Sweet Home senior Paige Chafin ended her high-school wrestling career with her first state title during the 2022 OSAA Girls State Championships, held Thursday, Feb. 24, at Culver High School.
The Lady Huskies took eighth overall with 49 points. Forest Grove won with 99 points, followed by Thurston at 75 and Hillsboro with 69.
Chafin has improved steadily each year on the way to her culminating victory. She didn’t qualify for state as a freshman. She made it as a sophomore, but didn’t win any matches. As a junior, she placed third.
This year there was no doubt who the top wrestler was at 115 pounds, as the top-seeded Chafin blew through her three opponents, spending only 2 minutes and 20 seconds total on the mat.
After a first-round bye, she pinned Mountain View’s Arianne Korish in 23 seconds during the quarterfinals, then felled Klamath Union’s Hayleigh Dukes in 35 seconds in the semis. In what proved to be a long match by her standards, the champion pinned Scappoose’s Courtney Hall in 1:22 for the title.
Chafin admitted she was “way more nervous” than she should have been before her final match, because she’d “absolutely dominated the bracket” to that point. But despite her nerves, she “went out and got it done.” She said Hall “already looked intimidated,” so she focused on applying even more pressure.
“This is something I’ve been looking forward to all season,” Chafin said after the match. “On the first day of practice, I was telling myself that I’m going to be a state champion.”
It took dedication to reach that goal. She said she spent a lot of time in the mat room over the summer while her friends were out having fun.
“It was exciting,” Head Coach Gracie Olson Stutzman said of the victory. “It was really well-deserved. She works hard in the off-season.”
Chafin plans to continue wrestling at Eastern Oregon University.
Sweet Home’s other No. 1 senior seed, Kami Hart, didn’t have a good day in the 170-pound class. She was pinned in the quarterfinals, then again in her first consolation bracket match, and did not place on the podium.
Hart started off strong, defeating Canby’s Lexli Zuriaga in 19 seconds. But in her next match the quarterfinals, she got pinned by Central Linn’s Anna McDougal in 1:27. Hart attempted a quarter-nelson, but her opponent reached around and grabbed her leg.
“I’d beaten her before, and I wasn’t super-scared,” Hart said. “I know she’s pretty good, but I thought I could beat her. I messed up on one of my moves and she caught me.”
In Hart’s next match, she was pinned by Eagle Point’s Alixia Hernandez in 4:20.
“I probably shouldn’t have lost,” Hart said. “I wasn’t wrestling 100%. I was still a little disappointed after the first loss.”
“It was a rough day,” Stutzman said. “It’s not how she wanted to end, but I’m still proud of her performance this season.”
Hart described her final season as “really good. I definitely improved since my last two years (Hart started wrestling as a sophomore) and I’m proud of how I did.”
As a sophomore Hart didn’t place at regionals, while last year she finished third at state. She said she’s received an offer from Salem’s Corban University to wrestle at the next level, but has yet to solidify her plans.
Unseeded junior Kendra Jamison finished her first season on the mat with a fifth-place finish in the 100-pound weight class.
Jamison said she was wrestling for her brother, Jesse, who placed fourth in the state for the Huskies as a sophomore and second as a junior before missing his senior season this year after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament while playing football.
She said she picked up wrestling before this season because she felt bad for her brother. She was already familiar with the sport, having watched Jesse compete in tournaments since childhood. On Feb. 24, he was cheering for his sister at Culver, even standing in the coaching area and advising her during matches.
In the first round, Jamison lost to Redmond’s Hailey Lakin by a fall in 4:43. But she needed only 20 seconds to pin Hood River Valley’s Dulce Najera in the consolation bracket. She continued with a 3:41 win over Hillsboro’s Nina De Leon in the following round, but then lost to Dallas’ Polly Olliff in 4:04. That set up a rematch with Lakin for fifth place. This time Jamison got the better of her opponent, pinning her in 1:58.
“In my first match there was more pressure, wrestling in my first match at state,” Jamison said. “(The fifth-place match) was after a couple matches, so I was more warmed up.”
It also helped that she’d already faced Lakin.
“I had thought through what her moves were more, knowing what she had done already,” she said.
Stutzman said it’s “pretty impressive what she’s done (this season). I’m really happy with her fifth-place finish.”
While her brother plans to wrestle in college after his injury heals, Jamison said she’ll focus on training to become a state champion her senior year.