Huskies' quality keys third-place finish in 2A

TACOMA — They believed this could be a good wrestling season.

How good did it end up for the Othello Huskies? How about a third-place finish in Class 2A as Othello wrapped up one of their better performances at the Tacoma Dome in this year’s Mat Classic XXII.

The Huskies finished with 107 team points, behind champions Deer Park (150 points) and W.F. West (125.5 points).

Othello’s charge toward the top was sparked by the individual state championships of Reuben Lopez (135-pounds) and Amando DeLeon (160-pounds).

But all eight Huskies who made the trip found a way to contribute to their state title bid, recording an overall mark of 23-10.

“That is pretty good isn’t it?” Othello coach Ruben Martinez said.

What also was pretty good was Lopez’s dominant run to his crown.

As the tournament progressed, the senior seemed to grow in confidence and strength, before taking on Andrew White of W.F. West in the final.

The experience of coming in with two straight state semifinal appearances under his belt showed as Lopez took charge from the get-go en route to a 16-5 rout of White and the best early graduation gift he could have.

“I’ve been wrestling for the last 14 years and I’ve always wanted to be a state champion here as an Othello wrestler,” Lopez said. “I always had the attitude that I’m going to take it to you non-stop and come after you. I started out slow in the beginning but I kept getting better and better this weekend.”

Lopez beat Jason Donnelly (Burlington-Edison) 14-6 in the first round, pinned Chandler Rodriguez (Tumwater) in the quarterfinals, and clipped a tough Logan Huckins (Cheyney) 8-5 in the semifinals.

“He wrestled his best tournament ever and it was nice to see him finish that way,” Martinez said. “I knew White was a tough kid but when he took him down a few times I knew he would dominate him.”

About an hour later the junior DeLeon was beating his chest in triumph, pulling out a defensive 3-1 win over Joseph Zadrozny (Ridgefield) for the crown.

DeLeon went away from his more familiar offensive style and instead kept Zadrozny at bay, frustrating the Ridgefield wrestler.

“When you go up against a guy like him who is always coming at you, you could make one bad move and he’ll bum rush you,” DeLeon said. “You have to be careful with these guys. Last year I choked and it’s been bothering me ever since so I am glad to have gotten this off my chest.”

“He didn’t wrestle like he could but sometimes the other kids dictates that,” Martinez said. “It’s a state tournament and all you need is that one takedown and that’s what Amando did. He wrestled smart and didn’t give him anything. He probably had the toughest half of the bracket to win a state title and he proved himself.”

Sophomore Joey Gomez almost made it three-for-three for Othello but fell 3-1 in the 189-pound final to Tim Barron of Squalicum.

Gomez’s run to the final included a big win over Centralia’s Kole Braaten, 4-3, in the quarterfinals, and a 13-8 shootout win over Baldo Valdovinos of Quincy in the following round.

“Barron was pretty good and was good at countering but I was disappointed with his stall ride the whole match when he was on top,” Martinez said. “It’s good if you turn a guy but if you don’t it’s a stall ride. But still Joey had the tournament of his life and the quarterfinal match put him in a great position for his last two years.”

Othello received other strong performances from Matt Jordan (third at 125-pounds, 4-1 record), Eduardo Montes (fourth at 130-pounds, 3-2 record), and Gilberto Villa (seventh at 103-pounds, 3-2 record).

Eddie Garza (152-pounds) and Daniel Walker (171-pounds) did not place but each went 1-2, making it a clean sweep as each Othello wrestler recorded at least one win.

“When you get to the post season it’s a numbers game and coaches know that,” Martinez said. “If you have six or seven stud kids you can win a state title, if not, you need 10 solid kids and we were one or two kids short for a title. But, I am so proud of these kids and I was maybe more impressed with this tournament than any other. When we won state in 2004 we took 12 kids, so as a team in general it was the best competitive effort to get first place or bring a trophy home.”