Rose City Roundup: Girls wrestlers, swimmers make state, Portland Christian stays unbeaten

This Rose City Roundup is jam-packed after 6A/5A girls wrestling districts went down this past weekend, along with all swimming districts.

As always, the Rose City will be well represented at state swimming and wrestling, and you'll find who all is competing down below.

State season is upon us with state swimming set for Feb. 20-21 at Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton, followed by state wrestling Feb. 26-28 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Feb. 21 also marks the date where Class 3A, 2A and 1A basketball rankings will freeze for our local small schools. The big schools freeze in a couple weeks.

Check it all out down below on wrestling, swimming, Portland Christian boys hoops and PIL girls basketball!

Stories from the past two weeks

Versatile Roosevelt wrestling looking to win big on and off the mat

De La Salle North Catholic boys basketball coming into its own with young rotation

Benson boys basketball hangs on in OT to down Grant, move into tie atop PIL standings

Ahmad Surur brings the clutch factor for Ida B. Wells boys basketball

Jefferson boys basketball reloading behind sophomore Victor Jackson

Girls wrestling districts send 23 to state

Special District 2 in 6A/5A girls wrestling was held Feb. 13-14 and is the ticket for all grapplers in the city to try and get to the state tournament, which will be held Feb. 26-28 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

All seven PIL squads with a girls wrestling team, plus David Douglas and Parkrose, all competed in SD2 out at Sandy High School over the weekend.

In order to make state, wrestlers had to finish in the top four of their weight class, and Portland saw 23 girls wrestlers complete that task.

As for the overall team scores, Centennial walked away comfortably as district champs with 266.5 points.

However, it was a Portland sweep after that with McDaniel taking second with 142.5 points, followed by Franklin in third with 134, Roosevelt in fourth with 129, Ida B. Wells in fifth with 123.5 and David Douglas in sixth with 123.

Roosevelt and Wells tied for the most state qualifiers with four each, followed by Grant, Lincoln, McDaniel and David Douglas all sending three. Franklin will send two and Jefferson will send one wrestler to state.

There were five local individual champions out of the 14 weight classes, starting with Roughriders junior Johawna Bass. She missed part of the year due to injury, but the No. 3 seed proved her skill with four pins to win the 110-pound title, getting a fall at 3:07 in the title bout over Hood River Valley’s Ayleen Marquez, the top seed.

The next winner came as no surprise in Guardians senior Zorina Johnson, a two-time state champion looking for a third in 2026. The top seed won three matches via first-period pin and won the 135 title with a 19-4 tech fall at 3:22 over the No. 2 seed Ella Eberhart of Tigard.

The next winner was two weight classes later at 145 in Franklin sophomore Amarani Ramirez-Hall, who was also the top seed. She had three matches and won all of them via first-period pin, the longest being 1:07 in the title bout over No. 3 seed Natalie Anderson from Lake Oswego.

The penultimate winner was Roosevelt junior Emony Greely to make the Riders the only local school with two individual champions. The top seed at 190, Greely won all her matches via pin and the quickest one came in the title bout at 37 seconds over No. 2 seed Zylah Thorne from McDaniel.

The final winner came at 235 in top seeded David Douglas junior Sequoia Chorn. She won all three matches via pin, two coming in the second period. The second of those came at 2:19 in the title match over No. 3 seed Kenadi Hammond from Milwaukie.

Here’s a look at the top four in each weight class that are heading to the state tournament with local grapplers bolded:

100: Hannah Trinh (West Linn), Margaret Lovely (Barlow), Niazeal Orduna-Torres (Roosevelt), Makena Law (Sandy)

105: Jeredith Fahnbulleh (Gresham), Sofia Patterson (Lincoln), Genisis Anguiano (Centennial), Gabrielle Trimble (Roosevelt)

110: Johawna Bass (Roosevelt), Ayleen Marquez (Hood River Valley), Cordelia Conser (Lincoln), Betsy Alcocer Cortes (Tualatin)

115: Myliana Montano (West Linn), Solia Herrera (Reynolds), Halie Scroggins (Oregon City), Dani Sargent (Tualatin)

120: Abbeline Richard (Barlow), Faith Williams (David Douglas), Ryan Muir (Lincoln), Cassidy Finn (McDaniel)

125: Rayna Schneider (Centennial), Guadalupe Alvarado Gallegos (Putnam), Melanie Blecher (Grant), Tatum Frederickson (Sandy)

130: Taylor Ward (Barlow), Madelyn Knox (Centennial), Brody Arbogast (Grant), Simone Ebersole (Franklin)

135: Zorina Johnson, (Ida B. Wells), Ella Eberhart (Tigard), Cierra Grimmer (Sandy), Genevie Mondero (Ida B. Wells)

140: Alexsa Fountaine (Centennial), Misha Russo-Yanowitz (Ida B. Wells), Pin Anselmo (Grant), Saya Grigg (Ida B. Wells)

145: Amarani Ramirez-Hall (Franklin), Natalie Anderson (Lake Oswego), Jordan Dunkerson (Centennial), Athena Franks (Oregon City)

155: Lilyana Nuno (Sandy), Olivia Flores (Centennial), Alex Khoury (Centennial), Xiomara Gordian-Gomez (Hood River Valley)

170: Valeria Solorio Campos (Hood River Valley), Dominic Rodela (Jefferson), Amani Taylor (McDaniel), Saray Alfaro (David Douglas)

190: Emony Greely (Roosevelt), Zylah Thorne (McDaniel), Gwen Bojorquez (Centennial), Hailey Garcia (Tigard)

235: Sequoia Chorn (David Douglas), Kenadi Hammond (Milwaukie), Akira Menyfield (Gresham), Raya Derricksan (Tigard)

State swimmers determined

Girls wrestlers weren’t alone in competing for state spots this past weekend as swimmers across the city also competed for the state meet, which is slated for Feb. 20-21 at the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center.

David Douglas swept the boys and girls Mt. Hood Conference titles and will send a strong contingent alongside all the PIL qualifiers, which is led by Lincoln who swept the league titles as well. St. Mary’s Academy, Parkrose and Riverdale also have a couple swimmers who will compete in the final meet.

Here’s a look at each swimmer competing in each event this upcoming weekend with their seed number:

6A girls 200 medley relay: Lincoln (4), Grant (9), David Douglas (11)

6A boys 200 medley relay: David Douglas (6), Lincoln (15)

6A girls 200 free: Claire Niemeyer (Wells, 11), Lucy Thoits (Grant, 18)

6A boys 200 free: Miguel Oliva (Lincoln, 11)

6A girls 200 IM: Charlotte Ames (St. Mary’s, 5), Clara Penny (Grant, 6), Eloise Rush (Lincoln, 9)

6A boys 200 IM: Nathan Nguyen (David Douglas, 10), Simon Vanderwal (Cleveland, 16)

6A girls 50 free: Ariya Abdullah (David Douglas, 4), Ayana Winter (Jefferson, 7), Keelin Shockley (Wells, 10)

6A boys 50 free: Nathan Vuong (David Douglas, 8), Eugene Fedutinov (Cleveland, 11), Austin Pham (David Douglas, 12)

6A girls 100 fly: Cece Ku (Lincoln, 9)

6A boys 100 fly: Finn Sweeney (Grant, 3), Henry Merrill (Grant, 4), Elliott Huelshoff (David Douglas, 15), Eian Peng (Wells, 17)

6A girls 100 free: Ariya Abdullah (David Douglas, 5), Claire Niemeyer (Wells, 9), Stella Hargreaves (Lincoln, 14)

6A boys 100 free: Nathan Vuong (David Douglas, 16), Finn Sweeney (Grant, 17)

6A girls 500 free: Charlotte Ames (St. Mary’s, 5), Clara Penny (Grant, 7), Lucy Thoits (Grant, 12), Tierney King (David Douglas, 15)

6A boys 500 free: Brent Welch (Cleveland, 11), Seth Kugel (Lincoln, 17)

6A girls 200 free relay: Lincoln (7), David Douglas (8)

6A boys 200 free relay: David Douglas (10), Cleveland (11), Lincoln (15)

6A girls 100 back: Ayana Winter (Jefferson, 2), Tierney King (David Douglas, 13)

6A boys 100 back: Nathan Nguyen (David Douglas, 4), Miguel Oliva (Lincoln, 6), Topher Ashmore (David Douglas, 12), Lucas Kugel (Lincoln, 16)

6A girls 100 breast: Skye Schwartz (Lincoln, 1), Keelin Shockley (Wells, 11)

6A boys 100 breast: Eugene Fedutinov (Cleveland, 7), Austin Pham (David Douglas, 12)

6A girls 400 free relay: Lincoln (6), Grant (12), St. Mary’s (17)

6A boys 400 free relay: Cleveland (7), David Douglas (9), Lincoln (12)

5A girls 100 fly: Signe Olsen (Parkrose, 10)

5A girls 100 breast: Signe Olsen (Parkrose, 9)

4A/3A/2A/1A girls 200 free: Sam Borus (Riverdale, 5)

4A/3A/2A/1A boys 200 IM: Wyatt Kalbaugh (Riverdale, 4)

4A/3A/2A/1A girls 100 fly: Sam Borus (Riverdale, 1)

4A/3A/2A/1A boys 500 free: Wyatt Kalbaugh (Riverdale, 2)

Portland Christian boys remains unbeaten

There are only two undefeated basketball teams, boys or girls, in the state of Oregon remaining in the 2025-2026 season. And one of them resides in the City of Roses.

Portland Christian boys basketball are 24-0 with one league game left to play Monday, Feb. 16 against Faith Bible/Life Christian, a team the Royals already beat 97-30 this season.

On Saturday, the Royals punched three classifications up and took down 5A Putnam at Warner Pacific University 63-42. Junior Keylon Kittleson had 22 points while senior Graham Calhoun chipped in 13 points and junior Zane Ozier had 10.

After the game Monday, PC will look to close out Northwest League dominance with a tournament title before rankings freeze for Class 2A on Saturday, Feb. 21.

Currently the Royals are sitting as the No. 2 seed in the state tournament behind 23-1 Trinity Lutheran out of Bend. The Saints are slated to move up to 3A next school year in all sports.

Portland Christian has taken second at state for the past two years and is looking to finally turn that into a blue trophy with a big chunk of that core finally being seniors.

That senior class is 94-15 overall during their high school basketball careers, including a 50-5 mark in the Northwest League where they’ve won 44 consecutive games.

The Royals will certainly be hosting a first-round playoff game, and if you’ve never seen them play, this might be your last chance as the state tournament shifts to the Pendleton Convention Center for the quarterfinals-finals on March 4-7.

Lincoln, Cleveland and Franklin girls hoops with big wins

Everyone knew no one was catching Benson in the PIL girls basketball race, but after that it was an open field.

Lincoln has stepped into second place after avenging a loss to Grant with a 64-61 win over the Generals on Feb. 3. The Cardinals followed it up with another avenging-win, this one a 57-54 victory over Jefferson that put Lincoln into second alone in the PIL standings at 9-3.

Grant at 9-4 remains in the third and on the heels of the Cardinals if they were to slip up, but there’s also a new fourth place squad.

After falling to Lincoln to close out the first round of league play, Cleveland has won four consecutive games, including the last two over Grant and Jefferson. The Warriors downed the Generals 59-58 and took out the Democrats 53-51.

Cleveland is now 7-5, a half game up on Jefferson at 7-6, but does still have its second matchup with Benson looming.

Franklin has also shown some big signs of improvement, also picking up a win over Jefferson 51-39 on Feb. 3. The Lightning followed that up this week with a 51-47 road win over Wells to avenge a 66-53 loss to the Guardians in round one of league play.

The bottom line is this: The PIL is getting better from top to bottom.