Othello advances 8 to district semifinals

The Othello Huskies are in the thick of things at the District 5/6 Tournament in Ellensburg.

The Huskies advanced eight wrestlers to Saturday’s semifinals, and are sitting second in the team standings with 107 points. Toppenish leads the team race with 119.5 points, while Prosser is eighth (57.5) and Grandview 10th (11).

Top-ranked Chris Melo will take on Selah’s Andy Pimentel in the semifinals at 106 pounds, while at 113, Arturo Solorio will face Jacob Torres of Prosser for a spot in the title match.

Jaxon Rocha will wrestle Alexei Rubio of Toppenish in 132-pound semis, and at 152, Easton Roylance will take on Jose Acevedo of Wapato.

At 160, Bernie Garza Jr., who won a triple overtime thriller over Lorenzo Gonzalez of Ellensburg in the quarters, will take on Logan Candanoza of Prosser in the semifinals.

DJ Guzman, who put in just 53 seconds of work on Friday, will get a 195-pound semifinal date with Mac Laird of Ephrata, who needed just 12 seconds to pin his quarterfinal opponent.

The Huskies could see two men in the 285 finals as Isaiah Perez takes on Adrian Valdvinos of Selah in one semifinal, while Elijah Roylance will face Efrain Bedolla of Ephrata in the other.

Also for Prosser, Andrew Showman reached the 182 semifinals, where he will meet Ray Robinson of Quincy.

At 138, the Mustangs’ Matt Hudak earned a trip to the 138 semifinals with a pair of wins. He will wrestle Isaac Guillen of Wapato for a spot in the finals.

The top five will advance to the regional tournament next week at East Valley High School in Spokane.

This story was originally published February 3, 2018 at 12:43 AM with the headline "Othello advances 8 to district semifinals."