Coming off the mat following a loss in the 157-pound third-place match at Saturday’s Special District 2 wrestling tournament, Philomath sophomore Liam Bennett was down on himself for missing an opportunity to advance to state.
Then his coach shared some interesting news. Based on another key result that came in, Bennett, who has been a junior varsity-level wrestler all season, had qualified for state after all. The realization didn’t sink in right away.
“It’s priceless, it’s why I coach still,” longtime Warriors coach Troy Woosely said. “Just to see the success on basically a JV wrestler’s face, it’s just awesome. It’s wrestling — anything can happen.”
Bennett was one of nine PHS wrestlers to qualify for the Feb. 22-23 state championships at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Others advancing include district champion and undefeated sophomore Riley Barrett, sophomore Porter Compton, sophomore Lukas Hernandez, junior JJ Lewis, junior Ari Hammond, senior Gradin Fairbanks, freshman Wyatt Barrett and sophomore Lake Mulberry.
Bennett pulled off a stunning victory in the consolation semifinals over No. 2-seeded Bruce Bankhead of North Marion. In the match, Bennett opened with a takedown but Bankhead got an escape point and a takedown to take a 3-2 lead. Bennett countered with a reversal to go up 4-3 and then turned Bankhead on his back and got a pin in 1:48.
“It was a shocker … not that anyone can’t do it, every year we have big upsets, but it was one of the big upsets of the tournament,” Woosley said. “So I’m pretty thrilled for him.”
Bennett was entered in the district tournament at 157 because there was no room for him at 144 (Porter Compton, Hammond) or 150 (Riley Barrett, Zitlau).
“He hasn’t wrestled a single varsity dual and the only varsity tournaments he’s been in were ones where we can enter multiple guys,” Woosley said. “We had to raise him up almost two weight classes just for him to be able to wrestle on our own team.”
The win over Bankhead advanced Bennett to the third-place match where he lost to Moore. Bankhead, meanwhile, defeated a Newport opponent which in the bracket would match him up again with Bennett. But since he had already defeated him, a wrestle-back match was not needed and Bennett was awarded fourth place.
Riley Barrett lived up to expectations with a perfect tournament that included a 7-1 decision over Sweet Home’s Jacob Landtroop in the championship match at 150. It was the second time in 10 days that Barrett had beaten Landtroop on a decision.
“Kids continue to hang out, try to keep the score close and then hit a home run hitter to catch him off guard,” Woosley said. “It’s frustrating for him but he’s just dominant. He’s only a sophomore but he’s just so seasoned in those big matches.”
Barrett will take a perfect 42-0 record to state. So far this season, he has 31 pins (74% of his win total), four technical falls, five decisions, one major decision and a win by medical forfeit.
Porter Compton moved up in weight to 144 and reached the finals against Sweet Home’s Kyle Zajic. The match went the distance and then some with Zajic winning via sudden victory.
“It was a great match,” Woosley said. “Porter’s been in a lull for a couple of weeks on being offensive and he usually turns it on about halfway through the second round.”
Compton trailed by at least three points at one point in the match before battling back late in the second period and into the third.
“It kind of backfired in that he wasted a lot of energy in the last minute to get it to overtime,” Woosley said. “Then he just got caught flat-footed going the wrong way on a shot and he got taken down.”
Hernandez and Lewis both reached the championship matches in their respective weight classes but also settled for runner-up.
Wrestling at 132, Hernandez had his most impressive win in the semifinals against Junction City’s Braden Slocum with a pin in 2:39.
“Lukas continues to surprise everyone, especially if you don’t know his style, you’re going to get beat in a weird, unorthodox style that only Lukas can do,” Woosley said. “He’s on a roll; I was so excited for him.”
Lewis, meanwhile, had a little bit of a slow start at 175 with a 10-7 decision in his first match but he won on a major decision in the semifinals to earn a shot at Sweet Home’s Ashton Swanson.
“Now he’s starting to become a good wrestler but his work ethic is just off-the-chart better than most,” Woosley said. “It pays off at the end of the season, he’s peaking. He just kind of got caught in the finals against the best kid in the state but that’s fine, we’ll live with that.”
Hammond and Fairbanks both won third-place matches at 144 and 165, respectively.
Hammond lost in his first match on a 10-5 decision to Stayton’s Oskar Arceneaux but he battled back through consolations to get himself into the third-place match — against Arceneaux. In the rematch, Hammond got a pin in 1:58.
“We were down two or three when we pinned him but it wasn’t like a catch, it was an actual good move,” Woosley said. “He’s really starting to think offensively and not just wait for scrambles and try to react to that. He’s really starting to wrestle.”
Fairbanks won four of five matches, which included a pin in 1:47 over Cottage Grove’s Clayton Dewitt, the second time he had beaten him on the day. Fairbanks’ lone loss came to the eventual champion, Cascade’s Ethan Coates. In the finals, the No. 2-ranked Coates beat Sweet Home’s Ryker Hartsook, who was No. 1.
“Those are all good kids and I was proud how he came back and took the third spot without any problems,” Woosley said. “Just because there are two kids in our league who are 1 and 2 in the state, we know the other leagues at how we stack up and Gradin’s got a shot; I think he’ll be fine at state.”
Wyatt Barrett at 138 and Mulberry at 215 nabbed fourth-place finishes to punch their tickets to state as well.
Woosley said putting Barrett at 138 was part of the strategy that moved Compton up to 144. Perhaps his biggest win of the day came in the consolation quarterfinals with a 10-2 major decision over Newport’s Kaz Mitchell.
“He’s just continued to wrestle,” Woosley said. “He got a lot more active on his feet than he has been and once he’s on top, he’s a riding machine right now with the tilts and the arm bars and the 2-on-1s and he’s just figured it out.”
Mulberry’s path to state featured a lot of close matches, including a 3-2 victory over Cascade’s Solomon Sandoval in an ultimate tiebreaker in the quarterfinals. He beat Cottage Grove’s Daniel Hernandez with a pin in 2:55 for fourth.
“Lake is frustrated on his feet right now,” Woosley said, sharing some of the challenges Mulberry has faced in his matches. “The best thing about Lake is he qualified and I also know the North league and the South league and I think we’re better than most so we’ve got state and we’ll do damage, I think. Over the next week and a half, we’ll shore up his feet.”
In the team standings, Sweet Home won the district title with 472.5 points with Cascade second (325) and Philomath third (220), followed by Stayton (141.5), Cottage Grove (135), Newport (118.5), North Marion (112) and Junction City (78).
Among those who didn’t make it to state, River Sandstrom at 113 had a tough break with a health situation that eventually led to a medical forfeit in a consolation match — he was leading his opponent by 10 points in the third round at the time.
Elsewhere, Odin Compton (120) and Ryder Zitlau (150) each had two wins and placed sixth. Brayden Williams (126), Jonathan Doig (157), Ben McGovern (190) and Derrick Kohn (190) all had at least one win.
