Rose City Roundup: McDaniel football players commit; Honor coming for St. Mary's legend
Another week is in the books and we’ve got more news and notes from the past week in the Rose City Roundup!
The winter season is coming down to the final stretch in February, meanwhile a new award and some notable commitments were announced this past week as well.
And of course if you’ve missed any stories from the past couple of weeks, we’ve got them linked down below.
Thanks for reading and subscribing to the Portland Preps newsletter, and we’re looking forward to another great month in February!
Stories from the last two weeks
Jefferson girls basketball looking to create new legacy with 2025-2026 season
Lincoln girls basketball hitting its stride for second half of PIL play
Richad Hudson leading the breakout of Benson boys basketball
Mountain Lions heading to college
A couple of the best football players in the city have officially found a home in McDaniel’s Tre’Marion Crawford and Jaydin Jordan.
The duo are heading to Santa Rosa Junior College in California to play for the Bear Cubs.
Both wideouts were named to the All-PIL First Team for the 2025 season. Crawford finished the year with 47 catches for 491 yards and three touchdowns, along with 33 rushes for 274 yards and four more TDs, giving him a total of 790 yards.
Jordan had 43 receptions for 730 yards, and on defense he had 23 tackles with one sack, two tackles for loss and fumble recovery. Crawford had 34 tackles on defense with an interception.
The duo also did damage in the return game to help bring some momentum to a growing McDaniel football program under head coach Russell Millage.
Girls wrestling roundup
The Guardian Invitational went down Saturday, Jan. 31 where the homesteading Guardians took fourth in a field of 10 teams. Century won with 175.5 points, followed by Woodburn in second with 122, Beaverton with 113 and Wells in fourth with 97.5.
Senior Zorina Johnson won the 135-pound bracket to highlight the Guardians’ efforts. Linda James took second at 120 and Gabbi Morejohn took second at 155.
Roosevelt also competed at the event and had Emony Greely win the 190 title, along with Niazeal Orduna-Torres take second at 100.
Grant competed at the Southridge Smackdown and took home a couple individual titles. Melanie Blecher won the 125-pound bracket, meanwhile Brody Arbogast won the bracket at 135.
A handful of local teams also competed in the Bill Geister Invitational hosted by Clackamas.
David Douglas had an individual winner in Faith Williams taking home the 120 bracket. Franklin got a winner as well with Estefania Ramirez winning at 105.
The last local winner was Sofia Patterson from Lincoln, she won the 110-pound bracket.
PIL boys getting interesting
We’re halfway through the PIL basketball slate and there’s plenty of opportunity for the standings to get wild in the second half.
The first half closed with a bang as Ida B. Wells upset Grant on the road 71-58 behind 25 points from Ahmad Surur, 18 from Sufyan Carter and 17 from Blake Karman.
The Generals are still in first at 7-1, but both Benson and Roosevelt are only a game behind at 6-2 each. And both played Grant to a close game the first time around.
It’s not just the top three either as the Guardians’ upset win leaves them in fourth at 5-3, only holding that spot because of a head-to-head win over Lincoln who’s also 5-3. Oh, and the Cardinals have one of those wins over Benson.
The fun doesn’t end there. Franklin is on a two-game winning streak after taking down Southeast rival Cleveland and McDaniel last week. The Lightning also put up 83 points in a 92-83 loss to Roosevelt and kept it close with Grant as well.
All that to say: The second half should provide even closer matchups and a chance for this young and hungry league to create some chaos.
Honor for St. Mary’s legend
St. Mary’s Academy legend Anna Maria Lopez will be honored this Wednesday, Feb. 4, on National Girls and Women in Sports Day at St. Mary’s Academy.
The OSAA is creating a new award called the Anna Maria Lopez Outstanding Athlete of the Year which will be given to either a past or present Oregon girls athlete. Lopez will be awarded the honor named after her for the inaugural selection.
Lopez was named the greatest high school athlete in Oregon history by Sports Illustrated last year. She helped the Blues win two state volleyball championships, a Parade All-American selection in basketball, won two individual discus state titles and was an All-American softball player.
She played basketball and volleyball at USC and helped the Trojans win two national titles in volleyball.
After her playing career wrapped up, Lopez went back to SMA to be a teacher and coach, and has served as the Blues’ athletic director for the past 35 years. The 2025-2026 school year will be her last.
