Regional foes give wrestlers tough day
By Rhett Workman
Contributing Writer
Mount Si’s wrestling team started out strong, but ended up running into difficulty at the Best of the West tournament last week in Pasco.
The Wildcats scored 23 points, good for 25 out of 31 teams who entered. Entrants in the event came from all over the Pacific Northwest, including teams from Hermiston, Ore., and the Idaho cities of Lewiston and Nampa.
Mount Si struggled in the team event on Dec. 22, despite one victory.
The Wildcats opened the team competition Tuesday with a strong performance against the junior varsity squad from Chiawana, located in Pasco. Cody Botten (125), Chris Hindmarch (152), Lee Amador (160), Shane Dixon (171), John Farmer (189), and Erik Sorvik (215) each won their matches by pin.
Billy Beach (103), Andrew Sypher (119) and Brian Copeland (285) also won their matches for the Wildcats; Sypher’s came by pin against a wrestler from Foss of Tacoma competing with the Riverhawks squad. Bruce Stuart (130) was the only Wildcat to fall to the Chiawana team; he was beaten 17-3 in a major decision by the Riverhawks’ Jose Garcia.
Mount Si’s victory put them in a second round contest with Toppenish. It was Yakima County’s ‘Cats which dominated, 59-6.
Amador was the only Mount Si wrestler to beat a Toppenish opponent, by pinning Andre Nunez in the second round. The rest of the Valley contingent fell in their matches.
The struggles continued as the Wildcats fell to both Grandview from Yakima County and Prairie from Clark County.
In individual action Wednesday, Mount Si wrestlers once again ran into trouble, as only two of them made it into quarterfinal action. One of those, Mitch Rorem (189), didn’t compete in the team events Tuesday. Rorem punched his quarterfinal berth, beating Tyler Curtis of Grandview in a tight 6-5 decision; Rorem received a bye for the following round, sending him to the quarters, where he fell to Battle Ground’s Dean Hancock by pin in the third round.
The other, Botten (125), pinned opponents from Battle Ground and Richland to make it to the quarters, where he fell to Southridge’s (Kennewick) Blaze Larson by a 9-1 major decision.
Four Wildcats fell in the first round, but all of them – Stuart (125), Tony Corralles (145), Amador (160) and Farmer (189) – won their first consolation matches.
No other results are available.
The Wildcats will return to action after the holiday break.
