The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

The Clark County Wrestling Championship are one of the more unique events on the high school schedule each year.

Often imitated, but never really duplicated, the Clark County Championship has been going strong of 39 years.

Organizers in other sports have attempted over the years to have a similar event to this one. But none have been able to maintain their format as a true county championship, bringing together programs from 15 high schools in the county.

And it doesn’t matter what classification your school competes in or what your school’s enrollment is, wrestlers from different schools go head to head for the honor of being the county’s best.

And while its a high honor to be crowned county champion if you’re from a 4A school, there’s something extra special for an athlete from a smaller school to accomplish the feat.

On Saturday at Skyview, two wrestlers from La Center, a Class 1A school, accomplished the feat — Patrick Mayolo and Jake Johnson. And both had to go to overtime in the championship match.

And there were a pair of 2A champions — Jake Kreglo of Hockinson and Chism King of Washougal.

It kind of makes you wish there were a state tournament that followed a similar format — wrestlers from all classifications competing for a true state championship.

Or what about state tournament for dual matches?

Results in a tournament like these often differ from dual matches because tournaments tend to benefit teams who have a good number of elite wrestlers who can advance deep into the bracket. It also benefits teams with depth, particularly at a given weight.

You’ll notice that Evergreen placed behind Heritage and Battle Ground in Saturday’s final standings. Yet the Plainsmen have dual wins over Heritage and Battle Ground.

Evergreen takes its 3-0 record in the Class 4A Greater St. Helens League into Kelso Tuesday against the unbeaten Hilanders. It figures that the winner takes the 4A GSHL dual-meet championship.

More Wednesday

OK, before you send any angry e-mail or phone calls Paul Valencia’s way about the Clark County girls wrestling tournament, let me say that he is planning on following up on the girls event as part of Wednesday’s prep page in The Columbian.

This year was the first the girls have had their own brackets as part of the this tournament.

If you can’t wait until Wednesday or you just want to read more about the boys tournament, go to The Columbian’s high school sports blog at www.columbian.com/preps.

Other key events

This week’s prep schedule is a bit shorter than normal. That’s due in part to today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday, with most area schools taking the day off and most teams also taking the day off.

Basketball teams in the 4A and 2A GSHLs, as well as the 1A Trico League will play only one game each this week, with games set for Thursday or Friday.

However, 3A GSHL teams will keep to the two-game schedule this week, with games Tuesday and then Thursday or Friday.

And it could a pivotal two games for the Columbia River boys.

The Chieftains, the defending league champion and favored by some to win again, opened league play last week with two losses.

This week, River must face Camas (2-0) at home on Tuesday before playing at Hudson’s Bay on Thursday.

Prairie faces a similar predicament, taking an 0-2 mark into road games at Fort Vancouver and Camas.

It would be surprising to see either of these teams finish the week with a 2-2 mark. It would also not be all that shocking to see one finish the week 0-4.

Saturday’s schedule has a couple of notable events.

Stevenson High School is hosting the Gorge Invitational. Wrestlers from Camas, Prairie, Hudson’s Bay and Washougal are expected to compete.

Meanwhile, Fort Vancouver, Woodland and La Center will send wrestlers to the annual Rubber Chicken Tournament in Kalama.

And swimmers for all programs in Southwest Washington will take part in the Southwest Washington Invitational at Mark Morris High School in Longview.

Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor for The Columbian. He can be reached by phone at 735-4538 or e-mail at tim.martinez@columbian.com

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