Reporter for The Canyon Weekly
The Santiam High boys basketball team has wrapped up the Tri-River Conference East Division title.
The Wolverines, ranked eighth in class 2A, downed host Colton 56-39 on Tuesday night to move to 12-2 in league play, two games ahead of Kennedy and Regis in the East Division with just one league game left.
Santiam closes the regular season Friday, Feb. 10 with a home game at 5:30 p.m. vs. Gervais (3-10 in league).
Next for Santiam is a matchup against a Tri-River West Division team in the league playoffs. The Wolverines are hoping to snatch one of the four automatic berths the Tri-River receives in the Class 2A playoffs. Even should Santiam falter in the league playoffs the team’s high ranking would make the Wolverines a near shoo-in for one of the three statewide at-large berths.
The 16-team Class 2A playoffs start Feb. 25, with winners advancing to the Class 2A state tournament which runs March 2-4 in Pendleton.
Wrestling: Santiam competes this weekend in Knappa in the Special District 1 meet. Wyatt Dayton, a third-place finisher at the Class 2A-1A state meet a year ago, likely will be the No. 2 seed at 145 pounds for districts, Wolverines coach Kerry Crowston told The Canyon Weekly.
Santiam is coming off a pre-districts meet at Willamina that Crowston admitted “was not our best performance. But I’ve seen that completely reverse the next weekend at district in years past.”
A bright spot was Randy Fox winning two of three matches at 145 pounds. Crowston said he could wrestle his way to state.
Also looking for strong performances at districts are Lukus Lebahn, 18-13 this year at 152 pounds, who will move up to 160 for the Knappa meet, and Lyric Hernandez (182 pounds). Crowston said Hernandez “could surprise folks, as he’s lost several close matches this year.”
