By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

BEAVERTON, Ore.–  Reese Lawson is just picking up where she left off last year for the West Salem Wrestling team.  Undefeated entering the Southridge Tournament.  Still perfect through 14 with her pinning her opposition along the way.  Driven to build upon her placement at the 155 pound Girls State Tournament as she emerged to be one of the top dogs in the State on the girls side of the sport.

“It’s going pretty good…I’m pretty happy with how my season is going so far.  I went to a lot of camps, I lifted all Summer, so I’ve been working pretty hard,” Lawason said.  “I feel like I’m doing a lot better this year.  Last year I feel like I struggled a little bit because I didn’t do anything in the offseason, but this year I was putting in the work.”

Lawson’s matches didn’t last longer than the first round.  Her first and second round matches Saturday, against  Reynold’s Treazure Jones  and Baker/Powder Valley’s Julianna Sandberg were her longest match of the day with each match ending at the 1:16 mark of the match.  The following two matches followed with pins at  41 seconds and at the minute mark respectively as Lawson looks towards improvement coming down the stretch of her junior season.

“I’ve been able to work a lot of things and trying new things,” Lawson said.

Aleeya Washburn  joined Lawson in winning her weight class at 145 pounds. Samantha Gagnon finished second at 125 pounds. Emily Rayburn (110, third), Ava Grice (140, fourth) McKenna Sanchez  (145, sixth), all placed for the Titans who finished third as a team in the Girls Team points Saturday.  

The West Salem Boys also finished third with  Rhett Lawson (152), Corbyn Taylor (170) and Cougar Bailey  (195) finishing second in their weight brackets.  Jake Bloomfield was third at 152 pounds as the Titan boys had ten wrestlers place in Saturday’s Tournament.