By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Sprague Boys Wrestling team made up some ground during the middle weights of their Central Valley Conference dual with McNary.
The Olympians entered the 144 pound bout between Sprague’s Finn Miller and Dillon Shepard trailing the Celtics 21-12, McNary’s lower weights were pacing Sprague’s lower weight wrestlers as they were able to build themselves a nice little lead early on in the dual.
“Our 106 and 113 pounder are still pretty new to wrestling. Our 106’er Donavon (Hawkes) has some room to grow and I think he’s going to end the season really strong. Harley (Sowers), our 113, has a lot of natural ability. Luis (Martinez), unfortunately had a forfeit tonight, he’s been really dominant this year,” said McNary Head Coach Sam Martin. “We got some experience at 32, 38, 44, those are the guys that have been in our Varsity lineup for a long time. There’s a lot of experience there. It’s a great group of people to be around and they work so hard in the practice room, they’re doing what they need to do, so when come District time, we’re in a good spot
Starting with Miller match’s with Shepard, things begane to change in favor of Sprague. Miller picked up a pin, then Sprague got another one. Next thing they, the Olys, knew, they had themselves with a sizable lead as they were able to take the dual 53-27 at Sprague High School.
For Miller, who started the rally at 144, he found an opportunity and shot his shot that led into his pin. Offense has been a focus point for the sophomore as the work in the Mat Room led to success, but he’ll continue to work on his craft moving into the second half of the season.
“I think it’s just my offense. I’m not very good offensively, I’m not very good at shooting,” Miller said.
“I just got his leg and went and got the cradle and got the pin,” said Miller of his match.
Sprague Head Coach Antonio Antillon spoke to the strength of the back-half of his lineup as the Olympians work towards their 14th-straight League TItle coming off a tough schedule to this point with tournaments at Oregon City, Rose City and the NW Duals to this point.
“It’s kind of the same story as last year, we know we’re deep in the middle weights and if we can keep it competitive with the first five weights, we give ourselves a chance in every single dual,” said Antillon. “I’m really proud of how the boys step up on the back half.”
Girls Wrestling Dual
The McNary Girls Wrestling team found themselves tested by the up-and-coming Sprague Girls Wrestling program. Through the opening four weight classes, entering Marlina Martinez’ match with Jovi Johnson at 120 pounds, the two CVC squads were knotted up at 12 apiece. But, starting with Martinez’ pin, the Celtics were able to wheel off four-straight victories. Two by pin and two by forfeit to build a 48-12 lead on Sprague.
In that run.
During that run, it featured an incredible match at 130 pounds that saw McNary freshman Teagan McCarthy overcome a tough middle of the match to pull off the victory via pin over Sprague’s Isabella Dewey. McCarthy got an initial takedown to take a 3-0 lead, but quickly got behind. Trailing Dewey 9-5, and fighting through fatigue, the freshman found an opening and took advantage of it to turn the pin.
Reflecting on the match it was hard, points McCarthy, but it gave frosh an opportunity to see where she can improve upon moving forward into the season.
“Just working on my stance and staying off my knees and just keep pushing through,” McCarthy said.
“It was hard,” she added about her match.
McCarthy was one of two freshmen who wrestled in the Varsity lineup on Thursday. The other, Jenna Friesen, at 145 pounds, also brought home a victory. McNary Head Coach Sam Martin is excited to see what the freshman, and their youth, can do with the returners they have with the likes of Marlina Martinez and McKenna Unger come season’s end.
“We have some freshmen who are ready for some Varsity-type matches. We also balance it out with some experience, look at the girls who have placed or won it. I think we’re in a really good spot as a girls program. We didn’t really necessarily wrestle how we wanted too, we came out a little bit flat. But at the end of the day it’s hard to be upset when you have more points than the other team,” said Martin.
Sprague picked up wins at 170 by way of Addison Linan with a pin victory and at 190 pounds with Evelyn Wirfs picked up a second round pin. This drew Sprague within 18 of McNary at 48-30 before the Celtics closed out the 54-30 victory with a forfeit victory at 235.
“(McNary’s) a heck of a team, these are the people that you want to compete against,” said Sprague Girls Wrestling Coach Blain Cote. “Addison Linan, she absolutely went out there like an animal. She wrestles a lot like our senior Evelyn, that bumped up to 190. It was really exciting to see both those matches. Evelyn wrestled hard, giving up 20-something pounds. MacKenna Carter, our 100 pounder to start us off, she’s having an dynamite year, she’s right where she wants to be and wrestling really tough.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
