By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
ALBANY, Ore.– Things got really interesting when South Albany’s Gabby Diaz pinned Silverton’s Brooklyn Smith in the 115-pound match in Wednesday’s Mid-Willamette Conference Dual Meet finale in the Girls match.
Entering the match that saw the four-year Redhawk wrestler pick up the win, South Albany trailed the Foxes 24-18. A pin in wrestling is worth six points, and once Diaz picked up the pin to close things out, it forced a 24-24 tie. And unlike soccer, there’s no ties, and unlike basketball or football, there’s no overtime. To break the tie, Wrestling goes something called criteria and cracks open the stat book to determine a winner. Takedowns, pins, all of it is investigated.
The Foxes would win in criteria, having picked up three pin victories via McKayla Bonham (125), Sayer Graham (130) and Nova Graham (140) compared to the two that the Redhawks had thanks to Diaz and Ltzy Estavez (120).
“It’s good that it came all the way down to that, it means that all the wrestlers are competing and it had to come down to the rule book,” said Silverton Girls Wrestling Coach Ericcson Moore. “We relied a lot on the returners to compete, and the rest are first years. So for them to put points on the board to score points, it’s phenomenal.”
South Albany Girls Head Coach Kendra Dugger spoke highly of Diaz and Estavez, both experienced wrestlers for the program, and the two have made leaps-and-bounds already at the halfway point of the season.
“It was an incredible feeling,” starts Dugger. “Gabby is a fourth year wrestler. She’s been with me all four years, and watching her progression has been absolutely insane. I think we have a State Qualifier on our hands this year. Litzy is a second year wrestler and I think her progress is also growing, growing and growing…we’re happy to have her spending the next couple of years with us and we’re looking forward to sharing our time with Gabby as well this year.”
Boys Wrestling
It’s been a steady progression so far for the Redhawks Boys Wrestling team as they slowly came around to finish the Mid-Willamette Conference dual with the Foxes off strongly.
Despite forfeiting 132 and 144, South Albany came to life in the last four matches that they wrestled. Taking the 126 bout by way of a Reid Tanner pin, Chet Schmacher won at 138 by major decision 18-4, and Saren Duran won 150 by a 12-6 decision. And despite falling in the final match of the night at 157 via third period pin, it’s a good promise for the Redhawks to enter the second half of the season.
“This year, we have a lot of new kids, and we have a lot of inexperienced kids, but you know what? They got a ton of heart, and it showed there in those matches. We faced some adversity early in the dual meet, but then we battled back and had a pretty strong showing there at the end,” said South Albany Head Coach Troy Thomas. “They’ve come a long, long way. From the beginning of the season, we’ve advanced so much, and I like the way we look halfway through.”
Silverton took the match 63-13 Wednesday night as the Foxes came out hot. The squad picked up five pins along the way, starting with Ryder Vandeweghe at 165 as the match started there Wednesday night. Wilson Slaughter (190), Damian Rael (285), Cole Ulven (113), and Caleb Davis (120) all picked up pin victories. Bo Zurcher (175) picked up a technical fall, 16-1.
Brash Henderson and Efren Ybarra met up at 215. The two grapplers reached the 5A State wrestling tournament last winter, Ybarra winning a match in Portland while Henderson brought home a State Title.
Looking for a repeat performance this year, Henderson came out firing and led 7-0 after the first period and gradually increased his lead to the 14-2 Major Decision he achieved by the end of the match.
“I knew I needed a takedown early, and it worked out. I was able to put him on his back and get a good barrier for a lead so I can work on some other stuff that I needed to and feel comfortable in the match,” said Henderson. “When I saw South Albany on the schedule, I knew I was going to have a tough match. I’ve been excited for it, I’ve been excited about it all day, and I knew I had to go out and wrestle my best against him.”
