As TV’s Joe Friday used to say, “Just the facts ma’am!”
That’s how the Capital Conference district wrestling tournament should best be described, at least from the champion Sweet Home Huskies point of view.
– Final score: Sweet Home 440.5 a full 201.5 points ahead of second place Cascade. Following were Molalla, 219.5; Central, 169.5; Stayton, 113.5; and North Marion, 97.
– Wins by fall: 32
– Wins by tech fall: 1
– Wins by major decision: 5.
– Total extra points from those wins: 70.5
– District champions: eight including Andrew Swanson, 103; Neal Workman 119; K.C. Stokes, 125; Israel Helfrich, 145; David Helfrich, 160; Matt Vassar, 189; Daniel Brewer, 215; and Andy Ellis, 275.
– The co-wrestler of the tournament: David Helfrich
– Coach of the Year: Steve Thorpe and Assistant Coach of the Year: Tim Boatwright.
The facts were impressive, but so were the Huskies.
Of 28 athletes, 25 placed somewhere in the tournament. In addition to the champions, five Huskies were runners-up including Chad Emmert, 112; Kyle Temple, 125; Adam Knight, 135; Eric Lambert, 152; and Trevor Burchard, 171.
Third place finishers, who this year qualified for the state tournament, included Ross Almason, 130; Keegan Burnett, 140; and Matt Miner, 189.
“This was the best run district tournament we’ve seen in years,” Coach Steve Thorpe said. “Larry Johnson did a fantastic job organizing this so it went off first-class. It’s nice to be able to coach and not have to worry about running the tournament as well.”
Coach Thorpe said his Huskies peaked at the right time, despite battling the flu much of the season.
“We went into this tournament with a goal of beating the second place team by at least 100 points,” Coach Thorpe said. “We did that and then some. This is the tournament where heroes are made. It’s where you find out who has heart.”
Although he missed a shot at the state tournament, Coach Thorpe said Adam Zurcher proved his mettle at 135 pounds.
Zurcher injured his knee a week ago, but wrestled hard at district, losing to the eventual champion by just one point.
“Adam scored points and a fall for us,” Coach Thorpe said. He added that Levi McCubbins wrestled sick and “wrestled his heart out.”
Ross Almason lost an early round then wrestled up the back door to take third place at 130 pounds. He earned a trip to state along with his other three seniors.
Keegan Burnett, who wrestled JV all season, saw hard work pay off with a third place berth. Burnett has worked aggressively at training camps to improve as a grappler.
Matt Miner, a second year wrestler is “starting to believe in himself and has learned a lot working with Matt Vassar, Daniel Brewer and Logan Cooley” Coach Thorpe said.
Miner took third.
Although all the Sweet Home champions had an excellent tournament, two standouts definitely brought the huge Sweet Home crowd to its feet.
160 pounder David Helfrich was pitted against Anderson of Cascade in Saturday night’s final round. Anderson had beaten the state qualifying Helfrich three times in the past year, but was outconditioned in this matchup, losing 6-5.
Helfrich earned co-wrestler of the tournament honors (along with Brett Phillips of Cascade) for his extra effort.
“David knew he had Anderson. He knew that the longer the match went on the better chance he had because David had trained so hard for this moment,” Coach Thorpe said. “In the second round, David got a stalling call against him and Anderson started looking for ways to get another point away from him. Anderson is an excellent wrestler who finished fourth at state last year.”
Helfrich was seeded No. 3 going into the tournament, while Anderson was the No. 1 ranked seed.
215 pounder Daniel Brewer, one of the more underrated grapplers in the state, proved himself again, this time by scoring four falls, all in 5:32 seconds.
“Daniel is a guy with some real goals,” Coach Thorpe. “He’s a hard-nosed wrestler. He is a pinner. If he gets a guy on his back, the guy’s done for.”
Senior Andy Ellis, a returning state heavyweight champion from 2000, made the tournament look easy. Ellis ensured his return trip to the big show by pinning Jorgensen of North Marion in :26 and Strinz of Cascade in 1:00.
Several Huskies scored big wins early in the tournament including Kyle Temple who pinned the No. 2 seed from Central and Matt Miner who upset two seeded wrestlers.
District final results:
103: Swanson pinned Michel of Stayton in 3:29. Scored three falls in a total of 5:52 seconds.
Chad Workman finished 2-2.
112: Chad Emmert was dec. 10-3 by Brett Phillips of Cascade. Emmert was 2-1 with one fall.
Mike Aerni finished 2-2 with one fall and one tech fall.
119: Neal Workman dec. Garcia of Central 7-2. Workman was 4-0 with two falls.
Jordan Johnson finished 3-2 with two falls.
125: K.C. Stokes pinned teammate Kyle Temple in 2:46. Stokes scored 3 falls in 5:01 total.
Temple was 2-1 with one fall and one major decision.
130: Ross Almason finished third with a 5-1 record including one fall and one major decision.
Keith Horn was fifth, 3-2, with one fall and one major dec.
135: Adam Zurcher was 1-2 including one fall. Tomas Rosa was 0-2.
140: Keegan Burnett was third, 3-1, one fall and one double OT win.
Chris Phillips was 2-2 with two falls.
145: Israel Helfrich was 2-0 with one major decision.
Adam Knight was 2-1 with one major decision.
152: Eric Lambert was dec. 18-7 by McManamon of Cascade. He finished 2-1 with one fall.
Levi McCubbins was 1-2 with one fall.
160: David Helfrich dec. Anderson of Cascade 6-5. Helfrich was 2-0.
Nathan Snyder was 1-2.
171: Trevor Burchard was pinned by Willis of North Marion in 1:00. Burchard finished 2-1 with one fall.
Ian Bostrom was 0-2.
189: Matt Vassar dec. Cook of Central 7-2. Vassar was 3-0 with two falls.
Matt Miner was 4-1 with one fall.
215: Daniel Brewer pinned Kirk of Molalla in 3:51. Brewer was 4-0 with four falls.
Rob Martin was 0-2.
275: Andy Ellis pinned Strinz of Cascade in 1:00.
Ellis was 2-0 with two falls.
Logan Cooley was 2-2 with one fall.
Here’s how the Huskies finished the regular season, record wise: Mike Aerni, 11-3; Ross Almason, 9-3; Ian Bostrom, 4-9; Daniel Brewer, 30-7; Trevor Burchard, 14-8; Keegan Burnett, 7-5; Logan Cooley, 6-4; Andy Ellis, 31-2; Chad Emmert, 17-6; David Helfrich, 29-5; Israel Helfrich, 31-5; Keith Horn, 6-6; Jordan Johnson, 10-5; Adam Knight, 17-15; Eric Lambert, 7-11; Rob Martin, 2-3; Levi McCubbins, 7-10; Matt Miner, 4-3; Chris Phillis, 16-13; Thomas Rosa, 3-1; Nathan Snyder, 3-3; K.C. Stokes, 30-4; Andrew Swanson, 33-4; Kyle Temple, 11-4; Matt Vassar, 25-12; Chad Workman 4-3; Neal Workman, 23-7; Adam Zurcher, 17-11.
Open round of state tournament
Here are the opening round pairings for Thursday at Memorial Coliseum in Portland:
103: Andrew Swanson vs. J. Scott of Rainier.
112: Chad Emmert vs. J. Peart, Myrtle Point.
119: Neal Workman vs. J. Merchant of Ontario.
125: K.C. Stokes vs. B. Workman of Phoenix.
125: Kyle Temple vs. D. Pugh of Vale.
130: Ross Almason vs. K. Martin of Siuslaw.
140: Keegan Burnett vs. J. Austin of Seaside.
145: Israel Helfrich vs. A. Kleck of LaGrande.
152: Eric Lambert vs. T. Smith of Toledo.
160: David Helfrich vs. L. Smith of LaPine.
171: Trevor Burchard gets a bye.
189: Matt Vassar vs. G. Brown of Phoenix. 215: Daniel Brewer gets a bye.
275: Andy Ellis gets a bye.