Pasco emerges with 3 champions at Winter Cup

The Pasco Bulldogs, led by a group of underclassmen, crowned three champions and finished second in the team standings Saturday at the Hanford Winter Cup.

“They did OK,” Pasco coach Jay Covington said. “We came up short a few with a few guys. We just have to get a little tougher in the room and get some confidence in them. We were supposed to go to Pac Coast (at Mountain View), but that got canceled. Dom (Duncan, Hanford coach) let us in and we got to wrestle some good matches. I’m proud of the boys. It was a team effort.”

Sunnyside won the team title with 216.5 points, followed by Pasco (198.5), Kamiakin (183), Chiawana (163), Southridge (147) and host Hanford (136) tied for sixth with Granger.

Pasco sophomore Isaiah Gonzalez earned the Bulldogs’ first title, beating cross-town rival Morgan McFee of Chiawana 4-2 at 138 pounds.

“Isaiah is looking for tough matches and got some here,” Covington said. “It’s nice to get out of the room and come over here and wrestle. And, it was good for us to see Sunnyside. We don’t get to wrestle them much anymore.”

Junior Elijah Tovar picked up a title at 195 for the Bulldogs, rallying to beat Southridge’s Eric Stayrook, who had a 4-2 lead going into the third round.

With Stayrook taking the bottom position to start the round, Tovar was able to get him turned and registered a pin at the 4:51 mark of the match.

Freshman Eric Correa finished the championship run for Pasco, pinning Angel Roman of Granger in 4:56. Of his four matches on the day, Correa won three by fall.

Pasco heavyweight Davion Pruitt finished third, winning by injury default over teammate Anthony Cortez.

Pruitt lost his semifinal match to Sunnyside’s Jector Ramirez, getting picked up, tossed to the mat and pinned in the second round.

Ramirez went on to win the 285-pound title, pinning Walla Walla’s Tristan Larkin in the third round. But there was no earth-shattering throws in that match.

“I have been working on that move so I could use it on an opponent,” Ramirez said of his manhandling of Pruitt. “I couldn’t do it on the next guy. He was built more like me and I couldn’t get my arms around him.”

Ramirez finished the day with four pins and ran his record to 18-3.

“I like coming to these tournaments and wrestling guys we don’t normally see,” Ramirez said.

Kamiakin placed four guys in the finals, but only came away with one champion — Sione Halo at 160.

Halo met up with good friend and Southridge Sun Mikael Failor in the finals, staging a rematch of their Mid-Columbia Conference dual a couple of weeks ago, that was won by Halo.

Halo opened up a 5-3 lead after two periods, and after Failor pulled ahead at 6-5 in the third, Halo maneuvered an escape and a takedown in the final 2 seconds for a 9-5 victory.

Failor defeated Josiah Rodriguez of Sunnyside 4-3 to advance to the finals. Rodriguez is the defending 4A state champion at 132 pounds.

“We had a decent showing,” Braves coach Jordan Anderson said. “We had one champion, we had hoped for better. That’s why we are here, to get these good matches. Everyone is starting to get healthy and we need to get our weight down for Gut Check next week.”

Kamiakin’s Austin Almaguer lost a 3-2 decision to Wapato’s Sergy Salas at 132, while Joey Chavez was second at 145, losing a 2-0 match to Juan Isirodia of Granger. At 182, Jacob Olson lost a 7-5 decision to Carson Northwind of Toppenish, who was fourth at the 2A state tournament last year at 160.

The Suns also had four in the finals. Along with Failor and Stayrook, Mark Meier (170) and Yuriy Slutskiy (220) each placed second.

It was the first time wrestling at 220 for Slutskiy, who normally fills the heavyweight slot. But with Atsamaz Pliev not available, Slutskiy slimmed down a couple of pounds and earned his way to the finals with a pin and a decision.

In the 220-pound championship match, Slutskiy met Hanford’s Jonathan Burt, who pinned Kamiakin’s Luke Eskelsen in the semifinals.

Burt took control of the match from the beginning before pinning Slutskiy at 3:14 of the second round.

“Wrestling him was unexpected,” said Burt, who won in his first appearance at the Winter Cup. “He was fun to wrestle, and he was strong. I used a head and arm so I could stay on top and not have to get under his weight. I knew if I loosened up even a little, he’d get out. If I was down, he’d ride me until I broke down, then he’d turn me.”

Chiawana took home two gold medals on the day, getting titles from sophomores Riley Cissne at 152 and Robby Vaughn at 126.

Cissne pinned Edwin Romero of Walla Walla in 3:04 while Vaughn earned a hard-fought, 1-0 victory over Jesus Rodriguez of Wapato.

“He was a good kid,” Cissne said of his opponent. “I knew I could beat him if I wrestled my match. I was confident going in. If I pushed the pace, I knew I could gas him out.”

This story was originally published December 30, 2017 at 10:08 PM with the headline "Pasco emerges with 3 champions at Winter Cup."