The end of the youth wrestling season left Sweet Home with one near-All-American and another youth wrestler ranked seventh in the state in his age group..
Kris Newport and Kyle Hummer both competed with the Oregon team in the Cadet and Junior National Championships in Fargo, N.D. July 20-26.
Newport technically finished in a tie for eighth, which would have given him All-American status, but he lost out on good marks because he had a bye early in the bracket and finished ninth, Coach Steve Thorpe said.
Newport finished 7-2 in freestyle and 2-2 in Greco-Roman.
Thorpe noted that Newport beat the national Greco runner-up during his freestyle run and pinned a wrestler who had beaten him badly earlier in the season to stay alive in his quest for the finals.
“He wrestled out of his head,” Thorpe said. “He beat people he shouldn’t have beat.”
Hummer, who will be a junior this year, finished 1-2 in Greco and 0-2 in freestyle.
Among the younger wrestlers, Tyler Schilling, 11, finished seventh in the state in the Oregon Challenge, a competition based on how wrestlers did throughout the season. That finish got him an Oregon Challenge belt buckle.