BAKER/POWDER VALLEY WRESTLING: Oakley Anderson wins state championship, Bulldogs girls tie for second in team standings

Feb. 24—When Oakley Anderson realized she was a state wrestling champion, her first thought was "this is really weird."

But the Baker sophomore quickly adjusted.

"I went and hugged Dad (Josh Anderson, who's also her coach) and Jeris (Stephens, the Baker/Powder Valley boys coach) and mom. It was cool."

It was also a performance that helped lead the Bulldogs to a tie for second in the team standings at the Class 4A/3A/2A/1A state tournament Friday, Feb. 24 at Portland's Memorial Coliseum.

Baker/Powder Valley had 71 points, tied with Sweet Home. La Pine won the team title with 77 points.

Another sophomore, Marli Lind from North Powder, placed second. Madi Meyer was third, and Kaci Anderson was fourth.

Oakley Anderson, who pinned each of her three opponents in the 170-pound division, said she was somewhat prepared for her foe in the championship match, Alyssa Peterson of Sweet Home.

"I watch some videos of (Peterson) at districts, she pinned her opponents pretty fast," Anderson said. "I was like 'oh, this might be over really fast,' and right off the bat I knew she was going to go for the head and arm, and so I sagged out of it, she'd been pinning people with it all year."

Anderson said she couldn't get her arm bar move to work on the side where she planned to use it.

She also tried the "barbed wire," a move where a wrestler twists their opponents' arms behind them.

But that, too, didn't yield the results she expected as the match against Peterson moved into the third and final period.

After a reversal, Anderson found herself in a better position, and she took advantage.

"I put an arm bar in on the side I don't usually, so I arm-barred her and pinned her," she said.

Anderson said she was a bit intimidated when she looked at her weight bracket before the tournament started.

"I looked at every single girl in the weight bracket that was there and thought, 'she looks tough,' " she said.

She started in the quarterfinals against Quin Lewis of Toledo.

"We worked on the head and arm defense, which was helpful, I used that about five times," Anderson said. "In my first match it was pretty tough until she hit her head on the mat and kinda sagged."

Anderson got the pin with 11 seconds left in the third period.

In the semifinals against Ambar Benito of North Marion, Anderson employed the barbed wire move and pinned Benito 51 seconds into the second period.

Josh Anderson said he was "amazed" by his team's performance, leading to the Bulldogs' best finish at the state tournament since the first girls team competed in 2019-2020.

Lind, who was competing in wrestling for the first time this season, pinned her first two opponents in the 155-pound division to advance to the championship match, where she lost to Kira Kerr of La Pine.

"She's a volleyball player and I knew she was athletic and tough, and her brothers wrestled so once we talked her into coming she wouldn't give it up," Josh Anderson said. "She was out about three weeks (due to injury), but when she came back she was rough and ready to go. Her finals match was with the returning state champion, had her hands full there and didn't win, but she did well."

Meyer, who was injured at the district tournament early in February but still competed at state in the 190-pound division, won three of four matches, pinning Gracie Baker of Crane in the third-place match, avenging her loss to Baker in the district tournament finals.

Senior Kaci Anderson went 2-2 at 140 pounds to claim fourth place, losing the third-place match by a single point, 10-9, to Chantell Noffsinger of Creswell.

She was right in there with her," Josh Anderson said. "Kaci's come a long way for not wrestling over the last two years."

Until wrestling started Friday morning, there was some uncertainty about whether the event would happen at all.

It was originally scheduled to start on Thursday, but an unusual snowstorm in Portland postponed the tournament for a day.

"I thought there was a good chance they were going to cancel," Josh Anderson said. "It was really a lot of snow."

Oakley Anderson talked about the team's travails in traveling to the rental home where they stayed southeast of Portland.

(The Baker/Powder Valley boys stayed in a motel near the Memorial Coliseum.)

"Before we went to the house we were at this intersection thing, it was all uphill and downhill and icy and everyone was stuck and running into each other, so we had to push some people out," Oakley Anderson said. "Mom and Dad pushed out five, maybe ten cars."

The Bulldogs used the unexpected extra day to learn some new moves from their coach in the home's basement, she said.

Baker/Powder Valley boys

With five wrestlers competing, the Bulldogs amassed 23 points and finished in 20th place.

Unlike the girls tournament, which combined wrestlers from 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A schools, the boys tournament was for 4A wrestlers only.

"It was a state tournament, it was definitely eye opening," coach Jeris Stephens said. "I've been doing this for a really long time, I wrestled in the same building almost 25 years ago. Kids had some highs and some lows. Three out of five qualifiers return next year, and we're really pretty young, it's all up from here. I couldn't have been more proud to be part of the program."

Baker sophomore Aldo Duran, wrestling at 120 pounds, was the Bulldogs' top finisher, placing fourth.

"Aldo Duran wrestled well, had a really good shot at finals, made one tiny mistake and it cost the match," Stephens said.

After winning his first two matches, Duran lost 8-3 in the semifinals to Contrad Baxter of Stayton.

Duran then beat Mason Lacey of Crook County 5-0 to advance to the third-place match, where he faced a familiar foe, Mason Wolcott of La Grande.

Wolcott prevailed in a close match, 5-3.

Senior Cade Lind of North Powder won his opening match and lost to Jarrett Armstrong in the quarterfinals.

Lind sustained what Stephens described as a "freak injury" that prevented him from continuing.

"Right before his third match, he hurt his sternum somehow," Stephens said. "We had to injury disqualify him out of the tournament, just because we didn't know what was going on. That was a tough one for everybody to swallow, he would have helped tremendously."

Luis Rosales won one of three matches at 113 pounds, and Stephens said both Ryan Brown (170) and Graison Stone (160) had tough draws in the bracket.

Although the high school season is over, some local wrestlers will compete in the Best of the Northwest tournament March 10-11 at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande.

Class 4A/3A/2A/1A girls state wrestling tournament Baker/Powder Valley McKay Anderson, 135 pounds, 4 points

—Quarterfinals: Def. Katarina Jentzsch, Elmira, by fall (2:24)

—Semifinals: Lost to Hannah Hernandez, Ontario, by fall (5:15)

—Consolation semifinal: Lost to Lexie Newman, Brookings-Harbor, by fall (2:56)

Kaci Anderson, 140 pounds, 4th, 9 points

—Quarterfinals: Def. Chantell Noffsinger, Creswell, by fall (5:36)

—Semifinals: Lost to Megan Peterson, Hidden Valley, 10-5.

—Consolation semifinals: Def. Madelyn Russell, Banks, 12-11.

—3rd place: Lost to Chantell Noffsinger, Creswell, 10-9.

Lilly Collins, 145 pounds

—Quarterfinals: Lost to Riley McCalmant, Stayton, by fall (45 seconds)

—Consolation round 1: Lost to Brittanie Ely, Irrigon, by fall (4:56).

Marli Lind, 155 pounds, 2nd, 18 points

—Quarterfinals: Def. Sydnee King, Junction City, by fall (1:01)

—Semifinals: Def. Hannah Henderson, Harrisburg, by fall (45 seconds)

—Championship: Lost to Kira Kerr, La Pine, by fall (26 seconds)

Julianna Sandberg, 155 pounds

—Quarterfinals: Lost to Hannah Henderson, Harrisburg, by fall (54 seconds)

—Consolation round 1: Lost to Sydnee King, Junction City, 7-0.

Oakley Anderson, 170 pounds, 1st, 24 points

—Quarterfinals: Def. Quin Lewis, Toledo, by fall (5:49)

—Semifinals: Def. Ambar Benito, North Marion, by fall (2:51)

—Championship: Def. Alyssa Peterson, Sweet Home, by fall (5:23)

Madi Meyer, 190 pounds, 3rd, 16 points

—Quarterfinals: Def. Lexi Martin, Hidden Valley, by fall (3:21)

—Semifinals: Lost to Lilliyan Jaramillo, Rogue River, by fall (15 seconds)

—Consolation semifinals: Def. Chelsie Howard, Cascade, by fall (2:15)

—3rd place: Def. Gracie Barker, Crane, by fall (2:56)

Class 4A boys state wrestling tournament Baker/Powder Valley Luis Rosales, 113 pounds

—First round: Lost to Carson Jackson, St. Helens, by fall (20 seconds)

—Consolation: Def. Michael Rasdal, Mazama, by fall (1:21)

—Consolation: Lost to Evan Groulx, Scappoose, by fall (4:49)

Aldo Duran, 120 pounds, 4th place, 16 points

—First round: Def. Zavarta Anderson, Tillamook, by fall (5:58)

—Quarterfinals: Def. Evan Willis, St. Helens, by fall (3:05)

—Semifinals: Lost to Conrad Baxter, Stayton, 8-3.

—Consolation semifinals: Def. Mason Lacey, Crook County, 5-0

—3rd place: Lost to Mason Wolcott, La Grande, 5-3

Graison Stone, 160 pounds

—First round: Lost to Zach Humphrey, Hidden Valley, 5-3

—Consolation: Lost to Eli Bisenius, La Grande, 1-0

Ryan Brown, 170 pounds

—First round: Lost to Trey Dieringer, Scappoose, by fall (2:38)

—Consolation: Lost to Adam Oehlert, Sweet Home, by fall (2:45)

Cade Lind, 195 pounds

—First round: Def. Brayden Gayheart, Hidden Valley, by fall (1:23)

—Quarterfinals: Lost to Jarrett Armstrong, La Grande, 10-3

—Consolation round 2: Lost to Koi Smith, Tillamook, by medical forfeit

Boys Class 2A/1A Pine Eagle

Hunter Buck, 106 pounds

—Quarterfinals: Lost to Adam Palanuk, Oakridge, by fall (4:20)

—Consolation round 3: Def. Frankie Beam, Grant Union/Prairie City, by fall (2:54)

—Consolation semifinal: Lost to Cole Roff, Culver, 13-12