Dallas girls win thrilling Oregon Wrestling Classic
The Deschutes County Expo Center in Redmond hosted the 2025 Oregon Wrestling Classic over the weekend. Twenty-four (24) girls teams participated in the event to determine the unofficial dual meet state champion.
Dallas, the state 6A/5A runner-up a year ago, earned the title by defeating Thurston, the 2024 6A/5A state champion, 51-30, in the semifinals. The Dragons then edged 4A/3A/2A/1A champion La Grande, 46-36, in a tense championship dual that came down to the final bout.
As it had done most of the tournament, Dallas bolted to a 24-0 lead over La Grande in the final, on the strength of pins by Marissa McGinnis, Sinae Fast, Ah Pymm McDaniel and Polly Oliff. Indeed, neither McDaniel nor Oliff saw Round 2 in any dual.
The key to the opening stretch for Dallas versus La Grande was Fast, whose win at 105 came over a returning state placer.
That 24-0 lead, however, did not last long, as La Grande won the next four bouts by first-period fall to tie the score. Defending state champion Lyndie Isaacson was one of the four Tigers putting Dragon shoulders to the mat.
Two of the final six bouts were forfeited – one by each team – but the remaining four produced high drama. Jenna Rogers won big for Dallas at 140 to put the Dragons up by four. La Grande won by forfeit at 145 to go up by two, but Dallas rebounded at 155 with a first-period pin by Gabby Dyer to reclaim a four-point lead. Dallas won at 170 by forfeit, putting the Dragons in command up 10 with two matches remaining.
Maddie Armstrong of La Grande won at 190 by fall in the closing minute of the match to cut Dallas’ lead to 40-36.
“When La Grande's gal at 190 got the fall, we were in trouble,” said Dallas coach Tony Oliff.
Only the 235-pound bout remained. La Grande needed to take it by fall or technical fall to win the match. A major decision would cause the outcome to be determined by criteria. A La Grande win by decision or any Dallas win and the Dragons would take home the title.
La Grande sent out Macy Iramik, a true heavyweight. She was 3-1 on the mat for the weekend to date, with all of her wins by fall.
Dallas sent out freshman Mahala Collins, a freshman -- “farm girl,” Oliff said – wrestling almost 50 pounds above her weight. Collins had wrestled twice in the tournament to that point, winning once by fall and losing once by fall.
“We knew their girl was tough,” Oliff said. “We were hoping for the best, but not shocked when the La Grande girl went out and got the first take-down. When Collins stood up and got away, she had our attention. When she did it again at the start of round two, we were on the edge of our seats.”
From neutral, Collins took down Iramik not once but twice in the second period. The second time she was able to turn her for the pin.
The Dragons, including the boys, who came over to cheer like mad, after wrapping up fifth place in their event, went berserk!
“It was a great day to be a Dragon,” Oliff exclaimed.
Oliff said that he was proud of everyone in his lineup for contributing on the weekend. That included big efforts from Peyton Lang, Delila Tormis and Kedisha Tabib against Thurston and Katy Smith, Isabella Richey and Maddie Vogel at other junctures throughout the weekend.
“Without them, you don't win The Classic,” he said.
Powers prevail on boys’ side at OWC
Three defending state champs and two always-strong contenders took home boys titles Saturday at the Oregon Wrestling Classic.
In 2A/1A, Culver, which struggled through a down year in 2024, won the Oregon Classic for the 21st time. The Bulldogs dominated the field and defeated Grant Union, 55-21, in the championship dual.
Fourteen Culver wrestlers won matches on the weekend, led by Leland Minson, who went 5-0 on the mat.
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Defending state champion Harrisburg won at 3A, besting Burns in the championship dual, 39-26.
The top-rated Eagles limped to Redmond down four starters due to injury and illness, including reigning state champion Andrei Donayri.
“We won the tournament because of a great team effort,” coach Desmond Bennett said. “Everyone did what we needed to get the win, especially in the finals versus Burns.”
Sophomore Braxton Henager, a move-in over the summer, went 6-0 for the weekend. Senior Hunter Langham had five falls and won once by forfeit.
Henager’s closest match, wrestling at 113 pounds, came versus Burns’ tough Daniel Simpson. That he picked up four points for the Eagles helped swing the momentum in Harrisburg’s favor. The Eagles won four bouts by fall to only one for Burns, including back-to-back from Luke Cheek and Trayson Truesdell at 138 and 144.
Bennett also lauded the work of sophomore John Henderson in a loss. Henderson moved up in weight to face three-time state champion Kale Cornell at 126. Though he lost, 11-0, he fought hard and competed start to finish and was not pinned.
“By him competing like that it seemed to follow Braxton’s match and set up our team for a great chance to win the dual,” Bennett said.
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Defending 4A state champion Sweet Home overcame an early deficit to defeat perennial power Crook County for the 4A title. The Huskies won the last seven matches of the final, five by fall, after the Cowboys opened quickly and built a 26-9 lead midway through.
Jesse Landtroop, Dillan Davis, Luke Rosa and Ashton Swanson all went undefeated in the six duals for Sweet Home. Davis’ decision at 132 and James Hearick’s 10-9 win at 150 were huge momentum changers.
“We won some big head-to-head match ups in the finals that we needed,” said coach Steve Thorpe.
“We went in as the No. 1 seed but that doesn't mean much,” Thorpe added. “We had a goal to win the Classic and win big matches. All of our guys supported each other and no matter what happened we were ready for the next dual and the next match. I’m proud of our boys and the work they did at the OWC. That is over and the next goals have been set.”
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Crater won 5A over tough Thurston. The Comets trailed, 24-3, after five matches but did not lose again until it forfeited the heavyweight bout. By then, sparked by falls from undefeated Joey Hutchins, Ryland Walters and Travis Ege and a decision at 165 by Kutter Christensen, Crater had built an insurmountable 41-24 advantage.
Those four, plus Jeremiah Oliva, Jaret Hickey, Aidan Godley and Jaxson Godley, all went undefeated on the weekend. It’s hard to lose a dual with guaranteed wins in eight spots!
“Our wrestlers did a great job keeping the pressure on their opponent,” said coach Greg Haga. “We have been training hard to improve as much as we can each week. Our expectation is for our guys to go out and wrestle a style that we work on every day in practice. They did a good job wrestling that aggressive style.”
Christensen’s return to the mat for the first time since being injured during football season was a huge spark for Crater.
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Defending 6A champion Newberg edged 2023 state champion West Linn, 37-29, to capture a rugged 6A championship dual. Twenty-two (22) Tigers wrestled on the weekend. All won at least one match!
In the championship dual, West Linn got off to a hot start with impressive wins by Romeo Daley and Darion Johnson at the lightest weights. The Lions appeared poised to win at 120 as well until Newberg’s Jacob Jump turned around a deficit with a third-period fall. That altered the momentum but West Linn still led, 29-25, with two bouts remaining. Zadek Bowlby and Austin Phillips made sure that would not hold, as they won by first-period falls at 215 and 285, respectively, to turn the deficit around and send Newberg to the winner’s circle.
“We were really good all weekend,” said coach Neil Russo. It was a total team effort. Dual meets are a funny thing - while some of our scores were pretty lopsided, there were some really competitive matches in every dual this weekend. I think our success hinged on winning the close matches, getting bonus points (falls, technical falls, and major decisions) and limiting the damage in the individual matches that we didn't win. Our kids know that the Oregon Classic is a target and a priority on our schedule every year and they take a lot of pride in the team aspect of dual meet wrestling.”
Kingston Meadors, Austin Phillips, Gus Amerson, Jesh Storm and Austin Wilhelm were all unbeaten on the weekend for Newberg with at least four wins. Kiah Worthington had an outstanding weekend, beating a very good opponent from Roseburg while wrestling up a weight class. Bowlby was very good, going 5-1 with five falls.
News and notes
Newberg head coach Neil Russo was recently named a National Federation of High Schools Coach of the Year Award in wrestling.
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Redmond’s boys finished third in the 5A division of the Oregon Wrestling Classic. The Panthers had close wins over Dallas HS (39-36) in the quarterfinals and Eagle Point (39-38) in the 3rd/4th place match.
Senior Billy Jackson went undefeated for the Panthers, including a pin of a defending state champion from Dallas.
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Harrisburg’s girls went 4-4 in duals and finished 10th overall at the OWC. The Eagles did that while forfeiting five weights and wrestling without injured 100-pound state champion Paxton Steele.
Lily Ridgley (130) went 8-0 to pace Harrisburg. Eden Ridgley (100), Gracie Williams (105) and Kenadee Hunter (145) each went 7-1.
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La Grande’s boys finished third in 4A, edging Cascade, 41-33, a dual in which the Tigers started 10 freshmen and sophomores.
“The Tigers had a great weekend with the young group we have this season,” said coach Klel Carson.
Tommy Belding, Bragen Anderson and Kenai Huff went undefeated on the weekend and the team overall went 6-1, losing only to Crook County in the semifinals.
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Eagle Point’s boys finished fourth in 5A at the OWC. The Eagles won their pool, including taking Redmond, 42-29, but fell to the Panthers in the third-place dual by a single point. Heavyweight Brian Cortez went undefeated throughout the tournament, while Gavin Pogue lost only to vaunted Bend sophomore Leif Larwin.
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South Medford went 3-3 in the 6A event but scored 25 or more points in each dual. Five Panthers won all of their matches.
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The Newport boys and girls both wrestled at the Nick Lutz Invitational in Florence this weekend.
The girls finished sixth out of 34, a strong showing for the Cubs. Camille Keck and Mysti Ferguson both took second in their brackets, while first-year wrestler Jaidyn Nastiuk placed third in hers, bouncing back from a second round loss.
The boys also finished sixth, despite fielding six wrestlers. Five made the podium, led by Ivan Wagner and Victor Perez, who each placed third. Evan Hernandez, Silas Moss and Giulian Gutierrez all took fifth, “with good days that we felt could have been even better,” said coach Micheal Bradley.
“Last weekend I thought we had our worst showing of the year,” Bradley added. “We really pushed the kids and challenged them in practice this week and they responded phenomenally.”
Bradley also called out JV wrestler James Worley, a 215-pounder who went 3-0 in his first ever day of wrestling with less than a month of practice.
“James seems to be soaking up everything we throw at him and looking like a kid with much more experience than he actually has,” the coach said. “The junior first-year wrestler could be an extremely dangerous wrestler next year once he gets a full offseason and season of training under his belt.”
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Canby’s girls placed eighth out of 20 teams on Friday at the Viking Girls Invitational hosted by Forest Grove.
The Cougars had six placers, led by Emilia Ensrud in second and Isabella Quesada in third.
Two days earlier, Canby’s boys and girls won duals on the road in Wilsonville. The boys’ highlight was a third period fall by Canby heavyweight Alex Maurer over a returning district placer. Victoria Navarro Torrez’ third-period fall electrified the crowd on the girls’ side in a dual that was decided by a narrow margin.
Undefeateds
In this recurring category, we list wrestlers with 15 or more wins who are currently undefeated on the season.
33-0 -- Layla Morris, Sr., Mountainside (6A/5A), 125
31-0 – Jaret Hickey, Jr., Crater (5A), 144
27-0 -- Jackson Doman, Sr., Canby (5A), 215
26-0 – Joey Hutchins, Sr., Crater (5A), 138
26-0 -- Jadyn Pense, Soph., St. Helens (4A/3A/2A/1A), 170
16-0 -- Eric Larwin, Sr., Bend (5A), 150
Legends of the fall
In this section, we list wrestlers with 15 or more falls this season.
Forrest Baumbaugh, Jr., Canby (5A), 126 -- 20 wins by fall (27-7 overall)
Kennedy Blanton, Sr., Forest Grove (6A/5A), 140 – 19 wins by fall (25-1 overall)
Zoe Brewer, Sr., Willamina (4A/3A/2A/1A), 105 – 31 wins by fall (36-4 overall)
Addison Burleigh, Sr., Mountainside (6A/5A), 135 – 26 wins by fall (33-5 overall)
Levi Conley, Fr., Harrisburg (3A), 138 – 20 wins by fall (24-5 overall)
Archy De La Rosa, Soph., Forest Grove (6A), 120 – 20 wins by fall (30-2 overall)
Jackson Doman, Sr., Canby (5A), 215 --17 wins by fall (27-0 overall)
Mary Jane Duty, Soph., Lebanon (6A/5A), 115 – 21 wins by fall (23-5 overall)
Riley Flack, Sr., La Pine (3A), 126 – 21 pins by fall (27-5 overall)
Kingston Gomez, Sr., Bend (5A), 157 – 16 wins by fall (23-12 overall)
Lita Haworth, Sr., Lebanon (6A/5A), 140 – 15 wins by fall (20-4 overall)
Jaret Hickey, Jr., Crater (5A), 144 – 24 wins by fall (31-0 overall)
Owen Hull, Sr., Grants Pass (6A), 165 – 15 wins by fall (21-1 overall)
Devin Huston, Sr., Willamina (3A), 157 -- 20 wins by fall (28-5 overall)
Joey Hutchins, Sr., Crater (5A), 138 – 23 wins by fall (26-0 overall)
Sean Irwin, Jr, Warrenton (3A), 190 – 19 wins by fall (31-8 overall)
James Keinonen, Sr., Canby (5A), 175 -- 19 wins by fall (29-4 overall)
Hunter Langham, Sr., Harrisburg (3A), 285 – 16 wins by fall (23-10 overall)
Leif Larwin, Soph., Bend (5A), 175 – 20 wins by fall (29-1 overall)
Finley Marshall, Fr., Warrenton (3A), 120 – 16 wins by fall (18-9 overall)
Alexander Maurer, Sr., Canby (5A), 285 -- 16 wins by fall (18-7 overall)
Layla Morris, Sr., Mountainside (6A/5A), 125 – 26 wins by fall (33-0 overall)
Jadyn Pense, Soph., St. Helens (4A/3A/2A/1A), 170 – 25 wins by fall (26-0 overall)
Landyn Philpott, Sr., La Pine (3A), 144 - 25 wins by fall (32-1 overall record)
Eden Ridgley, Fr., Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 100 – 15 wins by fall (26-3 overall)
Lily Ridgley, Jr., Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 130 – 22 wins by fall (26-5 overall)
Landon Risseeuw, Soph., Willamina (3A), 215 -- 20 wins by fall (23-11 overall)
Sadie Risseeuw, Sr., Willamina (4A/3A/2A/1A), 170 – 18 wins by fall (20-6 overall)
Trey Smith, Soph., Canby (5A), 120 -- 15 wins by fall (28-2 overall)
Adonijah Stanton, Jr., Willamina (3A), 132 – 17 wins by fall (28-6 overall)
Kailea Takahashi, Sr., Forest Grove (6A/5A), 125 – 16 wins by fall (23-1 overall)
Isaac Talmadge, Sr., Harrisburg (3A), 157 – 17 wins by fall (23-9 overall)
Lynda Seehafer, Fr., Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 125 – 20 wins by fall (23-14 overall)
Jade Seymour, Jr., La Pine (4A/3A/2A/1A), 132 -- 19 wins by fall (25-10 overall record)
Gracie Williams, Jr., Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 105 – 23 wins by fall (26-8 overall)
Nico Yazzolino, Sr., Canby (5A), 144 -- 24 wins by fall (27-4 overall)
The top step
In this section, we list wrestlers with four or more tournament titles this season.
Zachary Brown, Sr., Heppner (2A), 165 – Enterprise Winter Kickoff, Oregon Trail Championship, Culver Invitational, Elgin Memorial
Maverick Heimbuck, Sr., Scappoose (4A), 165 -- Muilenberg, Kelly Bledsoe, Phil White, Mountainside
Landon McMahon, Jr., Heppner (2A), 215 – Culver Invitational, Elgin Memorial, Mac-Hi Christmas Tournament, Jo-Hi
Layla Morris, Sr., Mountainside (6A/5A), 125 -- Jaguar Girls Invite, North Bend Coast Classic Girls, Mountainside Girls Tournament, Sierra Nevada Classic, Lady Dragon Invite
Jadyn Pense, Soph., St. Helens (4A/3A/2A/1A), 170 – Kelly Bledsoe tournament, Canby Girls tournament, PAC Coast tournament, Lady Dragon Invite, Vikings Girls Wrestling Invitational
Landyn Philpott, Sr., La Pine (3A), 144 -- Adrian Irwin Invite, Culver Invite, GFP Outlaw Invite, Rollie Lane Invitational
Eden Ridgley, Fr., Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 100 – Deven Dawson Memorial, Coast Classic, Hadden Invitational, Pape Linn County
Kiya Roe, Jr., Knappa (4A/3A/2A/1A), 105 – Kelly Bledsoe Invitational, Warrenton Girls Invite, Warrenton Fast Lube and Oil Invite, Bill Hagerty Invitational, Knappa Winter Bash
Kaison Smith, Sr., Warrenton (3A), 285 -- Kelly Bledsoe, Warrenton Fast Lube Invitational, Knappa Winter Bash, Bob Beisell Invitational
Paxton Steele, Soph. Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 110 -- Coast Classic, Hadden Invitational, Pape Linn County, Sutherlin Girls
Blazing blades
In this section, we list wrestlers recording pins this season in 12 or fewer seconds.
8 seconds
Bailey Chaffin, Sr., Sweet Home (4A/3A/2A/1A), 125 – War of the Roses (Dec. 14)
9 seconds
Kaison Smith, Sr., Warrenton (3A), 285 – Warrenton Invite (Dec. 14)
10 seconds
Kenadee Hunter, Sr., Harrisburg (4A/3A/2A/1A), 145 – Oregon Wrestling Classic (Jan. 18)
Bella Rico, Fr., Sweet Home (4A/3A/2A/1A), 130 – War of the Roses (Dec. 14)
11 seconds
Mysti Ferguson, Soph., Newport (4A/3A/2A/1A), 170 – Your Space Storage Invitational (Jan. 3)
12 seconds
Addison Burleigh, Sr., Mountainside (6A/5A), 135 – Mountainside Girls Tournament (Dec. 21)
Renae Cook, Jr., Forest Grove (6A/5A), 130 – Rollie Lane Tournament (Jan. 3)
Layla Morris, Sr., Mountainside (6A/5A), 125 – Jaguar Girls Invite (Dec. 7)
100 % COMMITTED!
In this section, we identify those wrestlers who have made commitments to wrestle in college.
Orinn Hubbard, Sr., Redmond, 190 – University of Saint Mary (Kansas)
Maverick Heimback, Sr., Scappoose, 157 – Trinity College (Connecticut)
Joey Hutchins, Sr., Crater, 138 – Southeastern University (Florida)
Eric Larwin, Sr., Bend, 150 – Eastern Oregon University
If you are a high school varsity wrestling head coach and want to know how you can contribute to future Notebooks, contact John Tawa at johnt@osaa.org
johnt@osaa.org
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