Prep wrestling: Pair of Outlaws grab third-place finishes

Published 5:36 pm Monday, February 27, 2023

PORTLAND — A promising start to the OSAA 2A/1A state wrestling tournament briefly soured for the Enterprise/Wallowa squad, then ended on a sweet note.

The Outlaws sent half of their field of six wrestlers to the semifinal round, then saw all three fall there before two — Lute Ramsden and Gunnar McDowell — recovered to take third place Friday, Feb. 24, at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

“Things started off pretty well, hit a few bumps in the road, but ended up pretty good as well,” head coach Court Fent said.

The tournament was delayed a day and converted to a one-day event due to inclement weather closing the Coliseum campus on Thursday, but the teams were able to overcome that challenge.

“It all worked out. We were able to keep the kids entertained, able to get them workouts,” Fent said.

On the mat, Ramsden won two matches to get to the semifinals at 138 pounds, an 8-4 decision over Glendale’s Aaron Martin and a third-round pin of Santiam’s Wyatt Dayton. Both Tegan Evans (145) and McDowell (220) had opening-round byes and secured pins in the quarterfinals — Evans over Lowell’s Justus Thurman and McDowell over Myrtle Point’s Jonathan Padgett.

The next round was not kind to Enterprise/Wallowa. Both Ramsden and McDowell were pinned — Ramsden by eventual state champion Ryon Martinho of Illinois Valley and McDowell by runner-up Rhyne Nelson of Willamina — while Evans suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Colton’s Roger Moore.

In McDowell’s loss to Nelson, Fent said, “Something we knew that kid (Nelson) liked to do was roll, (McDowell) just happened to get caught in one.”

Evans bowed out of the tournament after being disqualified in his consolation semifinal match, but Ramsden and McDowell recovered. Ramsden needed just 92 seconds to pin Willamina’s Kaden Konovalov, and McDowell took down Heppner’s Cade Cunningham to reach the third-place match.

Fent noted that in the match that Evans was eliminated, against Christian Retherford of Toledo, the Outlaw junior was pushed out of bounds backward several times, but was called for stalling when that occurred. Eventually, Evans had too many stalling calls and was disqualified.

Even with the rough ending, Fent was proud of Evans’ effort.

“Wins and losses are one thing, but the way that Tegan performed this entire season, this particular tournament, should not define him in any way shape or form. He had a (great) year,” the coach said. “Year after year he has been growing better as a wrestler, better as a person.

He was down, but it does not take away the phenomenal year he did have.”

In the third-place matches, Ramsden won a second bout over Martin, this time pinning him in 1:26 to wrap up his career with a dominant performance.

“His attitude, his work ethics, his overall athleticism (are what) got him to where he was at there,” Fent said of Ramsden. “We knew going into it, the kid who was seeded first from Illinois Valley, he was a really quality wrestler. That was going to be one of the toughest opponents, and it (was). Lute did a phenomenal job of wrestling hard all the way through the tournament, bouncing back and having a solid tournament.”

McDowell also won his third-place match, but with a bit more drama in a 2-1 sudden victory over Toledo’s Cody Vance.

“His overall demeanor was outstanding through the whole tournament. He gets pretty amped up pretty quick. He was able to contain himself in that loss, showed a lot of growth and came back.”

Ashtyn Irwin, wrestling at 160, collected a win for Enterprise/Wallowa over Crane’s Eli Maley in an elimination match, but fell short of the third-place match, while both James Royes (106) and Trey Charlton (285) dropped both of their matches.

“They all had wonderful seasons,” Fent said. “Their performance shouldn’t overshadow the quality season they had. I was really impressed with all three of them.”

As a team, the Outlaws finished in 10th with 43 points. Illinois Valley claimed the state title by a mere 4.5 points over Culver, 154-149.5.

Joseph wrestlerJoseph’s lone representative, Jayden McNall, dropped his two matches at 120 pounds. The fourth-seeded sophomore dropped a close 2-1 decision to Jesus Espinoza of Kennedy and an 8-6 decision to Ethan Green of Illinois Valley.

Joseph head coach Tim Kiesecker didn’t immediately return calls for comment.