‘A pretty darn good year at West Linn.’ Lions end Newberg’s streak of wrestling titles, join football team as 6A champions
By René Ferrán | Photos by Taylor Balkom
West Linn coach Kevin Keeney stressed one point to his wrestlers before the OSAA Class 6A state championships this weekend at Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
“Trust yourself, focus on yourself first, and the team score will handle itself,” said junior Henry Dillingham.
Easier said than done, as classmate Charles Spinning will attest. He found himself stuck in a cradle in his 145-pound final Sunday morning against Newberg’s Gus Amerson when one thought crossed his mind.
“I knew that the team couldn’t afford for me to give up a pin there,” Spinning said.
He escaped that trouble to survive the first period. Trailing 6-2 midway through the second, he took Amerson to the mat with a cross pick, stuck a bottom leg cradle and recorded the fall that felled the Newberg juggernaut.
The 10-point swing wasn’t the final margin in West Linn’s first state championship, ending the Tigers’ three-year run atop the 6A standings, but it provided the exclamation point to their 26-point victory.
“Coach (Keeney) talked to us about not focusing on (the team race) because if you focus on that, it takes away from the focus of your wrestling,” Spinning said. “Everyone just has to do their job to achieve the team goal. Our team deserves this.”
Keeney took over this season from longtime coach Doug Samarron, who saw this championship coming a year ago when the Lions finished a distant second to Newberg at the state meet in Sandy.
While Keeney projected confidence entering the weekend, he acknowledged afterward that privately, he had his doubts based on results at events such as the Reser’s Tournament of Champions, where Newberg pulled out a 35-point victory.
“We just kept with the plan and kept believing in our process,” Keeney said. “We really believed in ourselves and in each other, and we did it for each other this weekend.”
Dillingham, who followed Spinning’s victory by rallying for a 5-4 decision against South Medford’s Bridger Foss in the 152 final, said the transition from Samarron to Keeney started last season, when Samarron began stepping back and allowing his assistant to take on more responsibility.
“That allowed for a smooth transition,” Dillingham said. “(Coach Keeney) has been my coach since I moved here from Minnesota in fourth grade. He’s almost like a second father figure. I love that man.”
West Linn ended up with 12 medalists and four champions, with Oregon State signee Justin Rademacher winning his first title in the 182 final and 126-pounder Oscar Doces getting the party started by knocking off top seed Moises Lopez of Aloha with an 8-2 decision.
“I think for a lot of people, Oscar might be the one big surprise in the tournament,” Keeney said. “But he put it together for the last few weeks, and I’m really proud of the kid.”
The Lions became the first school since David Douglas in 1965-66 to win the big-school football and wrestling titles in the same school year. (The Scots were in Class A, the largest of four classifications.)
West Linn is a favorite to win the boys basketball title in two weeks at the Chiles Center and a contender to defend its baseball title in the spring.
“It’s truly amazing to make history for the school,” Dillingham said. “It’s shaping up to be a pretty darn good year at West Linn.”
Newberg had three wrestlers win titles, including 132-pound junior Zachary Keinonen remaining on track to become a four-time state champion and 195-pound senior Hudson Davis closing his career with a third gold medal.
“It was a tough competition team-wise,” Davis said. “We came here to win, but they deserved it. They had an unbelievable tournament. But we’ll come back stronger next year.”
Westview, with six wrestlers making the podium, posted a program-best third-place finish. Sandy finished fourth to take home its first trophy since placing third at the 5A meet in 2015.
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