Middle school wrestling wraps up season

The seventh- and eighth-grade wrestlers brought their season to an end competing at the Central Oregon Middle School District Tournament held at Ridgeview High School.

Five wrestlers earned medals, and eighth-grader Dustin Brigham (125 pounds) led the way with a second-place finish. After a bye in the opening round, Brigham pinned opponents from Culver, Crook County and La Pine, and then lost to Chris Wilder from Elton Gregory in the finals.

Middle school Coach Jeff Smith said, "Dustin is really aggressive. He takes chances and is an exciting wrestler to watch. Unfortunately, the very physical Wilder caught Dustin on his back a couple of times and Dustin just wasn't able to come back.

"Dustin is easily our best wrestler," added Smith. "His overall record was 18-2 with 14 pins."

Seventh-grader Jacob Gurney (140 pounds) earned a fifth-place finish. Gurney lost his first match to the eventual tournament champion, Dylan Dennis. Dennis' father had wrestled for Coach Smith at Sisters High School in the mid-1990s.

In Gurney's next match, he was well ahead of a Madras wrestler when he got taken to his back and pinned.

Smith noted, "Jacob is in his first year of wrestling and he's had a great season. He nearly always wrestles guys with several years of experience, and he competes well. It hurts a lot when you lose to a guy when you're ahead, but that won't happen often to Jacob."

Gurney won his final two matches to earn the fifth-place medal.

Tyler Surface (eighth grade; 171 pounds) placed seventh. Surface posted two wins and two losses in the tournament. In his final match he pinned a wrestler from Three Rivers Middle School in just 21 seconds.

Eighth-place medals went to Levi Rychener (85 pounds) and Casey Warburton (145 pounds). Both Rychener and Warburton are seventh-graders and will look to place even higher next season.

Three other wrestlers were just one win short of placing. Gabe Patton had two wins and two losses at 120 pounds, and fell just short of the medal round. Damien Wills (105 ponds) was injured in his final match and failed to place. Brady Wessell (160 pounds) competed hard, but didn't make the top eight. All three of these wrestlers plan to return for their eighth-grade year.

Smith summarized the performance of his Outlaws: "We have a relatively inexperienced squad, with Dustin being our only guy with several years on the mat. We've worked hard to perfect a few moves this year and the boys all competed well."

During the regular season most of the Outlaws' meets involved four or five middle schools and kids were just lined up by weight, paired up and then sent off to a mat to wrestle. After the first round, they were lined up again and winners were paired against winners and losers against losers. If time allowed they would all wrestle one additional match.

Smith recalled a couple of memorable moments from the regular season:

"One highlight was a meet at Cascade Middle School in Bend where we pinned 17 opponents and only got pinned five times. We've worked hard at pinning. It's the ultimate! We've also worked hard at getting off our backs and it's paid off.

"Another highlight was a bracket tournament at Culver," added Smith. (A bracket tournament works like NCAA basketball, except that you can continue wrestling until you lose twice.) This was a pretty tough meet, with teams from Culver, Crook County, Madras, Burns and Obsidian. I think these towns have 14 team championships in the last decade. Each school could enter as many kids as they wanted per weight class."

Placing at the Culver tourney: Dustin Brigham (first), Brady Wessell (third), Tyler Surface, Levi Rychener, Cole Pade and Damien Wills (fourth), Gabe Patton and Casey Warburton (fifth) and Chayse Sproat (sixth).

"As a coach it's great to see the progress of every wrestler," said Smith. "You watch the better kids improve their skills and mat sense. For some of the newer guys, who often meet opponents who have been wrestling for years, you revel in their efforts to fight off a pin or maybe score a point or two against a really good guy. Every single boy wrestled with more competitiveness and improved skills at the end of the season."