Othello makes solid showing at state

TACOMA — Othello took six wrestlers to state and five took home medals.

"As young as our team has been this season and trying to field a team all year, I'm happy with our showing," said Othello head coach Ruben Martinez. "Four of the six kids are first timers and you never know how first timers are going to react in this atmosphere. The good news is all four will be back to wrestle next year."

Jacob Johnston finished out the weekend with the highest placing for Othello in the 215-pound weight class.

Johnston swept Sawyer Smith of Aberdeen and Blair West of Bellingham Friday to qualify for a spot in the semi-finals.

In his semi-finals bout, Johnston fell to Tim Denegar of W.F. West and moved into the consolation brackets.

Johnston swept his consolation opponents, first pinning Shay McElvain of Centralia.

Johnston finished third after beating Pat O'Sullivan of Sequim 5-2.

"Overall, we wanted to start right and we did, winning most of our first round matches Friday," said Martinez. "And we wanted to finish right and I think we did. I'm proud of the kids. They battled hard this weekend."

At 103 pounds, Jake Smith got through the first round defeating Juan Farius of Burlington Edison but fell to Sujin Kraft-Oliver of Washougal in the second round to enter the consolation brackets. Smith finished out Friday by defeating Jake Kreiglo of Hockinson to move into the placing rounds Saturday.

In the first round Saturday, Smith lost 9-2 to Drew Acorn of Deer Park but qualified to compete for seventh/eighth place.

Smith placed eighth after falling 6-3 to Chris Vandenbos of Lynden.

Reuben Lopez, wrestling at 112 pounds, defeated Michael Takemura of Bellingham in his opening match to advance Friday but lost to Dominic Sepe of Ridgefield in his second bout. Lopez finished Friday out with a win over JD Gorman of Cedarcrest.

Lopez opened Saturday with a defeat of Kenny Sanders of Ellensburg but fell to Levi Zadorozny of Deer Park in his next match. He wrestled for fifth/sixth place, losing to Sepe, whom he had lost to earlier in the tournament, 7-4.

Wrestling at 145 pounds, Jack Calvert began Mat Classic with a win over Ben Morgen of South Whidbey but was pinned in his second round bout against Tanner Weiks of Tumwater who went on to take the championship. Calvert finished Friday with a win over Jordon Flynn of Steilacoom.

Calvert wrestled for seventh/eighth place against Joel Veloni of Hoquiam and won 12-2.

At 285 pounds, Michael Carmona defeated Ryan Parsons of Tumwater in the first round Friday but fell to Steven Ayers of Sehome in the second round. Carmona finished out Friday beating Jared Rinehart of North Mason.

Saturday Carmona fell to Tervor Lowery of Black Hills but still qualified to wrestle for seventh/eighth place. He took seventh after defeating Zak Sadewasser of Washougal 3-2.

"Our goal was to place in the top 10 but I think we'll finish 11," said Martinez. "Still, we had a good tournament."

Kevin Smith, wrestling at 140 pounds, was swept in his first two rounds falling to Ricky Robbins of Tumwater and Adam Wolfe of Steilacoom.