Highlights, top performances from 2025 Reser's Tournament of Champions

The 2025 Reser’s Tournament of Champions came to an end Saturday evening at Sherwood High School.
Meet the Reser's TOC placewinners
Here’s a look at some of the top highlights and memorable performances from this year’s 26th edition of Oregon's premier wrestling invitational.
Dominant Doman shrugs off surprise to win second 215 title, Gorriaran Award
Jackson Doman expected to face Brash Henderson in Saturday night’s 215-pound final at the 26th Reser’s Tournament of Champions wrestling tournament in Sherwood.
Both wrestlers won gold eagle trophies as TOC champions last year, and each had breezed through the first three rounds of this year’s tournament.
But while the Canby senior and top seed needed just 57 seconds to reach the title match, Henderson was caught by Sherwood’s Walter Dahme in the second round of their semifinal.
Suddenly, Doman had to regroup.
“I mean, it was a little unexpected,” Doman said. “I’d wrestled him before, and it was a close match (Doman beat the Foxes senior 2-1 in the final of the Larry Owings Invitational in late December). And I was excited to wrestle him again.
“But I had the Sherwood kid, and I went out with the same mindset, you know, just get after him.”
Doman made quick work of the championship match, pinning Dahme in 68 seconds to improve to 33-0 this season and securing the Gorriaran Award as the TOC champion with the most falls in the least aggregate time.
Doman pinned all five of his opponents in a cumulative 300 seconds — an even five minutes.
Now, the possible rematch between the two reigning 5A state champions (Doman at 215, Henderson at 285) will have to wait until next month’s OSAA state championships at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
“I mean, I hope so,” Doman said.
Doman has won 71 consecutive matches since his last defeat at the state meet two years ago, when he placed sixth after forfeiting his final two matches after the final day was delayed to Sunday because of a heavy snowstorm.
Not that Doman would have any regrets about that decision. The devout Mormon will head on his two-year mission to Brazil — where his father, Scott, served his mission — after graduation before heading to Brigham Young University, where he signed in December.
“I’m really excited,” Doman said.
'I wanted to get my name out there.' Canby's Yazzolino stuns 3-time state champion in 138 final
Nico Yazzolino might have been an unknown quantity entering his 138-pound final against three-time 3A state champion Devon Kerr of La Pine.
But the Canby senior relished the moment.
“I wanted to get my name out there,” Yazzolino said. “Last year, I didn’t have a good tournament here, and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could win it.”
Kerr took a 3-0 lead after one period, but Yazzolino opened the second by taking the Hawks senior down, gaining confidence as the round continued.
“I felt that he was getting tired,” Yazzolino said. “I tried to keep going and step on the gas.”
That strategy paid off in the third round, when he took Kerr down twice, immediately putting him to his back on the second to earn the fall with 30 seconds left in the match.
It was the fourth pin Yazzolino recorded in winning his first major tournament title — a big boost with the 5A state meet coming up in four weeks.
“With all my matches this week, I’ve just been attack, attack, attack,” Yazzolino said of his mindset. “And no one’s been able to really stop it.”
La Grange's Belding wins matchup of returning Reser's champions
La Grande junior Tommy Belding won a Reser’s TOC title and a 4A state championship last year, but he still entered his 157-pound final against Newberg senior Gus Amerson as perhaps an underdog.
Amerson entered the match a two-time Reser’s champion, not to mention having won his first 6A title a year ago and entering the weekend undefeated.
But Belding took the fight to Amerson from the start, getting a takedown in the first period and scoring a four-point nearfall in the second.
Amerson rallied in the third and took Belding down with 39 seconds left, but Belding held on for a 7-4 decision.
“I knew it was going to be a tight match, but I believe I can win anything,” Belding said. “Tough matches like that, I like to clutch out for the fans here. I love this tournament. It’s so fun to come to. All the divisions in the state coming to one place — it’s pretty sweet.”
The two were sparring partners over the summer at Fargo Nationals, where Belding got to know Amerson’s moves and developed a strategy should they ever meet on the mat.
“Gus is a very strong guy,” Belding said. “I’ve watched him beat our heavyweight in an arm wrestling match, so I needed to watch out for his strength. I was going to try to keep my distance a little more without letting him control me.”
Bend's Leif Larwin, Crater's Jeremiah Oliva halfway to four-timer status
Only three wrestlers in the 26-year history of the Reser’s TOC won four consecutive championships — Tommy Siciliano (Newberg, 2007-10), Tyler Berger (Hermiston, 2011-13; Crook County, 2014) and Santos Cantu III (Sprague, 2017-19; Crescent Valley, 2020).
After Saturday’s finals, two sophomores are halfway to joining that trio of all-time greats in the four-timer club.
Bend’s Leif Larwin dominated his 175-pound final against Canby’s James Keinonen, pinning the Cougars senior 56 seconds into the second period after building a 12-0 lead.
“People definitely saw me coming this year,” Larwin said. “They were scouting my offense, but it just gave me more opportunities to open up and just keep working new moves and new things. Just super exciting.”
When Larwin came to Reser's last year, he was a bit of an unknown, receiving a No. 3 seed before pinning his way to becoming the first Lava Bear to win a Reser’s title.
This time, having added a 5A state title and a Rollie Lane championship to his resumé, he’s now the hunted, and he acknowledged that “you’ve got a lot more eyes on you — when you’re warming up, filling your water bottle, whatever you’re doing.
“Last year, coming in, I was more of an underdog, but this year, coming in as a returning champion, it’s definitely a different feel. But, of course, it’s also the same. The circles on the mats are the same size. That’s how I like to think about it.
Crater’s Jeremiah Oliva won his 33rd consecutive match with a 17-2 technical fall over Redmond senior Ryder Lee in the 126 final.
Oliva needed sudden-victory overtime last year to win his first gold eagle, but Saturday, he took control of the match late in the opening round, scoring five points in the final 10 seconds. He led 16-2 after two rounds, then escaped 17 seconds into the third to end the match.
“Being calm and collected, that’s important as a wrestler,” Oliva said. “Not freaking out, keeping yourself composed. I just kept mentally strong.”
Older Larwin brother wins 150 title, stays unbeaten during breakthrough senior campaign
Larwin’s brother Eric has enjoyed a breakthrough senior season since returning from a knee injury that sidelined him for the first half of December.
Last year’s 5A state runner-up at 138 has more than made up for lost time, improving to 21-0 by rolling to his first Reser’s TOC title with a 12-4 major decision over Canby’s Matthew Young in the 150 final.
“I’m training and working hard every day, and it’s all coming together for me,” Larwin said. “I’ve put myself in this position, and you know, I got the W today, so that was awesome.”
Larwin said the biggest difference this season is a simple one.
“Just confidence. I really feel like I love what I’m doing,” he said. “You know, I’m here not because I’m forced to be here or because my dad (Luke) is the head coach or anything. I’m here because I want to be here, and I’m here because I put myself here. I’ve put in the hard work, and I’m doing what it takes no matter what.”
Salas Sanchez avenges trio of defeats to defending TOC champion, wins 113 title
The first time Thurston sophomore Michael Salas Sanchez and Roseburg junior Drew Dawson met on a wrestling mat was two years ago in the first round of the Oregon Classic’s 16U 100-pound bracket.
Dawson, then a Glide freshman, pinned his eighth-grade opponent in the first round that day. The two then met twice last season, with Dawson (now at Roseburg) winning by decision both times — including a 6-0 victory in the Reser’s TOC semifinals en route to winning the title.
Their fourth meeting came in Saturday’s TOC 113 final, and with time running out, it looked like Dawson would once again pull out a narrow victory and repeat as Reser’s champion.
But with 32 seconds left, Salas Sanchez scored a reversal to complete his comeback from a 4-0 deficit, keeping Dawson at bay the rest of the way en route to a 5-4 decision.
“Even if I’m down 14-0, I’m gonna come back and find a way,” said Salas Sanchez, who improved to 36-0 this season. “I was thinking about the times that he beat me, all the work I put in in the summer. Just got that dog in me.”
The key to Salas Sanchez’s victory was not allowing Dawson to get into scramble mode except for one sequence late in the first period when the two-time state champion scored his only takedown.
“I didn’t let him control the match,” Salas Sanchez said. “I let him control for a little bit, but then the dog came out, and I had to get back in control.”
Forest Grove's De La Rosa wins Outstanding Wrestler award
Over Jorge De La Rosa’s first year and a half of high school wrestling, the Forest Grove sophomore has lost only once to an in-state opponent — last year’s 6A state final against Roseburg’s Gage Singleton.
Despite that record of success, he entered the 120-pound bracket of the Reser’s TOC as a No. 5 seed, albeit behind a couple of reigning state champions — La Pine’s Riley Flack and Mountain View’s Aiden Nelmes — and a runner-up in La Grande’s Bragen Anderson.
“Whenever I come in as a lower seed, I don’t get upset,” De La Rosa said. “I see it as an opportunity to prove why I should be No. 1.”
And prove it he did, knocking off Anderson, Flack and Nelmes in that order, pinning Nelmes with seven seconds left in the final to become Forest Grove’s first Reser’s TOC champion and being named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler.
“I also see it as a way to throw guys off, because they don’t expect much from me,” De La Rosa said. “I showed them why I need to be higher up. Work what I work in practice and do what I do best.”
De La Rosa wrestled Nelmes at last April’s OWA Freestyle State Championships, winning by technical fall en route to the 16U 113 title.
They met again earlier this season in the fifth-place match at the Rollie Lane Invitational, with De La Rosa beating the reigning 5A 106 champion 12-7 this month.
Saturday’s rematch was just as taut. De La Rosa built an early 6-1 lead, but Nelmes was able to tie the score at 8-8 after receiving a penalty point with 47 seconds left.
With the match looking like it would head to overtime, De La Rosa took his shot with 13 seconds remaining, taking Nelmes straight to his back and getting the fall.
“I was expecting him to come back with some fire inside of him,” De La Rosa said. “Because I know from personal experience of being beat that I always come back hungry and ready for more. So, I expected a better fight today, and I got it.”
Buzzard's drive for third state title now includes a Reser's gold eagle
By day, Brody Buzzard is a junior attending Marist Catholic in north Eugene.
Once the final bell rings, he hops in the car for the 19-mile drive to Harrisburg, where he lives and wrestles for the reigning 3A state champion Eagles.
Buzzard has made the trek each of the past two winters since transferring to Marist Catholic after his freshman year, winning his second individual 3A title last year to help Harrisburg win its first team championship.
And now, Buzzard has added a Reser’s TOC gold eagle to his collection — the first by a Harrisburg wrestler — by winning an 11-6 decision over Glencoe’s James Rolla Camden Roofener a year after losing in the finals to Mountain View’s Jackson Potts.
Buzzard built a 10-1 lead early in the third period before holding off Roofener’s late flurry.
“I was really trying to focus on staying on my attacks and really getting on them as quickly as possible,” Buzzard said. “Just keeping the pressure going.”
Buzzard won a 4A football state championship with the Spartans in November, turning in an all-state performance at linebacker. Now, his focus is on helping the Eagles defend their team title and winning a third consecutive gold medal.
“This year has been pretty fun,” he said. “I’m just really trying to enjoy it and make it the most fun possible. So, I’m really trying to just put in the hard work and let the results take care of themselves.”
Jordan wins 285 title in Lebanon's return to Reser's
Lebanon made its first Reser’s appearance in the past five seasons, and senior Isaac Jordan made the most of it by becoming the program’s first champion since 2019, winning a 7-1 decision over La Grande’s Kenai Huff in the 285 final.
“It means a lot,” said Jordan, who lost in the 5A title match to Henderson last February. “I’ve worked really hard to get to the point I have now, so this really means a lot to me.”
Jordan looks more like a 106-pounder than a heavyweight, flying around the mat like a whirling dervish that served up plenty of action but no points until late in the second round, when he finally took the top seed to the mat.
After Jordan quickly escaped to open the third period, it took him until the final 10 seconds to get the clinching takedown.
“This year, that’s kind of what I’ve been working toward is just trying to push the pace, try to break the other guy’s will,” Jordan said. “Try to break their spirit, break them down, and then it’s easy from there.”
Thurston wins JV division; 7 state qualifiers from '24 win titles
The Reser’s JV division is one of the drawing cards of the tournament. Many of the teams in the field have state championship aspirations, and getting their No. 2s quality experience prepares them for the upcoming district meets.
Thurston, which won this year’s JV tournament with 272 points, had five 2024 state qualifiers take home medals from the weekend, including champions Truman Winningham (126) and Bill Matheus (150).
Other Reser’s JV champions who wrestled at state last year were Crater’s Mike Diaz-Torres (106) and Boston Tazioli (165), Dallas’ Lorenzo Romero-Hill (132) and Ethan Gilliard (144), and Sprague’s Seamus Glade (175).
Glencoe sophomore Brock Sahlfeld, the 285 champion, won the Gorriaran Award with five pins in a cumulative 9 minutes, 22 seconds.
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