NEWPORT — Nine days earlier on Senior Night in Philomath High’s final home wrestling match of the season, Lake Mulberry walked off the mat angry with himself after getting pinned midway through the third period by Sweet Home senior Jeremiah Steagall.
The opportunity for a rematch materialized Saturday in Newport with both wrestlers reaching the 190-pound championship match at the 4A Special District 2 Championships. In addition to a district title and a high seeding at state, the match meant a lot more to Mulberry.
He wanted to make things right. And he did.
Gallery: PHS wrestling at 4A Special District 2 Tournament (Feb. 14, 2026)
A collection of photos from the Philomath High wrestling team’s appearance at the 4A Special District 2 Tournament in Newport on Saturday.
“It was personal because he did beat me pretty bad at Senior Night,” Mulberry said. “I’m sure I could have done better but man, I felt like 99%. I went out there and attacked immediately, that’s my goal. It took me a little while to start getting some takedown points but I got it done.”
Mulberry won on a 7-6 decision to earn a spot at the top of the podium.
“When Lake is on, he’s hard to beat,” PHS coach Troy Woosley said. “When he stops wrestling, he can get beat. And he didn’t stop today.”
Mulberry was one of three district champions for Philomath on the coast Saturday. Riley Barrett added another district title to his impressive collection of medals and Porter Compton had a dominating performance.
In the 190 finale against Steagall, Mulberry took an early 3-0 lead, which the coach believes was a key to victory.
“That first takedown meant everything because then the Sweet Home kid had to wrestle from behind and he’s taking chances and we scored two more times on his bad shots,” Woosley said.
At state last season, Mulberry won the 190 title while Steagall fought for third, although they didn’t match up in the bracket. This season, they’ve met just those two times.
“There’s some respect between the both of us because we go out there and go to war,” Mulberry said.
The state tournament is scheduled for Feb. 26-27 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
“That’s really going to help him for the state seeding because he might go in right at the top of the list now,” Woosley said.
Mulberry anticipates earning the No. 1 seed since he’s the defending champion.
“There are some tough dudes in the bracket so we’ll see how that works,” Mulberry said.
Mulberry, Barrett and Compton are just three of Philomath’s seven state qualifiers. In fact, in a unique twist, all seven headed to Portland in two weeks are seniors.
“Back in the day, my coach used to say, ‘if you come out as a freshman, by the time you’re a senior, you’re making state,’” Woosley said. “If that’s the case, he was right because they all made it — all my seniors made it.”
Liam Bennett, Lukas Hernandez, Braydon Williams and Derick Kohn all advance.
Woosley said Bennett always finds a way and actually felt like he had his best performance in the third-place match loss to Sweet Home’s Martin Chelstad. As for Hernandez, the coach said he continues “to be crazy,” a reference to his unique style and ability to pin an opponent even if far behind on points, which happened in the fifth-place match that advanced him into a wrestle-back opportunity to qualify for state.
Williams placed third at 126 pounds to qualify for state in his final season. Kohn was fourth at 215 but could challenge for a high medal in Portland.
“If knew if he made it to state, he’ll have a good shot at state,” Woosley said. “Our league is ridiculously tough at 215. He didn’t wrestle the way we thought he would for third-fourth but we’ve never beaten that kid, it’s always close. We’ll come back strong.”
Compton reached an important personal goal by winning the district championship for the first time since his freshman season. He settled for runner-up during his sophomore and junior campaigns.
Compton dominated Cottage Grove’s Jake Palluck in a 19-3 technical fall victory at 157 pounds. The match was stopped at the 3:43 mark. Compton executed a strategy to cut the opponent loose for more takedown opportunities instead of grinding away on top trying to turn him.
“If I was on top for about 30 seconds or a little bit longer, I wasn’t really turning him so I figured, cut him, take, get more points and then rack up the points going into the next round and keep doing that,” Compton said. “I ended up getting those back points, so those were good, too.”
Compton now heads back to state for another shot at a championship. A consistent wrestler who holds school records for matches and wins, Compton has two third-place medals and one runner-up finish, which occurred last season.
“Last year I finally made the finals and got second but my goal is most definitely to get that state championship,” he said.
Woosley said 157 fits best for Compton. Last season, he wrestled at 144.
“Porter was lights out offensively today, just scoring at will,” Woosley said. “He’s comfortable at 57 — we made a choice to go 57 over 65 to get away from (Cascade’s) Hans Kamm.”
Kamm beat Compton in the 144 finals at state last year and is competing this season at 165. However, Compton could end up facing two-time state champion Tommy Belding of La Grande.
“That’ll be tough but we’ll be there,” Woosley said. “I’m sure he’s got the tools to be right back in the finals again.”
Barrett wrestled three times — a pin in 12 seconds in the quarterfinals, a 16-0 tech fall in 3:02 in the semifinals and a 14-0 major decision over Sweet Home’s James Hearick in the championship bout.
“Riley was just Riley — consistent,” Woosley said. “For Riley, it’s not a problem but his issue is when he wrestles kids now, they don’t do anything and it’s hard to score points. They’re just completely defensive and waiting for you to make a mistake. And Riley doesn’t make mistakes.”
Barrett had a pretty good idea of what to expect out on the mat.
“I knew I was going to have to push the pace and make all the effort to score,” Barrett said. “A lot of guys think it’s an accomplishment to have a close match with me … They’re not looking to beat me, they’re just looking to keep it close.”
With opponents approaching matches with that type of strategy, Barrett tries to find different ways to challenge himself.
“It’s almost fun to me in a way if they’re not trying to score to just go out there and inflict what I want to inflict,” he said. “If they’re scared of my club, I’m going to look for that club and I’m going to hit my single leg.”
In other words, Barrett’s saying that if his opponent is intently focused on preventing upper body control, they leave their legs exposed so he’ll exploit their defensive positioning by going low for the single leg takedown.
Hearick appeared to earn a moral victory by losing to Barrett by a 14-0 count and avoiding a technical fall.
“As much as I want the tech fall for the team and for the atmosphere and for everyone who’s behind me and supported me, you don’t do anything irrational or anything like that to put yourself in a compromising position if you don’t have to,” Barrett said. “Like, he’s got to make something happen on bottom, like reach for my head and I just knew I had to stay composed and not let emotions take over.”
Among the three district champions, Barrett’s victory was pretty much a given as long as he avoided injury and Compton’s performances have represented a consistent picture of high-level wrestling.
Mulberry’s district title, however, wasn’t necessarily as predictable with an up-and-down season up to this point.
“I’ve had some close matches just not wrestling smart, not wrestling my best and getting caught,” Mulberry said. “I think that if I wrestled them all again, if I was 100%, I’d beat them. There are some studs but hopefully we just keep improving and getting better these next two weeks and polish up everything.”
In the team standings, Philomath finished fourth with 160 points. Sweet Home easily won the top trophy with 507 points.
Philomath’s girls were not in action this weekend and will compete in the 4A/3A/2A/1A Special District 1 Championships on Feb. 20-21 at Molalla.
4A Special District 2 Championships
Saturday, Feb. 14, at Newport HS
Team scoring — 1, Sweet Home 507; 2, Cascade 325.5; 3, Cottage Grove 195; 4, Philomath 160; 5, Newport 96.5; 6, North Marion 91.5; 7, Junction City 82; 8, Stayton 78.5.
PHS Results
106 — Kellen Carlson (0-2): Kellen Carlson (0-2): Pinned by Gyovanny Rojas, North Marion, 1:23; pinned by Ryder Farris, Sweet Home, 0:43.
126 — Braydon Williams (4-1, 3rd): Pinned Julian Saldivar, Cottage Grove, 0:34; pinned by Conner Spencer, Sweet Home, 3:16; pinned Logan Coleman, Cascade, 1:41; pinned Cruz Ramirez, Cascade, 3:20.
132 — Max Grapoli (2-2, 8th): Forfeit over Jared Hernandez-Martinez, North Marion; pinned by Jeffery Conklin, Cottage Grove, 1:58; tech fall over Jesse Coates, Cascade, 19-4 (2:38); tech fall loss to Wyatt Bird, Cascade, 17-1).
138 — Lukas Hernandez (4-2, 4th): Pinned Russell Wood, Cottage Grove, 2:50; pinned Luke Sorensen, Stayton, 3:35; tech fall loss to Jonas Camillo, Cascade, 16-0 (4:54); maj. dec. loss to Evan Burbee, Newport, 16-8; pinned Jose Hernandez, Junction City, 2:30; dec. Macen Rosa, Sweet Home, 5-0.
150 — Riley Barrett (3-0, 1st): Pinned Loren Stock, Newport, 0:12; tech fall over Jayden Davis, Cottage Grove, 16-0 (3:02); maj. dec. James Hearick, Sweet Home, 14-0.
157 — Porter Compton (3-0, 1st): Pinned Johaen Galicia, Newport, 1:42; pinned Gavin Baker, Sweet Home, 5:08; tech fall over Jake Palluck, Cottage Grove, 19-3 (3:43).
165 — Liam Bennett (1-2, 4th): Pinned by Kyle Zajic, Sweet Home, 0:52; pinned Cody Baldwin, Junction City, 1:20; pinned by Martin Chelstad, Sweet Home, 1:22.
165 — Tayte Mahr (0-2, 7th): Pinned by Hans Kamm, Cascade, 0:07; pinned by Cody Baldwin, Junction City, 3:25.
175 — Logan Toombs (1-3, 6th): Pinned by Luke Rosa, Sweet Home, 0:57; med. forf. over Kellan Cooper, Junction City; pinned by Riley Coleman, Cascade, 0:46; pinned by Noah Whelchel, Junction City, 3:14.
190 — Lake Mulberry (4-0, 1st): Pinned Blake Rhinevault, Stayton, 0:29; pinned Michael Eggers, Sweet Home, 3:23; tech fall over Andre Cato, Newport, 16-1 (2:12); dec. Jeremiah Steagall, Sweet Home, 7-6.
215 — Derick Kohn (3-2, 4th): Pinned Zachary Brophy, Stayton, 1:00; forfeit over Caleb Bruner, Cottage Grove; tech fall loss to Matthew Hinkle, Cascade, 16-1 (2:26); pinned Dylan Hartsook, Sweet Home, 4:51; dec. loss to Jesus Tarula, North Marion, 9-5.