BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, MARCH 1, 2022 A5
SPORTS
BAKER WRESTLING AT CLASS 4A STATE MEET
Martin’s state title leads Bulldogs to 5th place
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
For Baker wrestler Jaden
Martin, all the hours of toil and
sweat and pain came down to
six minutes, and one opponent.
Martin, a senior competing
in the final match of his final
meet, stood on the mat Satur-
day evening, Feb. 26, at Cas-
cade High School, facing Chris
Woods of Hidden Valley.
The winner would claim the
state title in the heavyweight
division.
In the final two-minute pe-
riod, with Martin leading 3-2,
he got an armbar on Woods,
turned him and got the pin.
And the state championship.
“I’ve been working for it the
whole time I’ve been wrestling,”
Martin said in an interview on
Sunday, Feb. 27. “That’s some-
thing I’ve been thinking about
for a while.”
Martin not only took the fi-
nal step after placing second
at the 2021 state meet, but he
led his Bulldog teammates to
a fifth-place finish in the Class
4A meet, just one spot short of
earning a trophy.
“Overall we competed very
well and are very proud of
how we finished,” Baker coach
Brandon Young said. “We were
definitely within striking dis-
tance of a team trophy.”
Baker, with 14 wrestlers
competing, finished with 100
points, behind fourth-place
Philomath at 118 points. La
Grande won the team title with
275.5 points.
Martin admitted that he felt
an extra dollop of pressure in
his final high school match
with so much at stake.
When the referee counted
the final second, confirming
Martin’s victory, the anxiety
was replaced by relief.
“I was glad that I was finally
able to achieve the goal that I’ve
been fighting for for so long,”
he said.
His sense of pride was ac-
companied by gratitude for the
unwavering support of his fam-
ily over the years.
“My family has pushed me
to be where I am today,” Martin
said. “I wouldn’t have accom-
plished what I did without the
support of my parents.”
Young said a few colleges
have talked to Martin about
competing in wrestling, and
he’s looking strongly at South-
ern Oregon University in Ash-
land, where Young himself
wrestled.
Two Pine Eagle wrestlers state champs
Pine Eagle seniors, and twin brothers, Coy Butner and Chase But-
ner won individual state championships at the Class 2A/1A wrestling
meet Saturday, Feb. 26, at Culver High School.
At 132 pounds, Coy Butner finished his season with a record of 31-
1. He defeated Reedsport’s Aaron Solomon 7-2 in the state champi-
onship match.
At 138 pounds, Chase Butner defeated Culver’s Reeden Arsenault
11-8 to claim the state title. Chase Butner was 29-1 on the season.
Two other Spartans also competed at the state tournament.
Hunter Buck placed sixth at 106 pounds.
Will Seggerman went 0-2 at 138 pounds.
“I was glad that I was finally able to
achieve the goal that I’ve been fighting for
for so long.”
— Baker senior wrestler Jaden Martin
Andy Dieckhoff/Madras Pioneer
Baker’s Gavin Stone (top) placed third at the regional tournament Feb. 12, 2022, to qualify for the state
tournament, where he placed second.
Stone said he could tell that
Roman was breathing hard,
and was able to get a hold on
his leg and earn the takedown.
In the semifinals, Stone con-
trolled the match against third-
seeded Ryker Hartstook of
Sweet Home, winning 7-3.
In the championship match
Stone faced a familiar oppo-
nent, Braden Carson of La
Grande, who has lost only one
match this season.
Stone said he regrets choos-
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald ing to be in the down position
Baker’s Jaden Martin, on top, was in control for most of his match
starting the second period,
rather than standing.
against La Grande’s Cole Jorgensen on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, in the
“I think it would have been a
Baker gym. Martin won by 6-2 decision in the 285-pound match.
different match if we had been
on our feet,” he said.
Martin said he was able to
poor calls made, but minor
After Carson took a 10-0
savor his achievement more the compared to the one where
lead, Stone said he got him in a
day after.
Jaden had Choi pinned,”
“It was nice to be able to ap- Young said. “Wrestling is like cradle in the third period and
did all he could to try to get
preciate it without the emo-
life and we don’t always get
tions running so high,” he said. the right calls. Jaden didn’t let Carson on his back.
Carson ended up with a 10-0
Martin had wrestled Woods it affect him and kept push-
major decision.
earlier in the season, winning
ing.”
“There’s always things I
by fall after trailing 2-0.
Martin earned a takedown
could do better, but I’m pretty
“He’s not an easy guy to
in the overtime to win 4-2.
happy with the way I wrestled,”
move,” Martin said of Woods.
Jaden pinned his first two
“I enjoyed the chance to get to opponents, Brett Highburger Stone said.
“We knew he had a great
wrestle him again.”
of Elmira, and Will Hoffman
shot to make it to the finals,
Martin advanced to the
of Astoria.
championship round with what
Martin finished the season and so did he,” Young said of
Stone.
he said was an even more diffi- with a 42-4 record.
Young said Stone plans to
cult semifinal match against Jo-
Gavin Stone, 2nd place
wrestle at Washington State
seph Choi of Philomath.
Another senior, Stone upset University.
The score was tied at 2 after
three periods, forcing overtime. the number two seed, Benito
Roman of Woodburn, in the
Gauge Bloomer and Aldo
Young, though, said that
shouldn’t have been necessary. quarterfinals after beating
Duran, 3rd place
seventh-seeded Daniel Good-
Bloomer, a senior, capped
He believes Martin pinned
his career, which included a
Choi in the second period, but win of Sweet Home 9-3.
Against Roman, Stone
state championship in 2021,
the referee ruled that Martin’s
earned a takedown in the
with a third-place finish at
knees were out of bounds.
third period to win 6-5.
195 pounds.
“There were several other
Bloomer pinned his first two
opponents, Ayden Rambel of
Banks and David Steagull of
Sweet Home, to advance to the
quarterfinals against Marsh-
field’s Miguel Velasquez.
After losing by fall,
Bloomer rebounded to dom-
inate Gladstone’s Brodey
Kitzmiller in the consolation
semifinals. Bloomer then
pinned Dayne Muller of Siu-
slaw to claim third.
Young said Bloomer’s re-
sponse to his disappointing loss
in the semifinals was typical of
the senior’s attitude.
“That can be a difficult thing
to do in life, when you don’t
reach a goal that you have
worked so hard for,” Young
said. “We call it character and it
is a big thing in life. Gauge has
this upbeat energy and positive
mindset that is contagious for
the rest of the team.”
While Bloomer was finishing
his high school career, team-
mate Duran, a freshman at 113
pounds, was competing in his
first state tournament.
Duran entered the tourna-
ment as the number two seed,
and pinned Cascade’s Jason
Hoffman in his first match.
In the quarterfinals against
Josh Perdew of Tillamook,
whom Duran had beaten
4-0 earlier in the season, Du-
ran won 7-3 to advance to
the semifinals against Jacob
Landtroop of Sweet Home.
“Aldo wrestled a little tight
and got caught,” Young said.
“After that he really got after it,
but could not close the gap and
lost 4-2 in a great match.”
Landtroop went on to win
the state title.
Like his older teammate,
Bloomer, Duran shrugged off
the defeat and beat Hayden
Burk of Mazama 6-1 in the
consolation semifinals to set
up a rematch against Perdew
for third place.
“Perdew came out as the ag-
gressor and got a little fire out
of Aldo,” Young said. “This
time Aldo hit another gear
and earned the fall.”
Other Bulldogs at state
Young said Baker’s youth —
just five of the 14 state qualifi-
ers are seniors — was a factor
with so many wrestlers com-
peting in their first state meet.
“With an overall young
crew, we wrestled a little tight,
we could have definitely been
more aggressive,” Young said.
“Next year those guys will
have a little bit more experi-
ence and they got to see the
big show as a freshman or
sophomore.”
• Joey Duncan, sophomore,
0-2 at 106 pounds.
• Marcus Chamber-
lain, sophomore, 1-2 at 113
pounds.
• Sage Darlington, sopho-
more, 0-2 at 120 pounds.
• Cole Hester, sophomore,
1-2 at 126 pounds.
• Samuel Nelson, freshman,
0-2 at 126 pounds.
• Riley Martin, sophomore,
0-2 at 132 pounds.
• Ryan Brown, junior, 0-2 at
160 pounds.
• Adrian Allen, senior, 1-2
at 182 pounds.
• Alex Ritter, senior, 2-2 at
220 pounds.
• Russell Walden, sopho-
more, 0-2 at 285 pounds.
Denver Nuggets rout Portland Trail Blazers, 124-92
ers, who were coming off a
loss to the Warriors on Thurs-
PORTLAND — JaMychal
day that snapped a four-game
Green had 20 points and 10 re- winning streak.
bounds off the bench and the
Denver led by as many as
Denver Nuggets pushed their
20 points. Although the Nug-
winning streak to six games
gets looked sluggish at times
with a 124-92 victory over the playing the second of a back-
Portland Trail Blazers on Sun- to-back, the smaller and less
day night, Feb. 27.
experienced Blazers’ lineup
Nikola Jokic had 18 re-
couldn’t match them.
bounds, 11 assists and eight
“It was a tough one tonight,
points before sitting for good tough one,” Blazers first-year
with 2:22 left in the third
coach Chauncey Billups said.
quarter.
“We had a couple of good mo-
ments, but we weren’t able to
DeMarcus Cousins, signed
sustain, for the most part. But
by the Nuggets for the rest of
the season on Friday, added 19 we played hard, I’ll give us
points and eight rebounds, and that credit.”
Justise Winslow, who started
Denver’s bench finished with a
for the Blazers in a loss to
season-high 76 points.
“We’ve got a lot of talented Golden State on Thursday,
guys in that second unit,” said did not play because of a sore
Achilles. He was replaced in the
Bryn Forbes, who finished
with 17 points. “A lot of guys starting lineup by Keon John-
son, a 19-year-old rookie ac-
can come in and get hot, put
quired by the Trail Blazers in a
up some points and help us
trade with the Clippers on Feb.
win games.”
Anfernee Simons had 16
4. He finished with four points
points to lead the Trail Blaz-
in his first career start.
BY ANNE M. PETERSON
Associated Press
The Blazers also started
Drew Eubanks, signed to a 10-
day contract earlier in the week
when Portland announced that
center Jusuf Nurkic was bat-
tling plantar fasciitis.
Portland is still missing Da-
mian Lillard, who is recover-
ing from abdominal surgery.
The Blazers announced Sun-
day that their six-time All-Star
had progressed through the
first phase of his recovery, and
that he will be reevaluated in
two to three weeks after a re-
conditioning protocol.
The Nuggets went on an
18-4 run to start the second
quarter and pushed their lead
to 50-31. The Blazers never
threatened.
“We knew we were the bet-
ter team tonight so we knew
we had to put them away early
and we did a great job of do-
ing that,” Green said.
Cousins, a 10-year NBA
veteran, was first signed by the
Nuggets on Jan. 21 to a 10-day
contract. The former All-Star
E
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has played 10 games with Den-
ver this season after he was
waived by the Bucks.
“He’s just getting more and
more comfortable. Signing
him for the rest of the season,
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getting comfortable with that
second unit and they are re-
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getting chemistry and having
continuity.”
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