Girls wrap up wrestling season

A pair of Outlaws finished the wrestling season at the Special District 1 4A/3A/2A/1A girls’ wrestling tournament held at Cottage Grove High School February 16-17. 

The tournament served as the qualifying meet for the upcoming OSAA Championships in Portland February 23-25. 

Though girls’ wrestling continues to grow at a fast rate in Oregon, many schools have small teams which is why the Special District 1 tournament included wrestlers from 50 different schools from the 4A/3A/2A/1A classification. 

The top five wrestlers in each weight class qualified for state and Brooklyn Cooper came ever so close to being one of them. 

Cooper (14-11) had a great start to the tournament with a huge win in the first round over Grace Rosencranz (25-3) of Brookings (1:20). After a forfeit in round two, she met Lily Ridgley of Harrisburg, owner of a 33-12 record entering the meet. The pair battled for a total of 4:12 before Ridgley got the upper hand and pinned Cooper. 

Cooper faced working her way through the consolation round to make her goal of qualifying for state. She picked up a quick pin over Montana Crowl of Central Linn (0:35) and took down Aja Henager of Junction City (2:41) to set up a match against Delanie Burton of North Valley. Burton bested Cooper in a tough match (3:52) setting up Cooper’s spot in the fifth-place match against Rosencranz. A win would send Cooper to the state tournament, a loss would mean trying again next year. 

Rosencranz got revenge for the first-round loss, and showed how she had achieved such a stellar season record by ending Cooper’s season with a quick pin in just 25 seconds. 

Kisten Elbek, 145, started the tournament with a bye before meeting Riley Allison of La Pine (30-7) in round two, which ended with Allison gaining a fall at 1:57. Elbek won by forfeit in her first consolation round and won her next match over Quinlan Taylor of Grant Union (0:27). Mariam Vanderpool of North Douglas eked out a 6-4 decision in the next round, ending Elbek’s season.

Coach David Kemp praised both girls for their efforts at district. 

“Both girls came out wrestling hard and had some great wins,” he said. “Both

showed great improvement from last year, where neither girl made the second day of competition. The girls had great seasons and I am looking forward to both of them coming back and having big senior years.”

Kemp continued, “They have been our team captains and have continually placed high in tournaments all year paving the way for Sisters High girls’ wrestling program. I hope through their hard work and example, more girls will be inspired to have the courage to join girls wrestling and get to have the life changing experiences that come with being a part of this great sport.”

Kemp will be taking three boys to the state championships including Tyson Kemp, Carter Van Meter, and Scott Henderson.