Seven Baker matmen head to state

The Bulldogs qualified those seven wrestlers for state Saturday at the District 7-4A tournament at La Grande High School. Baker had 15 of 18 wrestlers place at district.

“Everyone did their part in contributing to the team at district,” said Baker coach Brandon Young.

“This is the most points they have score in at least five years.”

Freshman Josh Valentine (103 pounds) and sophomore Sam Pearson (145) earned district titles.

Valentine had automatically qualified for state because there were only three wrestlers in his weight class. The top three go to the state tournament. 

Young said Valentine went in as the No. 2 seed and had lost last week to Eric Rayo of Mac-Hi by a  major decision. 

“I told him not to settle for just going to state, he could be a district champion as a freshman,” Young said.

Valentine faced Fortune of Mac-Hi in the semi-finals and dominated him with an 8-0 victory to make the championship.  There he went up against Rayo. Rayo had built a 10-2 lead going into the third round. 

“I told Josh to throw him and he set it up beautifully and tossed Rayo directly to his back. Rayo was able to fight out, with Josh still trailing 10-8 when he secured a cradle for another three points to take the lead 11-10. Rayo again was able to get out of it. With time running down Rayo stood up as Josh dropped to a double leg and drove hard. Rayo reached back not giving him a hand to set out and break the fall and landed directly on his jaw, knocking him out.”

Pearson pinned Justin Hancock of La grande to advance to the finals where he went up against teammate Drew Stanley.

“Both Drew and Sam went at each other,” Young said. 

At the end of the first round the score was 0-0. Pearson chose the top in the second period and was able to win by fall over Stanley. 

Zach Valentine, Josh’s older brother, entered as the third seed at 112. 

“He wrestled smart his first match holding on to a 1-0 win over Ray Rodriguez of La Grande,” Young said. 

In the semi-finals he wrestled Nunez of Ontario who he had previously lost to in the regular season. The match was neck and neck all the way through. In the end Valentine was down 8-2 when he got a reversal in the final 30 seconds of the match and put Nunez on his back for a 2-point near fall. Still trailing 8-6 he got a cradle on Nunez for the 9-8 win right at the end of the match. 

In the finals he lost to Dylan McCallum of La Grande by fall.

Andrew Porter came in as the first seed at 130. He won his first match by fall and then wrestled Patrick Sheets of Mac-Hi in the semi-finals and secured a 16-7 win to make the championship. There he faced Connor White of La Grande. 

“It was a great match all the way through to the end,” Young said.

Porter was ahead the entire match after scoring a takedown at the beginning of the first round and then an escape in the second period. In the third period he was up 3-1. White scored a 1-point escape in the last 20 seconds of the match. Then with time running down and on the edge of the mat scored a takedown with 3 seconds left in the match to win over Porter 4-3.

Anthony Constantine lost his first match at 152 going into overtime to lose 6-4 to Justin Hug of La Grande. Constantine battled through the consolation bracket pinning everyone until he had made it all the way back to the third-place match where he faced Chaz Nakamura of Ontario. 

It was a tight match at first, but as time went on Constantine kept building his lead and won 7-2 over Nakamura to finish with third place and qualify for the state tournament. 

Senior Jake Shukle won his first match of the tournament and then faced Nick Watts of Mac-Hi. Watts broke his neck in football and was somehow cleared the week of district to compete. They wrestled a close match until the final round when Watts pinned Shukle. Shukle went on to make it easily to the the third-place match where he won by fall and became a four-time state qualifier.

Miguel Kitch wrestled his personal best at district, Young said. He defeated No. 3 seed Zaragoza of Mac-Hi in an exciting match. They were tied 7-7 with time winding down in the third when Kitch threw Zaragoza to his back on won by fall. 

Kitch won another close match in the consolation semi-finals by two points and ended up with fourth place. 

Steven Brock wrestled his way to a fourth place finish at 160 pounds.

Parker Warner (130) got injured in the consolation quarter finals but gutted it out for the win and had to forfeit his last two matches to finish sixth.

Senior Matt Seal wrestled his best tournament of the season, Young said. He reached the semi-finals before losing.

He then faced Joey Paez of Mac-Hi and lost a hard fought battle 6-3 with Paez securing the final takedown in the final 15 seconds of the match. 

Seal wrestled Tyler Hertel also of Baker for fifth and sixth. 

“Tyler improved a ton this season,” Young said.

Seal finished fifth and Hertel sixth.

Brandon Zunino lost two heart breakers.  The first one to the Mac-Hi’s Saldana and the other by one point to Matt Anthony of Ontario. Zunino finished fifth.

Freshman Wyatt Duncan also finished fifth at 171 pounds. 

Non-placers were Lane Zacharias (145), Phineas Oglesbee (152), and Bryce Waldron (189).