Reser’s Tournament of Champions 2023 Day 1 recap: Newberg leads team race, Saturday championship matchups set

By René Ferrán

The Newberg wrestling team opened defense of its Reser’s Tournament of Champions title Friday night at Liberty High School in Hillsboro by grabbing the overnight lead and placing five wrestlers into Saturday evening’s finals. 

The Tigers amassed 154 points on the first day of the competition. Besides their five finalists, they have five wrestlers still alive in the consolation rounds, which resume Saturday morning. The finals are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Saturday.

West Linn (119), La Grande (118.5) and Sweet Home (110) are in a tight battle for the other podium finishes. Mountain View (99) and Thurston (93.5) also are in striking range of finishing in the top four.

Five returning champions will get the chance to defend their titles Saturday — Roseburg junior Gage Singleton at 113 pounds, Newberg junior Isaac Hampton at 120, Crescent Valley senior Daschle Lamer at 170, West Linn senior Justin Rademacher at 182 and Thurston senior Vaun Halstead at 220.

Halstead and Sprague senior heavyweight Cole Steketee also will put their undefeated records on the line in the finals. Halstead (33-0) will meet West Linn senior Earl Ingle, and Steketee (26-0) faces Roseburg senior Grady Hamilton. 

Team scores (Top 10)

1, Newberg 154. 2, West Linn 119. 3, La Grande 118.5. 4, Sweet Home 110. 5, Mountain View 99. 6, Thurston 93.5. 7, Crescent Valley 78. 8, Dallas 77. 9, Redmond 76. 10, Crater 74.

Semifinals

106

Tyson Flack (La Pine) 35-2 p. Tytus Hardee (Sweet Home) 34-8, 3:09

Carsen Atterbury (Dallas) 26-8 dec. Chance Yancey (Crook County) 22-6, 5-2

113

Gage Singleton (Roseburg) 32-4 t.f. Luke Cheek (Harrisburg) 28-6, 4:16 (19-3)

Kyle Sieminski (Sweet Home) 43-2 p. Elijah Bayne (Crater) 18-4, 3:08

120

Isaac Hampton (Newberg) 34-3 m.d. Alberto Flores (Crook County) 15-8, 12-2

Jaret Hickey (Crater) 23-7 m.d. Billy Jackson (Redmond) 28-7, 12-4

126

Kai Carson (La Grande) 31-1 dec. Colton Annis (Thurston) 30-8, 9-5

Gavin Rangel (Newberg) 33-3 dec. Ansen Widing (Redmond) 31-3, 9-4

132

Jacob Sieminski (Sweet Home) 40-5 m.d. Tommy Belding (La Grande) 30-5, 9-0

Drew Jones (Mountain View) 30-1 dec. Kutter Christensen (Crater) 22-6, 5-1

138

DJ Gillett (Crescent Valley) 11-4 t.f. Holton Halstead (Thurston) 39-3, 5:35 (15-0)

Owen Hull (Grants Pass) 40-3 dec. Joshua Collins (La Grande) 22-5, 3-2

145

Gus Amerson (Newberg) 25-1 p. Joseph Downing (Redmond) 29-6, 4:59

Charles Spinning (West Linn) 28-6 dec. Ty Havniear (Crater) 27-3, 6-1

152

Ridge Kehr (La Grande) 21-8 dec. Finn Schuller (Bend) 31-11, 6-0

Trae Frederick (Newberg) 23-6 dec. Braylin Ruchti (Thurston) 26-4, 7-4

160

Jackson Potts (Mountain View) 30-3 t.f. Gavin Sandoval (Crook County) 23-7, 5:05 (15-0)

Ben Rintoul (Scappoose) 21-6 p. Ashton Swanson (Sweet Home) 29-10, 3:48

170

Daschle Lamer (Crescent Valley) 22-1 p. Cougar Friesen (Newberg) 29-4, 1:19

Trey Dieringer (Scappoose) 32-5 dec. Liam Byrne (Mountain View) 37-3, 7-4

182

Justin Rademacher (West Linn) 36-1 t.f. Ethan Spencer (Sweet Home) 34-4, 3:11 (16-1)

Preston Echeverria (Hillsboro) 24-2 dec. Cole Langford (Dallas) 38-4, SV-1 4-2

195

Hudson Davis (Newberg) 22-1 p. Jarett Armstrong (La Grande) 27-7, 3:04

Houstyn Lee-Perry (Liberty) 23-2 p. Matthew Baker (Hillsboro) 2-1, 3:25

220

Vaun Halstead (Thurston) 33-0 dec. Jayden Cobb (Crescent Valley) 10-4, 8-2

Earl Ingle (West Linn) 33-3 m.d. Sebastian Echeverria (Hillsboro) 22-3, 18-6

285

Cole Steketee (Sprague) 26-0 p. Ashton Fields (Redmond) 22-8, 2:49

Grady Hamilton (Roseburg) 26-7 dec. Jaden Echeverria (Hillsboro) 20-3, 3-1