Jordan's title keys Othello

TACOMA - In the end this is still the Othello Huskies.

What that means is expected greatness and after Mat Classic XXIII, the Huskies remain amongst the elite.

This weekend Othello would finished sixth in Class 2A with 82. 5 points but drop three spots from last year's third-place result.

They did however get to celebrate the individual title of Matt Jordan at 135 pounds and the runner-up finish for Joey Gomez at 189 pounds.

"We brought seven kids and we hoped to get five to place and that's pretty good," Othello head coach Ruben Martinez said. "We got a state champion, a second, a third, and a fourth so that's definitely not so bad."

In the finals against Quincy's Manny Ybarra, Jordan scored the first take down to lead 2-0 in the first period and the two would exchange leads before heading into the final two minutes tied at 5-5.

Ybarra held onto Jordan for the first minute of the third period trying to maneuver into a scoring position but the Huskie held fast and eventually scored an escape to take the 6-5 lead.

From there he held off Ybarra's intense attempts to land a shot and Jordan's defense made all the difference in the 6-5 win.

"It was the first take down because every time Manny beat me he got that first take down," Jordan said of his early lead. "We were both better conditioned than it showed but the nerves take so much out of you. After the first 30 seconds I felt totally gassed. We both felt that way."

Jordan knew going in that the dual's history of close matches would be a foreshadowing of their final match against one another, which would also be for the greatest prize.

"We both knew it could go either way," Jordan said. "That's another thing I was thinking about. I wish it could be different for him at a different weight. Just not different for me."

The tough as beef jerky Jordan rolled into the semifinals with two resounding pin victories on Friday and set the table for a showdown with Bellingham's Andrew Peterson on Saturday morning. Jordan took control early and held of Peterson often to win the semifinal, 4-0.

"You don't get in the finals and place three years in a row if the kid's not legit," Martinez said of Jordan "We were actually trying to decide to wrestle him at 140 or 135 a few weeks ago and I wanted him at 135 and he later realized it was the right call."

"We knew it was going to be close all the way," Martinez said. ""We were just glad to get the first take down. We were able to get away when we needed to and hold him off at the end. Manny is a class act its just too bad he had to lose."

Gomez, who was also a runner-up in 2010, outscored his first two opponents 25-2, including a technical fall to move into the semifinals for a match up with Port Angeles' Nathan Cristion. He would win that match 7-4 before running into Easton Hargrave of Tumwater in the finals.

Hargrave was the more aggressive and technically proficient wrestler of the two and rolled to a 16-3 title match win.

"We had never seen that kid because we aren't able to see those kids on this side of the mountain," Martinez said. "We knew he was legit and he wrestled really tough."

Defending his title at 160 pounds, senior Amando DeLeon found his form in Tacoma after bouts of up and down performances this season and came out strong from the first whistle.

He recorded a third period pin of Andy Ricks of North Mason in his opener and then held on to win a grueling 2-0 decision over Burlington-Edison's Kyle Reijm to set up his semifinal with Riley Prentice of Tumwater.

However, DeLeon's dreams of a double title resume came crashing down in a defensive, 1-0 loss. He would ultimately finish fourth.

"Amando and Joey both came in a little heavy from football and weren't able to compete at their weights all year long," Martinez said.

Othello's Eddie Garza, who has been one of Othello's more consistent wrestlers all year advanced into the semifinals with a 16-4 win and followed that up with a first period pin win in the quarterfinal on Friday.

In Saturday's semifinal with Eatonville's Zach Schrader, Garza battled hard but fell 7-5 before wrapping up third place later that afternoon.

Junior Stephen Villarreal ended his first day with a quarterfinal loss but stayed alive in the consolation round with an 8-4 win to set up a loser out match with Ephrata's Deion Ducksworth the next morning. Ducksworth won that match 14-4, eliminating the Huskie.

Sophomore Anthony Barrera went 1-2 at 103 pounds as did Alberto Vargas (189 pounds) on day one, failing to advance to Saturday's action.

"We thought around Christmas that we could get the kids at the right weight class and some of the kids that were hurt to be ready," "But we had one kid have surgery, another kid quit, and so you can't always prepare for that. But I am proud of these kids. We went with what we had and we did a good job."