Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Brock Crocker was in trouble. With less than five seconds left in the Sweet Home freshman’s 125-pound consolation final match against sophomore Drew Erickson of Pleasant Hill, Crocker was trailing 4-3 and he was on the bottom.
But it wasn’t over for Crocker. As the clock ticked down to the final few seconds, he exploded and rolled Erickson over to score a two-point reversal and take the match as his Husky teammates went wild and the crowd roared.
That was pretty much the way it went for Sweet Home Saturday in the final matches of the OSAA 4A wrestling state championships at the state fairgrounds in Salem.
Sweet Home, buoyed by some overachieving youngsters and junior varsity wrestlers, won the state championship over perennial power Tillamook and 38 other teams. It was the Huskies’ first state championship since 1999 and the third for Head Coach Steve Thorpe in his 11 years at Sweet Home.
Thorpe was honored as Coach of the Year, along with his assistants, Tim Boatright, Eric Tagle, Steve Hummer and Joe Rosa.
“This is exciting and it feels really good,” said Thorpe as he and his wrestlers waited to accept the team trophy. “I know people say we work really hard, but we really worked hard. Our wrestlers did morning workouts and afternoon practices. Not everybody was a state finalist, but it’s nice to be rewarded as a team.”
The Huskies received their team trophy from former Sweet Home wrestler Mike Murphy, who now manages a Les Schwab tire store in Salem. Murphy, a two-time state champion for the Huskies in the 1980s, grew up with Thorpe and their fathers were instrumental in starting the Sweet Home Mat Club, Thorpe said.
Seventeen of the 21 Huskies who qualified for state scored as they rolled up 154 points to Tillamook’s 140.5, on a stream of third- and fourth-place finishes to bolster junior Danny Johnson’s runner-up finish to top-ranked Tillamook freshman Dustin Woosley in the 112-pound final.
In the 112-pound final, Johnson was overmatched by Woosley, son of the Tillamook coach, whose height and skills proved too much for the Husky, who was pinned in 3:04. Woosley, who also beat Johnson at the Oregon Classic in Redmond earlier this year, scored an early takedown and Johnson came back with a reversal, but Woosley came back with an escape and another quick takedown in the second round to finish things off.
Johnson, who started wrestling three years ago as a freshman, was disappointed that he didn’t come away with gold, but said things went well for him overall in the tournament. He set the school record for pins in a season, bringing his total during the tournament to 30, which bested the old record of 28. He said he’s looking forward to another season.
“I’ll train harder,” he said, noting that the arrival of the freshman Taylor Tagle helped him elevate his game.
“He pushed me to the limit,” Johnson said. “We just beat the crap out of each other.”
Thorpe attributed the team championship to depth, unlike 1998 and 1999, when the Huskies put multiple wrestlers in the finals.
“This (team) isn’t as good as the other ones I had,” he said. “I had five guys go off to Division I schools (from those teams). But this team has a lot of depth where the other teams didn’t. What the other teams did as individuals, this one did as a team.”
Senior Rob Helfrich, who has been a mainstay for the Huskies all year at 189 pounds, lost in the semifinals to immensely talented Scappoose junior Ryland Geiger, but pinned Blake Thompson of Cottage Grove in the consolation semis, then pulled off a come-from-behind victory in the consolation final against Clark Wozich of Pleasant Hill, who was leading on points until Helfrich threw him and pinned him in 3:27.
“Rob Helfrich responded to a loss by coming off and getting two falls,” Thorpe said. “That’s a lot of extra points in this tournament.”
Helfrich said he trained “a lot harder” this year and set his expectations higher coming into the season.
“I was hoping for the top three,” he said. “After I wrestled that Scappoose kid and got beat, I knew I wasn’t going to let anybody else beat me,” he said.
Crocker was pinned in the second round by Seth Honi of Scappoose, but fought his way back through the consolation bracket, beating number one-seeded sophomore John Hedge of Marist 5-1 in the consolation semis, to reach the consolation finals, where he beat Erickson for third.
Crocker said he was hoping for fifth or better in the tournament, so he was pretty happy with third. He said the state tournament was a jump in quality of competition from tournaments he’s wrestled in the past.
“Everybody in this tournament was a lot better wrestler,” he said.
Other top finishes came from senior Jake Smith, who spent nearly the entire season wrestling on the junior varsity behind Jack Perry at 119 pounds. Smith lost 12-3 in the quarterfinals to Scappoose’s Bryce Klum, the eventual runner-up at that weight, then fought his way through the consolation bracket to finish in the medals, in sixth place. Perry finished seventh.
“This was a good end to my career,” said Smith. “It was a lot easier not to hold anything back. I’m a senior. I didn’t have anything to lose. This is the last time I’ll ever wrestle.”
Junior Joe McCaslin, who spent the beginning of the season off the mat with injuries, won four straight matches in the consolation bracket of the 130-pound division after losing by a technical fall to eventual runner-up Jonathan Floyd of Estacada in his first match, and also finished in the medals after losing 11-2 to Jace Sargent of McLoughlin in the seventh-place match.
Junior Nick Pitts finished fifth for the Huskies in the 145-pound bout, defeating Danny Cox of Estacada 5-4.
The Huskies’ depth came into play again at 152 pounds, as both Andrew Knight and Sawyer Anderson medaled. Knight, a senior who spent most of the season wrestling for the JV, finished fourth after an 18-11 loss to Justin Johnson of Henley. Anderson lost to Rett Heggie, also of Henley, in the seventh-place match.
“Guys you wouldn’t expect to win matches won matches,” said Thorpe.
A few went home disappointed, one of them the freshman Tagle, who has been a consistent winner for the Huskies at 103 pounds.
Tagle got pinned in his second match to eventual champion Gabe Goodrich of Banks and then was pinned by Chris Culver of Illinois Valley in his first consolation match.
“I learned ‘Don’t give up,'” Tagle said. “I lost my focus in the next match (after Goodrich pinned him).
“It was lot of fun, though. I’ve just got to train harder now to get what I want.”
Thorpe said he knew there would be stumbles, but the end result was everything the Huskies could have asked for.
“We knew we weren’t going to place everybody,” he said. “You win a few here and there and the next thing you know, you’re holding a trophy.
“I’m excited about this. I’m happy. We’ll enjoy this one.”
OSAA 4A State Team Scores
Top 10
1. Sweet Home 154.0
2. Tillamook 140.5
3. La Grande 125.0
4. Scappoose 125.0
5. Phoenix 124.0
6. Estacada 104.5
7. Illinois Valley 99.5
8. Cottage Grove 93.5
9. North Bend 89.0
10. Henley 83.0
Sweet Home Individual Results
103 – Mitch Grove won by TF over Kyle Gray (South Umpqua) 3:52; lost to Jordan Smith (Scappoose) 14-4; pinned Patrick Ryan (Taft) 2:04; pinned Andrew Burnett (Ontario) :55; lost by fall to Tony Thao (LaPine) :58; Did Not Place.
103 – Taylor Tagle def. Craig Morgan (Estacada) 11-1; lost by fall to Gabe Goodrich (Banks) 3:20; lost by fall to Chris Culver (Illinois Valley) 5:28; DNP.
112 – Casey Johnson def. Dylan Weltman (Stayton) 10-4; lost to Dustin Woosley (Tillamook) 6-0; def. Tyler Wilson (North Marion) 8-6 (OT); lost to Trinity Castner (Douglas) 6-4, DNP.
112 – Danny Johnson def. Brian Bowers (South Umpqua) 10-4; pinned Nico Martinez (Ontario) 3:19; pinned Matt Duran (Illinois Valley) :56; lost to Dustin Woosley (Tillamook) 3:04.; Second Place.
120 – Jake Smith def. Jesse Spratt (Tillamook) 10-0; pinned Derek Findlay (Douglas) 3:23; lost to Bryce Klum (Scappoose) 12-3; lost to Mike Coleman (Cascade) 4-3; lost to Luke Amuchastegul (Phoenix) 6-2; Sixth Place.
120 – Jack Perry lost to Luke Amuchastegul (Phoenix) 4-0; pinned Robert Stockhoff (La Grande) 1:40; pinned Jesse Spratt (Tillamook) 2:13; def. Tanner Layton (Pleasant Hill) 13-4; pinned David Yecha (Douglas) 1:32; Seventh Place.
125 – Derek Sharp lost to Kody Sells (Hidden Valley) 11-1; pinned by Andrew Gettle (Baker) 3:54; DNP.
125 – Brock Crocker def. Jeff Baxter (La Pine) 8-0; pinned by Seth Honi (Scappoose) 5:34; def. Corey Crabb (Estacada) 7-3; def. Matt Reiersgaard (Tillamook) 3-0; def. John Hedge (Marist) 5-1; def. Drew Erickson (Pleasant Hill) 5-4; Third Place.
130 – Chris Farris pinned by Jimi Martin (Tillamook) 1:41; pinned by Chris Eggleston (LaPine) 3:42; DNP.
130 – Joe McCaslin lost by TF to Jonathan Floyd (Estacada) 5:01; pinned Garry Elkins (Stayton) 2:26; def Matt Cornish (North Valley) 10-8; pinned Cameron Chappel (Douglas) 4:58; lost by fall to Grant Marcum (Baker) 1:37; lost to Jace Sargent (McLoughlin) 11-2; Eighth Place.
135 – KC Hanscam lost 9-0 to Billy Dunn (Cottage Grove); def. Ryder Wilmarth (La Grande) 4-3; lost by TF to John Garcia (Tillamook) 16-0; DNP.
140 – Daniel Smith pinned by Cody Weishoff (Molalla) 4:56; pinned Martin Saldana (Central) 3:26; def. Daniel Galligar (Ontario) 12-8; lost to Mike Sandoe (Henley) 4-0; DNP.
145