<p>Hermiston's Tyler Berger pats his chest in celebration after he won the 132-pound Class 5A wrestling championship Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.</p>

Hermistons dominance of the 5A classification came to an end with a third-place finish Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

The Dawgs placed four wrestlers in the finals and came away with three champions, but couldnt close the gap on Pendleton or state champ Dallas enough.

Like Ive said before, its really tough to keep winning, Hermiston coach Curt Berger said. We wrestled pretty good but Pendleton had a tremendous tournament and Dallas wrestled well with all their guys.

Dallas qualified 17 for the championships while Pendleton sent 14. Hermiston had 10 for the tournament.

The highlight of the night for the Dawgs, undoubtedly, was senior Joey Delgados fourth-career state championship.

He dispatched Pendletons Pyper McCallum in rousing fashion, a 17-3 major decision, to cap his career with a 196-3 record and quartet of gold medals.

Its definitely another goal of mine that I was able to meet, Delgado said. Pyper is a tough guy and I just wanted to stay focused and do what I wanted to do.

Delgado became the first Hermiston wrestler in history to win titles all four years of his high school career.

Before the year, Delgado was tied for Kyle Larson, Ben Jorgenson and Curtis Berger with three championships.

Delgado, who will wrestle for Oregon State next season, won his first title at 103 pounds, then moved to 119 to capture his second. He won his third at 145 pounds then dropped a class his senior year to win at 138.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve wrestled matches like this a million times in my head,” Delgado said. “I was eager to get on the mat and wrestled and do what I wanted to.”

Last year, not even a bloody and swollen mouth could keep him away from the crown. After being smacked with a headbutt during the semifinals, Delgado wore a special facemask to protect his cut and swollen lip in the title bout.

While there wasn’t any drama like this season, Delgado’s determination and grit was still obvious.

Along with Delgado’s triumph, a couple other Dawgs were golden.

Tyler Berger earned his second title of his career with a 10-3 victory over Sherwoods Daniel Leonard. The sophomore 132-pounder earned three takedowns in the third period to turn a 4-2 bout into a rout.

Abraham Rodriguez claimed his first title of his career with a 7-3 win against Churchills Chase Kearney.

In a hard-fought battle at 152 pounds, Rodriguez scored a takedown in each period and fought off a late surge from Kearney to pick up the championship.

Sophomore Issac Aguilar placed second for the Dawgs at 113 pounds. He lost to Marshfields Thaddeus Nelson, 4-0.

For 21 years, Coach Berger has been part of the Hermiston wrestling program that has won six state championships. Berger said that this tournament will be his last as the Dawgs head coach.

Its been a great run with some great kids all along, Berger said. But Im done.

Other place-winners for Hermiston were AJ Garcia (fifth at 106 pounds), CJ Dircksen (sixth at 126) and Lupe Delgado (fourth at 145).