Brackets set for regional wrestling tournaments

The Royal Knights, fresh off their district wrestling title last weekend, will host the SCAC East/Tri-Co League regional tournament Saturday.

The Knights had three champions — Abraham Medina (126), Regan Callahan (138) and Addin Felker (145) — and advance 16 to regionals.

Warden, with four district champs — Anthony Martinez (113), Rodrigo Ozuna (132), Robert Arredondo (182) and Martin Dominguez (220) — also will send 16 to the regional tournament, which gets under way at 10 a.m.

Unlike in past years where the SCAC East would meet the SCAC West in the postseason, the West now is paired with the Cascade Conference and Northwest Conference.

“It’s kind of to our benefit,” Wahluke athletic director Cody Marlow said. “We already have Royal, Warden and Connell, but now we don’t have to compete against Granger and Zillah and beat ourselves up.”

Kiona-Benton, led by three-time district champion Jaron Gunter, advanced nine to regionals, while Connell has 13, Wahluke six, River View four and Columbia-Burbank two.

As with all of the regional tournaments, the top four in each weight class advance to the state tournament next weekend in Tacoma.

4A

Sunnyside had four champions and won the Columbia Basin Big Nine district tournament. The Grizzlies will send 15 to the 4A Region III tournament Saturday at Curtis High School.

Elias Romero (120), Samuel Guerrero (106), Fabian Ortega (113) and Izaiah Gonzalez (145) all won titles for Sunnyside.

2A

Wrestlers from Prosser, Grandview and Othello are at the regional tournament Saturday in Ellensburg.

Toppenish won the CWAC district title with six individual champions and is sending 17 to regionals.

Othello, which was second in the team race, got titles from Raul Barajas (126), Reese Jones (170), TJ Martinez (195) and Isaiah Perez (220). The Huskies are sending 14 to regionals.

Grandview is sending four to regionals, while Prosser has two entrants.

Girls

The regional tournament will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Wahluke High School in Mattawa.

The tournament, which features eight-man brackets, has girls from 46 schools — some of which have just one entry.

Othello, which won the Central Washington Girls League regular-season title for the third year in a row, also won the North sub-regional title and will send 14 to regionals. Nikki Velazquez won a sub-regional title for the Huskies at 130 pounds.

“We had seven in the finals and had a bad round,” said Othello coach JJ Martinez, who was named the CWGL coach of the year. “We have depth. We hope to get nine or 10 to state and make a run at the title. If we can do our job and wrestle like we have all season, we will be right up there.”

Sunnyside has eight entrants at regionals, while Warden has seven, Hanford five and Kiona-Benton four. Defending state champion Grandview, Kamiakin, River View, Prosser and Richland all have three. Pasco and Royal are each sending two, while Connell and Columbia-Burbank each have one.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Brackets set for regional wrestling tournaments."