Thirteen Sweet Home Junior High wrestlers placed as the Tigers won the Valley League district championship Saturday at Central Linn High School.
Sweet Home scored 185 points, ahead of Cottage Grove (138), Thurston (11), Junction City (97) and Central Linn (92) in the 18-team field.
Kyle Watkins (70 pounds), Tristan Spencer (84), Jack Royer (98) and Travis Thorpe (128) all won district titles.
Second-place finishers were Bryce Porter (112) and David McMullen (210).
Finishing third were Zander Ford (65), Conner Ford (91), Brayden Newport (105) and Evan O’Brien (265).
Christian Gregory (91) and Keegan Stiles (105) were fourth.
Not placing were Lucas Victor (144), Gavin Walberg (105) and Isaac Schafer (120).
“We had a good day,” Coach Greg Newport said, noting that some of his wrestlers were knocked out of placewinners by their own teammates.
He said that his team showed mental toughness all day, especially since he needed to be at the funeral of longtime wrestling supporter Pat Baxter and fill-in Coach Steve Schilling drove all night from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he had attended his son Colton’s match on Friday night.
The Tigers turned heads in more than one way, he said.
“They had heart and they supported each other, even if they weren’t on the mat. I had other coaches come up to me, after I got there, and ask how we make our team so tough. ‘How do you get them to support each other like that?’”
Newport said he wants as many of his wrestlers to go to the state qualifying tournament on March 5.
“We’ll give them a couple of weeks off,” he said. “I hope we can get all 28 kids who we’ve had to try to qualify for state.”