Three Eagles advance to regionals at Kittitas

St. John/Endicott senior Jesse Nichols and freshmen Thomas Newton and Bo Niehenke will advance to the regional wrestling round at Kittitas this weekend after qualifying at the 10-team sub-regional round in Lind/Ritzville Saturday.

Colfax heavyweight Ben Cochran also qualified for the Kittitas regional with a sixth place finish. He wrestled just one round, aggravated an injury which had benched him for the last part of the season and forfeited out the rest of the heavyweight bracket which had seven entrants. Coach Jeremy Lanthorn said Cochran will be done for the season.

SJE senior Jesse Nichols battled Nate Poulsen of Kittitas in the 152 semi-final round. Nichols placed third in the sub-regional.

The top qualifier from Whitman County was LaCrosse senior Justin Aldrich who wrestled with SJE last year and commuted to Pomeroy this year. Aldrich wound up wrestling fellow Pirate Tory Knebel for the title in the 160 class. Knebel won on an 8-6 decision.

The six qualifiers in each weight class from Saturday’s rounds at Ritzville who will go up against six Panorama qualifiers.

Top five finishers in each weight class at Kittitas will advance to the State Mat Classic next Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

Three qualifiers will come out of the west side regional to fill out the eight-man B bracket for the state event.

Nichols will be targeting a third medal in the classic. Last year he finished fourth as a junior. He also took an eighth-place medal as a lightweight in his freshmen year when the SJE wrestlers were combined with Colfax in the A division.

Saturday at Ritzville, Nichols advanced to the semi-final where he battled Nate Poulsen of Kittitas, a wrestler he met at state last year. Poulsen prevailed on a third-round pin to advance to the title match where he was pinned by Pomeroy’s Scott Wolf.

Nichols decisioned Sundance Reevis of Davenport 10-6 for third place.

Newton, who dropped his weight down to 103 at the end of the regular season, was also stopped in the semi round when he was pinned by Rodrigo Alavrado of White Swan. He came back to pin Juan Espinoza of TCP for the third place qualification.

Niehenke, a freshman, was the seventh heavyweight on the entry list, but Cochran’s injury opened up the number six slot for the regional where he will face a tough seeding.

Gus Bailey, SJE 130 pounder, landed in seventh place.

Colfax wrestlers Kevin Nellis at 189 and Keaton Moore at 152 also both placed seventh to finish as alternates. Coach Jeremy Lanthorn said Nellis could get a shot at regionals with one of the 189 qualifiers on the questionable list early in the week.

Moore, a sophomore, came within a point of stopping Kyle Keeling of Reardan in the last consolation match for qualification in the tough 152 class. He came back to pin Jake Flint of Reardan in the first round for the seventh-place slot.

TEAM SCORES: Kittitas 273.5, Reardan 266.5, Pomeroy 263.5, Lind/Ritzville 82, Davenport 79, Liberty 72, Tri Cities Prep 67, White Swan 53, St. John/Endicott 32, Colfax 7.

103-Thomas Newton-SJE, two byes, pinned by Rodrigo Alvarez-WS :46; pinned Kyle Ritz-LR, 2:39, pinned Juan Espinoza, 2:03 for third.

130-Gus Bailey-SJE. bye; pinned by Willie Fisk-Lib; bye; pinned by Jon Walling-Kit, 4:40; pinned Alberto Kimball-Lib, 2:27 for seventh.

152-Jesse Nichols-SJE bye, pinned Clive Bailey-WS, 3:10; pinned by Nate Paulson-Kit, 3:52; pinned Kyle Keeling-Rdn, :27 for third place.

152-Keaton Moore-Cx, bye; pinned by Scott Wolf -Pm, 1:50; bye; to Kyle Keeling-Rdn 5-6; -pinned Jake Flint-Rdn-1:26 for seventh place.

160-Justin Aldrich-Pom (LaX) bye; over Sascha Breandle-Rdn, 8-1; over Troy Stackhouse-Dav, 7-5; to Tory Knebel-Pom, 6-8 in championship for second.

160-Brandon Lord-Cx pinned by Conner Smith-TCP 1:10; bye, pinned by Breandle-Rdn, :18.

189-Kevin Nellis-Cx, bye; pinned by Raleigh Beckstrom-Rdn, :54; bye; to Tefe Stutman-TCP, 4-7; -pinned Saul Fuentes-K 4:00 for seventh.

Hvy-Ben Cochran-Cx, bye; pinned by Hunter Acuff-Rdn, :58; two byes; forfeited to Sergio Fuentes-for sixth.

Hvy-Bo Niehenke-SJE, bye; pinned by Fuentes, :27, bye; pinned by Warren-Pm :18.