Sunnyside’s Depth Keys District Aa Win
The more wrestlers a given team has left at the end of a tournament, the better the team’s chances of finishing well.
The Sunnyside Grizzlies used that theory in capturing the District IV AA wrestling title at Riverside High School Saturday night.
Sunnyside wrestlers captured three championships, two thirds, a fourth and a fifth to qualify six seeds for state and edge Eastmont 111-95. Prosser was third at 88.5 and Toppenish fourth with 87.5.
The highest any Frontier League team finished was Clarkston at seventh with 74.5. East Valley (Spokane) was ninth with 55 followed by Colville with 53 points.
Mat Classic VIII is Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
Winning titles for Sunnyside were defending regional champion Jorge Ruiz (101 pounds), Paul Mendoza (108) and Adrian Martinez, who beat defending regional champion Marcus Mays of Ellensburg in a thrilling overtime match at 115 pounds.
“These guys have been doing it all year for us,” Sunnyside coach George Paulus said. “All three are district champs.”
Toppenish and Selah also were able to get six wrestlers to state while Eastmont will send five.
Clarkston leads the Frontier League with four seeds followed by East Valley with three.
The Frontier League was able to produce two champions, though. Jeremiah Divis of Colville captured his second straight regional crown at 129 pounds and Cory Thivierge of Clarkston won at 178 pounds.
Divis, the No. 1 seed from districts, got a two-point near fall with 40 seconds left to edge Quinton Chapman of East Valley (Spokane) 7-6 in a rematch of the district tournament championship. Divis won that match 12-1.
“I was a little overconfident and he wanted it more,” Divis said.
Thivierge, who had won his previous matches 13-5 and 16-1, found himself up only 2-1 on Manuel Tello of Wapato after the first period. But an escape and a takedown in the second period opened up a 5-1 lead that Thivierge would ride to the end.
“I didn’t know how good of wrestler he was,” Thivierge said. “I decided to turn it around by going after him instead of letting him come after me.”
Defending state champion Benjy Villarreal of Othello put himself in position for another state crown at 122 pounds by beating Shaine Jaime of Wapato, third at state last year, 7-3 in the championship.
Other champions included Arthur Plata of Prosser (141), Jason Robillard of Grandview (148), Alan Pace of Ellensburg (158), Luke Ellis of Prosser (168), Ricky Rico of West Valley (Yakima) (190), Beau Van Winkle of Eastmont (215) and Ricardo Moore of Hanford (275).
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