Seaside, Astoria, Warrenton wrestlers make it to the podium
Local wrestlers ended their seasons with a bang over the weekend in Portland at the Oregon School Activities Association state wrestling championship. Though none of them brought home a state title, multiple wrestlers from three different schools finished high up on the podium. Warrenton, Seaside and Astoria all had wrestlers finish in the top four, while the Seaside boys had a very respectable finish in the team competition.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSeaside boys lead the way
The strong season for Seaside wrestling was capped off with a 12th-place finish in the 4A boys team standings.
Seaside wrapped up the weekend with two runner-up finishes and one fourth-place finish. The Seagulls ended with 61 total points to beat rival Astoria, who finished in 18th place with 25 points.
Junior Brayden Cooley and senior Carlos Silva-Villa finished second, while junior Henry Rollins finished fourth.
Cooley improved his position from last season with a second place at the 157-pound weight class. The junior fell to top seeded Tommy Belding of La Grande in the finals by a score of 14-2. Silva-Villa wrapped up his high school wrestling career with a great run. Silva-Villa entered the state meet ranked sixth and made it all the way to the finals before losing to No. 2 seed Aidan Perkins of Pendleton by a score of 3-0. Like Cooley, he improved his position from last season. The final Seagulls wrestler on the medal stand was another junior. Rollins wrestled in the 113-pound weight class and finished fourth as he lost to Braiden Grochowsky in the third-place match.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAn Astoria junior paces the field
Beau Smith finished his junior season with a third place at 144 pounds.
Smith started off his day with a commanding 13-4 victory over Kamron Rodriguez in the first round. He then survived a thriller in the next round against Ivan Wagner of Newport, winning 1-0.
Smith would then fall to Dillan Davis of Sweet Home in the semi-finals before defeating Jackson Swanson 10-5 in the third-place match.
Warrenton sees three on the podium
Though the Warriors didn’t leave with a state champion like they did last season, the team still had three boys finish on the podium.
Devon Sturgell, Javen Zepeda and Sean Irwin all finished in the top six. Sturgell finished sixth at 190 pounds, while Zepeda and Irwin finished fourth in their respective weight classes. Zepeda finished fourth at 126 pounds and Irwin finished fourth at 190 pounds. Finley Marshall at 132 pounds and Rayce Sturgell at 120 pounds qualified for state, but did not place within the top six in Portland.
On the team side, Warrenton finished 15th out of 32 teams in the Boys 3A Division with 36.5 points. Harrisburg took the win with a total of 192 points.
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