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Varsity 541 NEWS NOW Medford lodging hits a record ... Defense says baby in Medford assault case may have brittle bones ... Wildfire threatening homes along Highway 227 ... Medford lodging hits a record ... Defense says baby in Medford assault case may have brittle bones ... Wildfire threatening homes along Highway 227 ... PREP NOTEBOOK Small mat programs make big leap at state Comment By Kris Henry Mail Tribune Follow @@Kris_Henry MailTribune.com By Kris Henry Mail Tribune Follow @@Kris_Henry Posted Feb. 29, 2016 at 8:13 PM Updated Feb 29, 2016 at 11:22 PM By Kris Henry Mail Tribune Follow @@Kris_Henry Posted Feb. 29, 2016 at 8:13 PM Updated Feb 29, 2016 at 11:22 PM » Social News It seems fitting that in a leap year, a pair of this area’s fledgling wrestling programs made big leaps at the state tournament in Portland. For Cascade Christian, a breakthrough weekend was culminated by junior heavyweight Moses Jackson becoming the first state finalist at the Class 3A tournament in program history. For Butte Falls, it was all about simply having a wrestler advance to the season-ending extravaganza. Either way, 2016 may go down as a very big year for each. “I was so excited for Moses,” said Cascade Christian head coach Dan Vidlak on Monday. “He had a wonderful year and had an opportunity to be our first finalist and our first state champion. You’ve got to take advantage of your opportunities and I thought he did that this year. He lost one match all year and it was to a defending state champion in the state finals. That’s about as perfect as you can be in a year and I’m just so proud of him.” A second-period escape put Jackson in the driver’s seat heading to the third and final period against Nyssa junior Osiris Tapia, but a reversal from the bottom position by Tapia and subsequent stalling penalty against Jackson denied the Challengers their first state title in a 3-1 contest. Still, the fact that Jackson was among those taking part in Saturday night’s finals at Memorial Coliseum, combined with a fourth-place showing by fellow junior Max Valle at 120 pounds, was considered huge for the program overall by Vidlak. “It’s a benchmark and there’s going to be lots of those for us,” said Vidlak, in his second season at Cascade Christian. “We’re building for the future and we’re going to be having lots of firsts for the program. There’s many more to come. Someone’s going to win that first (state title), it may be Moses or Max or Gunnar (Thompson) or Ryan (Vidlak) or whoever, but someone’s going to win it.” Jackson (285), Valle (120), Thompson (126) and Vidlak (106) all qualified for the 3A state tournament and are eligible to return next year. Coach Vidlak expects the second-ranked Jackson, who transferred from South Medford, and 10th-ranked Valle to help set the tone as senior leaders next season. “The blessing about Moses and Max placing this year is that we brought four to the tournament and placed two and we really only had six (wrestlers) out at the end of year,” said Vidlak, who was a two-time state champion at Hidden Valley and earned three Pac-10 Conference titles at Oregon before winning a gold medal at the Pan-American Games. “What that does is it validates what we’re doing and sends a message to all the other kids that they can do it, too.” Cascade Christian’s wrestling program started in 2007 under the direction of Joe Hagler and, despite only a handful of participants, still was able to garner a few tournament highlights. The Challengers qualified three wrestlers in 2008 and scored their first state points with a pin at 285 by James Humphries. Derek Brite placed sixth at 171 in 2009 as the only qualifier, and Cascade Christian scored its previous high of 25 points in 2010, when Brite advanced to the semifinals at 189 and ultimately placed fourth to highlight a five-person showing. In 2011, Zac Roberson also advanced to the semifinals at 189 and placed fifth as part of the Challengers’ two-man contingent. The program then hit a lull with no state qualifiers — and no team fielded in 2014 — until Vidlak took over last year, when Cascade Christian scored 23 points after Luke Valle advanced to the semis at 126 and placed fourth as part of a four-person showing. “I don’t mean any disrespect to any of the guys who came before us,” said Vidlak, “but we really started from ground zero when you take a year off. The program was dead. We’re trying to do things the right way and I tell people all the time it just takes time. The top programs you see around the state, that takes time, that takes youth clubs and experience and things like that.” Vidlak said he views himself as a foundation builder and his team’s ability to finish 12th overall with 44 points over the weekend was another step in his process. “When you’re building that important foundation, is that always going to translate to a ton of victories, probably not, but it will someday so that’s not a real concern,” he said. “Right now we’re just trying to get kids out, get them excited about wrestling and trying to do things right.” Cascade Christian started the season with a dozen wrestlers but injuries and other attrition left that number at six by the end. With a promising eighth-grade group on the horizon and the hope of getting a higher turnout from the football program, Vidlak said he envisions about 20 wrestlers to start next season. In Butte Falls, low numbers are par for the course considering the size of the school, but the Loggers made big strides after forming a program last year. Butte Falls has fielded around 10 wrestlers in each of the past two seasons under head coach Jim Mannenbach, and senior Luke McGonagle was able to break through this time around to become the school’s first state qualifier in the Class 2A/1A tournament. McGonagle then went out and kept making history on the big stage, bouncing back from a first-round loss at 195 to score the program’s first points with a consolation pin in 3:42 of Culver’s Cole Little. Although McGonagle’s hopes at finishing as a state placer fell shy when he was pinned in the third period by No. 3 seed Egan Glover of Reedsport, who went on to win his third-place final in 11 seconds, the Logger trail blazer still had glowing things to say about his trip to state. “It’s been super fun, I had a great time here,” McGonagle said after his final match Saturday. “If I could do it all over again starting from freshman year, I definitely would.” Quite naturally, the highlight for McGonagle was being able to secure at least one win at the tournament. “It was amazing scoring the first points in Butte Falls history and having the first pin in state,” he said. “It’s breathtaking.” McGonagle also vowed that there will be more to come from the Butte Falls program, which also aims to build off fourth-place efforts at the Class 1A state tournament on Jan. 23 and the 2A/1A district tournament two weeks ago. “This is totally just the beginning,” he said. “This is only the second year and already someone is going to state. We won a fourth-place trophy with only eight kids scoring when we went to 1A state, so we know it can be done and hopefully we can do more.” Reach reporter Kris Henry at 541-776-4488, [email protected], www.facebook.com/krishenryMT or www.twitter.com/Kris_Henry By Kris Henry Mail Tribune Follow @@Kris_Henry MailTribune.com By Kris Henry Mail Tribune Follow @@Kris_Henry Posted Feb. 29, 2016 at 8:13 PM Updated Feb 29, 2016 at 11:22 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction Schedules & Events --> Recent Scores --> Prep Notebook Kris Henry Challengers make it back on top in softball Winning the Southern Cascade League title seemed like a pretty bold goal this spring considering the recent history of the Cascade Christian... 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