By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
KEIZER, Ore– For the 15 seniors of the McNary Wrestling team Thursday night, it was the last time they’ll have a home meet as they hosted West Salem in a Central Valley Conference League Dual.
“It’s awesome, I really enjoyed it. This is only my second year at McNary and I’m really happy to be a part of this program and I’m glad that I got to finish out High School doing this,” said Celtics Girls Wrestler Cadence Fineran.
Fineran, a 135-pound wrestler, won her match via pin in the Girls League Dual. One of ten victories that the Celtics had en route to a 60-24 victory. The three Titan victories came way of Ava Grice (155), Sophia Zuniga (190), both by pin and McKenna Sanchez picked up a forfeit victory at 145 to lead a young West Salem Girls Wrestling team Thursday evening against one of the top teams in 6A/5A.
“(McNary’s) one of the best girls teams in the State. For us, it was an opportunity, a test to see where we match up, and that’s a very tough team. We see what they are and we have to keep formulating more and more experience and more and more reps to achieve what they’ve done over the last couple of years,” said Titan Head Coach Mike Baker. “If you go down our whole roster: Boys, Girls, JV and Varsity, it’s filled with freshmen and sophomores. We have to come out here and get repetitions, get live experience of not only the people that we’re wrestling in the room, but get some situational stuff.
“Unfortunately, we’re taking our lumps and trying to earn our stripes a little bit. But our kids are resilient. They’ve done a great job at this point. So we just gotta keep coming back and continuing to do what we’re doing and keep working towards our goals of getting better every day and keep working through everything.”
West Salem finished the Boys’ CVC League Dual strongly after a tough start. They won the 165-pound bout in a shootout. It was 16-15 late in the third period before Titan freshman Christian Apling picked up the pin that finally got West Salem on the board.
” I saw an opportunity. We were both tired. I threw the arm back, and I didn’t let go. I really wanted it. I didn’t want to end on a loss, I really wanted to beat this kid and show him that I wanted it more than him,” said Apling of the pin. “Confidence is a big key in this whole thing. I want to show people that I have more potential than a regular freshman.”
The Titans saw Trask Hepburn (175) and Kit Shinkle (215) bring home wins. Hepburn by Tech Fall, Shinkle by a 5-2 decision in what would be a 60-14 win for McNary.
For the Celtics in the match, they saw their lower weight’s dominate. Coming into the year, they knew that the 106-138 classes were going to be their strongest suit, and they showed that Thursday night to set the tone from the start of the match.They picked up forfeit wins at 106, 144 and 150. Chria Canchola (113), Derek Jones (120), David Ramirez Sierra (126), and Liam Koenig (132) all picked up pins. Dillion Shepherd at 138 won by a 9-3 decision, and ChristianPineda (157) also picked up a pin victory going into the 165 match.
“We knew going into the year 106-138 was going to be where we’re stronger, we’re more experienced, that kind of stuff. They did a really good job coming out and competing,” said McNary Head Coach Sam Martin. “The message the last couple of weeks has been to compete. Go out and give yourself a chance, and that’s exactly what they did. They did a great job setting the tone and setting the pace for everyone else to follow. They did a great job.”
Izaak Hendrix won his 190-pound match by a pin, their sixth and final pin of the dual. The Celtics 285-pound wrestler, Jess Mendoz Falcon, won an Overtime thriller with a takedown in the Overtime period to win the match by a 5-2 decision.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
