25 juniors to watch at Oregon high school wrestling championships
By René Ferrán
The Oregon high school wrestling championships take place this weekend at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Here are 25 juniors who have shined this season.
Jackson Potts (Mountain View) photo by Leon Neuschwander
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Ali Martinez, McNary (190)
2022-23 record: 38-2
Martinez wrestled throughout middle school, but she’s also a top softball player, so when wrestling and her travel softball schedule conflicted during the COVID 2021 spring season, she chose softball. She then missed last wrestling season recovering from shoulder surgery. She returned this winter and quickly shook off any rust she might have had, winning five in-season tournaments and going unbeaten against in-state competition with 29 first-period pins.
Ash Blomstrom, Toledo (195)
Career record: 56-9
2022-23 record: 18-0
Blomstrom finally realized the potential he showed as a youth wrestler in Idaho in the second half of his sophomore season, capping it by winning the Class 2A/1A 195-pound state title. He missed the first month of this season but has been untouchable since returning, with only one match going the full six minutes and needing just three minutes in three matches to win a second district title.
Ava Collins, Vale (140)
Career record: 35-5
2022-23 record: 22-2
Collins, who placed third at the OSAA state meet last winter, pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season by defeating Mia Furman of Rocky Mountain (Idaho) 7-1 in the Rollie Lane 145-pound final. (Furman is No. 6 at 144 pounds in the most recent FloWrestling national rankings.) She won her second district title three weeks ago and is the top seed in the 4A/3A/2A/1A bracket.
Benjamin Larson, Hermiston (182)
Career record: 81-19
2022-23 record: 38-8
The past two seasons for Larson have finished in exactly the same fashion — winning the Mid-Columbia district and Washington Class 3A Region 4 titles before placing fifth at the Mat Classic state championships. Larson finished fourth at Tri-State and third at Rollie Lane this winter.
Charles Spinning, West Linn (145)
Career record: 79-18
2022-23 record: 33-7
Spinning is a two-time state placer (fifth as a freshman, runner-up last season) who won his second Three Rivers district title two weeks ago. He reached the Reser’s Tournament of Champions final in early February, falling to Newberg’s Gus Amerson in a close match.
Cole Langford, Dallas (182)
Career record: 83-20
2022-23 record: 44-4
Langford had come close to a first tournament title throughout the past two seasons, including a third-place finish at the OSAA 5A state meet last year and a third at Reser’s TOC this month. He finally grabbed that first gold medal at last weekend’s Mid-Willamette district meet, avenging two defeats to Silverton’s Steven Powell.
Daniel Garza, Hermiston (138)
Career record: 74-27
2022-23 record: 35-12
Garza moved up one spot at the Washington 3A Region 4 and Mat Classic XXXIV state meet this winter, finishing second to state runner-up Hudson Buth of Mount Spokane in the regional final and placing fifth at state.
Dylan Clark, Henley (120)
Career record: 84-7
2022-23 record: 43-0
Clark had a promising start to his high school career, winning a district title and placing second at the 4A state meet during the COVID spring 2021 season. He was poised for big things last year but had to forfeit his matches at district last February, but he won six in-season tournaments this season and swept to the district title by pinning all three opponents.
Everest Sutton, Crescent Valley (113)
Career record: 46-11
2022-23 record: 16-6
Sutton has had an up-and-down junior season but comes to Memorial Coliseum looking to add a third 5A state championship to his resumé. He’ll be the No. 2 seed behind Crater’s Elijah Bayne, who won the 113 title last year (Sutton was the 106 champion). “Everest is like the Energizer Bunny,” Raiders coach Chad Lamer said. “He never gets tired and just puts in a lot of extra work. He wrestles at a really high pace and is a lot of fun to watch.”
Gage Singleton, Roseburg (113)
Career record: 80-8
2022-23 record: 37-5
Singleton, the younger brother of three-time state champion Nash Singleton (Oregon State), will go for his third 6A state championship this weekend after successfully defending his Reser’s TOC title and winning a third Southwest district title this month.
Henry Dillingham, West Linn (152)
Career record: 69-18
2022-23 record: 29-6
Dillingham found his groove when the Lions wrestled at the Oregon Classic, going 6-0 that weekend and remaining undefeated since, including his first Three Rivers district title after losing in the final last year. Now, he hopes to improve upon his fourth-place finish at the 6A state meet.
Isaac Hampton, Newberg (120)
Career record: 102-4
2022-23 record: 39-3
Hampton reached the century mark in wins during his run to a third Pacific district championship. Now, the two-time Reser’s TOC champion will look for his second OSAA 6A state title this weekend. Tigers coach Neil Russo recalled that even when he took Hampton to his first tournament as a 5-year-old, he already had the maturity of an older wrestler. “Isaac is our quiet leader,” Russo said. “He questions everything and has to have a rationale for everything that we do.”
Jackson Potts, Mountain View (160)
Career record: 99-16
2022-23 record: 35-3
Potts is part of a legacy family at Mountain View — his father, Dan, was a state finalist and college wrestler and brother Cannon was a two-time state runner-up. He has managed a diabetes diagnosis and upheld the family name with a third-place finish at the OSAA 6A state meet last year and titles at the Sierra Nevada Classic and Reser’s TOC this winter. “He has a great pedigree but really is his own person,” Cougars coach Les Combs said. “Watching him learning to manage his life as an athlete and in a sport where you have to manage your weight has presented some tough challenges, but he has done an amazing job of taking it all in stride.”
Jeremiah Wachsmuth, Clackamas (113)
Career record: 67-7
2022-23 record: 27-1
Wachsmuth’s older brother, Noah, is a former state champion who has won international Greco-Roman competitions since leaving Clackamas to join USA Wrestling’s Elite Accelerator Program. Jeremiah has yet to join his brother as an OSAA state champion, falling to two-time champion Gage Singleton of Roseburg last February, but he did win a Fargo 16U national title in Greco-Roman in July.
Kai Carson, La Grande (126)
Career record: 82-7
2022-23 record: 35-2
Carson might not be much of a hunter — he once chased a pet turkey into a hen house while out with his father, Tigers coach Klel Carson — but when hunting rivals on the wrestling mat, he’s much more accurate. He’s a two-time Tri-State champion and returning OSAA 4A state champion whose only losses this season came in the finals at Red Halverson (Matthew Martino of Bishop Kelly, an Idaho state champion) and Reser’s TOC (Newberg freshman Gavin Rangel).
Kyle Sieminski, Sweet Home (113)
Career record: 96-11
2022-23 record: 48-3
Kyle and his older brother, Jacob, have gotten into plenty of scrapes throughout their careers — Huskies coach Steve Thorpe said that “when training in the room, it can nearly come to a brother fight” — but those brotherly brawls prepared Kyle well. He’s a two-time state champion who has twice reached the Reser’s TOC final. He won a third district title last weekend.
Liam Byrne, Mountain View (182)
Career record: 74-11
2022-23 record: 42-3
Byrne has put together a solid junior season, winning titles at Rose City and Sierra Nevada, finishing third at Reser’s TOC and taking fifth at Rollie Lane before winning his first district title. Cougars coach Les Combs notes how Byrne “has a little bit of a personality who loses track of time and awareness of what is going on, but he’s very much a wrestler who is driven. A very unique kid!”
Mariko Sonis, North Salem (120)
Career record: 47-12
2022-23 record: 23-3
Sonis reached the finals at North Bend and the Lady Dragon Invitational before breaking through for her first title the week before district at the Paul/Larson Invitational. The following week, she won her second district title, and she seeks her first state medal this weekend.
Michael Miller, Illinois Valley (106)
Career record: 49-9
2022-23 record: 22-5
Miller won his second consecutive 2A/1A state title last February. Over the summer, he broke a femur and required extensive surgery that included the insertion of metal plates into his leg. He returned in time for the start of the season but didn’t win a tournament title until nabbing his third district championship two weeks ago. He’ll enter state as a No. 3 seed. “We have him back to a healthy percentage to make a run,” Cougars coach Jesse Clark said.
Moises Lopez, Aloha (126)
Career record: 91-18
2022-23 record: 45-3
Lopez is the top seed in the 6A 126 bracket after winning a second consecutive Metro district title two weeks ago, capping a season that saw him finish fifth at Rose City, then win titles at Liberty, Tualatin and Bill Geister.
Preston Echeverria, Hillsboro (182)
Career record: 63-11
2022-23 record: 32-2
Echeverria is the youngest of three family members in the Spartans program, and the way the schedule works out this weekend, he might be the first of the three to win a state title. After placing third at the 5A state meet last season, he finished fourth at Rollie Lane and reached the Reser’s TOC final this year before winning his first NWOC district title last week.
Reese Lawson, West Salem (145)
Career record: 28-4
2022-23 record: 19-0
Lawson didn’t wrestle during the COVID spring 2021 season, but last February she placed fourth at the OSAA state meet. This season, she’s been virtually untouchable — the longest match she had until the district final lasted 83 seconds before she edged Tualatin’s Madi Randels 10-7 to win her first district title.
Scout Santos, Mountain View (120)
Career record: 76-14
2022-23 record: 27-6
Santos is a three-time district champion and twice a medalist at the 6A state championships, finishing fourth as a freshman and runner-up to Newberg’s Isaac Hampton last year. He has placed twice at Rollie Lane, including a sixth-place finish in January.
Trae Frederick, Newberg (152)
Career record: 65-17
2022-23 record: 27-6
Frederick flew under the radar last season for the Tigers, wrestling behind four-time state champion Ayden Garver, before reaching the 6A 145 final against Garver. A runner-up finish at Rose City and a Reser’s TOC championship this year meant he won’t enter state a relative unknown again. Frederick also is allergic to many common items, including peanuts, and he had to sit out a meet after experiencing a bad reaction. That doesn’t stop teammates from trying to get him “to just try one to see what happens,” coach Neil Russo said. “Thankfully, he has yet to give in to that peer pressure.”
Zachary Keinonen, Newberg (132)
Career record: 95-8
2022-23 record: 34-4
If Keinonen runs the table and wins a third consecutive 6A state title this weekend, it will leave him one victory shy of 100 for his career and leave him one year from joining the four-timer club — as long as this newly minted driver avoids any more accidents. Coach Neil Russo rattled off a lengthy list of issues he’s experienced since getting his license — from draining his battery multiple times by leaving his lights on in the parking lot (he’s required a jump-start after practice on several occasions) to running off the road (thankfully, no injuries).
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