Prep wrestling: State berths were decided Saturday across region

State runner-up as a freshman and sophomore, University wrestler Cam Sorensen slipped to fifth last year.

A week ago, Sorensen lost to Bridger Beard of Central Valley in the district final.

Sorensen bounced back Saturday at the 4A regional in his home gym, topping Beard 5-2 to claim a title.

It wasn’t otherwise the best day for the Greater Spokane League, which had just nine in the finals – and four of them faced off against each other.

No. 1-ranked and defending state champ Moses Lake powered to the title with 179.5 points. CV, in third going into the finals, finished second with 133. Chiawana was third (129) and Sunnyside (118) took fourth. University was fifth (102.5).

“A little bit underperforming,” CV coach Shaun Williams said of his team. “We’ve got to grow up, we’ve got to toughen up and we’ve got to stick it out in the hard times and we didn’t.”

It was a feisty showdown between Sorensen and Beard. Both wrestlers were penalized a point each for overly aggressive actions.

Sorensen took an early 2-0 with a takedown in the first period. In the second period, Sorensen was awarded a point when Beard tried to bend one of his fingers. Bridger got an escape and trailed 3-1 going into the final period.

After choosing down, Sorensen got loose for a point. Then he was awarded another point for an infraction, and Bridger got a point later when Sorensen’s emotions got the best of him.

Sorensen was the aggressor from the start.

“This week we worked hard on how I finished my shots,” Sorensen said. “That was a big thing I had to work on. Last match against him I had three deep shots on a single leg and I couldn’t finish.”

In the semifinals, Sorensen upset No. 1-ranked Cooper McCullough of Moses Lake, pinning him in 3:02.

“After district we looked over film and trained hard,” Sorensen said. “He was taking my shots away. The work paid off.”

Now Sorensen wants to finish what he started as a freshman. He wants to end his prep career as a state champ.

If Sorensen gets to the title match, he’ll likely either see Beard or McCullough again.

“I’ve worked the past four years for this,” Sorensen said. “If I wrestle like I did this weekend I’ll be on top of the podium.”

“He wrestled really solidly,” U-Hi coach Don Owen said. “He’s really honed in right now. Those are two good kids he beat pretty soundly.”

The top four in each weight advance to state, Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

Sorensen was one of four area champs. The other three – Bryson Beard, Braedon Orrino and Zach Stratton – were three of six state qualifiers from CV.

Beard had three takedowns in a 7-3 victory at 126; Orrino had four takedowns in a 9-6 decision over Diego Castaneda of Sunnyside at 145; and Stratton, a freshman, scored an 18-3 technical fall over Bryan Krych of Lewis and Clark.

Orrino’s win was particularly satisfying because he knocked off a two-time state champ.

“I just stuck to the game plan from my coaches,” Orrino said. “I just want to wrestle like I have been all year and stay solid.”

3A: Like it did a week ago at district, Mt. Spokane rumbled over the regional field at Hanford, finishing with 248 points. Kamiakin (213) took second, Kelso (181.5) third, North Central (180) fourth and Rogers (155.5) fifth.

Eleven GSL wrestlers captured titles. Mt. Spokane, which qualified nine to state, had four – Blake Haney (106), Jake Howerton (120), Morgan Ruegsegger (160) and Jake Sanders (182).

Rogers also had four champs: Edward Smith (132), Marcus Phillips (138), Reed Johnson (195) and Timo Harter-Lupesoliai (220). The other three area champs were Clai Quintanilla of NC (120), and Bryden Uyehara (152) and TJ Trout (170) of Shadle Park.

2A: Toppenish had no difficulty winning the regional title, finishing with 229 points at West Valley. Othello (160) was second, defending state champ Clarkston (123) was third and East Valley (104) was fifth.

The Great Northern League had six champs: Dalton Port (106) and Dylan Beeler (195) of Clarkston; Logan Sundheim (138) and Trey Meyer (170) of EV; Drake Ferguson (152) of WV; and Michael Ferguson (220) of Cheney.

1A: The Northeast A dominated at the regional in Colville. So much so that the league swept all 14 individual titles.

Deer Park won the team title with 241 points, Colville (214) took second, Freeman (196) was third and Lakeside (152) was fourth.

Deer Park had three champs in Tysen Jorgensen (145), Dean Lockwood (152) and Trevor Eicher (220). Colville had the most champs with five: Trevor Morrison (106), Trent Baun (113), TJ Baun (120), Ryley Smith (170) and Zack Pieper (182).

Freeman had two champs in Sebastian Hyta (195) and heavyweight Peyton Smetana. Lakeside’s champs were Dalton Young (132) and Garrett Brown (160). Chewelah had two champs in Mathew Crise (126) and Johnathan Crise (138).

B: Host Reardan captured the title with 160.5 points, followed by Selkirk (139) and Colfax (119).

Area wrestlers took 13 of the 14 titles: Ryan Issakides (106) and Justin Chantry (120) of Selkirk; Randy Dixon (113) of Springdale; Caleb Cole (126), Colton Kuykendall (138) and Josey Anderson (182) of Reardan; Blake Phillips (170) of Republic; Ian Hunton (195) of Davenport; Chris Jones (132) and Reggie Jones (145) of Colfax; and Kaleb Hafner (160) and Jake Harrington (220) of Liberty.

Girls: Sophomore Shaelynn Mason of Lewis and Clark won a regional title at 190 pounds, beating Cassidy Ochoa of Sunnyside 6-1.

Mason was among a handful of area wrestlers who fared well.

Cassidy Freeman of Central Valley took second at 105, falling 6-3 to Viannei Perez of Grandview.

Akima Yamada of Lakeside took second at 130 in a 4-2 setback to Nikki Velazquez of Othello.

Miranda Scott of West Valley was second at 115.

Shallon Crossley of Springdale took third at 235 and Allison Harvey of LC was fourth at 170.