The Union wrestling team crowned four champions at the 4A district tournament Saturday at Prairie, but none were closer than Elijah Cassidy’s win at 145 pounds.
Knotted in a 2-2 tie with Battle Ground’s Gunnar Henderson, Cassidy got a reversal in the closing seconds for a 4-2 victory.
“I was just trying to get an escape, but I got the reversal,” Cassidy said. “I was trying for the escape. I just wanted to win. This was the first time taking districts, so yeah, I wanted it.”
Cassidy also got a win over Henderson at the Clark County Championships three weeks ago, and he hopes Saturday’s win will help propel him next week at the 4A regionals at Curtis High School in University Place.
“I’m going to train even harder so that if we meet again, the point spread will be wider,” Cassidy said. “I don’t like these close matches.”
Union also got titles from Noah Koyama (113 pounds), Dylan Dalgord (120) and Spencer Needham (126) to beat out Camas for the team title 284.5-236.5.
“I knew Camas would be looking for it; they’re a good team,” Union coach John Godinho said. “But my kids, they love the sport of wrestling. They love to compete. I told the kids it was going to be the kids who lost a match and fought their way back that were going to be the difference.”
Camas got titles from Devin Padilla (138), Andrew Webber (152) and Ameer Shaheen (285).
Skyview freshman Jon Schoenlein captured a district title at 160 pounds. The Storm also got wins from Owen Pritchard (132), Noah Cardenas (170), Lorenzo Gunn (182) and Norman Reynolds (220).
Battle Ground got wins from Garrett Hurliman (106) and Owen Wann (195).
Godinho said he was glad all the wrestlers are getting a chance to compete in the postseason, something that seemed in doubt when the county put a three-week pause on high school wrestling in December.
“That pause kind of set us back from the other areas of the state, so we have to work twice as hard,” he said. “But we had a good showing today. All of the teams had a good showing. They wrestled their hearts out and we’ll see how we do as a group at regionals next week.”
