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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 2019)
A8 THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, dEcEmbER 26, 2019 CONTACT US FOLLOW US Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Warrenton Wrestling The Warrenton wrestling team following another first place tournament showing. WARRENTON WINS THE DOWN RIVER CHALLENGE By GARY HENLEY The Astorian T he Warrenton wrestling team con- tinues to pick up the first place tournament trophies, as the War- riors — for the second weekend in a row — won another regional tournament. The team standings were closer this time, but Warrenton’s 179 points were good enough to win the annual Down River Challenge, hosted by Wahkiakum High School. Kalama placed second with 176.5 points, with White Salmon (109) a distant third. Most of the 15 competing schools were from Washington, with Clatskanie placing fifth and Knappa 13th. “The tournament lead kept bouncing back and forth between Kalama and War- renton through the semifinals,” said War- renton coach Corey Conant. “We had not secured the team win until Nic Pior picked up a fall in the 145 final. Every win, pin and point mattered. It was a total team effort.” The Warriors had two individual cham- pions, the lightest weight at 132 pounds, where Parker Greenawald won four matches to rack up 25 team points. In the final, Greenawald pinned Napavine’s Dusty Thayer in 4:39. Greenawald reached the championship with a quarterfinal win over Jesus Reyes of R.A. Long (a 16-2 major decision), and a 7-4 decision over Knappa’s Robert Piña-Morton in the semifinals. ‘WE HAd NOT SEcuREd THE TEAm WIN uNTIL NIc PIOR PIcKEd uP A FALL IN THE 145 FINAL. EVERy WIN, PIN ANd POINT mATTEREd. IT WAS A TOTAL TEAm EFFORT.’ Warrenton coach Corey Conant Pior only had to wrestle twice to win the title at 145. After byes in the first two rounds, he pinned Tristan Ridley of Adna in 2:01, then scored a fall (3:13) over White Salmon’s Jack Kelly in the championship match. Other Warrenton placers included Aus- tin Atwood, second at 120. He won quar- terfinal and semifinal matches over Clats- kanie’s Ernesto Rojas and Raymond’s Max Crow to reach the final. Kalama’s Chase Staup scored a 7-1 decision over Atwood in the championship match. Sam Irwin was second at 195, where the junior pinned Gage Grigsby of Ocosta in 1:00 in the quarterfinals, followed by a hard-fought 6-5 decision over Raymond’s Chase Flynn in the semifinals. Adna’s Lucas Ashley posted a major decision (11-2) over Irwin in the title bout. Adding big points for the Warriors: Aricin Rodriguez was third at 113, where he won by fall (1:27) over Clats- kanie’s Austin Hahn in the third-place match. Armin Rodriguez added a third place finish at 138, pinning three of his four opponents, including a fall (1:07) over Gavin Hart of Mark Morris in the third place match. Alex Tapia scored a third-place finish at 160, wrestling five matches capped by a pin (4:42) over Wahkiakum’s Gabriel Moon in the consolation final. Elsewhere, Warrenton had fourth-place finishes for Julien Whitsett (126), James Mickelson (152) and Joshua Niehuser (170). Lady Warriors 11th Also over the weekend, the Warren- ton girls wrestling team took on some big school powers, and placed 11th out of 29 schools in the Liberty Invitational in Hillsboro. Century won the team title with 125 points, followed by Scappoose, Hillsboro, Centennial and Forest Grove to complete the top five. Warrenton was the smallest school in the field. Some fourth place finishers for the War- riors included Alejandra Nestor at 100 pounds, Divine Godwin (125) and Marlie Annat (145). Corey Conant The Down River Challenge trophy. Seahawks facing desperation with running back losses By TIM BOOTH Associated Press RENTON, Wash. — For a team headed to the playoffs already with 11 victories and still with a shot at the No. 1 seed in the NFC, the Seat- tle Seahawks are in unexpected des- peration mode. In the past 15 days, the Seahawks lost their top three running backs and their best offensive lineman to inju- ries. The foundation of what Seattle wants to be on offense — predicated by a successful run game — has been decimated. Running backs Chris Carson (hip), Rashaad Penny (knee) and C.J. Prosise (arm) are all done for the year. Carson and Prosise were injured in Sunday’s 27-13 loss to Ari- zona. Penny suffered a torn ACL on his only play of the Week 14 loss to the Rams. So yes, this is a bit of a crisis for the playoff-bound Seahawks. Their need is such that Seattle brought back Marshawn Lynch out of retirement to play this week in the NFC West championship matchup with San Francisco. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday that a reunion with Lynch was possible, and the deal was finalized Monday UP NEXT: SEAHAWKS • San Francisco 49ers (12-3) at Seattle Seahawks (11-4) • Sunday, 5:20 p.m. TV: NBC Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson slides to avoid a tackle by Arizona Cardinals linebacker Chandler Jones, right, during the first half of an NFL football game on Sunday in Seattle. night, Lynch’s agent confirmed on Twitter. “I’m hoping for him. He will have a blast playing with this team. He loves this city and he loves playing here and would love to contribute in a way. He may have a chance here,” Carroll said Monday. Seattle has just one healthy run- ning back on its roster who has been with the team all season in rookie sixth-rounder Travis Homer. And in another blow, left tackle Duane Brown underwent minor knee sur- gery on Monday and won’t be back for a few weeks. While adding Lynch grabs head- lines and should provide a jolt to a reeling locker room, the reality is it might not matter who runs the ball for Seattle if there isn’t blocking up front. The loss of Brown is a major blow. It was highlighted when Chan- dler Jones overwhelmed Jamarco Jones, Brown’s replacement, on his way to four sacks on Sunday. At one point in Sunday’s loss, the Sea- hawks were without three of their starting linemen from the beginning of the season — center Justin Britt, left guard Mike Iupati and Brown — not to mention starting tight end Will Dissly. Iupati may be in question for the San Francisco game because of a stinger. “It’s a tough sport we play. Guys go down. You just want to keep it moving sometimes when the guys come in or not. You got to be able to change it up,” Jones said. “Like I said, everybody just has to get back to the basics. We have a big game this upcoming weekend. We’ll be fine.” Carroll’s overwhelming opti- mism was evident in the immedi- ate aftermath of Sunday’s loss. Car- roll’s belief is that Seattle will be able to flush the loss to the Cardinals and consider that performance an out- lier. History helps back up his belief. Since Russell Wilson took over as quarterback in 2012, Seattle is 31-7 in the game following a regular-sea- son loss. Seattle’s run defense has been excellent shutting down some very good running attacks this season. It was not able to keep Arizona’s Ken- yan Drake under control. Drake rushed for 166 yards and two touch- downs. While 80 of those yards came on one run, it was the other 86 yards — many coming in key situations — that were more troubling for Seattle. The 166 yards rushing were the most allowed to one player this season by Seattle and the 253 total yards rush- ing allowed were a season high. There weren’t may perfor- mances worthy of note, but defen- sive end Rasheem Green continues to show promise. Green had six tack- les, a pass defensed and blocked a field goal attempt. The second-year defensive lineman has two sacks, two forced fumbles and two blocked kicks in the past five games.
