2B | WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 2021 | SIUSLAW NEWS
SHS
from 1B
“We battled as best we
could,” explained Perry,
“keeping it close towards the
end of the second quarter,
but their relentless pressure
eventually got the best of our
team.”
Thornton picked up
another 9 points in the third
quarter, in addition to 2
steals and 2 rebounds. Hart
also had a rebound and 4
points from the low post,
Terry picked up 2 points and
a rebound, and Izacc
Mattson had 2 rebounds and
2 points. By this point, the
Spartans had stretched the
Siuslaw
lead to 17 points, picking up
2 points and the buzzer and
bringing the score to 42-59.
The Viks kept fighting
throughout the fourth quar-
ter, with Thornton picking
up several more steals, and
Hart going hard, crashing
the boards for rebounds, but
Marist was able to pull out
the win in the end 48-79.
“I’m proud of the guys
that continued to fight to the
very end,” said Perry. “That
shows character, and as a
coach that’s what I’m really
trying to instill in my play-
ers.
“Some games just aren’t
going to be in our favor on
the scoreboard. That’s just
the reality of sports. But if
we can look each other in
the eye and know we each
gave it everything we had,
then we can hold our heads
high. I look forward to get-
ting to play Marist again in a
short time.”
The
Viks
played
Marshfield at home on
Thursday (after press dead-
lines.)
Their next game is this
afternoon at Elmira, starting
at 1:30 p.m.
Lady Viks
The girls’ team then fol-
lowed on the court, and the
Lady Spartans gave the Lady
Viks quite a fight as well,
defeating Siuslaw 52-14.
Said coach Ashlee Cole,
“We had one practice with
everyone back on the court,
and our first game. They are
still figuring out how to gel
as a group. I am looking at
this game as our baseline,
and I expect us to only
improve.”
For this first league game,
the Lady Viks were finally
able to vet their complete
lineup,
with
Brea
Blankenship,
Gracie
Freudenthal and Jane
Lacouture joining the team
after the track season’s close
last weekend.
Freudenthal
scored
Siuslaw’s first 2 points at the
low post just before the end
of the first quarter, but
Marist had already put a
great deal of points on the
scoreboard, ending the
quarter ahead 18-2.
Lacouture picked up a
foul shot and a layup for the
Lady Viks, and Blankenship
was able to score 4 points off
of jump shots in the key.
Combined with another
layup from Freudenthal,
who also had 3 rebounds in
the quarter, Marist led 31-11
at the half.
The Lady Spartans pushed
ahead in the third quarter,
holding Siuslaw to 1 point in
the quarter, scored by
Lizbeth Garcia-Galvan at
from 1B
our victory was assured.”
Next up, Siuslaw com-
peted against Siletz Valley/
Eddyville Charter. Said
Wartnik, “That’s a group
of tough kids, and we had
great matches. They won
a couple of good match-
es, we won a couple of
good matches, and on the
strength of our numbers,
we won that dual 36-12.”
LaCosse had another sol-
id match, pinning Siletz/
Eddyville’s Michael Sweat
in 4:00, as did Jennings,
who defeated his opponent
Tanner Clark by injury in
1:50.
The Viks’ big matchup of
the night was Cascade. Ac-
cording to Wartnik, “Cas-
cade has tended to be the
second powerhouse in this
region behind Sweet Home,
and they’re down; they lost
a couple of great kids last
year. A lot of it is because
of COVID; if it hadn’t hap-
pened, I think that their
team might be stronger
than it is.”
Siuslaw had some very
exciting matches against
Cascade, who won 39-38,
but scored most of their
points on forfeits.
Said Wartnik, “In the
matches that we actual-
ly wrestled, we won seven
of the nine. There were so
many matches where it was
nip and tuck, and we just
happened to turn the right
way and they turned the
wrong way, and we ended
up coming away with pins.
“On another night, that
matchup could have gone
very differently; Cascade
could have could have done
much better, but it turned
out a 39-38 match. And it
was exciting for our team
to wrestle Cascade, and to
outwrestle them.”
The Viks had five ath-
letes win matches by pin-
ning
their
opponents
against Cascade, including
Yoskar DeLaMora (0:26),
Cayden Gray (5:13), John
Corser (3:06), Christian
Newlan (3:02) and JC Gen-
try (1:13).
Petterson won by deci-
sion 10-7, and LaCosse won
by a technical fall 20-5.
Siuslaw’s
final
dual
matchup for the meet was
against Waldport, who they
defeated soundly 48-6.
“They beat us at 152
pounds, Jeffrey Burton beat
John Corser, but otherwise
we outwrestled them, and
we had lots of forfeit wins,”
said Wartnik.
Maddison
Petterson,
Hunter’s twin sister, as well
as her brother both defeat-
ed their Waldport oppo-
nents by pin, Maddison in
2:00 and Hunter in 0:18.
Maddison, who is a new-
ZEAHNA YOUNG/SIUSLAW NEWS
Elijah LaCosse takes the upper hand in his well-fought match.
comer to the team this year,
is already having a great
deal of success on the team,
and the Pettersons make up
one of two pairs of siblings
on Wartnik’s team this year.
The coach also has Hayden
and Dayne Muller on the
team, and enjoys the op-
portunity to work with
both pairs of siblings.
“It’s really special, I love
having those families in-
volved,” said Wartnik.
Newlan also had a strong
win against Waldport, pin-
ning his opponent in 1:40.
Regarding the event in
general, Wartnik said that
it was an overall success.
“It was the first time we
had ever run a live result
match on Track Wrestling,”
he explained, “so we were
‘wrestling’ with all kinds
of technical and logistical
issues for the tournament.
It was a learning curve, but
our kids did very well.”
Wednesday (May 26),
Siuslaw traveled to Sweet
Home for yet another dual
meet. The Viks defeated
both Junction City and
North Marion, falling only
to Sweet Home.
“We had some tough
losses yesterday,” not-
ed Wartnik. “A couple of
my better kids lost some
hard-fought matches. And
I’m not going to say that it
was all because they were
fatigued, but none of the
other teams wrestled four
times in six days.”
Senior LaCosse alone
had matches in the double
digits after Tuesday night’s
finish.
“Elijah racked up 13
matches in those four
days, which means he was
averaging three matches a
tournament,” said Wart-
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nik. “He wrestled five times
on Friday, three times
Tuesday, and we didn’t get
out of our gym Tuesday
night until 10 p.m.
“Then we came back
yesterday and wrestled at
Sweet Home, who is by far
the toughest team in our
region. Last year, I think
they took second place at
the state tournament. But
they usually have 10 or
more team members place
at the state tournament,
where we on average will
have one or two kids place
at the state tournament.
So, we’re wrestling a lineup
that is stacked.”
According to Wartnik,
the team hoped to secure
three wins against Sweet
Home over last year’s two
as a measure of success.
“When you consider
the exhibition win of Cort
Waggoner at 220, and a vic-
tory by Hayden Muller in a
matchup of two returning
state placers in the women’s
division, we got four wins.
Ryan Jennings won at 170
pounds, and we got a win
from Christian Newlan at
220 pounds.”
Although Sweet Home
won the dual overall 72-12,
the Viks doubled last year’s
match wins in the meet.
“I think that the guys
wished they could have
wrestled better,” said Wart-
nik,” but I was just thrilled
with their performance and
their effort level; they give
us what they had.”
Siuslaw next faced off
against Junction City, who
they defeated 36-25.
“It was on the power for-
feits,” said Wartnik. “We
had a bigger lineup than
they had. They won the two
big matchups of top kids
— Carson Henderson beat
Elijah LaCosse 12-5, and
Emmett Henderson, Car-
son’s brother, beat Mason
Buss 9-0.
“Those are disappoint-
ing for Elijah and Mason,
but it’s alright; again, it’s
just part of the journey. We
were worn out, we wres-
tled with what we had, and
that’s what the score was
yesterday.”
In addition to LaCosse
and Buss, Hunter Petterson
also had to face returning
state champion, Evan Pot-
ter.
“Evan has won two state
championships in the last
two years,” said Wartnik.
“He’s an amazing, great
wrestler. Hunter compet-
ed; he got pinned, but he
fought well, and we just
knew Potter [was going to
be] dominant. So, losing
those three hard fought
matches, we still won the
dual 36-25.”
Siuslaw’s final dual meet
for the night was against
North Marion, a large but
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inexperienced team this
year, who the Viks defeated
handily 51-12.
“We had a chance to put
Hayden Muller into the
men’s lineup,” explained
Wartnik. “We knew that
their wrestler was someone
that was within Hayden’s
range, and Hayden is also
getting more fit.
“I don’t tend to throw
girls into the men’s lineup
very often,” said the coach.
“I need to be confident
of the preparation of our
women, and that there is
a kind of a physical parity.
Hayden did great, she end-
ed up winning by pin, and
that was one of the more
exciting matches in that
dual.”
In addition to Hayden
Muller, Corser had a great
the foul line.
The Lady Viks picked up
2 more points in the fourth
from Haylee Cole, but
Marist pulled further ahead,
and finished the game win-
ning 52-14.
“We know what we need
to work on,” explained Cole,
“and we will keep working
on those things and get bet-
ter with every game and
practice.”
The Lady Viks also played
at home on Thursday (after
press deadlines) against
Marshfield.
Their next game is away at
Elmira this afternoon, start-
ing at 3 p.m.
match as well.
“We ended up getting a
good win from John Cors-
er, who wrestled up one
weight [class] to compete,”
said Wartnik. “It gave us a
solid team performance.
We really wrestled well, and
we had a more seasoned
team; as Sweet Home is
dominant versus us, we are
dominant against a school
like North Marion at this
time. It was a good dual, we
had quite a night.”
In addition to four com-
petitions in six days, on
Wednesday night, the Viks
dealt with a minor travel
issue on the way to Sweet
Home.
“There was an incident
on the bus, we hit a pothole
and had a tire blowout,”
said the coach. “We didn’t
get to the tournament site
until it was supposed to
start, and we were set to
be there an hour early. It
was hot, and our kids, after
hitting the pothole, were
‘emotionally adrenalated’.
But I think that we did fine;
we did good last night, and
I’m proud of our kids. Just
nonstop, they’re doing a
great job and they’re get-
ting better.”
At this point, Wartnik
and his team has a few
days of well-earned and
much-deserved rest, and
the coach is proud of their
performance thus far in the
season.
“As I look back over this
six-day, four tournament
stretch, I praise my kids,”
said Wartnik. “They held
together, they wrestled
courageously, they learned
what it’s like to have a gru-
eling stretch.”
The Viks will get this
week off, then return to the
mats next Tuesday in Ve-
neta to wrestle Elmira and
Philomath.
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