State champs take down tough Othello mat squad
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin Herald - Othello 170-pounder Reese Jones works Toppenish's Salvador Osorio during his match in the first Central Washington Athletic Conference dual of the season.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin Herald - Othello's Sterling Roylance maintains his balance as Toppenish's Miguel Castellano whips him around in the 145-pound match.
OTHELLO — They grow the potatoes McDonald’s uses in its French fries in the fields all around Othello High School, and the Central Washington Athletic Conference got the full meal deal last week.
As expected, the wrestling dual match with Toppenish went down to the last man standing, with Othello needing a pin for the victory. It was not forthcoming.
The contest started at 170 pounds and wasn’t decided until the 160-pound bout. Toppenish’s Carson Northwind scored a pin in the final match, and the No. 1-ranked Wildcats held off the No. 4-ranked Huskies 39-28.
“I’m happy with our effort,” Othello coach Rudy Ochoa II said. “There’s still some things that we should be doing that we’re not. If we can keep showing the heart we had today and clean up some technical things, I think we’re going to be fine.”
Othello opened strong, leading 15-0 on pins by Bernie Garza (170) and T.J. Martinez (195), to go along with a nice little 10-5 victory by Reese Jones (182). But the match turned with a Toppenish pin at heavyweight and a tough battle at 106.
The 106-pound match was a real slugfest, ending with Othello’s Chris Melo on his back as the buzzer sounded. But the Husky junior avoided fall points in a 10-4 loss.
It was Melo’s first time at scratch weight in a lineup change that didn’t pay off in the chess match of top-ranked wrestling teams.
“That kid Melo wrestled was a really tough kid,” Ochoa II said. “He made the drop for us, and that’s just the way it worked out today.”
Jeremy Mendez gave the Huskies the lead again, 22-21, when he pinned Jason Zuniga with 40 seconds remaining in the second period in the 126-pound match. Mendez was nails with a reversal with 43 seconds left, then put Zuniga on his back to give Othello its final lead of the night.
“I like pinning guys to make sure,” the quiet-spoken Mendez said with a little smile. “I just kept working with the idea I could score points for the team. We needed six (points) and not just three at a time. So the pin was really important.”
But Toppenish came back with a major decision and a technical fall to regain the lead it would not relinquish.
Othello is young in spots, and it showed in the match with the defending Class 2A state champions. They were strong at the top of the lineup, but Martinez said they need work on finishing if they want to get where they want to go.
“Our team showed inconsistency in some of the weight classes tonight,” the Othello senior said. “I know we can do it. We have to forget all about the ‘This guy’s ranked,’ or ‘This guy’s good,’ and go out and wrestle all three periods.
“That kind of stuff is just in our heads. I thought we had a couple of wins there and put ourselves in a position to win. They were able to bump some kids up (in the lineup) and we didn’t pick it up.”