BRUSH PRAIRIE— Clark County will be well-represented at 3A regionals.
After Kelso’s near-first place sweep last season, area schools responded by narrowing the gap on the Hilanders—but not beating them— in Saturday’s 3A district boys wrestling meet at Prairie High School.
Kelso’s six first place finishes and 12 total finalists were good enough to net the Hilanders a win at districts—though it was much narrower than last season when they won 11 of the 14 individual weights. They finished with 367 points and Mountain View wasn’t far behind with 342. The Thunder had eight finalists and three first place finishers.
Each finisher in the top three will advance to regionals next Saturday at Rogers High School in Spokane. The fourth place finisher will join as an alternate.
For the Thunder, their first place finishes came early with their lightest weight—and youngest wrestlers.
Noah Messman defeated Kelso’s Alan Luff at 106 pounds in a 10-4 decision. Messman, a freshman, used a move at the beginning to top the third-ranked wrestler in the state.
“That was huge for my confidence,” Messman said. “Now I’ve beat him I know I can beat anybody in the state.”
On the other mat was Messman’s training partner, Mountain View freshman Kevin Chen, who simultaneously finished first. He beat Prairie’s Noah Larsen in a 6-3 decision, and credited his early moves on top of Larsen as the reason he won.
“I really wanted to put the pressure onto him,” Chen said. “I think that’s one of my strongest points. Everything else in the match went well, too. I just tried my hardest, put in all my effort like my coaches were telling me.”
To Chen, a first place finish at districts is not enough. His main focus? Regionals.
So the two Thunder lightweights will be carrying the torch for the Thunder as one seeds.
“I feel like us as freshmen wanted to make an impact early and help each other throughout our high school career, keep each other up, and go out there and do our best,” Chen said.
Mountain View’s Lucas Smith defeated Connor Wood of Prairie in a 4-2 decision at 195.
Prairie finished third with 228.5 points with three finalists and one winner—Brayden Sofianos at 145.
The win at districts was a long time coming for the junior. He lots in the final match and finished second place both of the last two seasons, so when his final match against Mountain View’s Andrew Bell, he felt he needed to win.
“I just really pushed to get first. I just wanted to go out there and finally get the win, I guess,” Sofianos said.
He consulted a teammate who faced him earlier in the season, and then defeated Bell in a 2:56 fall. With the one-seed at regionals, he sees it as a fast track to a state qualification. Last year he went to state as an alternate, and “wasn’t very excited about it,” because he felt he could do better.
“This year is going to be different,” he said.
This year was also different for Hudson’s Bay. Despite two first place finishers, the Eagles finished in fifth place in the team scores.
Angel Castillo took first at 160 pounds. He defeated Kelso’s Jakob Webb, which for Castillo, he surprised himself.
“I lost to him earlier this year in a dual meet, so I just had to give it my all,” Castillo said. “I had nothing to lose. I was doing stuff I don’t normally do.”
But perhaps the biggest surprise for the Eagles came with the heavyweights.
Angel Terry, a 12-seed going into the day, ran the table and defeated Mountain View’s Alex Ferruzca in a 5:29 fall.
The shocker? It was Terry’s first-ever day wrestling competitively.
Terry decided to join the team on a whim for his senior year, since it was his last chance. But the offensive lineman weighed around 300 pounds at the end of football season, and he needed to cut weight—22 pounds to be exact.
After trying all season, he finally made weight for districts, and won every match.
“I was thinking I was going to lose to the first seed guy,” Terry said. “But if I was going to lose, I was going to go down fighting. Then I ended up winning. I was shocked.”
Castillo: “I’m surprised he made it. I knew he would do pretty good, but I didn’t know he would take first, so that’s pretty awesome. Good day for Bay.”
