Four Centralia Tigers reached the championship match of their respective brackets at the Black Hills Tournament over the weekend, and three won.
Benito Escalera (126), Hunter Van Der Hoff (132), and Lafel Denetclaw (144) each took home a first-place medal, while Doba Denetclaw finished second at 138.
Van Der Hoff has a tournament to remember, defeating the fifth-ranked wrestler in the state at 132 and the third-ranked wrestler at 138. Earlier in the week, he also notched a victory over the seventh-ranked wrestler at 138.
“Hunter has had a great week of wrestling,” Centralia coach Scott Phillips said. “We are also super proud of our other finalists. They had great wins as well.”
Two locals medal at Braided 64 Tournament
Both Centralia and W.F. West had wrestlers competing at the Braided 64 Tournament in Kelso over the weekend.
This year’s tournament featured more than 900 wrestlers from 103 teams from Washington, Oregon, and one from New Mexico.
The Bearcats had 13 wrestlers compete, and as a group, they finished in the top 10 at tenth.
W.F. West’s Lucy Hornby finished second at 115 pounds, winning six matches on her way to the title bout, including three over defending state medalists.
She won each of her first four matches via pin, including one over a top-4 1A wrestler from last winter, and she topped a New Mexico tournament finalist with a pin in her quarterfinal. In the semis, Hornby picked up a 11-4 win over the reigning Washington 4A runner-up.
“Absolutely a performance to be proud of,” W.F. West coach Matt Patana said.
Eight other Bearcats — Eden Hornby (120), Berkeley Varick (120), Angelina Robinson (125), Natalia Martinez (125), Kya Homan (135), Lilly Gage (145), Emma Servey (155), and Yasmin Azcunaga (170) — qualified for Day 2 of the tournament.
Eden Hornby started with back-to-back pins before dropping her third match, but she bounced back with another pair of pins. She nearly overcame an 11-0 deficit in her final match, but ran out of time in an 11-9 loss to finish 4-2.
Varick also started with two pins and later posted three more pins before ultimately falling in the seventh-place match to finish 5-2.
After a first-round bye, Robinson posted two pins to advance to Day 2, and Martinez won her first three matches to advance to the second day.
Homan went 2-2, opening with a pin before falling in her second match, and Gage and Servey both followed a similar path en route to a 2-2 tournament.
Azcunaga lost her first match but bounced back with three straight victories to finish 3-2.
Sophia Allen (110), Sierra Wood (130), and Gale Steiner (140) also picked up wins for W.F. West in the tournament.
“Tenth place out of 103 teams is an incredible accomplishment for this team,” Patana said. “Many of the brackets had nationally ranked wrestlers, defending state champions, finalists, or other places, and state level participants. Most of our girls faced off against at least one of them, and they wrestled tough each time. Each of these girls wrestled hard throughout each match and did a great job of cheering each other on through victory and defeat. We could not be more proud of these girls.”
Centralia’s Eva Reinitz also had an excellent tournament, placing seventh in her weight class.
“It takes a great couple of days of wrestling to just place at this tournament,” Phillips said. “Eva wrestled well, and we are proud of her.”
