-February 20, 2008 SPORTS
Page 13
From page 11
would have tied or won the match as
time ran out.
"It was a five-team race at that
point, but i knew when that was
taken away from Brock, that kind of
dashed our hopes of winning a state
championship," Thorpe said.
Still, he said, it was a good
weekend in many ways.
"What happened, is we won it
last year, graduated seven or eight
guys, came back and scared the heck
out of everybody at the tournament,
wondering if we were going to
repeat," he said. "Seventeen of our
18 entries won matches.
"I've always said the state
tournament doesn't play out on paper
the way you expect it to," Thorpe
said. "You have certain people win
matches they shouldn't, and certain
people lose matches they shouldn't.
We trophied with less champions
than any team I've ever had."
Newport said he got "a late
start" in his championship match and
didn't gain control until he scored the
reversal.
"I knew I was gonna come back,"
he said, despite the rough start. "I was
confident in myself."
He said after he got the reversal,
he could tell Castner was done.
,'He just fell apart as soon as I
started scoring on him," Newport
said.
In the semifinals, he beat top-
ranked Chayse Garrison of Hidden
Valley 3-1 Friday in a match in
which, Thorpe said, Newport just
didn't quit.
"He.refused to stop wrestling,"
Thorpe said. "He just kept wrestling.
When he came off the mat in the
semis, I said to him, 'You haven't
done anything yet.' When he came
off the mat in the finals, he said 'Now
I've done something.' I said, 'Yes,
you have.'"
Newport has wrestled for the
Sweet Home Mat Club since he was
a youngster and he knew what.was
coming when he got to high school,
Thorpe said.
"The thing about Kris is he
worked very hard for this," he said.
"He hasn't just improved as wrestler
over the last year, he has improved
as a person. He works hard and he's
been a good teammate. He earned
this title."
And, Thorpe added, "He has had
great workout partners. Every day
in the wrestling room he's had great
workout partners."
Now, he said, the challenge for
Levi Weikel Overpowers Matt Cormish
Newport will be staying at the level
he reached Saturday.
"Getting good is easy compared
to staying good," Thorpe said. "The
expecation is on him now. That will
be a mark of character."
Tagle, who Was ranked first
in the state poll going into the
tournament, though he was not
seeded, said he thought he wrestled
"well" except when he was pinned
in the championship semifinals by
top-seeded Brandon Bowers of South
Umpqua.
"I think it was a big match and
I kind of froze up" he said. "I don't
think he was better than me. I was
just outwrestled.
"It was good to place so I can get
h better seeding position fornext year.
It was a lot better than last year (when
he went two and out). I'm definitely
not satisfied."
Thorpe said Tagle is disappointed
but the bright side is that he will be
seeded next year, which will be an
advantage.
He said Mitch Grove's fifth-
place medal, after losses to Tagle
(in the consolation semis) and
second-seeded Dylan McCallum of
LaGrande, was a good finish.
"We like to finish on an odd
number," Thorpe said. "Mitch came
back and readjusted his goals mid-
tournament and wrestled hard, like
he always does."
Grove said he thought he did
"fairly well" in the tournament.
"I could always do better," he
Photos by Scott Swanson
to win the consolation finals and place third in the 140-pound divisionl
said. "You can always improve on
yourself."
He said that getting to wrestle
varsity matches, particularly near
the end of the season when he and
Tagle moved up or down, gave him
experience that helped at state.
"I wrestled the guy who got
fourth at 6A," he said. "I wrestled
three of the guys (he faced over the
weekend) before."
He said he'd like to stay at 103
pounds but may have to move up
next year, though for the sake of the
team and family, he said he'd like to
wrestle at a different weight than his
identical twin, Matt.
Johnson, who finished second last
year at 112 pounds, lost 1-0 to Adam
Hayner of Molalla in the semifinals,
then fell victim to a referee's non-
call against second-seeded Gabe
Goodrich of Scappoose, who also
ended up in the consolation bracket
of what Thorpe said he believed was
the toughest weight division in this
year's tournament.
Johnson was trailing Goodrich
7-5 and was underneath coming into
the final seconds of the bout, when
he turned what spectators and nearby
coaches thought was a reversal, but
the referee awarded no points, giving
the match to Goodrich and relegating
Johnson to the fifth-sixth final.
"Danny Johnson should have
been going for third or fourth,"
Thorpe said. "That was another call
that wasn't even in question. But
there was nothing that could have
Matt Grove tries for an escape against Brian Bowers of South Umpqua in the seventh-eighth-place 112-pound finals.
been done. After that situation, he
didn't have the luxury of feeling bad
about it."
Johnson destroyed fourth-seeded
Tony Thao of LaPine with a 16-1
technical fall for fifth place.
"In my match against Goodrich,
I thought I had him beat but the ref
had a different idea," Johnson said
later, then extended a compliment
to Newport: "It was nice to see the
freshman make the finals."
Matt Grove, who was wrestling
his first state tournament, also in the
tough 112-pound bracket, had "an
absolutely incredible" run to finish
eighth, Thorpe said.
In his consolation quarterfinal
bout, Grove, who wrestled on the
junior varsity behind Johnson for
much of the season, faced Rhino
Prince of Illinois Valley and dragged
him to the mat with two seconds left
to win 8-6.
"My goal was to get seventh and
I missed by one place," Grove said,
but he added that his win against
Prince proved an important point: "It
shows you have to work for all six
minutes of the match."
Crocker, who finished third last
year, also fell victim to a questionable
call on Friday against sixth-seeded
Sam Winter of Illinois Valley. The
two were in overtime in their 135-
pound semifinals match when the
referee awarded Winter a two-point:
takedown, which "it was not," Thorpe:
said.
"In my semi finals match, Ii
wrestled really good, really smart,
but I didn't get the calls," Crocker:
said. "I have a tendency for that .to,
happen."
Crocker won through until he;
met top-seeded Adam Sprague off
Pleasant Hill in the third-place final,
who simply outmuscled him in a 17-
7 win. Sprague had dropped frona
158 pounds, Crocker said, and hiss
strength made the difference.
"He was disappointed, upseit
about it but he didn't make excuses,'"
Thorpe said of the semifinal loss'
"I was very disappointed, very/
heartbroken for him. He wrestled am
incredible match. He's got stuff to
shoot for next year."
Weikel, a junior making hi s
second appearance at state afte r
competing as a freshman, wrestled
unseeded out of a pigtail at 140 poundts
and turned heads with a dominating
performance that was marred by a
About all Trent'Hardwick of LaGrande can do is fend off Brock Crocker as
Crocker scores points during his 9-2 consolation win.
single loss when he was pinned by
eventual second-place finisher John
Hedge of Marist in the quarterfinals.
Other than that, Weikel pinned all his
opponents en route to the consolation
championship.
"Levi Weikel was quite
possibly the most tailed-about kid
in the tournament that wasn't a state
champion," Thorpe said. "No matter
what the score, he's a dangerous,
dangerous wrestler if he gets you on
your back."
Weikel's pins earned 10 bonus
points for the Huskies, which was
"huge," Thorpe said.
Weikel said he was happy to
come back to get third.
"Realistically, I was hoping to
place," he said. "I just wanted to get
as far as I could get."
Pitts, wrestling with a rib injury
for the last few weeks, kept all his
matches close, a fact that he took
comfort in,
"This was not what I expected,"
he said of his sixth-place finish. "I
had real close matches."
Thorpe said Pitts wanted to finish
higher but the injury was a problem.
"He wrestled as hard as he
could," he said. "He lost a couple
of close matches. He wrestled with
intensity and heart. It's OK to get
beat."
The other place-winner from
last year who wrestled in this year's
tournament, junior Jack Perry, did not
medal this year while wrestling with
an injured shoulder.
"Jack wrestled with as much
heart as he possibly could," Thorpe
said.
He noted that Perry and 13 others
of the 18 Huskies who qualified for
state are expected back next year.
"This was a season I thought we
were going to be down some," he said.
"We went 23-3 (in dual meets), won
the district championship and were
third in state. I underestimated what
this group of athletes was capable of
doing."
He expressed appreciation for
his "great coaching staff" - Tim
Boatright, Steve Hummer, Eric Tagle,
Steve Schilling and Joe Rosa, as
well as the support staff and parents
who have made the program run
smoothly.
"We have great coaches in our
program this year;" Thorpe said.
"They have high, high expectations
for the kids, all of them."
Newport's success on Saturday
night was a result of years of coaching
he got from the Mat Club coaches
as well, he said -Schilling, Greg
Newport and Rosa.
"They all taught him," Thorpe
said.
Next up for the Huskies is the
freestyle and Greco-Roman season.
"We're going to take little break,
stay away from the mat for a week
and a half, and think about what we
need to do," Thorpe said. "We'll set
some new goals. We don't want to
wait till November to do it."
OSAA 4A Wrestling
Championships
Sweet Home Results
103 Taylor Tagle, soph not
seeded, pinned Francisco Hernandez
(LaGrande) :34; def. Ryder Waddington
(Scappoose) 8-1; lost by a pin to top-
seeded Brandon Bowers (South
Umpqua) 5:36; in consolation bracket,
def. (teammate) Mitch Grove 6-2; lost
to Wade Humphrey (Cascade 5-3 in
consolation final to finish fourth.
103 - Mltch Grove, soph not seeded,
pinned Charles Guthde (Henley) 3:30;
lost to second-seeded Dylan McCollum
(LaGrande) 12-2; in consolation bracket,
pinned Blake Woosley (Philomath) 2:09;
def. third-seeded Chris Culver (Illinois
Valley) 6-5; lost to (teammate) Taylor
Tagle 6-2; def. Wade Hall (Tillamook) 5-
0 to finish fifth.
112 - Danny Johnson, sr top-seeded,
pinned Josh Baker (Phoenix) 1:04; def.
Jordan Smith (Scappoose) 5-4; lost 1-0
to Adam Hayner (Molalla); in consolation
bracket, lost to second-seeded Gabe
Goodrich (Scappoose) 7-5; def. fourth-
seeded Tony Thao of LaPine with a 16-1
technical fall for fifth place.
112 - Matt Grove, soph not seeded,
lost to third-seeded Zach Clark
(Cascade) 18-5; in the consolation.
bracket, def. Nick Ough (Elmira) 11-8;
def. Rhino Prince (illinois Valley) 8-
6 in OT; lost to second-seeded Gabe
Goodrich (Scappoose) 6-2; lost to fifth-
seeded Brian Bowers (South Umpqua)
4-0 for eighth place.
119 - Krls Newport, fr not seeded,
pinned TJ Arthur (Banks) 5:11 ; def. top-
seeded Chase Fields (Ontario) 9-4; def.
fifth-seeded Chase Garrison (Hidden
Valley) 3-1; def. third-seeded Trinity
Castner (Douglas) 7-4 in final to win
state championship.
119 - Casey Johnson, sr not seeded,
lost to dake Marshall (Molalla) 4~2, in
consolation bracket, def. Patrick Ryan
(Taft) 5-1; lost to Daniel Nunez (Ontario)
6-2; did not medal.
125 - Jack Perry, jr fifth-seeded,
pinned Kyle Deming (North Bend) 2:44;
lost to David Dodge (Cascade) 16-5;
in consolation bracket, lost to Andrew
Worthington (Estacada) 11-2; did not
medal.
130- Kyle Hummer, ft not seeded, lost
by technical fall to Tony Norman (North
Valley); lost to Vince Morales (Ontario)
9-2; did not medal.
130 - Marshall Arndt, soph not
seeded, def. Jackson Hicks (Estacada)
7-5; lost to third-seeded Ryan Black
(Phoenix) 13-0; in consolation bracket
lost to Bruce Balcita (South Umpqua) 7-
5; did not medal.
135 - Brock Crocker, soph second-
seeded, pinned Dustin Paradis
(Brookings-Harbor) 4:56; def. Logan
Grady (Banks) 9-2; def. Matt Collier
(Cascade) 7-4; lost to Sam Winter
(Illinois Valley) 11-9 in OT; in consolation
bracket, def. Trent Hardwick (LaGrande)
9-2; lost to top-ranked Adam Sprague
(Pleasant Hill) 17-7 to finish fourth.
140 - Levi Welkel, jr not seeded,
pinned Josh Warden (Phoenix) 3:24;
pinned Frank Lopez (Ontario) 5:15; lost
by fall to second-seeded John Hedge
(Marist) 3:23; in consolation bracket,
pinned J. Porter (Stayton) 4:12; pinned
Willie Bennett (Brookings Harbor) 4:08;
See Wrestle, page 16
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