By James Day
Silverton High senior Austin Reed is in rare company. The Foxes’ wrestler captured the OSAA Class 5A title at 132 pounds Feb. 27, becoming the first Silverton state wrestling champion since 2008 and only the second since 1994.
“It feels pretty good,” Reed told Our Town. “A lifetime of working my butt off finally paid off.”
Reed, who also won a Mid-Willamette Conference district title, rampaged through the state bracket, pinning his first three opponents in three minutes or less. However, his championship match opponent, Michael Bowen of St. Helens, had to forfeit because of an injury.
“It took away from my experience,” Reed said. “You want to wrestle your butt off and get your hand raised in front of a big crowd. I didn’t get to do that.”
This was the fourth state tournament for Reed, who did not place as a freshman or sophomore and took third at 126 last year.
“I started thinking about (winning state) in middle school. By the time I was a sophomore I felt I could definitely do it, that it was in reach.”
Like most wrestlers, Reed has to be continually conscious of his weight. He said that he had to cut a lot of weight in his first three years but was comfortable with making weight this season, although he is up to 145 since state. Reed said running is his preferred method to help drop that last pound or two, but he said he has heard some strange stories.
“I’ve heard about guys going into the sauna, putting makeup remover on their arms to open up the pores and then use a credit card to scrape off the sweat. I never could understand that.”
Reed said he hopes to keep wrestling. College coaches have been in contact. He said it would be “cool” to go to college out of state, but added he would be happy to join an in-state program too.
Reed’s victory at state supplied the Foxes 30 of their 45 team points, which earned them 13th place as a team. No other Silverton wrestlers placed, but Jacob Whitehead (106) scored seven points, Braden Sinn (160) scored five points and Valentin Garcia (106) added three. Matthew Schonbachler (138) and Tabor Tarpley (145) also participated.
Boys hoops: Silverton, which won the Class 5A state tournament last season, fell one game short of state in 2016. The Foxes, who finished 11-3, one game behind Corvallis in the Mid-Willamette Conference, lost 66-55 at Parkrose in the round of 16 to finish its season 17-8.
“It was a good season,” senior guard Sam Roth told Our Town. “We had high expectations for ourselves, but the way it ended was no upset. Parkrose is a really good team and they played well against us.”
Roth was named to the all-MWC first team, finishing second in the voting to player of the year Joe Casey of Crescent Valley. Fox junior guard Julian Downey was a second-team pick. Senior guard Daniel Larionov and senior forward Blake Cosgrove received honorable mention.
Kennedy, meanwhile, finished 15-12 after dropping both of its games at the Class 2A tournament in Pendleton. The Trojans drew top-ranked Tri-River Conference rival Regis in the quarterfinals and fell 54-36. Kennedy was edged 41-39 by Imbler in the consolation bracket. Bishop Mitchell of the Trojans scored 15 points against Regis and Jacob Lopez led the way against Imbler with 14 points and six rebounds. The Trojans were seeded ninth in the tournament after an 8-4 Tri-River season in which they finished third.
