Sweet Home placed fourth out of 15 teams at the Perry Burlison Invitational wrestling tournament Saturday at Cascade, behind book-end individual titles by Ty Schilling at 106 pounds and Zach Gill at 285.
The Huskies showed marked improvement over their opener the week before – three losses in duals with Henley, Crook County and Lebanon.
“We wrestled a lot better,” Coach Steve Thorpe said. “We had people really compete. It’s fun to go somewhere when guys are wrestling well.”
Schilling, a freshman, pinned his first opponent, then bet Logan Humphrey of Cascade 7-5 and Tristan Holcomb of Pendleton 8-5 to win his first high school tournament, both decisions coming in overtime.
On the other end, Gill pinned Alex Machete of McMinnville, then beat Sean Van Pelt of Pendleton 3-2 before downing Max Hollis of Sprague 10-5 in the final.
Other place-winners for Sweet Home were Justin Nicholson, fourth at 113; Erik Garcia, fourth at 120; Scottie Stockman, fifth at 126;
Ty Harvey, fourth at 138; Ty Cowger, second at 145; Alex Armstrong, sixth at 170; and Wade Paulus, second at 195.
Cowger lost 3-2 to Ryan Dozler of Cascade in a controversial match that Thorpe believed should have gone into overtime.
“Cowger is the kind of wrestler who will learn from that experience,” he said. “It’ll make him better.”
Paulus pinned his way to the final in the 195-pound bracket, then lost by a fall to three-time state 5A champion Brandon Griffen of Sprague, who was LeHigh University’s top signee this year.
“We had some pretty neat individual performances,” Thorpe siad. “
“Alex Armstrong wrestled a great tournament and Erik Garcia did great. Trever Olson (at 152) wrestled great until he had to injury default out.”
Thorpe said he’s pleased with his team’s progress.
“You want it to happen right now, but sometimes it doesn’t,” he said. “Everything we do is to get better for February. We’ve got some first-year kids who are still learning how to wrestle. They’re learning how to wrestle right now and they’re doing a good job. That’s exciting for me. Some of these freshmen are starting to turn the corner.”
Sweet Home will be busy until just before Christmas.
After hosting North Marion, Stayton and Central Linn on Tuesday, the Huskies will travel to the Thurston Duals on 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 17, where they will meet Lowell, Culver, McKay, Dallas and Thurston.
Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 20 and 21, they will participate in the Lebanon Duals. Start time is noon Tuesday and 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Perry Burlison Invitational
Team Scores
1. Cascade 217; 2. Pendleton 189; 3. Sprague 175.5; 4. Sweet Home 165; 5. Lebanon 119.5; 6. McNary 108.5; 7. McMinnville 93; 8. North Marion 89; 9. Philomath 85; 10. Estacada 79; 11. South Ridge 75; 12. Molalla 57; 13. McKay 26; Cottage Grove 23; 15. Junction City 6.
Sweet Home Indivdiual Results
106 – Ty Schilling pinned Derek Jones (North Marion), dec. Logan Humphrey (Cascade); OT dec. Tristan Holcomb (Pendleton) to place first.
113 – Justin Nicholson pinned Trenton Martinez (Sprague), lost 9-0 to eventual champion Colton Skeen (Pendleton), lost by fall to Bryce Brandon (McMinnville) to place fourth.
120 – Erik Garcia pinned Orion Walters (North Marion), lost by fall to DonnyWendlund (Estacada), lost by fall to Duke Hebdon (Molalla) to place fourth.
126 – Scottie Stockman lost 6-0 to Spencer Crawford (Cascadia), pinned Zack Jones (Estacada), pinned Louis Palos (McNary) to place fifth.
132 – Hunter Bidwell lost by fall to Maldinado (McNary), advanced on bye, lost to Solomon Souza (Lebanon). Did not place.
138 – Ty Harvey pinned Andy Wilkson (Southridge), pinned Zach Zehner (Sprague), lost by fall to Lucas Randall (North Marion), lost by technical fall to Dylan Holcomb (Pendleton) to place fourth.
145 – Ty Cowger pinned Austin Keller (Molalla), dec. Jeremy Lowe (McNary) 7-4, lost 3-2 to Ryan Dozler (Cascade) to finish second.
152 – Trever Olson dec. Jacob Dalke (Cascade) 7-2, lost by inj. def. to Tiger Paasch (McMinneville), lost by inj. def. to August Ensminger (Cottage Grove); did not place.
160 – Raul Hernandez pinned Edgar Alvarez (McKay), lost by fall to eventual champion Colton Kohlmeyer (Cascade), lost 5-2 to Kiante Davis (Lebanon), did not place.
170 – Alex Armstrong pinned Tommy Smalls (McMinnville), lost 9-1 to Tyler Howe (Cascade), pinned AJ Urban (McNary), lost by fall to Anthony Johnson (Southridge) to finish sixth.
182 – Chance Jucutan pinned Riley Watkins (Philomath), lost by fal to Daniel Aranda (Lebanon), lost 11-6 to Ben Goodman (Junction City); did not place.
195 – Wade Paulus pinned Jeremy Hustad (McKay), pinned Tanner Carey (Pendleton), lost by fall to Brandon Griffin (Sprague).
220 – David Skeen pinned Conner Astley (Sprague), lost by fall to Jake Martin (Southridge), lost by fall to Michael Everitt (Sprague); did not place.
285 – Zach Gill pinned Alex Machete (McMinnville), pinned Sean Van Pelt (Pendleton), dec. Max Hollis (Sprague) 10-5.