Sweet Home’s wrestlers opened their 2013-14 campaign a week late, but despite a couple of early-season hiccups, the Huskies finished ninth at the Rose City Tournament at Westview High School last weekend.
Coach Steve Thorpe noted his team included a significant number of rookies to high school wrestling and, he noted, that was Sweet Home’s season opener, after an earlier match was canceled due to snow. Every other team at the tournament had had at least one other match or tournament, he said.
“I’m very proud of how the boys competed,” he said. “We’re definitely a young team.”
Sweet Home’s top placer was junior Ty Schilling, who pinned his way through the 126-pound bracket to win that championship.
“It’s just very impressive to pin your way through a tournament like that,” Thorpe said. “Ty does it right on the mat and off the mat. He does the training, he lives right, he’s a good student. He’s been a leader. He comes to every morning workout. He does everything you need to do to wrestle at the next level.”
Also placing were freshmen Kobe Olson, sixth at 106 pounds; Anthony Hardee, sixth at 132 pounds; and Ben Terry and Spencer Knight, fourth and sixth respectively at 195 pounds.
“This was Kobe’s first big tournament and it was very cool to see him place in that,” Thorpe said. “I’m very excited for him.”
He said Hardee did well in “a very tough weight bracket” and is also “doing what it takes.”
Terry, a senior who qualified for state as a junior, “started wrestling very well at the end of last year and he’s picking up where he left off,” Thorpe said.
Knight is a senior who is a rookie to high school wrestling, and the coach said his sixth-place finish was “very exciting.”
“He’s getting better,” Thorpe said. “Where do you go from here?”
The Huskies were ninth out of 18 teams, from Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California. West Linn, with 22 wrestlers, won the team title with 233 points, followed by Nampa, Idaho. (17 wrestlers, 226 points), Lebanon (19, 203), Newberg (24, 194) and Cascade (24, 181). Sweet Home, with 22 wrestlers, had 156 points.
The Huskies’ ninth-place finish would have been better if one wrestler, whom the coach didn’t name, had made the bus for the second day of the tournament and another had made weight on Day Two. Their failure to participate on Saturday cost the team all the points the two earned on Friday, plus potential points from any wins they might have gotten on Saturday, he said.
“If those two guys had showed up and made weight, we definitely would have beaten Cascade,” he said.
Sweet Home is hosting what would have been its opener, a five-way dual meet, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18, against Sutherlin, North Marion, Molalla and Stayton. The Huskies will then wrestle in the Lebanon Duals Friday and Saturday, with four matches scheduled for Friday, beginning at 3 p.m., and three for Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m. Sweet Home’s wrestlers opened their 2013-14 campaign a week late, but despite a couple of early-season hiccups, the Huskies finished ninth at the Rose City Tournament at Westview High School last weekend.
Coach Steve Thorpe noted his team included a significant number of rookies to high school wrestling and, he noted, that was Sweet Home’s season opener, after an earlier match was canceled due to snow. Every other team at the tournament had had at least one other match or tournament, he said.
“I’m very proud of how the boys competed,” he said. “We’re definitely a young team.”
Sweet Home’s top placer was junior Ty Schilling, who pinned his way through the 126-pound bracket to win that championship.
“It’s just very impressive to pin your way through a tournament like that,” Thorpe said. “Ty does it right on the mat and off the mat. He does the training, he lives right, he’s a good student. He’s been a leader. He comes to every morning workout. He does everything you need to do to wrestle at the next level.”
Also placing were freshmen Kobe Olson, sixth at 106 pounds; Anthony Hardee, sixth at 132 pounds; and Ben Terry and Spencer Knight, fourth and sixth respectively at 195 pounds.
“This was Kobe’s first big tournament and it was very cool to see him place in that,” Thorpe said. “I’m very excited for him.”
He said Hardee did well in “a very tough weight bracket” and is also “doing what it takes.”
Terry, a senior who qualified for state as a junior, “started wrestling very well at the end of last year and he’s picking up where he left off,” Thorpe said.
Knight is a senior who is a rookie to high school wrestling, and the coach said his sixth-place finish was “very exciting.”
“He’s getting better,” Thorpe said. “Where do you go from here?”
The Huskies were ninth out of 18 teams, from Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California. West Linn, with 22 wrestlers, won the team title with 233 points, followed by Nampa, Idaho. (17 wrestlers, 226 points), Lebanon (19, 203), Newberg (24, 194) and Cascade (24, 181). Sweet Home, with 22 wrestlers, had 156 points.
The Huskies’ ninth-place finish would have been better if one wrestler, whom the coach didn’t name, had made the bus for the second day of the tournament and another had made weight on Day Two. Their failure to participate on Saturday cost the team all the points the two earned on Friday, plus potential points from any wins they might have gotten on Saturday, he said.
“If those two guys had showed up and made weight, we definitely would have beaten Cascade,” he said.
Sweet Home is hosting what would have been its opener, a five-way dual meet, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 18, against Sutherlin, North Marion, Molalla and Stayton. The Huskies will then wrestle in the Lebanon Duals Friday and Saturday, with four matches scheduled for Friday, beginning at 3 p.m., and three for Saturday, beginning at 9 a.m.