Sweet Home’s wrestlers, who got off to a stumbling start in their first match of the season the week before, regained their footing Saturday with a third-place finish at the 13-team Perry Burlison Tournament at Cascade.
The Huskies, who were missing wrestlers at four weights, finished with 147.5 points behind winner Lebanon (219) and runner-up Henley (161) and ahead of Sprague (129.5) and Cascade (128).
“It was a good tournament,” Coach Steve Thorpe said. “We were a different team than we were a week ago. We fixed a few things.”
Sophomore Colton Schilling won the 119-pound title and fellow sophomore Tyler Cowger was first at 145 pounds, pinning his way all the way through the tournament.
“That was very, very impressive, especially at 145 pounds,” Thorpe said.
Since only one wrestler could score for each team, Scottie Stockman’s second-place finish (to Schilling) at 119 pounds didn’t count.
Also making it to the finals was Trever Olson, who took second at 135 pounds.
Other place-winners for the Huskies were freshman Ian Search, sixth at 112 pounds; sophomore Colby DeCleave, fourth at 125 pounds; junior Ty Harvey, third at 130 pounds; senior Kyle Hummer, fourth at 140 pounds; and sophomore Zach Gill, third at 285 pounds. Gill’s only loss was to Lebanon senior Andrew Vandetta, the top-ranked heavyweight in the 5A.
“Zach wrestled with the potential he had,” Thorpe said. “He wrestled really well. And Kyle Hummer beat Alex Funk of Sprague, who was a 6A state place-winner last year.”
Sophomore Colton Holly was fourth at 135 pounds, but like Stockman, didn’t count in the points total. Also competing for the varsity at the tournament were Hunter Bidwell (125), Brian Malloy (130), Kyle Sorenson (160), Alex Armstrong and Mike Harry (171).
The Huskies did not enter wrestlers at 103, 152, 189 and 215 pounds.
“At this point, when we don’t enter four guys in a tournament, that’s a big hole,” Thorpe said. “But we can’t wrestle guys who are sick and we can’t wrestle guys who are hurt.”
Thorpe said the JV team wrestled well at Cascade as well.
“I’m liking what I’m seeing from our young kids,” he said.
He said that, while he was happy with the Huskies’ performance, “now we need to sit down and evaluate, see what we can get better at. We’ve got a ways to go. We’ve got to get guys thinking they can wrestle for six minutes.”
After hosting North Marion, West Albany and Woodburn at home Tuesday at 4 p.m., the Huskies will wrestle again Saturday at the Thurston Tournament.