Area wrestlers advance from district, sub-regional tournaments

Several wrestlers from area high schools earned district and sub-regional wrestling titles and many others earned spots in this weekend’s regional wrestling tournaments in all classifications.

Wrestlers from Battle Ground will advance to the Class 4A regional tournament Saturday at Camas High School. Prairie will compete in the 3A regional tournament Saturday at North Thurston and wrestlers from Hockinson, Ridgefield and Woodland will move on to the 2A regional tournament at Shorecrest.

The regional girls wrestling tournament will be held Saturday in Aberdeen.

Class 4A

Battle Ground finished fourth at the 4A regional tournament held Feb. 6 at Camas High School. The Tigers had three wrestlers earn individual titles.

Joseph Hartnett claimed the district title at 120 pounds with a 15-5 decision over Evergreen’s Andrew Lonero in the finals. James “Jake’’ Rogers earned the title at 145 pounds with a 6-2 decision over Union’s J.J. Talavera in the finals. Taylor Stewart then had a hard-fought 3-2 decision over Samuel Malychewski of Camas in the finals at 170 pounds.

Battle Ground’s Chris Joner finished second at 126 pounds, losing 11-3 in the finals to Rylan Thompson of Camas. Other Tiger wrestlers moving on to regionals includes Jacob Kokinakis (2nd, 152) and Jesse Valitalo (3rd, 195).

Class 3A

Prairie finished second to Kelso at the 3A district tournament, held Feb. 6 at Kelso High School.

The Falcons had three wrestlers win district titles. Kodi Walls earned his championship at 132 pounds with a 10-3 decision over Kelso’s Jesse Nieto at 132 pounds. Prairie’s Miguel Avila finished first at 170 pounds by virtue of a pin over teammate Nick Langer in the finals. Connor Wood won the 195-pound title with a pin over Kelso’s David Perry in the 195-pound finals.

Other Falcons who earned trips to the regional tournament included Braydon Sofianos (2nd, 106), Rivers Greensky (2nd, 120), Andrew Abrahamson (4th, 126), Tristen Mings (3rd, 132), Talen Goodpaster (2nd, 138), Anthony Dancel (2nd, 145), Eric Craemer (2nd, 152), Andrew Burris (4th, 152), Ethan Burris (2nd, 160), Connor Castleberry (3rd, 182), Bryan Person (3rd, 285) and Wyatt Close (4th, 285).

Class 2A

Ridgefield earned a strong third-place finish at the 2A sub-regional tournament held Feb. 6 at Ridgefield High School. Hockinson finished fifth in the team standings and Woodland was sixth.

Ridgefield’s individual champions included Taylor Nolan (120), Trevor Newburn (126), Tommy Herz (145) and Josh Sokolowski (160).

Hockinson’s individual champions were Kai Blue (106), Colton Wheeler (170) and Cameron Loos (220). Jeff Graham (182) was Woodland’s lone individual champion.

Other Ridgefield wrestlers to qualify for the regional tournament included Dylan Draper (3rd, 106), Wyatt Gaspar (2nd, 126),

Hockinson will also be represented at the regional tournament by Richard Dyer (4th, 138) and Ryan Bishop (4th, 220).

Woodland’s regional contingent will also include Zach Miranda (3rd, 160), Jared Cloud (2nd, 195), Chandler Martin (3rd, 220) and Andrew Pottratz (2nd, 285).

Girls

Hockinson finished fifth in the team standings at the girls sub-regional tournament held Saturday at Ridgefield High School and Woodland finished sixth.

Battle Ground’s Sierra Joner claimed the individual title at 130 with a victory over Woodland’s Brooke Schimmel by injury default. Woodland’s Ashlyn Daugherty finished first at 100 pounds, pinning Washougal’s Samantha Eakins in the finals.

Other area wrestlers to advance to regionals included Woodland’s Frances Helling (4th, 100) and Ridgefield’s Savannah Chandler (3rd, 105).