wishram 40, Klickitat-Glenwood 24

Echo 69, Sherman 50

Condon 60, Sherman 39

  Girls Basketball

Pendleton 60, Hood River Valley 23

Crook County 45, The Dalles 24

Columbia 48, Castle Rock 37

South Wasco 55, Dufur 49

South Wasco 60, Horizon Christian 48

Echo 71, Sherman 39

Trout Lake 40, Horizon Christian 21

Trout Lake 64, Klickitat-Glenwood 17

Condon 36, Sherman 35

  Southwest Washington District 4 Class 2B Girls Basketball Tournament

Round 1:  Wahkiakum 75, Stevenson 13…Stevenson plays Ilwaco on Tuesday at 7:30 in Rochester.

  Boys Wrestling

Four Hood River Valley wrestlers won their weight class as HRV finished fifth as a team in the tournament they hosted over the weekend.  Carson Farlow, Connor Farlow, Treshaun Douglass, and Jaime Rodriguez-Estrada were victorious for the Eagles.  For The Dalles, Conner Blair won at 126 pounds as the Riverhawks finished seventh.  Forest Grove won the team title.

  Stevenson took fifth at the Washington Class 2B Sub-Regional at Ocosta.  The Bulldogs received second place finishes from Gavin Gantner and Soloman Mahoney.

  Goldendale was fifth at the EWAC Championships at Warden.  Bryce Waddell and Victor Canche were second in their weight classes.

  Girls Wrestling

Hood River Valley’s Dulce Najera finished second at 100 pounds and The Dalles’ Maisie Banda-Ramirez was third at 125 pounds in the OSAA Eastern Regional in Prineville to advance to the state tournament.

Goldendale’s Kali Watson and Madison Kiemele finished second in their weight classes at the Washington Class 2B Sub-Regional at Richland.

Hood River Valley High School alum Sean FitzSimons finished 12th in the men’s snowboarding slopestyle final at the Winter Olympics in Bejing.  The 21-year-old FitzSimons…who graduated from Hood River Valley High School in 2019…had a rough day during the finals…going down on a jump on all three of his runs.  FitzSimons had finished third in the qualifying round after having the highest score in the opening run.  Max Parrot of Canada won the gold medal, Su Yiming of China took the silver, and Mark McMorris of Canada the bronze.  FitzSimons will compete again during the Big Air competition.  Qualifying in that event will take place on Friday night Pacific time.

Boys Basketball

The Dalles 65, Hood River Valley 62:  The Riverhawks pulled out the win after the Eagles came back from an 11-point second half deficit.  Braden Schwartz scored 18 points, Henry Begay 16, and Styles DeLeon 15 for The Dalles.  Emanuel Romero led Hood River with 16 points, Tommy Ziegler 12, and Clayton Cook 10.  Both teams are now part of a four-way tie for second in the Intermountain Conference.

Seton Catholic 61, Columbia 51:  Ben Allen led the Bruins with 15 points.

Adna 68, Stevenson 43

  Girls Basketball

The Dalles 49, Hood River Valley 36:  The Riverhawks went on the road for their first Intermountain Conference win of the season.

Seton Catholic 65, Columbia 37:  Sydney Aman topped CHS with 15 points.

Wahkiakum 61, Stevenson 12

A Seattle man was arrested after a high-speed pursuit on Interstate 84 west of Arlington.  The Gilliam County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy on Highway 19 near milepost 1 observed a vehicle traveling north at 105 miles per hour just after 7:30 a.m. Thursday.  The vehicle slowed down going through Arlington before going on to the westbound freeway, and after not complying with an attempted stop reached a speed of 127 miles per hour when officers decided to terminate the pursuit.  But the suspect vehicle was located in Rufus, and the driver of the vehicle fled on foot, but was later found by law enforcement hiding in a nearby portable toilet.  The Gilliam County Sheriff’s Office says Andrew Tremain of Seattle was arrested and lodged at the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility on a trio of charges.

The Hood River County Commission wrote a follow-up letter to their recent conversation with Congressman Earl Blumenauer on his legislative concepts for further preservation designations of lands in the Mt. Hood National Forest and the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.  In the letter, the Commissioners state wildfire, drinking and irrigation water, and recreation access are their critical areas of concern.  Commission Chair Mike Oates says a key point they wanted to make is the need for addressing funding to maintain what is already there.  The letter also says additional wilderness designations are of particular concern, noting broad protections afforded by those can interfere with actions to reduce catastrophic wildfire and limit the ability to access and maintain water sources.

White Salmon City Councilors voted unanimously to install a four-way stop sign at the corner of Main and Spring streets, following the recommendation of its City Operations Committee.  Councilors had received complaints about the safety of the intersection due to visibility issues.  A number of citizens testified they would prefer to see the amount of parking at the intersection reduced, but Councilors indicated previous proposals to do that had met with stiff public opposition.  Councilor Jim Ransier felt with a consensus of a safety issue at the intersection, there was an obligation to take action.  Police Chief Mike Hepner was also supportive of establishing the four-way stop.