White River the favorite on the 2A mats at Mat Classic XXX
Bob Kirkpatrick/The Sun Tribune - Othello’s Bernie Garza Jr.(top) turned in a third-place finish at the 2A Regional Boys Wrestling Tournament at East Valley High School Saturday. He looks to better his outing at the Mat Classic this weekend in Tacoma.
If the Toppenish Wildcats are to three peat as 2A state wrestling champions they are going to have to have some help taking the sting out of the White River Hornets.
Toppenish sends four regional champions and 10 qualifiers to Mat Classic XXX — the same numbers as last year’s successful combination. However, those numbers may not be enough to overcome White River’s seven regional champs and 12 qualifiers.
According to Washington Wrestling Report the top four 2A teams in order are White River, Toppenish, Orting and Wapato.
“White River is the team to beat,” Othello Huskie coach Rudy Ochoa, II said before practice on Monday. “They had a young team last year that had success and they pretty much did not graduate anybody.”
Haiden Drury (120), Kyler Romero (126), Alexi Rubio (132) and Andres Aguilera all won regional titles while Uriel Garcia (106), Isaac John (132), Keyano Zamarripa (160) and Salvador Osorio (195) all placed second for Toppenish. The Wildcats outscored East Valley of Spokane 195.5 to 136 to earn the Region IV team title. Wapato was third (120.5) and Othello placed fourth (117.5).
White River counters with regional champions Gabe Hawthrone (132), Weston Lyver (145), Nate Moore (152), Max Wheeler (160), Jack Ervein (170), Mason Sabin (182) and Ryan Redford (195). Nate Belcourt (113) and Klein Carter (152) placed second while Jared Rodarte (138) and Eric Campbell (220) finished third for the top ranked Hornets. White River outscored Orting 283 to 250 to claim top honors at the Region III tournament.
Four of the 13 Orting Cardinal qualifiers won regional titles. Conor Goucher (113), Jacob Flores (126), Alex Cruz (138) and Evan Barger (220) finished first and Chrys Cenkush (120) placed second. The Cardinals also had two third place award winners and six wrestlers who finished in fourth place. Orting has more qualifiers than the other leading contenders but does not appear to have enough finalists to compete for a team title.
The fourth ranked Wapato Wolves squad suffered through a rough regional tournament in Spokane. Returning state champions Jesus Rodriguez (120), Sergy Salas (126) and Alex Vaca (145) all lost. Rodriguez lost in the championship match 4-2 to Drury of Toppenish, Salas lost in the semi-final and came back to finish third and Vaca lost in the title match to Jake Freeman of Clarkston. Returning state champions have a way of overcoming obstacles, but the loses at regional will make the state brackets more difficult for the Wolves. Rodriquez has the third and fourth ranked wrestler on his side of the bracket at 120. Salas has third ranked Jacob Flores on his half bracket at 126 and Vaca will meet fourth ranked Weston Lyver of White River in the second match.
Othello hopes for a better result than the sixth place predicted by Washington Wrestling Report-just below Blaine and above East Valley of Spokane. Regional champions Chris Melo (106) and Isaiah Perez (285) along with third place award winner Bernie Garza, Jr. (160) and fourth place finishers Juan Martinez (145), Easton Roylance (152) and DJ Guzman (195) will represent the Huskies.
“You never know at the state tournament,” Ochoa said. “I don’t see any reason why we should not be in the mix for a fourth spot.”
Four teams medal at the state tournament and the Huskies would love to return home with some hardware.
Become a Subscriber!
You have read all of your free articles this month. Select a plan below to start your subscription today.
Already a subscriber? Login
