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THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2022
SPORTS
Warrenton wrestlers win
second straight district title
The Astorian
Ring up another district
championship for the Warren-
ton wrestling program.
And it wasn’t even close
this time, as the Warriors
racked up 308.5 points to eas-
ily fi nish ahead of Rainier
(214), Willamina (201), and
fi ve other teams last weekend
at Yamhill-Carlton.
According to team records,
it’s the fi rst time Warrenton
has won back-to-back dis-
trict titles since the Warriors
won fi ve straight from 1973
to 1977.
After fi nishing fi rst in one
of the toughest districts in the
state (Special District 2), the
Warriors can now turn their
attention to competing for
an elusive state title. Warren-
ton has fi nished second three
times, the last in 1988-89.
And with 10 wrestlers
qualifying for the 3A boys
state tournament Saturday
at La Pine High School, the
Warriors will certainly be
ready to rack up more points.
“We work really hard to
be ready for the post season,
and our team was absolutely
ready to go when the whistle
blew,” said Warrenton coach
Corey Conant, named dis-
trict Coach of the Year along
with assistants Lennie Wolfe,
Trent Klebe, Mallory Vollner
and Steve Stratton.
“Coming in, we knew we
were going to have to beat
some good wrestlers if we
wanted to meet our goals,” he
said. “For the most part, we
stuck to our game plans and
ended up upsetting a number
of wrestlers along the way.”
In Saturday’s district meet,
Warrenton had two individ-
ual champions, then com-
piled big points with fi ve sec-
ond- and three third-place
fi nishers.
After winning by fall in the
quarterfi nals and semifi nals at
126 pounds, Austin Atwood
trailed early against Clats-
kanie’s Ernesto Rojas, “then
put together three champion-
ship periods and came back to
beat a wrestler who had beat
him twice this year,” Conant
said. “Our team demonstrated
amazing belief in themselves
and each other all day.”
At 220, Josh Smith only
had to wrestle twice, with
falls over Taft’s Erick Cana-
les-Perez (1:27) and Jesse
Luttrell of Yamhill-Carlton
(2:00), then won by forfeit
Warrenton Wrestling
The Warrenton wrestling coaching staff , with their 10 state qualifi ers for the 3A boys state
tournament this weekend.
SCOREBOARD
PREP SPORTS
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY
Girls Basketball — 4A play-in
qualifi er: Molalla at Astoria, 5 p.m.
Boys Basketball — 4A play-in
qualifi er: Woodburn at Astoria,
6:30 p.m.; 2A fi rst round: Toledo at
Knappa, 6 p.m.
BASKETBALL
COACHES POLLS
(Final — fi rst place votes in
parentheses)
Class 4A Boys
1. Marshfi eld Pirates (5) 111
2. Junction City Tigers (3) 106
3. Cascade Cougars (4) 102
over teammate Kaison Smith
in the fi nal.
Besides Kaison Smith,
second-place
fi nishers
included senior Jorge Lopez,
who pinned last year’s state
fi nalist (Jimmy Larsen of
Dayton) in the 132-pound
semifi nals, before a loss to
Rainier’s Christian Roberts in
the title bout.
At 145, Parker Green-
awald won by fall in the fi rst
round, followed by a technical
fall over Clatskanie’s David
Nowlin and a sudden victory
against Gavin Fortelney of
Rainier (7-5), before a loss to
Dayton’s Tony Cisneros.
Max Smith had wins over
wrestlers from Rainier and
Dayton, but lost by fall to
Michael Fox of Willamina
4. Philomath Warriors 78
5. Seaside Seagulls 76
6. Stayton Eagles 50
7. Banks Braves 41
8. La Grande Tigers 30
9. Henley Hornets 28
10. Baker Bulldogs 16
Class 2A Boys
1. Western Christian (4) 85
2. Knappa Loggers (3) 80
3. Salem Academy (2) 79
4. Kennedy Trojans 56
5. Jeff erson Lions 55
6. Illinois Valley Cougars 43
7. Regis Rams 37
8. Bandon Tigers 15
9. Heppner Mustangs 13
10. Gold Beach Panthers 11
in the championship match.
Alex Tapia scored 22 team
points at 170, winning quar-
terfi nal and semifi nal matches
by fall.
Elsewhere, junior Raul
Molina came from behind in
the third period to pin a three-
time state qualifi er (Asher
Tindall, Yamhill-Carlton) in
the third-place match at 138.
Also headed to state are
Brayden Greenawald (third
at 126) and James Mickelson
(third at 170).
Also making the podium
were Wyatt Bond (4th, 106),
Colton Lohf (4th, 120), Tyson
McGrorty (4th, 145), Talon
McGrorty (4th, 182) and
Andre Simmons (4th, 285).
Brandon Runolfson (160)
and Levi Cabalona (182) took
fi fth at their weights.
Warrenton’s Grace Thoma
will compete in the girls’ state
tournament, Thursday at Cul-
ver High School.
“We are extremely proud
of our 11 state qualifi ers, and
all of the work that our whole
team has put into this season,”
Conant said.
Knappa’s Roe
qualifi es for state
In the District 1/2A tourna-
ment held last week in Rock-
away Beach, Toledo won the
team title with 203 points,
edging second place Verno-
nia (196).
Knappa fi nished 11th with
43 points, and qualifi ed one
wrestler to state, as sopho-
more Corbin Roe wrestled
fi ve matches to fi nish third
at 120 pounds. Logger soph-
omore Blaine Ogier placed
fourth at 126.
Tough competition
at state for Astoria,
Seaside swimmers
The Astorian
The Astoria and Sea-
side swim teams had
plenty of highlight swims
in last week’s state meet,
but the points were hard to
come by for both the Fish-
ermen and Gulls.
Competing in the Ore-
gon School Activities
Association 4A state meet
on Saturday at Tuala-
tin Hills Aquatic Center
in Beaverton, Astoria and
Seaside swimmers failed
to make the scoreboard,
with the Sweet Home girls
and Catlin Gabel boys
winning the team titles.
Representing District
1, Newport fi nished third
in the girls team standings,
second on the boys side.
After last year’s unof-
fi cial culminating event,
Seaside coach Shane Spell
said, “it was great being
back in the full state com-
petition, with 4A through
1A all competing. It gives
you a great picture of the
high quality swimming
happening all over the
state.”
The
highest-plac-
ing swim from the North
Coast was a seventh-place
showing by Seaside’s 200-
yard medley relay team of
Leif Rehnert, Sam Her-
oux, Logan Dennis and
Liam Matlock, who fi n-
ished in 1 minute, 56.29
seconds. Astoria was
ninth in the same event
(1:58.17).
Events were held in
two heats, all fi nals with
no preliminaries.
Astoria junior Emelia
Cameron took eighth in
the 100-yard freestyle, and
Astoria’s 200-yard boys
freestyle relay foursome
of Finn Buzzell, Dylan
Farrell, Phelan Dopp and
Stephen Ero placed eighth
in 1:40.92.
For the Gulls, Spell
said “it was a nice accom-
plishment to (qualify)
wild cards in six diff er-
ent events — something
that’s not happened in
quite some time. We’re
graduating a lot of seniors,
but we’ve got some youth
coming up, and we’ll keep
growing and working for a
return visit.
“It was a good meet.
Our goal was to drop some
times and move up in the
seeding, and that hap-
pened multiple times.”
In tuneup, Astoria
boys top West Linn
junior varsity squad
The Astorian
In preparation for their
upcoming play-in state
qualifi er, the Astoria boys
basketball team took to the
road Monday, and scored
a 75-71 win over the West
Linn junior varsity team.
Astoria’s Owen Wil-
liams had 17 points, and
teammates Colton McMas-
ter and Merrick Ben-
esch scored 14 apiece to
lead the Fishermen, who
improved to 11-11 over-
all. Both teams made 10
3-pointers.
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