Devon Kerr of La Pine matches brothers with 3rd title — and he'll be back next year for No. 4: Oregon wrestling 144/130 small-school roundup
For La Pine junior Devon Kerr, winning wrestling state championships never gets old.
Not when he has the chance to do something no one in his family of state champions has done.
Kerr won his third state title Friday night in the Class 3A 144-pound final at the OSAA state championships at Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum by pinning Harrisburg’s Nephi Heakin with nine seconds left in the opening round.
“Coming out here is one of the best things in the world,” Kerr said. “I’ve been doing this work for going on 15 years now. There’s not a day that I don’t miss the mat, miss the feeling of this. I live for this.”
The victory keeps Kerr on pace to become the school’s first four-time champion, which would stand out in a family led by patriarch Dave — who won La Pine’s first title in 1989 — three-time champion brothers David (2015-17) and Derrik (2017-19), and two-time champion sister Kira (2022-23).
“I won my third out there, tied my brothers, and I have one more year to go, so I might just make the legacy go up,” Devon said. “So, yeah, I’m pretty ready. Right now, I miss next year.”
2A/1A: Toledo senior Christian Retherford completed an undefeated season and helped the Boomers win their first team title by pinning Crane’s Brady Otley 35 seconds into the second round.
“I came in with the mindset that it’s my last year, and I just had a great year,” Retherford said. “We’ve got six guys on the team that have been doing this our whole life, and we finally got it done. All these years of work paid off.”
4A: La Grande sophomore Tommy Belding, who finished third at state a year ago, capped his first championship by pinning Estacada’s Cohen Schleich with 19 seconds left in the final.
4A/3A/2A/1A Girls: Oakridge sophomore Kali Williams won a 4-2 decision against Vale junior Payton Perry to win the 130-pound final a year after failing to place at 120.
—
