Upstairs in Philomath High’s wrestling room, the athletes work hard on technique to be able to effectively score takedowns, perform turns, execute holds and wrestle from the bottom.
But beyond the fundamental and advanced learning that takes place, the psychological side of wrestling also comes into play. It’s common for coaches at all levels to encourage athletes to set goals as a mental technique to increase the type of commitment needed to achieve improvement.
Gallery: Benton County Championships (Dec. 20, 2023)
A collection of photos from the Benton County Championships wrestling tournament on Wednesday.
“As a team, each of us made like three goals for the season,” junior JJ Lewis said Wednesday after winning the 175-pound division at the Benton County Championships. “Mine were to make it to state, have a 60% takedown rate … and then to have a winning record at the end of the season.”
Lewis appears as though he may be in a pretty good position to reach those goals. A lot of the season remains but the Warriors as a team are off to a solid start. Philomath, hosting the Benton County Championships for the third straight time, won the team title.
Individually, a half-dozen Warriors won their weight divisions in the boys’ competition — Lukas Hernandez (132), Porter Compton (138), Riley Barrett (150), Lewis (175), Lake Mulberry (215) and Brady Russell (285). Sadie Francis (110) was the top wrestler at her weight in the girls’ competition.
Hernandez, a sophomore, had just two opponents to beat at 132 and both came on pins in the third period. In the finale against Monroe’s Trevin Truesdell, the match was tied 13-13 when Hernandez got the stick with 41 seconds remaining.
“I’m not really looking around at the competition, just really focusing on myself, and that’s definitely helping me hone in to my matches,” Hernandez said. “My season has been going pretty good so far, a little bit better than last year.”
Compton racked up three wins by pin in his appearance at 138 with the victory in the finals coming over Monroe’s Owen Roberts in 5:26.
“I’m doing pretty good but I need to work on getting off the bottom a little bit — not too great (of a concern) there but for the most part, I’m getting takedowns,” Compton said when asked to assess how his season has gone so far.
Compton’s style hints at being more of a tactician on the mat with many of his victories coming on decisions.
“I can ride out on top — getting that pin, I don’t do that as often. I try to but it’s just not there most of the time,” he said.
Barrett, another standout of the sophomore class, came into this season following an exceptional summer on the club circuit. His highlight came at the Reno Worlds when he placed sixth in a bracket that included more than 100 wrestlers — that finish earning him All-American status.
Barrett had two matches at 150 in Wednesday’s tournament with both ending on pins in the second period. In the finale, he defeated Santiam Christian’s Caleb Guest in 2:43. Barrent’s focused on trying to win state this season.
“In my mind, I think I should have won state last year,” said Barrett, who is 11-0 this season. “I had one bad match, my mind wasn’t in it, but yeah, I’m coming to get that title.”
Barrett wrestled at 126 last season and is now competing at 150 — a significant move up in weight. He’s currently ranked No. 1 at that weight but said he’s flexible and could move down to 144 or up to 157.
“I was in the weight room quite a bit and just working and eating better, more protein,” Barrett said about the weight gain. “Doing a lot of offseason wrestling, too, helped.”
Lewis defeated opponents from Crescent Valley, Corvallis and Santiam Christian in the tournament — all on pins. It’s part of a season that he said is going pretty well so far. But he does acknowledge that there’s work to be done to reach those goals.
“I’ve been trying to get better on my feet — that’s the one thing that’s still giving me trouble,” Lewis said. “I’m working on that everyday in practice and trying to get that locked in.”
Mulberry, another one of those sophomores, had to defeat four opponents to finish first at 215. Mulberry, who worked for a 10-3 decision over Kenneth Arnold of Corvallis in the finals, said he likes the concept of the tournament.
“I like it because you can claim that in your own county, you’re the best in your weight class … that’s pretty cool,” he said.
Russell, a junior, also had to beat four opponents to win the heavyweight division. Russell pinned all four of his opponents, including Santiam Christian’s Matthew Montgomery in the finals in 4:32.
“I’m not where I want to be but I’m progressing pretty quickly from last year,” Russell said. “It felt good to have four pins — three of them were pretty quick — but a lot to work on, stuff on top, rolls, things like that, but overall pretty good.”
Russell said the tournament brings together a lot of wrestlers that know one another, which is a little different than some of the bigger events.
“It’s cool and it’s weird talking to someone all day that you know you’re going to wrestle, trying to focus up and actually wrestle him,” he said. “But at the end of the day, you’ve got to get the job done.”
Philomath’s girls had three wrestlers competing with Francis winning a pair of matches over the same Crescent Valley opponent for first place at 110. A senior, Francis said she’s working toward finishing in the top three of a tournament bracket that has at least five competing.
“Haven’t met it, but I’m really working towards that,” Francis said, who followed up with a few examples of moves she would like to perfect on the mat.
Overall, she’s happy to be competing with the Warriors during a time of tremendous growth in girls wrestling.
“The sport is getting bigger and I do like the fact that I’m a part of that,” she said. “The only thing is, I think we need to get more girls up there.”
Three other Philomath wrestlers reached the finals but had to settle for runner-up — junior River Sandstrom (120), junior Ryder Zitlau (157) and sophomore Ben McGovern (190). Third-place finishes were turned in by junior Jeshua Gonzalez-Bush (157) and Jonathan Doig (165). Freshman Odin Compton (120), freshman Wyatt Barrett (132) and sophomore Derick Kohn had fourth-place finishes.
In the team standings, Philomath’s victory came with 191 points. Santiam Christian finished second (156) with Corvallis in fourth (131), Crescent Valley in fifth (94.5) and Monroe in sixth (63).
Philomath has won the tournament three straight years and has eight team titles since the event launched during the 1999-2000 season. Corvallis had the most team titles with 10.
The team was scheduled to compete again Thursday in the Crabpools on the Coast tournament at Siuslaw High School.
