Huskies place first at Leonard Schutte tournament

OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies returned to their home mat on Saturday for the 25th Leonard Schutte tournament, where the Huskies hosted numerous teams from around the Basin and Eastern Washington.

“The energy felt good, it was nice to see some good quality matches early in the tournament,” Othello Head Coach Rudy Ochoa II said. “We had some pretty tough competition early in the brackets that we were excited about.”

Othello finished atop the tournament with a score of 233 points, 66.5 points more than the second-place finishing Ellensburg.

“It was awesome to see them get on the podium and see them take pictures at our home tournament,” Ochoa said. “A lot of times, for many reasons, it’s hard for families and friends to get to the tournaments that we go to, just with busy schedules and weather. So, when they’re right here and you see them on that podium all excited about their medals, it feels good.”

With weather concerns the week leading up to Saturday, Ochoa said that the tournament went from a small tournament to a large tournament, then down to a medium-sized tournament in terms of participating teams.

“It’s the 25th year, so we’re excited about that,” Ochoa said. “It was kind of a roller coaster of emotions the whole week leading up to it just because of the weather we’ve had. We had some teams that were coming from the west side and then couldn’t come due to (road conditions).”

Ochoa said the Huskies were ready to get back on the mat in front of their home crowd after Thursday’s dual against Selah, where the team “felt a little flat.” Throughout Saturday, wrestlers paid close attention to standings and cheered on their teammates during matches.

“It feels really good, it’s just fun seeing the boys throughout the tournament asking us about team scores or checking in on team scores to see where we’re at,” Ochoa said. “They were definitely into it all weekend. It’s good to know they’re paying attention, that they care about team scores and that they’re excited about being towards the top of these first two tournaments.”

Othello had 13 wrestlers place on Saturday; Isaac Campos (113), champion; Mason Russell (120), third place; Daniel Gonzalez (120), second place; Anthony Abundiz (132), third place; Forrest Roylance (138), second place; Adriel Flores (138), third place; Camilo Mendez III (152), second place; Jeremiah Flores (160), second place; Jesus Gonzalez (170), third place; Brandon Garza (195), second place; Jaxon Gomez (195), fourth place; Josue Solorio (220), champion; and Terrill Freeman (220), third place.

After Campos was awarded a sportsmanship award in last week’s Bob Mars tournament in Kennewick, Othello senior Andres Deleon Jr. received the sportsmanship award at Saturday’s tournament for persevering through a broken nose suffered in a quarterfinals match.

“We were really excited for him to have a chance to hopefully make the finals in his final tournament as a senior, and between the athletic trainer, parents and myself, we decided it’s not in his best interest (to continue),” Ochoa said. “Just the severity of the injury… but what’s cool about that is the coaches vote, one of our awards is the sportsmanship award, and he actually got voted (the award) by all the coaches in the tournament.”

Two other teams from the Central Washington Athletic Conference, Ellensburg and Selah, were present for Saturday’s tournament as well as teams from the Greater Spokane League. Ochoa said wrestling against these teams early in the season will help when it comes time for regionals.

“Those four teams, there’s a lot of people at these weight classes that it’s going to be a meat grinder of a regional tournament,” Ochoa said. “We have a point of reference for later on in the year.”

Ochoa credited Tournament Director Randy Miller and Othello school officials for assisting in putting the tournament on despite weather concerns. Next up for Othello is Tri-State, hosted in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho this weekend.

“We’re really excited for Tri-State; it’s a tough tournament,” Ochoa said. “We get to see teams from all over the northwest, it’s a good stepping stone.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Local team scores:

Othello: first place (233 points)

Royal: 11th place (55 points)

Quincy: 12th place (27 points)

Moses Lake JV: 13th place (22 points)