By Ryker Burr
For The New Era
Sweet Home’s boys were not only the hosts but the winners of the Special District 2 Duals for boys Saturday, Jan. 10.
Actually, the Huskies dominated. Sweet Home won all of its duals with 10 wrestlers going undefeated.
The most-anticipated match was Sweet Home versus Cascade, a team that is expected to also make some noise at state, but the contest didn’t live up to the hype. Cascade only managed four victories against the Huskies, who steam-rolled past the Cougars 84-19.
Cascade even avoided taking on defending-state-champion Dillan Davis by forfeiting that match. The move was illegal because a wrestler had already reported, but regardless, it didn’t help the Cougars. The plan resulted in a major-decision loss versus James Hearick, who bested Ellis Byers 17-7.
“I wanted that dual because Cascade didn’t,” Thorpe stated, who proceeded to express his takeaways from the dual: “I learned we are very offensively aggressive. The boys wanted that dual too. Several moved down weight classes to make us a better team.”
The Huskies beat Newport 81-0, North Marion 77-3 and Cottage Grove 77-5.
Thorpe highlighted several individual efforts: “Lynkin Royer is wrestling very well. Then it’s your usual suspects: Riley Vaughan, Jesse Landtroop, Cody Sieminski, and Jeremiah Steagall; all wrestled very well. Our JV guys did very well too, we got to show off our depth.”
Sweet Home also hosted the delayed Sweet Home Duals, rescheduled from Dec. 17, on Thursday, Jan. 8, but scores from those matches with Stayton, Elmira and Central were not available.
Both teams won all their duals. Every Husky boy who wrestled pinned his opponent in under a minute.
“Our girls team was bigger than every team they faced,” said Thorpe, who is looking for his 11th straight state trophy.
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, both the boys and girls traveled to North Salem, where the Sweet Home boys were dominant, the varsity boys winning 57-13 and the JV 62-6, North Salem’s JV points coming from a forfeit at 113 pounds. The Huskies won all but three of the other weight divisions by falls.
The Husky girls lost 44-34, but Natasha Marin (110) and Bella Rico (130) both won by falls and, Bailey Chafin won a major decision over Padience Harris at 135 to pace the Huskies, who also benefited from three forfeits.
Next week Sweet Home will be looking to check off one of its biggest goals of the season: an Oregon Classic crown.
The 4A Division dual tournament will begin on Friday, Jan. 16 at Deschutes Fairgrounds, then conclude the following day. Both teams will begin wrestling at 11 a.m on Friday