Lebanon's Mary Jane Duty poses after winning her bracket at Southridge Smackdown. (Photo from Brooklyn McElroy)

Moving up a classification can be difficult, but for the Crook County girls wrestling team, its growth has coincided with the move up to 5A.

First-year head coach Sam Schmitz, who was an assistant coach last year, has been impressed with new wrestlers coming into the sport thriving this season, as well as the more experienced grapplers continuing to dominate.

With district tournaments slated for this weekend, the Cowgirls are currently No. 4 in the mid-season OSAAtoday coaches poll, but did get three first-place votes, which was tied for the most.

“I think the true testament that we're doing good things is that the girls who are brand new to wrestling on our team are having some success and have the ability to at least be in matches against girls that maybe have been wrestling a while,” Schmitz said. “And I think that says a lot for just the environment that the girls are creating around them, but also just the things that we're doing in the practice room.”

One of the leaders in that practice room is junior and returning state champion Taylor Echeverria who is 34-8 this season.

Echeverria won at 130 pounds last season and has continued to find success in 2025-2026 as she looks to join a short list of girls wrestlers to become two-time champions.

“(Taylor) knows wrestling, she's been wrestling a while, and knows what she's doing,” Schmitz said. “I think for her, what we as coaches have tried to do is just try to keep her head in the right place, keep her focused in a match and make sure she's trying to do the things that she does well.”

The Echeverria name isn’t a single success story though as Taylor’s younger sister Lauren Echeverria, a freshman, has come in and ran through the competition with a 40-0 record.

Competing at 110 pounds, Lauren Echeverria has quickly become a state-title favorite, and it’s a testament to the programs prior to high school that the Cowgirls have received.

“Lauren is a testament to our middle school program and the coaches that kind of build these kids up to be ready to be in high school,” Schmitz said. “And as well as the club system we have here where we have a lot of great coaches that are around these kids from the beginning of their wrestling careers all the way through.”

Schmitz, who is originally from Newberg and moved back home to Oregon after coaching college wrestling at McKendree University (IL) and Central Methodist University (MO), has seen more wrestlers step into their potential this season as well.

Sophomore Chevelle Boynton is 19-6 on the year, junior Tatianna Herrera is 22-9, sophomore Maylee Yancey is 31-7 and junior Jayde Pascuzzi is 28-10 just to name a few for the deep Cowgirls squad.

Freshman Tevarii Pennington came back to the sport this year and is 29-7 while filling in an about hole for Crook County at 145.

“Honestly, all the way up (we’ve seen success), even some freshmen like Tevarii Pennington, who wasn't really sold on wrestling this year,” Schmitz said. “She had wrestled when she was a younger kid and then stopped for a few years. She's just been a blessing to our team, just coming in and filling a weight class that we needed at 145 pounds and being able to win matches when it counts.”

Last season, Crook County took fourth as a team in the 4A/3A/2A/1A girls race behind La Grande, Oakridge and Harrisburg.

With the school moving to 5A for all sports, the girls wrestling team has stepped into the 6A/5A level, which has the potential for new challenges.

Instead, Schmitz said the crew has focused on themselves and isn’t worried about their opponents’ school size when they step on to the mat with them.

“I don't think we've changed anything,” Schmitz said. “We talk about it all the time, no matter where you're at, whether we're on the east coast wrestling or we're right here and wrestling in 4A or 5A, they put somebody in front of you with a singlet on you’re going to wrestle.”

The next step for the Cowgirls is the Special District 4 meet where the top four finishers at each weight class earn a spot in the state tournament.

The SD4 meet is set for Feb. 13-14 at Springfield High School and will also include No. 2 Thurston, No. 3 Redmond, Ashland, Bend, Caldera, Churchill, Crater, Eagle Point, Grants Pass, Mountain View, North Eugene, North Medford, Ridgeview, Roseburg, Sheldon, South Eugene, South Medford, Springfield, Summit and Willamette.

A state trophy is there for the taking for Crook County, and the first girls wrestling state title is certainly within reach for a group that continues to take what Schmitz and crew are preaching.

“The fact that they are willing to listen and just try to implement the things that myself and the rest of the coaches are trying to teach them, is a big deal,” Schmitz said. “They’ve had some success, but I think they all have bigger goals and things they want to accomplish toward the end of the season.”

Lebanon wrestler setting the bar

Lebanon junior Mary Jane Duty recently passed the big wrestling milestone of 100 career match wins, and she’s done it despite missing time her freshman year due to injury.

On Jan. 31 at the Southridge Smackdown, Duty won her first match to reach the 100 wins mark and went on to win the 110-pound bracket with a 3-0 decision over McNary’s Kailyn Bollman-Lechner.

Add in another win from a dual with Corvallis and Duty now stands at 103 career wins.

“A true pillar of our team, Mary Jane leads the girls program with grit, humility, and consistency,” Lebanon girls wrestling head coach Brooklyn McElroy said. “She’s grown up in mat club, put in the work every step of the way, and it shows. … We’re proud of the wrestler, the leader, and the legacy she’s building.”

Duty is currently ranked third in Oregon at 110 according to Flowrestling, and second for wrestlers in the 6A/5A classification only behind Crook County freshman Lauren Echeverria.

Up next for Duty and Lebanon is the 6A/5A Special District 3 tournament Feb. 13-14 hosted by West Salem High School.

Roosevelt grapplers aiming high

The small but mighty Roosevelt girls wrestling squad is looking to make some noise to close out the year.

Leading the charge is a talented junior class headlined by Emony Greely at 190 who’s 23-2 on the year. Greely avenged those two losses as well and has won nearly every tournament she’s entered in the 2025-2026 season.

As a freshman, Greely made the state tournament at 235 and made it to semifinals before taking sixth. Last year at 170 she didn’t make the state tournament after battling some injuries and dealing with a stacked weight class in her district.

Now a year older and stronger, Greely has proven she can hang with the top wrestlers in her weight class.

“She’s out there just terrorizing people,” Roosevelt head coach Justin Hollingshead said. “She knows she can hang with the top tier people. … Right now it’s focusing on trying to find her matches that can put her in that late second period, third period time frame. The worry you have as a coach is that she hasn’t had a full six-minute match.”

Fellow junior and two-time state qualifier Niazeal Orduna-Torres transferred to Roosevelt from Grant and is 15-4 on the year at 100. And another junior, two-time state qualifier in Johawna Bass, is 10-4 and coming back from some time spent injured.

Mix in senior Gabrielle Trimble and the Roughriders have been able to punch above their weight despite having only 11 girls on the team.

“At the Dallas tournament, we had a champion, a runner up, a third place and a third place, and we finished 15th out of 50 teams there, but we only had seven girls,” Hollingshead said. “They won’t win a tournament team title because the team's so small, but it's always fun. You go to a big tournament and you have this little wrestling team from Roosevelt that’s in the finals.”

Most importantly for Hollingshead, the girls have more going on then just wrestling as the current leader for valedictorian is a part of the group, along with the leader of the year book club and another who has the leading role in the school play.

Last season, Roosevelt was No. 1 in the Academic All-State rankings for girls wrestling with a team GPA of 3.93.

“We have nine girls right now in the last six years who have wrestled in college,” Hollingshead said. “When you learn about our kids, they're in leadership, they're in the constitutional government team, they’re in band, they’re in theater. They're all doing other things where wrestling is just another piece of the puzzle with them.”

The next piece of that wrestling puzzle is this weekend where the Roughriders will compete in the 6A/5A Special District 2 meet slated for Feb. 13-14 at Sandy High School.