Sweet Home’s wrestling team defeated Cascade Thursday, Feb. 7, to sweep the district dual meet schedule with a 7-0 record.
The Huskies, 41-6 overall in dual meets (counting a Stayton varsity tournament in which Sweet Home’s JV wrestlers competed, now head for the Special District 4 tournament this weekend, Feb. 15-16, at Philomath.
District teams are Cascade, Central, Elmira, Cottage Grove, Junction City, Newport, Philomath, Stayton, Sweet Home and Taft.
“Now our preseason is over,” Coach Steve Thorpe said. “This is what everything we do is focused on. Now it all counts.”
The win over Cascade, which won last year’s district and state titles, was a good way to end the dual-meet schedule, he said.
“I didn’t expect to lose.”
The Huskies turned in some quality performances, Colton Schilling coming off a week of illness with no practice to pin seventh-ranked Riley Beggs in the 132-pound bout, to keep his record unbeaten; Justin Nicholson avenging an earlier loss to Logan Humphrey, winning 5-3 at 113; Tyler Cowger scoring a 7-0 decision over fourth-ranked Spencer Crawford at 152 pounds in what Thorpe called “a great duel;” another “great match” for Trever Olson at 145, decisioning Jacob Dalke 8-7; and Zach Gill’s 4-2 win over Caylan Stark at 285.
“It came down to Zach Gill again,” Thorpe said. “He’s been in that situation before where it’s come down to him. He came through. He’s been consistent. He’s doing all the right things right now that he needs to do to be successful and it’s paying off for him.”
Olson, he said, “kind of turned it on and his conditioning came through” in the latest face-off between him and Dalke.
Thorpe said freshman Brandon Keenon’s 7-0 loss to fifth-ranked Marcus Andrews, who placed sixth at state last year, at 138 pounds was a good match too.
“Brandon competed hard. He lost, but he competed hard and that’s what we need to do.”
Thorpe said it was a team effort by necessity.
“If we don’t have any one of those who are expected to win do what they need to do, we don’t win.”
Although Cascade has lost some graduates from last year’s championship team, Thorpe said he expects the Cougars to pose the biggest challenge to Sweet Home, but there are plenty of other quality wrestlers scattered throughout the district. They include, in the lighter weights, Josh Connor, Makiah Chadwick and James Bittner of Newport, Jace Bearden and Darin French of Elmira, and Seth Steere of Taft; in the middle weights, Tanner Swinehart of Central, Codi Branch of Stayton and Bryan Zimmerman of Elmira; and in the heavier weights, Dylan Smith of Stayton and Dylan Helland of Elmira.
There are also some up-and-coming teams, such as Stayton.
“They are a better team than they have been in the past,” he said. “Kyle Temple is doing a good job there.”
The Special District 4 Tournament will begin at 10 a.m. Friday, with Saturday’s early action, including championship and consolation semis, starting at 11 a.m.
Finals will begin late in the afternoon or early evening.
Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for students K-12. High school students must show their student body card. OSAA Gold Cards are the only passes accepted. A tournament pass for all three sessions is $18, and a pass for Saturday’s action is $12. Philomath High School is at 2054 Applegate St.
Sweet Home 36, Cascade 27
106 – Tyler Schilling (SH) pinned Connor Kelly (C) 1:33; 113 – Justin Nicholson (SH) dec. Logan Humphrey (C) 5-3; 120 – Michael Kroker (C) dec. Anthony Hardee (SH) 9-8; 126 – Dylan Elder (SH) won by forfeit; 132 – Colton Schilling (SH) pinned Riley Beggs (C) 1:18; 138 – Marcus Andrews (C) dec. Brandon Keenon (SH) 7-0; 145 – Trever Olson (SH) dec. Jacob Dalke (C) 8-7; 152 – Tyler Cowger (SH) dec. Spencer Crawford (C) 7-0; 160 – Bryndyn Gardner (C) dec. Brian Malloy (SH) 5-2; 170 – Kuloly Tudela (C) pinned Nate Melcher (SH) 4:50; 182 – Tyler Howe (C) pinned Ben Terry (SH) 1:59; 195 – Wade Paulus (SH) won by forfeit; 220 – Cody Crawford (C) pinned Troy Hazelton (SH) 1:01; 285 – Zach Gill (SH) dec. Caylan Stark (C) 4-2.