In what could be a preview of the Evergreen Conference Championships in two months, the top-three contenders put on a show at Saturday’s Pat Alexander Memorial Invite in Tumwater. W.F. West was the team champ with 189.5 points followed by Tumwater (139) and Black Hills (136). Rochester was 10th overall.
The Bearcats had three champions in Liam Land (150-pounds), Race Scalici (157) and Graysen Serl (175). Scalici had the win of the afternoon, scoring a third period takedown to beat 3A’s No. 1 wrestler Wesley Fox of Capital in the finals.
Land and Serl dominated their way to victories with six combined bonus point wins. W.F. West’s trio of Colton Withrow (113), Seth Norby-Betts (126) and Lewis Allen (144) all rebounded from quarterfinal losses to take third.
Black Hills also had three weight class winners. Roberto Rivera-Jesus cruised with three tech falls to win at 113 while Rorek Foss had three pins and an 18-0 tech fall in the finals at 132. Cash Boos (138) needed a takedown in sudden victory to win 13-0 in the semis and upended Centralia’s Dobah Denetclaw 15-7 in the finals.
The Wolves also saw Caleb Stuckert (150) and JJ Oraya (190) each finish fourth.
Tumwater’s Antonio Hernandez (106) and Kyson Sayamnet (165) coasted to victories. Hernandez wrestled twice, but posted tech fall wins of 15-0 and 17-2, while Sayament recorded four pins.
Alejandro Concepcion (138) lost in the first round for the T-Birds, but rattled off five straight wins to place third. Adnan Elyvy (113) took fourth.
Elsewhere, Mossyrock had a finalist in 215-pounder Kyle Brockway, but he lost and finished second. Atrayewe Brown (132) secured fourth place for the Vikings.
Adna’s Alex Richards (120), Rochester’s Maddox Rodgers (165) and Onalaska’s Steven Gomes (175) all dropped first round bouts before responding on the backside to each garner top-four placements.
Tigers get three on the podium at Hammerhead
The Centralia High School boys wrestling team got tested on Saturday at the always-loaded Hammerhead Invite in Bremerton and a trio of guys earned some hardware.
Benito Escalera lost in the third round at 126-pounds before going on a run that featured two medical forfeits, two pins and two major decisions. The Onalaska transfer is now 14-1 on the season.
At 138, Hunter Van Der Hoeff got to the quarterfinals before losing 8-5. Still, he pulled out a couple close matches – one at 11-10 and the other on SV-1 8-5 – on the backside and capped his third place finish with a pin.
The farthest Centralia wrestler was Lafel Dentclaw, getting to the semis thanks to a pair of major decisions. He lost by tech fall 16-1 in the semis and eventually settled for sixth place after medically forfeiting the medal match.
Pe Ell’s Harris clutches up to win weight class
It took some third period magic for the Trojans’ Hunter Harris to reach the finals before settling in for the third period fall to secure the 215-pound title at Saturday’s Grays Harbor Championships in Aberdeen.
Harris led 7-1 after the first two minutes in the quarters, but kept getting penalty points against him in the second to see the margin dwindle. A takedown midway through the third kept him afloat. In the semis, he notched two third period takedowns to hold on.
Pe Ell, sixth in the team race with 72 points, saw Ethan Faulkner (144) and Blake Burnett (190) lose in the semis, but win two consecutive matches to take third.
Napavine’s Tommy Deebach claimed the title at 190 behind three first period pins while Hunter Hipp (138) and Kaden Knudsvig (150) placed in the top-four.
Tenino had one finalist in Jaxon Johnson (215) while Gavin Maurer (175) took third.
Quartet of Mountaineers win round robin tourney
The Rainier High School boys wrestling team had multiple top-four finishers to total 110 points to finish as the runner-up at Saturday’s Down River Challenge in Cathlamet. Wahkiakum clipped the former C2BL rival by a point.
In a round robin format, Rainier’s Tanner Dow (132/138), Wyatt Cughan (150/157), Dominic Cano (190) and Blake Roberts (285) all placed first. Cano had the least amount of matches with two while Cughan pinned teammate Keagin Howell in 11 seconds for the win.
Tyson Mahan (120/126) joined Howell as second place finishers. Four other Mountaineers won at least one match.
Winlock had two weight class winners in Tanner Frasier (175) and Jacob Chilson (215). Those two combined for four pins on the day. Mason Lippincott (285) placed second with two victories plus Kyle Rogers (120/126) and Trystan Blair (132/138) also had two wins.
