Sweet Home wrestlers wrapped up another undefeated Capital Conference season Thursday, pouncing on the Cascade Cougars 52-18 at Cascade.
Coach Steve Thorpe’s Huskie went into the match thinking the usually powerful Cougars would present tough opposition in five or six weights, but controlled the outing from the first whistle.
“We had a bunch of kids who really wanted to wrestle last night,” Coach Thorpe said. “It started during the JV matches and continued right on through varsity. It was a fun night.”
Wrestling started with the 125 pound bracket as Jon Farris pinned Tyson Husk in 2:52.
Shane Vandehei, 130 pounds, scored a 16-1 tech fall over Jarod Wheeler and set up a crowd pleasing matchup between 135 pounders Trevor Tagle and Travis White.
Tagle was down by three points with just seven seconds left on the clock when he took White to his back and scored a takedown and a two-point nearfall for an 8-7 win.
“We were ahead 37-0 by the time we got to 171 pounds,” Coach Thorpe said. “Cascade just never got on track.”
152 pounder Colton Cooley had one of his better nights of the year, Coach Thorpe said, scoring a 15-0 tech fall over Nick Phillips.
Heavyweight Chris Kelley had a battle through two overtimes, although he lost 6-5.
Sunday morning, Capital Conference coaches met in Sisters to seed the district meet brackets.
“We’ll have a lot of individual training this week and next,” Coach Thorpe said. “We’ll have some guys focused on their district compeition and others training right through to state. It becomes very individualized this time of year.”
The Huskies are physically healthy but are dealing with the flu like many of their fellow SHHS students.
“We hope to get it out of our system by the weekend,” Coach Thorpe said.
Although the Huskies have handily defeated all of their Capital Conference opponents teamwise, Coach Thorpe said every team will bring some strong individuals to the district meet.
“We’re going to enter two guys in every weight class and there are going to be real matchups,” Coach Thorpe said. “There are going to be some folks out to upset us.”
District wrestling action starts Friday at 12:30 p.m. at Sisters High School. Saturday action starts at 11 a.m.
The state wrestling tournament will be held the following week at the Pavilion at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. This is a change from Memorial Coliseum in Portland where the meet has been held for many years.
Sweet Home 52
Cascade 18
103: Joe McCaslin dec. Mallier Collier 9-3; 112: Cody Sells pinned Tory Alexander in :32; 119: John Sutten was pinned by Tyler Phillips in 2:58; 125: Jon Farris pinned Tyson Husk in 2:52; 130: Shane Vandehei scored a 16-1 tech fall over Jarod Wheeler; 135: Trevor Tagle dec. Travis White 8-7; 140: Tom Helfrich pinned Brandon Ancona in 4:47; 145: Robert Helfrich pinned Robbie Choun in 2:55; 152: Colton Cooley scored a 15-0 tech fall over Nick Phillips; 160: Colt Campbell won by forfeit; 171: Brent Woody was pinned by Jarrod Kampstra in 4:43; 189: Brandon Martin was dec. 2-1 by Will Goette; 215: Jesse Aitken pinned Shane Griffith in :35; 275: Chris Kelley was dec. 6-5 in double OT by Jason Mentzer.
Here’s how the Huskies are ranked among 3A competition by Richard Rockwell of the Oregon Wrestling Forum:
103–10th, Joe McCaslin, freshman; 112–8th, Cody Sells, freshman; 119–20th, Jon Sutton, sophomore; 125–11th, Jon Farris, senior; 130–third, Shane Vandehei, junior; 135–7th, Trevor Tagle, junior; 140–14th, Thomas Helfrich, junior; 145– 15th, Rob Helfrich, sophomore; 152–10th, Colton Cooley, junior; 160–19th, Greg Castaneda, senior; 215–5th, Jesse Aitken, senior; 275–13th, Chris Kelley, senior.
Top Tournament Teams
1-Estacada, 213; 2-Burns, 164; 3-Phoenix, 98; 4-Molalla, 82; 5- North Valley, 79; 5-Seaside, 79; 7-Pleasant Hill, 62; 8-Siuslaw, 60; 9-Illinois Valley, 58; 10-Ontario, 56; 11-Cascade, 55; 11-Sweet Home, 55; 11-LaPine, 55; 14-Madras, 51; 15-Newport, 50; 16-Sherwood, 49; 16-Stayton, 49; 18-Banks, 43; 19-LaGrande, 41; 19-Tillamook, 41; 21-Elmira, 38; 22-Scappoose, 36; 23-Coquille, 32; 24-Baker, 31; 24-Mac-Hi, 31; 26-Cottage Grove, 23.