Crater advances 10 into 5A boys wrestling state semifinals
Published 1:00 am Saturday, March 1, 2025
Crater freshman Brayden Martinez, top, works toward a technical fall victory over Caldera's Jacob Smoker at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater freshman Shane Smoker, top, takes down Thomas Loughary of Dallas at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater junior Jaxson Godley, top, works toward a pin of McKay's Felipe Chavez at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Eagle Point senior Brian Cortez, top, pins Silverton's Danien Rael at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Eagle Point junior Gavin Pogue, right, sizes up Canby's James Keinonen at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Ashland senior Kekoa Kaho'okaulana, left, battles Canby's Noah Nieto at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater junior Kutter Christensen, left, prepares to take a shot against Canby's Taeler Pfenning at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater sophomore Ryland Walters, top, pins Mountain View's Caleb Zachary at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Crater junior Travis Ege, left, works toward a pin of Summit's Rocco Caranna at the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships Friday in Portland. (Angie Walters / for the Rogue Valley Times)
Comets see all 17 qualifiers move on to Day 2, while Eagle Point nets two semifinalists and Ashland boasts one
Crater wrestling coach Greg Haga didn’t mince words describing his team’s performance after Friday’s opening rounds of the Class 5A boys wrestling state championships in Portland.
Then again, when all 17 of your state qualifiers are still going strong and 10 of those Comets advanced to Saturday’s semifinal round, there’s not a lot of embellishment needed.
“Ten’s pretty dang good,” Haga said in matter-of-fact fashion.
It’s been that kind of season thus far for Crater, which is looking to put a final feather in its cap with a potential 5A state title after already earning tournament titles at the Coast Classic, Reser’s Tournament of Champions and Northwest Duals.
“I just think our kids have done a great job all year,” said Haga. “They’ve worked hard all year and just kind of wrestled pretty tough all year. I can’t really pick out too many tournaments or instances where as a team we didn’t wrestle well. Individuals have bad matches here and there, but that’s the way it goes when you’re dealing with 15- and 16-year-olds.”
Crater built up 127 points on Day 1 to take a 13.5-point lead over Thurston, which snapped the Comets’ tournament winning streak at the Midwestern League championships. Dallas (72.5 points), Redmond (71.5) and Canby (70.5) rounded out the top-five finishers Friday.
Even with 17 wrestlers still in placing contention, Haga said the real story will be told Saturday morning when the semifinal round takes place at Memorial Coliseum.
“(Saturday) morning is the big one,” said Haga. “If you get into the semis and get to the finals, that’s the money round and you start getting nine points or 11 points per guy. For us, that’s kind of the big deal.”
Of all the big efforts Friday for the Comets — and there were several — the lightest and youngest wrestlers of the bunch may have made the most noise. Freshmen Brayden Martinez and Shane Smoker knocked off the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds at 106 pounds, respectively, to set up a matchup of teammates in Saturday’s semifinals.
Smoker pinned third-seeded Centennial freshman Joshua Khual in 3 minutes, 7 seconds during the quarterfinals, while Martinez won by 17-1 technical fall over second-seeded Caldera freshman Jacob Smoker.
Reigning state champions Jeremiah Oliva (120), Joey Hutchins (132) and Aidan Godley (144) also advanced to the semifinals for Crater, with runners-up from last year in Jaxson Godley (150) and Kutter Christensen (157).
Jaret Hickey (138), Ryland Walters (165) and Travis Ege (215) also retained their championship hopes with dominant quarterfinal wins.
Crater senior Daemian Deen, the No. 3 seed at 175, barely missed joining his teammates in advancing to the semifinals in possibly the toughest loss of the day. In a rematch of the MWL district final, which was won in a 10-3 decision by Deen, Thurston’s Bryce Johnson was able to gain an 11-8 decision in overtime.
“(Deen) kind of pancaked the guy over and hit and thought he had scored,” Haga said of what would’ve been winning points for the Comet. “To be honest, I thought the (referee) swiped like he was going to award back points, but it didn’t happen that way, I guess, so he didn’t get the point, and (Johnson) got basically a takedown to win it.”
Despite advancing 10 wrestlers to the state tournament, Eagle Point was only able to push junior Gavin Pogue (165) and senior Brian Cortez (285) into the semifinals in a deep and talented pool of wrestlers this year at the 5A level.
Pogue, who placed fifth last year, earned his biggest win in the quarterfinals with a 9-5 decision over third-seeded James Keinonen of Canby.
The lone loss of last year’s state championships for Cortez, who placed third at 215, came against Canby star Jackson Doman. After moving up a weight class, Cortez lived up to his second-seeded billing with a pair of pins to reach the semifinals at 285.
Ashland senior Kekoa Kaho’okaulana awaits Cortez in Saturday’s semifinals, which will be a rematch of the MWL championship final. Kaho’okaulana took out third-seeded Lukas Quade of Bend with a pin in 5:57 in the quarterfinals.
CLASS 5A BOYS WRESTLING STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
TEAM SCORES (Top 10): Crater 127, Thurston 113.5, Dallas 72.5, Redmond 71.5, Canby 70.5, Hillsboro 43, West Albany 42, Mountain View, 37.5, Bend 37, Lebanon 36.5.
Other Local Scores
11, Eagle Point, 33; 16, Ashland, 13.
Reach sports editor Kris Henry at khenry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035
