Reporter for The Canyon Weekly
Santiam High wrestling coach Kerry Crowston has 11 athletes working in the mat room for this season, led by 145-pounder Wyatt Dayton.
Dayton, who was third at the Class 2A-1A state meet a year ago, took second at the Deven Dawson event at Harrisburg and first at a tournament in Scio and swept all three matches at a home meet.
Lukas Lebahn, the team’s 152-pounder, took second at Scio and won both of his matches at the home meet.
“Our team is young, only one senior, who is a first-year wrestler, yet they have all shown steady improvement each week,” Crowston told The Canyon Weekly.
Boys basketball: The Wolverines are off to a 4-1 start and are ranked 8th in Class 2A by the OSAA. Santiam’s lone loss is to Open Door Christian in its Dec. 2 opener. The squad, under coach J.D. Hill, has defeated Umpqua Valley Chrsitian, Monroe, Scio and Sheridan and hosted Taft on Thursday night (note this refers to Dec. 22) after The Canyon Weekly’s presstime. Santiam finishes out this year with a Dec. 28-30 tournament at Newport before hosting Kennedy on Jan. 4 in the Tri-River Conference opener.
The conference looks to be its usual challenge, with six schools ranked in the top 16. Kennedy (4-1) is 4th, Salem Academy (3-2) is 7th, Santiam is 8th, Blanchet Catholic (3-3) is 10th, Regis (3-2) is 13th andWillamina (5-2) is 16th.
Girls basketball: The Wolverines’ girls squad, under new coach Hannah Thompson, dropped to 1-4 with a 39-21 loss Dec. 15 vs. Sheridan. Taft visited on Thursday after presstime, with the team then off until the Tri-River opener Jan. 4 vs. Kennedy.
