Clark County goes big at Pacific Coast Wrestling Championships

RIDGEFIELD — Union’s Noah Koyama and Niah Cassidy won titles at the largest Pac Coast Wrestling Championships on Friday at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds.

This year’s tournament drew 140 boys and girls teams from 78 high schools in Washington and Oregon. On Thursday, more than 2,000 matches were completed on 12 mats during the tournament’s first day. That made it the largest wrestling tournament ever held in Southwest Washington.

As for quality, it was also the best.

The 56 wrestlers who reached the championship matches included 21 state champions and eight who placed second in state.

Union’s Cassidy made sure Clark County had a local champion in the first girls tournament in Pac Coast history. She pinned Saige McCleery of Sumner in 1 minute, 46 seconds into the 130-pound championship match.

“Women’s wrestling, it’s so cool to see how much it has grown since I was a little kid,” Cassidy said. “When I was little I always had to wrestle the boys because there were no girls. Getting to wrestle a girl was a treat. Now we have full 32-women brackets in our home town.”

Cassidy placed second in the state at 125 pounds last year. The senior is undefeated so far in her quest to cap her prep career with a state title.

“I felt good,” Cassidy said. “I had a couple of tough matches in there. But I feel like it was all my mentality, going in there saying I’m going to win and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Koyama is also chasing a state title for Union after a second-place finish last year. Friday, he was in solid control throughout his 8-0 win over Ruben Rios in the 138-pound final.

Koyama, a junior, won his previous five matches in the tournament by pin or technical fall. He placed second in state last year at 132 pounds.

“This whole tournament I’ve been focusing on getting a good warmup so I can come out hot and ready,” Koyama said. “I know when I’m at my peak, I can wrestle with toughness. Not many people can beat that.”

Five boys and four girls from Clark County reached the finals.

One of the most-anticipated finals pitted two state champions in Skyview’s JJ Schoenlein and Capital’s Ezekiel McEwen.

McEwen, a senior, got a takedown late in the first period then relied on his defense to win 4-1 in the 175-pound final.

Skyview had two other finalists. Jonas DesRochers, a freshman who entered the 120-pound final 16-0, lost 10-2 to Orting’s Dominic Thomas, a state champ last season at 106 pounds.

Owen Pritchard, a state runner-up last season at 132 pounds, reached the 138-pound final but was unable to wrestle due to an injury.

Union’s Armando Nicacio reached the 165-pound final but came up short to Devan Carter of Graham-Kapowsin. The state runner-up at 160-pounds got a take down in each of the first two periods en route to a 5-0 win.

In the girls 120-pound final, Mountain View’s Kamaile Taisacan nearly got a pin in the second period but ended up losing 7-6 to Hannah Hader of Glacier Peak.

Kadence Burleson of Evergreen reached the 170-pound final but was pinned in the first period by Ryley Nager of Curtis, a reigning state champion.

Union’s Virginia Thomason capped the tournament in the 235-pound final, which Mia Cienaga won with a first-period pin.