South Medford set a school record with five boys wrestling district champions but no one was able to match the overall firepower from Roseburg at the Southwest Conference championships Saturday night in the Pawlowski Athletic Center in Medford.

The Panthers opened the night with an electric comeback effort by junior Vaughn Graff to win the title at 106 pounds, then capped things off with consecutive championship efforts from 175 to 285 from seniors Bridger Foss and Caleb Dalke and juniors Keegan Thonstad and Isa De La Torre, respectively.

“Although we didn’t have the depth to win a team championship this year,” said South Medford head coach James Schumack, “we still had success and I like where we sit heading into the state tournament.”

No school earned more district titles than the Panthers, who automatically qualified nine wrestlers for the Class 6A state championships in two weeks as top-three finishers Saturday. There is a possibility of more advancing to the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, with the fourth-place finisher from each district pooled together and a defined criterion applied to select three additional qualifiers in the coming week.

“I don’t know if we’re bringing enough guys to be able to perform super well up there,” said Foss, “but, I guess, if everybody comes with their top game, we might be able to pull something off.”

Roseburg registered four champions and had seven others place second to help record 447.5 points toward the team title. Grants Pass crowned three champions among six finalists to finish second at 378, followed by South Medford (317.5) and North Medford (193.5).

Black Tornado senior Owen Gutches won the individual title at 157, while teammates Brandon Escalante (113), Joseph Borraggine (126) and Heston Likens (150) placed second.

North Medford, which has recently endured a school closure and ensuing collapse of its training facility at the Lacey Athletic Center, also automatically qualified Samuel Hesler (third, 120) for the state tournament.

“Our team, spiritually, the people who are here really want to be here and they’re not giving up,” said Gutches. “A lot of people could take that as an excuse, like North fell and hey we’re done, but everybody here is battling. Everybody’s a winner in my eyes, and we’ve just got to keep the momentum.”

Graff got the night off to a wild start, trailing by 14 points to Grants Pass sophomore Patrick Murphy — and in danger of losing by a technical fall with one more point — before scoring a reversal and ultimate pin in 3 minutes, 19 seconds.

A series of runner-up showings by Medford wrestlers was snapped finally at 157 by Gutches, who has spent the last week training in the same facilities that housed his father, Jason, and uncle, Les — who were each state champions in their high school heyday at South Medford.

Gutches scored a takedown with 40 seconds to go in the first period against Roseburg’s Dane Heredia to gain the advantage, then sealed a 7-1 victory with a takedown in the same mark of the third period.

“It’s all a mental battle,” said Gutches. “I was just trying to think to myself, ‘Hey, I’m winning this, I’m winning this, let’s keep going hard.’”

Gutches said he was excited to continue the family tradition in a sport that means so much to them all, and tried to look at moving over to the Oakdale Middle School site as a life experience.

“It felt weird being in that wrestling room, but it’s always nice seeing it because these are the memories that I’ve been told,” he said. “I get to experience it myself and I get to act along with it, so it’s been nice.”

Shortly thereafter, South Medford’s upper weights took over, starting with a pin by Foss over Roseburg’s Daniel Patrick in 3:07 for the 175-pound title. It was the third district championship earned by Foss, who is a reigning state champion and 2023 state runner-up.

“We dualed them last week and I went out there not really prepared and had a really bad match,” said Foss. “I still ended up winning, but it kind of boosted me to really want to work harder for this because I knew I would see him here and I’m probably going to see him again in two weeks. I knew what I had to do and went and did it.”

South Medford was assured a district title at 190 when Dalke and junior Corbyn Schumack reached the finals, but it was the steady pressure of Dalke that won out in a 7-4 sudden victory decision in overtime.

Schumack scored an opening takedown but escapes by Dalke and stalling points against Schumack resulted in the extra session, where Dalke caught his teammate backing up and dropped down at the edge of the mat for a winning takedown with 29 seconds remaining.

“It’s kind of tough because they know everything that you’re going to do, especially when you wrestle off through the year,” Dalke said of going up against a teammate. “It’s just about whoever has the most heart and cardio and works hard is going to win that match, and I came in with a game plan and I executed it.”

“He’s strong and he’s a good dude,” he added, “but, at the end of the day, it’s whoever works hard, and I believe I put harder work into it than him.”

Competing in overtime is nothing new for Dalke, so he felt confident going beyond the typical six-minute match time to earn his second SWC title.

“It was pretty natural for me,” he said. “I have faith in the work I put in because I go to the gym every day, and I stay after practice for an hour every single day. I’ve already had decent cardio my entire career because I’ve gone to overtime in a lot of matches, but I think all the extra work has brought my cardio up to another level to the point where I can actually start shooting and still have cardio instead of just like heavyweighting people around.”

Cardio came into play one match later for Thonstad, who has been battling illness that’s been running through the South squad and built a strong enough lead to hold off Bladimir Mendez-Chavez of Grants Pass for a 9-7 win at 215.

“I’ve been out sick the last couple of weeks so I knew that I wasn’t going to have much at the end,” said Thonstad. “I knew I needed to get up early just so I could try and maintain after that. If you miss two weeks of wrestling, it’s really hard to just keep your stamina up. Wrestling’s a tough sport, and when you go all six minutes with a guy who’s as strong as Blad, it’s just a tough match.”

Thonstad had a takedown just before the first-period buzzer, then worked Mendez-Chavez to his back 40 seconds into the second period and clamped down to try and get a fall against his twisting opponent for the rest of the round before settling for a near fall and 7-0 lead by the end.

“I thought I had his shoulder blades at least two or three times but that ref just kept counting and I was like, ‘Come on man, I don’t know if I have enough to finish this out,’” Thonstad said with a laugh. “I ended up having just barely enough to finish it out, and it was such a tough match. Blad’s someone that I wrestled early in the year and it was also a really close match, so just from the get-go I knew it was going to be super close.”

The lead was cut to 8-7 on a takedown before Mendez-Chavez finally cut Thonstad loose with 20 seconds remaining. An ensuing shot while Thonstad adjusted his headgear carried both wrestlers off the mat and, after taking some injury time, Thonstad slipped a throw but was fortunate to be on the edge of the mat with two seconds remaining.

In the final match, De La Torre rode the South Medford wave and put Roseburg’s George Gibby on his back 14 seconds into their match. The junior standout went on to score a fall at heavyweight in 64 seconds.

“Seeing them win kind of back-to-back-to-back, it really brings a lot of momentum into my match and puts me into a good headspace,” De La Torre said of following his Panther teammates. “I don’t really have much to worry about because I know my guys are doing good, and I know I’m about to do good. It just helps me a lot, and I’m in a great mindset when that happens.”

De La Torre said he hopes that same mindset will carry over to the state tournament for the Panthers.

“I think we’re going to come into state with a bang,” said the two-time district champion. “I don’t think they’re gonna really expect us to do so well as a team, but I think we’re going to bring up some kids for wildcards and we’re going to do really good.”

The previous South Medford record of four district champions was accomplished in 2023 and 2024.

BOYS TEAM SCORES: Roseburg 447.5, Grants Pass 378, South Medford 317.5, North Medford 193.5, Sheldon 145.5, South Eugene 63, Willamette 62.

CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

106 — Vaughn Graff, South Medford, pinned Patrick Murphy, Grants Pass, 3:19; 113 — Drew Dawson, Roseburg, pinned Brandon Escalante, North Medford, :56; 120 — Carter Dawson, Roseburg, dec. Jack Olsen, Roseburg, 6-0; 126 — Zane Hill, Grants Pass, dec. Joseph Borraggine, North Medford, 10-7; 132 — Roman Leaton, Roseburg, pinned Elias Rush, Roseburg, 2:53.

138 — Michael Martin, Grants Pass, pinned Nathan Lucore, Grants Pass, 4:48; 144 — Izak Hutchins, Roseburg, injury default over Isaiah Hutchins, Roseburg; 150 — Mason Stucky, Sheldon, dec. Heston Likens, North Medford, 7-6; 157 — Owen Gutches, North Medford, dec. Dane Heredia, Roseburg, 7-1.

165 — Owen Hull, Grants Pass, pinned Tyler Rietmann, Roseburg, 3:11; 175 — Bridger Foss, South Medford, pinned Daniel Patrick, Roseburg, 3:07; 190 — Caleb Dalke, South Medford, dec. Corbyn Schumack, South Medford, SV-1 7-4; 215 — Keegan Thonstad, South Medford, dec. Bladimir Mendez-Chavez, Grants Pass, 9-7; 285 — Isa De La Torre, South Medford, pinned George Gibby, Roseburg, 1:04.

THIRD-PLACE FINALS

106 — Gage Rinck, Willamette, pinned Yeshua Donald, Grants Pass, 5:08; 113 — Adonis Donald, Grants Pass, pinned Alexander Jimenez, South Medford, 1:47; 120 — Samuel Hesler, North Medford, pinned Blake Harris, South Medford, 3:54; 126 — Nathan Mellow, Sheldon, pinned Koa Duerst, South Eugene, 1:34; 132 — Isaac Montes de Oca, South Medford, tech. fall Samuel Koch, Sheldon, 19-3.

138 — Owen Mignola, Roseburg, pinned Anthony Hall, North Medford, :57; 144 — Aiden Swanson, Grants Pass, pinned Kaden Miller, South Medford, 2:28; 150 — Brody Foss, South Medford, pinned Gabe Konig, Roseburg, :51; 157 — Nathan Padilla, Roseburg, dec. Gadiel Gonzalez, Sheldon, 6-4.

165 — Ellis Downs, Roseburg, dec. Isaiah Cowles, Grants Pass, 11-10; 175 — James Duffy, South Eugene, major dec. Darrell Orth, Roseburg, 9-0; 190 — Ashton Park, Grants Pass, pinned Clark Gibson, Roseburg, 1:04; 215 — Wesley Boyd, South Medford, pinned Nash Klaus, North Medford, 2:26; 285 — Carlos Dominguez-Viera, Grants Pass, pinned Honner Hammes, South Medford, 5:30.