Houk Has ‘Great Day’
Inland Empire Classic
Rogers wrestler Ben Houk found himself in the same Inland Empire Classic weight class with a state champion and runner-up.
By the end of the two-day tournament at Central Valley High School, the 108-pound champion found himself being named its outstanding wrestler.
Houk defeated East Valley’s John Sommer in the semifinals 3-2 and dominated Moses Lake’s Jaime Garza 10-2 to earn the honor.
It was a tough weight class. Garza and Sommer had finished 1-2 last February in the State 3A tournament. Houk, second in regional 4A competition, went unplaced at state.
He said Sommer, who has a similar style, is the tougher of the two to wrestle. That win gave him confidence against Garza.
“This was a great day, a great day,” Houk said.
In a team title surprise, East Valley - with only four returnees from last year’s State 3A runners-up - won in a tight three-way battle.
The Knights scored 181.5 points to Wenatchee’s 178. University, which had four individual champions, finished third with 174. Mead was fourth at 151.
The Knights had two finalists, six wrestlers vying for third and fourth and two others wrestling for fifth. They won no titles and only three matches during the day’s final round, but had enough early points to withstand the surge of Wenatchee and U-Hi.
The decider was Matt Jolley’s pin for third place at 190 pounds.
Knights coach Craig Hanson was stunned and delighted with his young team’s showing.
“We were not in it to win, but to make our best performances and see what we need to work on,” he said. “This is amazing.”
Despite finishing third, University had the best overall finals performance.
Going against three of five Moses Lake finalists head-to-head, Tommy Owen won at 115 pounds and Conor Jordan won at 141. Then Ben Osborn rallied in the final 14 seconds with a granby cradle for four points and a 5-2 triumph at 148.
He said he didn’t have enough time to escape for a tie.
“I knew the granby would work on either side,” he said. “It gets my emotion going.”
Reggie Lee filled out U-Hi’s title quartet with a win at 168. But the titles and four other top-six efforts weren’t enough to catch EV.
“Everyone likes to win,” said Titans coach Don Owen. “The bottom line is our top-end kids all did well today.”
Wenatchee and Mead also had 10 top-six placers to finish second and fourth in team scoring. Moses Lake won only one title in five tries.
Spokane wrestlers won 10 of 14 championships. Other winners were Zach Willis of North Central at 101, Jesse McCarty of Mead at 135, Blair Alderman of CV at 178, and Ferris teammates Aaron Sedler, at 215, and Don Durham, at 275.