Crater claims 5A boys wrestling state title behind five champions
Published 2:51 pm Sunday, March 2, 2025
Crater wrestlers and coaches pose with the Class 5A state championship trophy Saturday night at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater senior Joey Hutchins celebrates capping an undefeated season with the 132-pound title at the Class 5A state championships Saturday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater sophomore Jeremiah Oliva, top, holds down Thurston's Mason Hakki for back points during Saturday's Class 5A state championship final. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater sophomore Aidan Godley, right, waits for his moment to attack against Canby's Matthew Young during Saturday's Class 5A state championship final. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater junior Jaret Hickey, left, controls Thurston's Holton Halstead during Saturday's Class 5A state championship final. (Kim Samitore / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater junior Kutter Christensen raises his arms in triumph after winning the 157-pound title at the Class 5A state championships Saturday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Comets’ first state championship since 2017 — featuring eight finalists — is 10th overall for Hall of Fame head coach Greg Haga
Harkening back to Crater’s wrestling heyday — when it dominated the large-school field with top-two finishes in all but one season from 1998-2006 — the Comets put forth an effort for the ages over the weekend in Portland that culminated in the program’s 10th state championship.
Crater crowned five state champions, saw three others finish as state runner-up and finished with 12 state placers overall after all 17 qualifiers scored for the Comets during the two-day Class 5A boys wrestling state championships at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
When asked if the impressive showing reminded head coach Greg Haga of the good ol’ days, the 39th-year Crater coach deadpanned, “Any day you win a state title is a good ol’ day.”
So true, and so deserving for a Crater program that last earned a state title at the 5A level in 2017 but has racked up tournament titles all season, previously highlighted by efforts at the Coast Classic, Northwest Duals and Reser’s Tournament of Champions.
Crater senior Joey Hutchins celebrates capping an undefeated season with the 132-pound title at the Class 5A state championships Saturday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
“They’ve done it all year,” said Haga, who guided Crater to the program’s first title in 1993 and has seen the Comets post 15 top-two finishes during his tenure. “They’ve done a great job wrestling, with all of them wrestling hard and just staying focused the whole year.”
Crater senior Joey Hutchins (132 pounds) and sophomores Jeremiah Oliva (120) and Aidan Godley (144) were each repeat state champions, and the Comets also landed titles from juniors Jaret Hickey (138) and Kutter Christensen (157).
Falling just shy of their goal in second place were junior Jaxson Godley (150), sophomore Ryland Walters (165) and freshman Shane Smoker (106).
Junior Travis Ege placed third at 215 and senior Giovanni Gonzales was fifth at the same weight, while freshmen Brayden Martinez (106) and A.J. Perez (113) each placed fifth.
For good measure, Haga and his staff earned Class 5A coach of the year honors by their peers after recording 289 points to finish 25.5 points ahead of Thurston (263.5) in the team race.
Two weeks ago, the Colts pinned a rare tournament loss on the Comets with a four-point win in the Midwestern League championships.
“If you look at our conference and how competitive it is, Thurston’s second (at state) but they score 260-some points,” said Haga. “It’s pretty incredible when you end up second with that.”
Eagle Point finished ninth in the 5A team standings with 67 points after senior Brian Cortez was able to reach the championship finals at 285 but had to settle for second place in a tough 4-2 battle against Isaac Jordan of Lebanon.
Junior Gavin Pogue shook off a loss in the semifinals to regroup for third place at 165 for the Eagles, scoring a 15-7 major decision over Lebanon’s Zechariah Halsey in the third-place final.
Thomas Wippel, a sophomore, placed fifth for Eagle Point at 138.
Crater sophomore Jeremiah Oliva, top, holds down Thurston’s Mason Hakki for back points during Saturday’s Class 5A state championship final. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Ashland heavyweight Kekoa Kaho’okaulana was pinned by Cortez in 1 minute, 5 seconds during the championship semifinals Saturday morning. The senior rallied to eventually place fifth at 285 with a pin of Bend’s Lukas Quade in 3:27 during the fifth-place final.
Smoker opened the championship finals for Crater at 106, but was unable to dethrone Thurston nemesis Lukas Salas-Sanchez in a repeat of the MWL final. Salas-Sanchez previously eked out a 5-4 decision, but stretched the margin to 9-5 in the state final.
“He’s had great improvement this year, and did a great job in the finals,” Haga said of Smoker. “He just got outslicked a couple times.”
Things took a more triumphant turn at 120, when Oliva scored another technical fall over Thurston senior Mason Hakki with a 16-1 showing in the finals.
The matchup was a repeat of last year’s final at 113, when Oliva won 10-1.
Oliva maintained the potential of becoming a four-time state champion for Crater, and won by technical fall in all four of his state tournament matches. Oliva’s only loss this season came wrestling up at 138 pounds.
“He just does a great job of having constant pressure,” Haga said of Oliva, who finished 41-1. “He’s awesome on his feet, but when he’s on top, he gets some tilts and turns all the time, and really makes it difficult. If the person relaxes on the bottom at all, he’s going to get a tilt or a turn on him and really open the match up.”
As they did a year before, Hutchins was able to carry on that momentum for Crater with a 9-2 decision at 132 over Sully Hill of Dallas for his repeat championship. The dominant outing capped an undefeated season for Hutchins at 43-0.
Crater junior Jaret Hickey, left, controls Thurston’s Holton Halstead during Saturday’s Class 5A state championship final. (Kim Samitore / for the Rogue Valley Times)
“Joey has been consistent all year,” said Haga. “He’s just tough on top and very powerful on his feet, and he has been very consistent all year with that. I’m real proud of him.”
Hickey’s title at 138 was especially gratifying after he dominated the early part of the season before reaggravating a shoulder injury toward the end of January, causing the only technical blemish on his record with a medical default just prior to Reser’s TOC.
“We were going hard drilling after that,” said Haga, “but he hasn’t wrestled live until we went to regionals, and then he wrestled live here at state. It’s just a great testament to him for hard work and persevering through some of those hard times.”
During Saturday’s final at 138, Thurston senior Holston Halstead was able to narrow the gap but not enough to deter a 14-8 decision by Hickey.
“The Thurston kid wrestled him tougher than he ever has and actually got the first takedown,” said Haga. “Then Jared just had to stay consistent, and once we got up a little bit, we already knew the title was kind of locked up, and we’re just there now to have our kids not taking any risks. It was just continue to build a lead, but don’t get too out of position.”
Like Oliva, Aidan Godley maintained his hopes of becoming a four-time state champion, and equaled the efforts of his father, Justin, who won state titles in 1999 and 2000 and is an assistant coach with the Comets.
Aidan Godley, who favors his father’s look and wrestling style on the mat, scored a 12-6 decision over Canby’s Matthew Young at 144 for his second straight state title.
Crater sophomore Aidan Godley, right, waits for his moment to attack against Canby’s Matthew Young during Saturday’s Class 5A state championship final. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
“He’s very unorthodox with his style, and probably his mat awareness is his key thing,” Haga said of Aidan Godley. “He knows where he’s at at all times, and what the time is. He gets a second takedown right at the end of the first round, and just kind of kept the pressure on. He’s 6-foot-2 wrestling 144 pounds, so he can be difficult to wrestle.”
Older brother Jaxson Godley reached his second straight state final, but his own nagging shoulder injury flared up and he suffered a 16-2 major decision loss at 150 to undefeated Bend senior Eric Larwin.
“He tweaked his shoulder a little bit during the match, and that was kind of tough to recoup,” said Haga. “(Larwin’s) big and strong, and that kind of put him at a disadvantage right there.”
After finishing runner-up a year ago, Christensen was not going to be denied this time around at 157, where he faced a familiar foe in Redmond’s Gannon McNulty in the finals and earned a 15-3 major decision.
McNulty is the son of former Eagle Point wrestling coach and athletic director Kacey McNulty, who took the position as Redmond AD last summer.
Christensen didn’t begin competing for Crater until mid-January due to a knee injury, but hit the ground running and has been a formidable force despite still not being completely healthy.
“Kutter’s tough to score on because he’s right in your face the whole time,” said Haga, “and he keeps some good head pressure and keeps his face right in yours.”
Crater junior Kutter Christensen raises his arms in triumph after winning the 157-pound title at the Class 5A state championships Saturday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater’s last championship finalist might have faced the most heartbreaking of any loss the Comets had Saturday, with Walters battling his way to a narrow lead over Silverton’s Bo Zurcher before a takedown with eight seconds remaining led to a 5-3 defeat at 165.
“He had him locked up a little bit and just got to the edge of the mat and kind of got dragged out a little bit,” Haga said of Walters, “and the guy scored on us right at the end.”
Walters’ father, Denny, was Haga’s first state champion in 1990, and has been a key assistant coach over the years, taking the interim helm for the 2009 state tourney when Crater finished second.
The MWL champion finished his sophomore season 43-5 after moving up six weight classes from his fourth-place effort last year at 126.
Reach sports editor Kris Henry at khenry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035
