Four Warrior wrestlers advance
Christian Fabela scores two points before pinning Abraham Medina of Royal in the first round. Medina came back in the third-place match to stop Fabela by technical fall.
Christopher Lara starts to roll a boy from Connell onto his back for a pin during the first round. He finished second and advanced to regionals.
MATTAWA - Four boys from Wahluke High School placed at the SCAC District Wrestling Tournament and will advance to the regional meet at Kiona-Benton this Saturday.
Wahluke qualified boys at 126 pounds, 132, 152 and 220. Weigh-in this Saturday will start at 9 a.m. Competition will start at 11 a.m. The wrestlers will be vying for one of four berths per weight class in the state tournament a week later.
The leading efforts at district were turned in by Christopher Lara and Reyes Ramirez. Lara finished second at 132 pounds. Ramirez took second at 220. Francisco Tapia took third at 152, and Christian Fabela finished fourth at 126.
"It was one of the best days of all in this wrestling season to see how my athletes wrestled," coach Rigoberto Jimenez said. "Christopher and Francisco completed with hearts of champions, and they competed in the finals.
"Reyes worked very hard early in the morning to cut weight and competed like a warrior and beat his opponent from Connell to take third place. Christian wrestled very very smart in his first match, pinning his opponent from Royal in the second round."
Fabela got to fourth place by defeating Abraham Medina of Royal and Garrett Mitchell of Ki-Be in preliminary rounds. He faltered in the third place match and suffered a reversal of fortunes at the hands of Medina, 15-0. He had pinned Medina earlier.
Lara captured third place by defeating Own Hokansen of Connell with a pin in 1:03 and pinning Addin Felker of Royal in 3:00. He dropped the title match to Trevor Medlock of Burbank, 16-0.
Tapia took a similar route to second place. He pinned Gerardo Santo of Royal in 2:48 and Branden Chavez of Connell in 3:57. He dropped the title match, 14-5, to Isaiah Calloway of Ki-Be.
At 200, Ramirez had to come back from a semifinals pin by Seer Deines of Connell to capture third. He pinned Caleb Schroeder of Burbank in 4:23 to advance to regionals.
Team-wise Saturday was a tough day for the Warriors. With 75 points they finished sixth among six teams.