Sweet Home’s wrestlers, in their first home match in weeks, put on a show Thursday for the home crowd in dispatching Philomath 60-16.
“It was exciting to get to wrestle in front of the home crowd again,” said Coach Steve Thorpe. “Our kids seemed very motivated.”
Nick Pitts started the dual meet with a fall at 145 pounds, against Bryce Dryden, the sixth-ranked wrestler at that weight in the state.
Sawyer Anderson registered a major decision at 152 pounds, while Brandon Lawson beat number three-ranked Matt Hill at 160 pounds.
Saturday, the Huskies wrestled in a four-way dual tournament at Roseburg, beating Eagle Point 57-13, losing 35-22 to number two-ranked 6A Roseburg and losing 68-6 to Hermiston, the number one-ranked 5A team in the state.
Junior Danny Johnson had a good week overall at 112 pounds, maintaining his season record at one loss, with pins against Philomath, then three more at the Roseburg Tournament.
“Danny is getting more confident, he’s getting better with every match,” Thorpe said. “He’s wrestling hard and taking care of stuff in the classroom.”
Lawson, who lost “bad” to Roseburg’s Niko Karpotinis earlier in the season, according to Thorpe, beat Karpontinis 6-3.
“Brandon beat him this time,” Thorpe said. “Right now we have some guys who are working hard.”
He said the Huskies’ focus now is on the district and state tournaments in early February.
“Everything else is short-term,” Thorpe said. “The only way to become the best in the state is to wrestle the best in the state. We wrestled two of those (at Roseburg).”
The team will wrestle at Taft tonight, Jan. 10, and will compete in the Oregon Classic at Redmond this weekend.
Sweet Home 60, Philomath 16
103 – Taylor Tagle (SH) won by forfeit; 112 – Danny Johnson (SH) pinned Newfeld (P) :57; 119