Neither the Tenino or Rochester wrestling teams left Hoquiam with a league winner, but both Class 1A schools walked out of the Evergreen League Championships with several automatic qualifiers for Mat Classic XXXVI on Saturday.
Rochester finished fourth overall in the team standings with 117 points and had three in the finals. Yet Maddox King (138), Maddox Rodgers (157) and Chris Tartios (175) all finished as runners-up. Tartios gave up an escape and was called for stalling twice in a 2-0 heartbreaker.
The Warriors did have three others finish third to automatically head to Tacoma.
Tenino’s two seniors Koy Knox and Rowdie Tafoya each finished second, falling to Montesano wrestlers by bonus points. Still, first-year head coach Marucs Turnquist believes both have the potential to “be a top-three finisher” at state.
Four wrestlers for the Beavers placed fourth and will have to wrestle state pigtail matches against the fifth place finishers from the Trico next week at Montesano.
