Ukranians give local wrestlers stiff competition in exchange dual

Scott Swanson

Practice at the crowded Sweet Home High School Mat Room was even more congested Thursday evening, March 9, as members of an exchange team from the Ukraine mixed it up with top mid-valley wrestlers from Sweet Home and other local schools.

The Ukrainian team, sponsored by Athletes in Action, wrestled a line-up of local all-stars at West Albany High School on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

The visitors, who included four world medalists, including only lost one match – to two-time state champion Tanner Sallee of Lebanon, who won the 182-pound title this year.

Rob Bronson, a former wrestling coach at Sprague, now of Cedarville, Ohio, said he was delighted to bring the junior national wrestlers to the area.

“It’s been fabulous,” he said. “I’ve only known these guys a week.”

He said the visitors appeared to be having a good time on the trip.

“Normally, European team members tend to be very quiet,” he said. But at a dinner last week, “every kid talked for about five minutes about how great the trip is.”

The Ukrainian team included Andreii Dzhelep, a cadet (ages 15-16) world champion at 119 pounds. He and other visitors entertained their hosts in the Sweet Home mat room by doing successive backflips across the room.

The Ukrainians wrestled in Salem before coming to Sweet Home and moved on to a match in Roseburg on Sunday.

Yvengheni Dyuvbiov, 18, said, through an interpreter, that he’s enjoyed the trip, his first to America, immensely.

“I’m having a fun time here,” he said after rolling around with Sallee on the mats. “People are very hospitable here.

He volunteered that he appreciated the emphasis on “God” that he saw along the way, as well as getting some good wrestling experience.

Dyuvbiov said he’s wrestled in Iran, Belarus, Slovakia and Georgia, where he competed in the world cadet championships.

Asked about differences in approach or style he saw in America, he said that while Ukrainians are more technical, “Americans are more physically strong. They can wrestle longer.”

Sweet Home Coach Steve Thorpe called the Ukrainians “the best exchange team I’ve ever seen come through Oregon.

“They were tough. It was good for our guys. To get them to Sweet Home and have them train with us was incredible. What a neat opportunity to get to wrestle them.”

Thorpe said Sweet Home wrestlers will have another opportunity to host a foreign team next month, from Switzerland, which will be here for an April 15 freestyle and Greco tournament at Sweet Home High School.

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Kobe Olson and Jake Porter helped Oregon to a second-place finish Saturday, March 11, in the

in the ORCA dual meet, which pits all-star teams from Oregon, Washington and California against each other, this year at Shasta College in Redding, Calif.

Oregon beat California 33-31 and tied Washington 33-33 before losing on the seventh tie-breaker criteria.

Olson won both his matches and Porter was 1-1.

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Also on Saturday, Sweet Home Junior High wrestler Brayden Newport took second at 117 pounds in Oregon middle school state championships at Woodburn High School. He was the only entrant from Sweet Home in the tournament, which included wrestlers from approximately 100 schools.

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