Riverhawks win 14 matches in La Grande

“We are very pleased with the effort and direction that our program is going after our second two-day meet of the season,” TD head coach Paul Beasley said. “The Muilenburg is a very physically demanding tournament.”

Coming off a championship run in Oregon City on Dec. 1 and 2, Scott appeared to be well on his way toward another top finish until a stomach virus knocked him out of second-day action.

After a first-round bye at 182 pounds, Scott slipped past Christopher Woodworth (La Grande) by a 2-1 decision to move into the quarterfinals, where he squared off against Weiser’s Ryan Leverenz.

Three rounds were not enough to settle this matchup, as Scott finally dropped Leverenz with a pin at the seven-minute mark.

Only two victories away from a title, Scott did not compete in Saturday’s rounds, losing by injury default against Thomas Cousins (Barlow), Jacob Olsen (Bethel) and Leverenz for his sixth-place outcome.

In his first action of the winter campaign, Breckterfield, a senior, had a bye and then a pinfall loss to Trevor Jackson (Scappoose) in the 152-pound classification.

Although the loss put the Hawk senior in the consolation bracket, he bounced back with three consecutive wins for a consolation championship berth.

Breckterfield defeated teammate Mac Cope by pin at the 1:22 mark of the opening round, then scored a 9-4 decision versus Johnathan Dudley (Banks), and added a 12-4 major decision against Austin Peters (Banks).

Breckterfield’s final match of the tournament was opposite Trae Gluch (Weiser) in what was a three-round slugfest, a 5-2 decision win by the Riverhawk veteran.

Greene (6-3 record) got off to a solid start in his 160-pound slate, using a first-round pin in 59 seconds to take care of Moises Gonzalez (Oregon City).

Up next, Tim Henke (Bishop Kelly) grabbed a second-round pin over Greene, to send the Hawk grappler to the consolation bracket.

There, he pinned Jeremy Webb (Bishop Kelly) in the opening round, but then had his tournament cut short against Hunter Otto (Bethel) by a first-round pin.

Also in the 160-pound division was TD sophomore Ophath Silaphath, and he notched a 2-2 record in his four bouts.

In his first two matches, Silaphath made his presence known with back-to-back first-round pins over Barlow’s Jazeth Martinez (:57) and Mac-Hi’s Kyler Kelly (1:40) for a quarterfinals berth.

Silaphath (4-5 record) lost to Parker Robinson (La Grande) by pinfall (1:02), and in his consolation opener, ended up being pinned just 14 seconds into the first round versus William Johnson (Burns).

“Ophath had his best outing of the season against some very skilled opponents,” Beasley said. “He was physically dominant in his wins and is improving every match. His preparation and work in the weight room and on the mat is really paying off. He has also emerged as one of the leaders of our program as a sophomore.”

Hitting the mats for the first time, Richman, out of Dufur, lost his first match at 138 pounds against Lane Holland (Graham Kapowsin) with one second left in the first round, but battled strong for two straight consolation victories to gain some momentum.

Richman used a pin at 47 seconds in a win over Justin Stringer (Weiser) and he rattled off another pin of Carter Blackburn (Union HS/Cove HS) in 41 seconds to advance.

Ready for another mat performance, Richman met up with Sebastian Johnson (Burns) and the two threw down for three rounds, until the 4:54 mark, when Johnson got the pin to end Richman’s tournament.

Mauricio Carrera (3-4) amassed a 1-2 record in three tournament matches at 195 pounds, with his first loss coming against Mac-Hi’s Joshua Torres (1:56).

Following a consolation bye, Carrera defeated Colton Flowers (Bethel) at 4:52 for his first win, but then had his weekend cut short after a 17-9 major decision loss to Henry Schoenfeld (Oregon City).

In the 152-pound class, Mac Cope lost to Isaac Cook (Scappoose) in the first round to move to the consolation side, where he went up against Andrea Urena, of Reynolds.

Cope was able to score a pinfall at the 2:53 mark of the second round, setting up a meeting with Breckterfield, a first-round pin loss.

Josiah Andersen (1-5 record) went winless in two matches, one by an 8-5 decision versus Jorge Bagos (Oregon City) and the other on a 13-0 major decision against Jack McChesney (Bishop Kelly).

The final Riverhawk participant was 182-pound Levi Krueger, a junior, and he went 0-2 in his first two matches of the season.

Krueger lost to Kirk Liscom (Pendleton) by pin at 31 seconds and after a consolation bye, he was pinned in the opening round at the 1:31 mark in a match versus Josh Whaley (Pendleton).

So far, the Riverhawks have had one tournament champion, two placers and a consolation winner in a pair of events, and have totaled 31 victories, 28 by pin, five on decisions and two major decisions.

With those numbers, things appear to be trending in the right direction with three two-day tournaments and seven dual on the schedule before regionals on Feb. 16-17.

Beasley and his coaching staff of Ryan Manciu, Jason Davis and Mark Scott are pleased with the direction and improvement of this wrestling program, especially with the level of talent coming through the middle school.

“This is Year 2 of a four-year rebuilding process and the team has bought in to our vision,” Beasley said. “We are looking for improvement at every practice, weight workout and wrestling match. Our mantra is ‘set your feet, be dominant on top and wrestle all six minutes.’ That is what we want to see. We are looking for improvement regardless of the outcome of the match. That is success in our program.”

With 269 points, La Grande secured a tournament championship in a close margin with Bethel, Wash. (263).

Weiser, ID. (248), Graham Kapowsin, Wash. (184.5), Baker City (183.5) and Pendleton (179.5) made up the top-6 in the team standings. TD had 45 points for 16th place out of 20 schools.

The Dalles heads to Redmond for the two-day Adrian Irwin Tournament starting at 4 p.m. this Friday at Ridgeview High School.