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Eight wrestlers compete on the mats at the Greater Valley Conference district wrestling meet at Forest Grove on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.
FOREST GROVE – It wasn’t until he placed fourth at the state meet last year that Tanner Stones decided he should get serious about wrestling.
It’s working out pretty well so far.
For his senior year at South Salem High School, Stones dedicated himself to the sport, taking in practices with Salem Elite Wrestling Club – something he hadn’t done since eighth grade – along with his high school workouts in an effort to propel himself.
“That was the best thing for me,” Stones said. “Just got lazy.”
Stones is the No. 2 seed at 120 pounds in the Greater Valley Conference district meet at Forest Grove High School and dispatched his opponents by pin and technical fall in Friday’s first two rounds to move into Saturday’s 10 a.m. semifinal round.
The one thing that is still missing from Stones’ resume is a championship.
He placed second at the district meet as a sophomore and third as a junior.
But lurking in his bracket are No. 1 seed Alvaro Flores of McMinnville and No. 3 seed Lucas Higginbotham of Forest Grove.
“I definitely feel like it’s attainable,” said Stones, who is ranked No. 7 in the state. “I have all the right coaches. I’ve got to finish the season strong.”
“I’m pretty confident in myself, but I do know I probably have the toughest bracket in the district tournament, but I feel like I’m one of the tougher kids. See how it goes.”
A Sprague team seeking to win the district tournament for the second straight year leads the team standings after the first day with 174.5 points. North Salem is a surprising second with 128.5 points.
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South Salem’s Tanner Stones pins West Albany’s Isaac Hart in the Greater Valley Conference district wrestling tournament at Forest Grove on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.
“We definitely want to keep winning district titles,” said Sprague junior Dane McKinney. “As much as we want to win one as a team, I think it would be awesome for coach (Nolan) Harris being his first year.”
McKinney contributed to the Olympians’ team score Friday, something he didn’t do a year ago.
As a first-year wrestler last year he showed great promise, but was unseeded going into the district wrestling tournament, lost his first two matches to seeded wrestlers and was eliminated.
As the No. 2 seed at 160 pounds this year, he pinned Forest Grove’s Andrew Stewart in 26 seconds in the first round and North Salem’s Isaak Vipperman in 1:25 in the quarterfinals.
“I didn’t want that to happen again and so I worked a little bit in the offseason with a couple guys during the summer and football came and I focused on football, but I was ready to get back in the room,” McKinney said.
“I felt like I prepared better and I cared more about the sport this year because last year I did it to get better for football because I knew that it would help me get better tackling and such, but this year I did it because I wanted to get better for wrestling.”
The tournament went exactly as seeded in Friday’s wrestling.
Each of the top four seeded wrestlers in all 14 weight classes advanced to Saturday’s semifinal round.
Local No. 1 seeds who won convincingly Friday are Sprague’s Daniel McClung (113), North Salem’s Ian Carlos (126), McNary’s Brayden Ebbs (138), West Salem’s Hunter Lucas (152), McKay’s Andy Rubio (160), Sprague’s Spencer Nofziger (170), West Salem’s Brenton Reddy (182), South Salem’s Vincent Villarreal (195) and Sprague’s Jacob Nelson (285).
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
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Sprague’s Dane McKinney pins Forest Grove’s Andrew Stewart in the Greater Valley Conference district wrestling tournament at Forest Grove on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016.