Four champions lead regional qualifiers

Nine wrestlers from the Colfax-Gar/Pal combo qualified Saturday in the big sub-regional round at Colfax to advance to the regional round this week at Kittitas.

Colfax had five wrestlers advance to the finals with Reggie Jones-145, Ray Compton-195 and Evan Lord-220 taking championship wins.

Three Garfield/ Palouse wrestlers also advanced to the title round with Kevin Knauff taking the title at 152.

Mitch Barney-132 and Brian DeYoung-182 qualified with second-place finishes after being turned back in championship rounds.

Trapper Askins and Joey Rogers of GP also placed second.

Colfax also had qualifiers in Brandon Arneson-170 who placed fifth, and Nick McAdams-285 who booked a 0-2 mark but bagged a ticket because of the low number of heavies in the district.

The Colfax team placed third with 137 points. Pomeroy retained the title with a 152 total and Reardan finished second with 142.

The sub-regional at Colfax brought approximately 90 wrestlers to town for the largest mat meet here in years. Coach Dennis Gransbery credited all of the meet support crew who worked more than seven hours.

The finalists from the sub-regional will match up the finalists from the NE which will include qualifiers from Selkirk, Republic, Springdale, Kittitas and others.

Top five wrestlers in each weight division will qualify for the state Mat Classic next week in Tacoma. The all-B part of the classic will start with eight wrestlers in each slot. Three slots will be filled by qualifiers from the west side regional.

Evan Lord and Ray Compton of Colfax remained undefeated in league action when they took the titles Saturday. Compton pinned Kameron Danforth of Davenport in the third round for his title, and Lord pinned Randolph Bohnet of Wilbur-Creston-Keller in the first round for the 220 win.

Jones took the 145 title with an 8-5 win over Michael Sims of Reardan. Sims prevailed in two previous collisions in the season, but Jones booked the title win with a counter move when Sims attempted a Granby roll, one of the favorite moves by Reardan wrestlers.

Barney lost 2-4 to Kaleb Hafner in a close title battle in the 132 class, and Brian DeYoung, who had been on a roll at the end of the season, was pinned by Nick Anderson of WCK in the 182 championship round.

Arneson placed fifth with a 2-2 mark after pinning Jacob Schuh of Pomeroy in the second round.

Nick McAdams was stopped by Lane Hawk of LRS and Tristan Newman of Waitsburg-Prescott who took the title for the heavies.

Issac Cook posted a 1-2 record in the 132 class, and Tyson Roger posted an 0-2.

Knauff, who was able to drop to the 152 class, pinned Pomeroy’s Adam Herres in the third round for the title.

Joey Rogers finished second at 113 after he was pined by Austin Stauffer of Davenport in the first round.

Trapper Askins placed second at 126 after being tech-falled by Kalin Feltwell of Liberty.