Sean C. Morgan
and Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Sweet Home?s wrestlers put a final punctuation point on their last Capital Conference district tournament by blowing away the competition, including Cascade, which beat them in a dual at home earlier this season, on Friday and Saturday.
Twelve Husky wrestlers qualified for this weekend’s state tournament by finishing in the top three of their weight divisions.
Sweet Home, thanks to contributions from wrestlers who haven?t been in the varsity line-up all that much this season, scored 431.5 points to take home the conference title. Cascade was second with 337, followed by Molalla (229), Stayton (215), North Marion (148) and Sisters (52.5).
?You can?t underestimate our kids,? said coach Steve Thorpe. The Huskies have won the last six district tournaments. ?There?s not supposed to be such a huge spread between first and second place. I?m awfully proud of every kid we entered in tournament. We placed 25 of 27 kids we entered.?
Five Huskies earned individual district titles: freshman Chris Farris at 103 pounds, senior Shane Vandehei at 130, senior Trevor Tagle at 140, senior Shorty Weikel at 145 and senior Colton Cooley at 160.
Vandehei, Weikel and Cooley pinned all their opponents as they rolled through the tournament.
?Where I was very pleased was how we scored 103 bonus points for falls, major decisions, and technical falls,? said Thorpe. ?We had 48 falls in the tournament. That speaks well. We had guys come in the back door of the tournament, who competed so hard. They were coming back and getting thirds, fifths.?
One of those was Danny Johnson, a sophomore who has never wrestled varsity, was a big contributor for the Huskies, earning a trip to the state tournament this Friday and Saturday by placing third at 112 pounds, behind teammate Aris Somatis, who has been the varsity representative all year.
?Coach (Eric) Tagle was telling me we?re just here to have fun and wrestle,? Johnson said. He said that was what was going through his mind as he took the mat against Tony Alexander of Cascade. ?So I just wrestled harder.?
Johnson had faced and pinned Alexander before, but he had his doubts as he headed into the bout.
?I just stuck that behind me and looked at the good spots that could happen,? Johnson said. ?I was really happy.?
Trevor Tagle had a tough championship bout against Travis White of Cascade and had to make a huge comeback in the final seconds. Neither wrestler was able to score in the first round and a half of the bout.
?First round, I almost scored,? Tagle said. ?I took him down, and they didn?t count it because of the buzzer. Second round, I was on the bottom, and he caught me in a cradle; and he got three points from that. I remember trying to switch to reverse him, and he somehow just caught me.?
White kept backing up, and he was called for stalling, giving Tagle his first point. White scored when Tagle let him up, making the score 4-1 in the third round.
?So I just kept attacking him,? Tagle said. ?At the end, he shot in, and I tried to throw him.?
White didn?t go down on the first throw, Tagle said, but he did on the second. Tagle scored two on a takedown, and then three for a near fall with 15 seconds or so left on the clock. Tagle went ahead 6-4.
White rolled over with Tagle, but Tagle still had him locked up as the buzzer sounded, Tagle said.
Last year, Tagle won the district championship in the last seconds. He was down 1-0 with two seconds left but managed to scratch out a 2-1 victory. He placed third at state last year.
?It?s cool to win districts and everything,? Tagle said. ?But my focus is really on state.?
Down 4-1, Tagle didn?t stop fighting.
?I knew that it was my last year at districts, and I wanted it bad,? Tagle said. ?I didn?t want to lose.?
Other placers for the Huskies were Somatis and John Sutten (125), who placed second, and Jake Smith (119), Levi Weikel (135), Tom Helfrich (145) and Rob Helfrich (160) who placed third to earn unseeded trips to state.
Fourth-place finishers for Sweet Home were: Jack Perry (119), Travis Walker (130), Daniel Smith (135), Nick Pitts (140), Brandon Lawson (152), Andrew Knight (171), Joey Ellis (189) and (Matt Parker).
Nick Zahler (103), Sawyer Anderson (152) and Shaw Valentine (215) placed fifth. Sixth-placers were Cory Ottre (171) and Leif Erickson (125).
?We had some guys who should have placed higher, but it?s a tough tournament,? Thorpe said.
Thorpe and Tom Phillips of Cascade were voted co-coaches of the year. Thorpe said Phillips is an
?Oregon coaching legend.?
?To get co-coach of year in my last year in the conference and his last year as head coach was very special,? Thorpe said. ?This being our last year in the Capital Conference, this is kind of a sweet victory,? Thorpe said. ?We as coaches compete very hard against each other, but we get along so well.?