Against 25 other teams in 32-man brackets, The Dalles’ head coach Greg Burkart sent his wrestling group out to the End of the Oregon Trail Wrestling Tournament and had some promising results.
Two of those highlights involved veterans Mitchell Waters and Joe Linebarger, who each punched finals tickets in Oregon City on Saturday.
Waters did most of his damage at 160 pounds with successive wins to vault into the semifinals.
There, he inched away with a 3-2 decision over his Lake Oswego opponent to head into the championship round versus his North Medford foe.
His run was short-circuited in that final match and Waters ended his tourney run in second place.
Linebarger jumped up to a higher weight class, 220 pounds, but he did not lose his strength and athleticism on the mat.
Linebarger motored through his first three matches with easy pinfall wins to earn his spot in the semifinals.
In the semifinals, the junior dominated his opponent from South Albany with an 11-2 major decision win to advance to the finals. Linebarger had his hands full in the championship bout versus North Medford’s Trent Wilson.
The reigning 6A state champion came away with the title win over a game Linebarger.Ben Waters (113 pounds) rebounded from an opening-round loss with back-to-back pins on his way to ninth-place honors.
At 126 pounds, Cole Davis amassed a 2-2 standing to score 11th place, and Colton Lee went 1-2 in his 160-pound division.
In addition to the freshman Ben Waters, Jacob Schacht made his varsity debut in a tough 170-pound division and posted a win in three matches against all upperclassmen.
“Overall, a solid performance by the team,” said Burkart.
The Riverhawks return to the mats Friday for the two-day Muilenburg Tournament in La Grande.
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