North Salem girls wrestling knew it was surrounded by some of the best teams in the state.
The Lady Dragon Invite hosted by Dallas High School girls wrestling tournament has turned into one of the premiere events for girls wrestling in the state of Oregon.
With a group of five semifinalists and plenty more succeeding in the consolation rounds, the preseason 6A/5A No. 7 Vikings had a shot at coming out on top.
Two of those individuals were able to come out on top in junior Aileen Paniagua at 100 and senior Saira Vipperman at 155.
And when the dust settled, North Salem had won the event with 185.5 points, edging out 6A/5A No. 1 Thurston in second with 180.5 points.
“We were in, I wanna say sixth place before the quarterfinals,” North Salem head wrestling coach Andrew Pickett said. “Then in the quarterfinals we just go pin, pin, pin and get all these people making it to the semis.”
The Vikings also beat out 6A/5A No. 2 Dallas in third with 174.5 points, 6A/5A No. 3 Redmond in fourth with 158 points, 6A/5A No. 8 McNary in fifth with 155 points, 6A/5A No. 4 Crook County in sixth with 153.5 points and 4A/3A/2A/1A No. 3 Oakridge in seventh with 135.5 points.
Leading the charge this season has been Paniagua who is listed at 31-3 on the year, 30 of those wins coming via fall and 26 of them happening in the first period.
She had five more first-period pins at the Lady Dragon where her longest match was 1 minute, 11 seconds in the quarterfinals.
“(Paniagua) is such a hammer, no one made it out of the first round with her,” Pickett said. “It’s hard for girls to even hang with her.”
Paniagua moved over to North Salem this year after spending her first two years at McKay. The junior made the state semifinals last year at 105 pounds before falling to Newberg’s Paisley Conway.
Now wrestling for the Vikings, she will certainly be a contender for the top of the podium for either 100 or 105.
“She’s a silent assassin,” Pickett said of Paniagua. “She’s a super sweet girl and comes from a rock star family. … She’s not a talker, she just comes and gets to work and she’s kind of the example the other girls need to see.”
Vipperman is another of those leaders in the room for North Salem at 24-4 this year and coming off five pins at the Lady Dragon to win at 155.
Her matches went a little longer, including the fall coming at 4:33 in the title bout against her cousin Liliana Alvarez from Central, but she got the job done and continues to be another weapon for the Vikings.
Vipperman made state as a sophomore and got back last year with expectations to make some noise. However, she missed weight and didn’t get the chance to wrestle, so she’s back to make up for lost time in 2026.
“(Vipperman) is coming into her own, she had a disappointing finish to last year,” Pickett said. “She’s coming back with a vengeance and that’s exciting to see.”
North Salem had more places at the Lady Dragon as well to power the team victory, which included Padience Harris taking fifth at 135, Mariah Sullinger taking eighth at 145, Ava Olsen taking fourth at 155, Tatiana Pomeroy taking fourth at 190 and Madelynn Littejohn taking second at 235.
Pickett said some more wrestlers were held out of the tournament as well, including another heavyweight state-place in Evelynn Littejohn and his own daughter in Soraya Pickett.
“We’re stoked, everyone knows how tough Thurston is and Dallas,” Pickett said. “The top few points were just within a couple points, so if something goes the other way then it’s not us in first place. The girls are stoked, but we’re trying to keep their heads on now that they’ve got a target on their back.
“The secret is out that we’re tough.”
All that’s left on the schedule for the girls is two duals with local rivals in South Salem on Jan. 22 at home and then a Jan. 29 dual at Sprague.
Then it’s off to districts which is set for Feb. 13-14 at a location still to be announced for the Vikings’ district.
Expectations have been raised after the successful showing in Dallas, but the growth and belief seen in the wrestling room at North Salem has been the biggest win so far this season for the Vikings.
“We just feel really blessed with our group,” Pickett said. “We not only have tough mat wrestlers and a lot of underclassmen, but just got good kids. We have a lot of believers in there and it’s a pleasure to coach a faith-filled room and kids that want to work hard.”
More on Dallas
The weekend at the Lady Dragon started with a duals tournament, which was won by the hosting squad.
The Dragons won their two seeding duals over Culver (52-3) and Grants Pass (54-18) to move into the title bracket. Dallas took out David Douglas in the semifinals 72-12 and then beat out Crook County for the duals title in a tight 42-36 match.
“A week or two before that, our girls won the Northwest Duals, which is one of the biggest dual tournaments in the state,” Dallas head coach Austin Markee said. “That’s what it was against Crook, it came down to the last match or two there. It was really cool and a lot of our girls, some of them are first-year wrestlers and have never been a part of something like that before.”
That’s been the story for the Dragons in 2025-2026 for both the boys and girls, getting some new faces involved.
The girls last year took third as a team at state behind three-time champion Polly Olliff. Taking the reins this year are senior Jenna Rogers and junior Marissa McGinnis, who both made the state final last year.
Rogers was pinned in the 145 finals by Redmond senior MacKenzie Shearon who has now graduated, and McGinnis lost at 100 by tech fall to McKay senior Sarahi Chavez, another graduate.
Another one who came close last year for Dallas was sophomore Gabriella Dyer, who entered the 155 bracket as the No. 2 seed before falling in the semifinals.
Needless to say, those three grapplers are looking to come back and finish the job in 2026.
“They’re motivated, they’re excited,” Markee said of the girls returning. “Last year was also exciting having had a lot of people get into state, getting those girls into that venue and seeing what that’s about it is valuable.”
The next day for the individual portion of the Lady Dragon, Rogers had the best showing with a second place finish at 145, along with Cearra Fast who took second at 105.
The Dragons are a relatively young team though looking to grow while managing high expectations of competing for a state title.
Rogers has been critical to keeping the group together and showing them what Dallas wrestling is all about.
“We’ve got really good leadership on that team, primarily with Jenna Rogers,” Markee said. “She’s done a great job with that and pushing a really good culture forward of how we want our girls to participate and how we want our girls to be.”
Dallas is sure to be in the mix once again for the 6A/5A state title, taking third in the Lady Dragon Invite team race, but not by much to Thurston and North Salem in the second and first.
The Dragons may be young, but they’ve come a long way quickly behind Markee and all 15 assistant coaches that Dallas rolls out for the proud program.
“They know, as a team this year, we’re in it,” Markee said. “There’s several other teams that also are, so it’s going to be a dog fight. Whatever we can do to put our girls in the best spot before regionals, getting them a lot of matches this year is one of the things we’re pushing. Just getting a ton of matches and we kind of built our schedule around that.”
More Lady Dragon results
The rest of the duals tournament ended with Thurston taking third thanks to a 75-6 win over David Douglas. Grants Pass beat Oakridge 36-27 to take fifth and Barlow beat Culver 42-24 to win the consolation bracket.
As for the individual tournament, here are some more winners:
100: Aileen Paniagua, North Salem
105: Cadence Morales, Grants Pass
110: Lauren Echeverria, Crook County
115: Paisley Conway, Newberg
120: Skyler Hall, North Medford
125: Naudia Edmiston, West Albany
130: Mia Pedersen, Redmond
135: Alana Troullier, Mountain View
140: Danin Lacouture, Siuslaw
145: Audrey Robinson, Crater
155: Saira Vipperman, North Salem
170: Allison Cummings, Thurston
190: Emony Greely, Roosevelt
235: Renata Perez, Sunset
Braided 64 results
One of the biggest girls wrestling tournaments in the whole Pacific Northwest also took place last weekend at Kelso High School in Kelso, Washington.
Hillsboro was the highest finisher among OSAA schools, taking 14th with 117.5 points. The host squad in Kelso won the event with 206.5 points. Harrisburg finished inside the top 20 as well in 18th with a score of 103 points.
Leading the Spartans was Amarie Medina who took fifth place at 135 pounds. Meanwhile, Harrisburg had a winner with Paxton Steele taking first at 110, followed by Lily Ridgley placing fourth at 140.
Ida B. Wells senior and two-time state champion Zorina Johnson cruised through the 130 bracket and took home first. Her PIL counterpart in Lincoln’s Sofia Patterson placed seventh at 110.
The final placer came at 145 where Century’s Leticia Martinez took home sixth.
austinw@osaa.org
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