All-Region boys wrestling: Derick Tollen, La Center

Derick Tollen was not going to be denied.

A separated shoulder midway through the season wasn’t going to keep the La Center wrestler from his state championship goal.

Alex Berfanger, Union, Sr.

Dallas Goodpaster, Evergreen, Jr.

Brandon Huft, Mountain View, Sr.

Cameron Loos, Hockinson, Jr.

Trevor Newburn, Ridgefield, So.

Zach Oster, Washougal, Sr.

Ethan Rotondo, Union, So.

Michael Snediker, Union, Sr.

Will Taisacan, Mountain View, Jr.

Damon Thomas, Mountain View, So.

Austin Wright, Evergreen, Sr.

Neither was a broken nose two weeks later.

And when Tollen fell behind 7-0 early in a semifinal match at Mat Classic, that just shifted him into another gear.

No Clark County wrestler overcame obstacles as well as Tollen this season. And no other Clark County boy ended up with a state championship.

That is why Tollen is The Columbian’s All-Region Boys Wrestler of the Year.

Tollen, a junior, won the Class 1A state championship at 126 pounds and finished the season 36-1. But this isn’t a story of a small-school wrestler who feasts on inferior competition.

He placed third in Oregon the past two years while wrestling for Class 5A Churchill High School in Eugene.

And Tollen had no problem beating wrestlers from bigger schools. He won the 126-pound title at the Clark County Wrestling Championships, which pits wrestlers from all classifications against each other.

His match at the Clark County championships might have been his most impressive. He suffered a separated shoulder early against defending champion Isaiah Av of Evergreen. After a brief stoppage, Tollen fought through the injury to win 16-6.

To overcome injuries and pain, Tollen says he taps a deeper ability linked to the body’s “fight-or-flight” response. And in Tollen’s case, it’s always “fight.”

“When you’re tired or injured, if a tiger walks into the room you’re still going to run faster than you ever have in your life,” Tollen said. “There’s usually a big mental block when it comes to injuries.”

Two weeks after that match, Tollen’s nose was broken during a match against Stevenson. That forced him to wear a mask the rest of the season.

Tollen looked like a villain, but wrestled like a hero. In the semifinals, he wasn’t deterred after falling behind undefeated Carlos Hernandez of Royal.

“I looked at the scoreboard and saw I was down 7-0,” Tollen said. “A few negative thoughts came to mind. But I had to push them out. I said ‘that’s not gonna happen.’ This year, I told myself there’s no other option but to win.”

Tollen rallied to win that match 12-9. He then beat John Crise of Chewelah 16-9 in the finals, fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming a state champion.

Tollen had come close in Oregon. He moved to Clark County with his father, whose fiancée lives in La Center.

“Moving away was hard,” Tollen said. “At La Center, they didn’t treat me any different than anybody else. That was good.”

Now wrestlers will treat Tollen in a different way — with the respect that comes to a state champion.