La Pine's Landyn Philpott wins much-anticipated rematch, earns title No. 3: Oregon wrestling 138/125 small-school roundup
Two weeks earlier, La Pine junior Landyn Philpott and Vale freshman Gunnar Tamez met in the district final, with Philpott winning his third district title by a first-period pin.
Friday night, the two met again at Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum with bigger stakes on the line.
They wrestled for the Class 3A 138-pound state title at the OSAA championships, with Philpott looking to take one step closer to four-timer status and Tamez hoping to take his first step toward becoming one.
Philpott knew it wouldn’t be so easy this time.
“I pinned him in the first round (at district), but he was coming,” Philpott said. “He’s going to be good.”
While Tamez made Philpott’s words look prophetic, in the end, the Hawks junior was able to win his third state title with a 7-4 decision.
They were tied 4-4 after one round, but Philpott scored three near-fall points in the second while not allowing Tamez to escape. When the third period finished with neither scoring a point, Philpott breathed a sigh of relief that he’d survived what he called “the toughest match of the season for me.”
“He put up a hard fight,” Philpott said. “It’s way more satisfying that I actually had a close match, a good, hard match, and it wasn’t just given to me.”
4A/3A/2A/1A Girls: Sweet Home sophomore Bailey Chafin had a much easier time in winning her second title, pinning La Grande senior Maleigha Azure 75 seconds into their 125-pound final.
4A: Crook County junior Landon Lavey was even faster in finishing off his first title, pinning Molalla’s John Hayes in 39 seconds.
2A/1A: Top seed Trevor Wolf of Vernonia finished the season 36-1 after pinning Camas Valley’s David Ode midway through the third period.
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