Sweet Home won its fourth tournament of the season at the inaugural Capital City Championships at Sprague, a modified 16-team bracket that didn’t allow a lot of room for comebacks after losses.
“There were some tough teams there,” Coach Steve Thorpe said. “It was a well-run tournament.”
Unlike tournaments, such as the state championships, in which a wrestler who loses in the first round can fight back to the consolation championship by winning out, the best a first-round loser at Capital City could get was fifth. That took its toll on some Huskies.
“We were wrestling a little bit like we were tired,” Thorpe said, noting that Sweet Home wrestled a Japanese junior national team on Wednesday, and Philomath on Thursday after winning the two-day Oregon Classic the previous weekend. “We’ve been on a grind.”
Behind the lead of four individual champions the Huskies scored 260 1/2 points to finish ahead of the hosts, who had 246. North Medford was third with 211 1/2 and Lebanon was fourth with 204, followed by Canby (194 1/2), Cascade (186 1/2) and West Albany (135).
Colton Schilling at 103 pounds, Mitch Grove at 119, Kris Newport at 140 and Brock Crocker at 152 all won individual titles by running the table.
Other place-winners were Tyler Cowger, second at 130; Taylor Tagle, third at 135; Tyler Holly, fourth at 119; Brad Pitts, fourth at 171; Zach Gill, fourth at 215; Colby DeCleve, fifth at 125; Marshal Arndt, fifth at 135; Kyle Hummer, fifth at 145; Brian Malloy-Sorensen, sixth at 112 and Wade Paulus, sixth at 171.
The Huskies didn’t go down easy when they did, winning four of five matches that went into overtime. Cowger, Newport and Crocker all won overtime matches in the semifinals and David Rinehart, who did not place, won the other OT bout, in a consolation match.
As of Monday night, the Huskies were either to wrestle Sprague at home this week, or will travel to a tournament at Scio if Sprague doesn’t work out, Thorpe said.
Next up for Sweet Home after this week is the Reser Tournament of Champions, an exclusive invitational featuring many of Oregon’s top teams, in which Sweet Home had a tough time last season, finishing with no varsity placewinners. The Huskies rebounded from that low point and won the state championship.
“It’s a tough schedule we wrestle,” Thorpe said. “That’s how we won.
“We’re still training right now,” he said. “We’re working on getting better on our feet, on our technique. We’re making sure we’re staying healthy, getting guys healed up.”
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Sweet Home easily defeated Philomath on the road Thursday, Jan. 14, 61-18. Colton Schilling had one of the toughest matches of the night, taking Philomath’s Blake Woosley, the defending district 103-pound champion, to overtime before winning 10-8 in overtime in the 112-pound bout.
103 €“ Scottie Stockman (SH) won by forfeit; 112 €“ Colton Schilling (SH) def. Blake Woosley (P) 10-8 in OT; 119 €“ Mitch Grove (SH) pinned Leonard (P) 1:33; 125 €“ Tyler Holly (SH) pinned Cashen (P) 2:28; 130 €“ Tyler Cowger (SH) pinned Faust (P) 2:59; 135 €“ Taylor Tagle (SH) pinned Hill (P) 1:43; 140 €“ Marshall Arndt (SH) maj. dec. Matt Trask (P) 15-7; 145 €“ Kris Newport (SH) pinned Benson (P) 1:30; 152 €“ Kyle Hummer (SH) pinned Calder (P) 3:47; 160 €“ Brock Crocker (SH) pinned Thurman (P) 5:25; 171 €“ Erickson (P) pinned Wade Paulus (SH) 1:24; 189 €“ Henry Vaughn (P) pinned Brad Pitts (SH) 1:35; 215 €“ Zach Gill (SH) pinned Hansen (P) 4:33; 285 €“ Nash (P) pinned Christian Whitfield (SH) :46.