Huskies take 8th at Classic

SPOKANE - A top-notch tournament was the best way to see where the Othello Huskies stand as they head into the second half of the regular season.

The Huskies finished eighth (110.5 points) at the Pacific Northwest Classic at University High School on Saturday, as the hosts won the tournament with 208 points.

"I thought that we wrestled well," Othello head coach Ruben Martinez said. "We wanted to get some quality matches for our regional and state competitors and we were able to see some stiff competition."

Matt Jordan had the highest finish for the Huskies, taking second at 135-pounds before losing 8-6 in the finals to Dustin Utecht of Richland.

"Matt was right in there for the win, but relaxed for a few seconds and gave up an escape and takedown within five seconds at the end of the second period," Martinez said.  Those were costly as he lost the match by two." 

Eddie Garza (152-pounds) and Amando DeLeon (171-pounds) both captured consolation championships while Alberto Vargas (189-pounds) fell in his final.

"Eddie won many close matches and avenged his only loss to," Martinez said. "He wrestled very well, even in the loss. Amando wrestled three very good opponents and that will make him better when he is able to drop down to 160."

A.J. Barrera (103-pounds) and Joey Gomez (215-pounds) ended up with fifth-place finishes to help score pivotal points for Othello.

"We only took 12 scorers and our goal was to finish in the top half of the tournament," Martinez said. "We came in eighth out of 16 and were close to getting into the top five but needed to get a few more into the finals and needed some wins in some other weight classes. We did not score any points in four weight classes.

"We found some wrestlers that will help us in the post season," Martinez added. "They will make up for those wrestlers who we continue not to get points from in these varsity tournaments.  We have four weeks to get us ready so getting some of these extra wrestlers scoring points is very rewarding."