Three Wahluke Warrior wrestlers place at Ironman
Ted Escobar/The Sun Tribune From left, Erick Valdovinos, Juan Silva and Christian Barajas were Wahluke High School’s placers at the Tony Saldivar Memorial Wrestling Tournament in Granger.
MATTAWA — Three Wahluke boys placed Saturday at the tough Tony Saldivar Memorial Tournament at Granger Saturday, strengthening coach John Ellsworth’s confidence that his program is improving.
This tournament includes the always tough Granger and Zillah squads and other top programs in central Washington.
Granger won, Zillah took second and Wahluke edged out five teams in the 13-team invitational.
The very good news for Wahluke was that every boy (full team) who competed won at least one match, scoring team points.
The top placer for Wahluke was Erick Valdovinos, second at 145 pounds. He was edged out for the title by Franky Almaguer, part of Granger’s first family of wrestling.
Christian Barajas took third place at 182 pounds, and Juan Silva finished fifth at 160.
“The team has had an awesome start,” Ellsworth said. “We have a large number of first-time wrestlers, but they are all hard workers, and every wrestler today had at least one win. “They all made me very proud with their technique and focus.”
Ellsworth has 36 wrestlers turning out. He believes several of them will make it as far as regionals and five or six could make it to state.