By Ryker Burr
For The New Era
Lebanon’s boys wrestling team finished 11th at the state tournament in Portland last weekend with three placers, including individual state champion Seth Wynn.
“It was awesome,” Head Coach Michael Cox said of Wynn, a senior. “All of his hard work has paid off. He’s been wrestling for a long time, since he was little.”
Wynn shut out Crater’s Jaxon Godley 9-0 in the 157-pound final to secure his first individual title. Wynn bested all of his opponents by fall or tech fall until that final match.
Wynn has placed third and fifth before at state, but this year he finally got over the hump.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Wynn said. “I was pretty happy.”
Wynn attributed his new mindset to the title: “Just having a little more fun with it, wrestling more freely. Now worrying too much and just doing what I do.”
Grady Cox (165), a junior, placed third and senior Zach Halsey (175) placed fourth, losing by a fall 40 seconds before the end of the consolation final with the score tied 7-7.
Cox noted that his son’s goal was to win the title, but he was proud of him for coming back in less than an hour of having that goal dashed from him to wrestle well enough for third.
Cox was also proud of Halsey: “He’s a hard nose, really athletic. Some of the stuff he did yesterday was pretty crazy.” Cox also pointed out that Halsey began his wrestling career at a very young age too.
“All these guys are just really good kids. They’re hard working and have really good integrity.”
As a team, Lebanon racked up 65 points.
Thurston scored 291 points to edge Crater (283) for the title, and Crook County (187.5) took third in its first year as a 5A school.
Lebanon’s Duty second to cap breakout year
Mary Jane Duty always showed flashes of serious potential, but injuries made it difficult to bring that to reality at the state level her first two years.
But that all changed this season, which ended with a silver medal at state for the junior.
Duty was dominant in her matches leading up to the finals, winning all of them by major decision or a pin in under 35 seconds.
That run ended in the final against Crook County’s Lauren Echeverria, who ran up an 18-1 score to emerge victorious with a tech fall.
Freshman Zoe Ruonavaara, the Lebanon girls’ other qualifier, at 235 pounds, went two and out at
Cox was surely pleased with Duty’s junior campaign, but is already looking forward to next year: “This year she got to see her potential. I’m really looking forward to seeing what she can do in her senior year.”
The coach noted that Duty and his son Grady were wrestling partners in their younger years, and they were a very competitive matchup.
Duty’s 23 points was good enough to tie the Warriors with Gresham in 34th place. (There were 66 teams in total.) Crook County was the winner with 140; Dallas (130) and McNary (86) were the runner-ups.
