The portion of the season that really counts begins this weekend for Sweet Home’s wrestling team as the Huskies travel to Lincoln City Taft Saturday for the Val-Co district wrestling tournament.
Sweet Home has been nursing injuries and sat some wrestlers out last Wednesday during a four-way match with Sprague, Lebanon and Stayton. The Huskies lost 38-36 to Lebanon, with a number of second- and third-string wrestlers in the varsity matches, and 40-27 to 6A power Sprague, which included two forfeits and two injury defaults by the Huskies. Sweet Home lost one match in the varsity action to Stayton, winning 76-6.
Coach Steve Thorpe said the focus now is on what the Huskies have been working for all year: district and state.
“As is always the case, we’re trying to qualify as many guys as we can,” he said. “We want to get as many as possible through to the state tournament. Guys can’t score points at the state tournament if they’re not there.”
The top three wrestlers in each weight from the district will qualify for state, which means the Huskies will need to avoid mistakes in the early rounds.
Thorpe said that although Sweet Home is the strongest team, there are good wrestlers from other schools in each division.
“It’s kind of unusual this year that the league isn’t a strong wrestling league, but each weight has state-placer and state champ-caliber kids,” he said.
Wrestling begins at 11 a.m., following weigh-ins at 9, with the championship finals at 6 p.m.
Admission is $4 for one session for adults and $6 for two sessions. Students with student body cards can pay $3 for one session and $4 for two. Tickets are $2 for grade school students.
Thorpe said the Huskies are ready to go.
“We’ve got our guys as healthy as they’re going to be,” he said. “We’ve wrestled a pretty incredible schedule. Now it’s time to see if we can’t get a payoff at the district tournament.”
Val-Co Tournament Seeds
Sweet Home
103 €“ Scottie Stockman 4th
112 €“ Matt Grove 1st and Tyler Holly 2nd
119 €“ Mitch Grove 1st and Steven Bidwell (unseeded)
125 €“ Kris Newport 1st and Nikki Smith (unseeded)
130 €“ Taylor Tagle 1st and Marshall Arndt 2nd
135 €“ Kyle Hummer 1st and Chris Farris (unseeded)
140 €“ Brock Crocker 1st and David Rinehart (unseeded)
145 €“ Jack Perry 1st and Kyle Sorenson (unseeded)
152 €“ Jacob Jewell and Jacob Cuillo (both unseeded)
160 €“ Brad Pitts 1st and Tyler Paulino (unseeded)
171 €“ Colton Woody 3rd and Michael Harry (unseeded)
189 €“ Anthony Albright 1st
215 €“ Marc Callagan 1st
285 €“ Logan Clark 3rd and Zane Wise (unseeded)