Wrestlers compete in big invitational

A total of six boys and four girls took part in the Tod Surmon Mid-Valley Classic hosted by West Albany High School at the Linn County Fair and Expo site over last weekend. Sisters placed a very respectable sixth among the 18 schools with 72 points.

Mountainside overwhelmed the competition with 200 points. Teams came from the range of 6A-2A classifications

Senior Scott Henderson, 190 pounds, finished the highest for the Outlaws making it to the championship match. Henderson picked up two wins on Saturday before dropping the championship match against Isiah Conner of Mountainside (Fall 3:03) to place second. His two wins came by fall over Camden Chira of Southridge and Jonathan Mathis of Ridgeview.

A pair of Outlaws placed fourth in their respective weight classes. Jace Owens, who earned a spot in the third place match at 165 pounds by going 3-1 in the opening rounds. Gradin Fairbanks of Philomath beat him for third place with a fall (1:44).

Jozua Miller (285) passed through his first two rounds with a bye and an injury default before facing Brady Valet of North Salem who took down Miller at the 3:36 mark. Miller came back in the consolation round to beat Isaiah Meashintubby of Churchill (Fall 2:47) but lost the third-place match to Nate Passadore of West Linn (Fall 3:31).

Tyson Kemp who entered the tourney with a 25-13 record picked up three more wins in the very competitive 144-pound class, and narrowly missed a chance at the third-place match after losing a tough 4-3 decision in the consolation semi-final to Ari Hammond of Philomath. He regrouped to take fifth with a major decision over Samuel Baldwin of Ridgeview 11-1.

Carter Van Meter, the winningest Outlaw so far this season with a record of 28-11 in the 126-pound class, wrestled six times over the weekend going 3-3 to place sixth for the team. His final match went nearly to the limit against Victor Perez of Newport with Perez coming out on top by fall (5:15).

Brennan Frutos, wrestling at 150 pounds went 0-2, but battled hard in his second round of consolation against Ethan Evans of Mountainside, losing by fall at 4:03.

The Sisters girls scored 32 points overall to place ninth among 17 teams competing. Dallas won the tournament with 142 points.

Kisten Elbek, 13-9 on the year, won her first two matches by fall in under a minute to earn a spot in the first place match at 145 pounds. She then battled Liliana Alvarez of Central for most of two rounds before losing by fall (2:56).

Brooklyn Cooper picked up third place with a bye and two wins against one loss at 125 pounds. In her final match she beat Kyleigh Grieser-King of West Albany at the 1:40 mark.

In the 190-pound class, Sierra Jaschke dropped all three of her matches, but still earned fourth place for her efforts and picked up points for the team.

Pidge Henderson also wrestled twice, dropping both her matches but battled into round three in her final match against Lily Pena of West Albany before being pinned at the 4:32 mark.

The team is scheduled to compete at Madras Wednesday, January 31, and La Pine Saturday, February 3.