Four Outlaws wrestlers head to State Championships

The Sisters High School wrestling team took seventh place at the district tournament held at Elmira High School on Friday and Saturday, February 8-9. The team qualified four wrestlers for the state tournament.

"Our season-long goal is to get guys to the state tournament and to place in the state," Coach Jeff Smith said. "This will be the largest Outlaw contingent at state in the past decade."

Nick Head (135 pounds) and Thomas Schantz (189 pounds) led the way for the local grapplers. Head lived up to his number two seed when he opened with a second-round fall over Nick Murders of Elmira and a 16-7 win over Trevor Sustaire of Cottage Grove. Head was pinned by highly ranked Adam Sprague of Pleasant Hill in the championship match.

Schantz, seeded second, opened the tournament with a first-round pin over Adam Nasalroad of Marist. Schantz followed with a hard fought 7-6 victory over Tyler Spooner of Pleasant Hill. In the finals Schantz was bested 3-1 by Grant Thompson of Cottage Grove.

Ben Freeland and Dylan MacKenzie were not seeded in the top four but battled throughout the tournament to earn a slot at the state tournament with third-place finishes.

Freeland opened with an injury default win over Keith Gamble of La Pine. Freeland's next match ended in a heart-breaking 15-17 loss to Charles Williams of Cottage Grove.

Smith explained what happened.

"Ben (Freeland) was ahead by one with 15 seconds to go when he heard a whistle on a nearby mat. Thinking that the match was over, he let Williams go. The escape point tied the score, and he lost in overtime," said Smith.

Freeland followed this loss with a fall over Noah Broome of Pleasant Hill and then lodged a third period fall over James Deatharage of Cottage Grove. Freeland faced Tyler Stahlnecker of La Pine in the finals for third place. Earlier in the season Stahlnecker earned a 7-0 victory over Freeland. This time around was a different story. After an early takedown by Stahlnecker, Freeland rebounded to score a convincing 11-4 win for the third place finish

MacKenzie's third-place showing at 145 pounds was equally impressive. After receiving byes in the first two rounds, MacKenzie was pinned by two-time state Champion Jacob Stanley of Cottage Grove. MacKenzie battled back with a first-round fall over Garret Hightower of Junction City. Like Freeland, MacKenzie needed to defeat a La Pine wrestler who had defeated him soundly earlier in the season. Brian Manning opened the match with an early takedown and near fall. MacKenzie scored a reversal late in the first period and scored all the remaining points to earn the 7-4 win.

Smith said: "It's great to see the competitiveness of these guys. Each was facing a foe who had beaten them before. Each fell behind early but persevered to earn the state tournament berth."

Gilbert Porraz (145 pounds) earned a fifth-place finish. Porraz lost his first match to district runner-up Kevin Knox of Junction City, but rebounded with a third-period fall over Danny DeBonis of Cottage Grove. Porraz then lost to Manning of La Pine and pinned Hightower of Junction City.

The state tournament will be held at the Memorial Coliseum, Thursday through Saturday, February 14-16.