Christmas comes early at Tri-County meet

SPOKANE VALLEY – Most teams and sports across eastern Washington were enjoying their winter breaks on Dec. 22, but for Tekoa-Rosalia, Colfax and Garfield-Palouse, a break would come a little bit later as wrestlers traveled to Central Valley High School to compete in the Tri-County Classic.

Tekoa-Rosalia's Alexis Taylor wrestled a stacked 145-lb. girls weight class at the tournament lost one match in the weight class.

Taylor's lone loss came against Kettle Falls' Anna Hume, who's currently ranked the No. 3 girls wrestler in the state in 1B, 2B and 1A school classifications.

Hume pinned Taylor 48 seconds into the first round. She went on to lose to Liberty's Kariyah Strobel in the championship match via a 6-3 decision.

Taylor went on to defeat Hanford's Dayna Enderlin in the third-place match, winning via fall 1:44 in the first round.

Taylor is currently the eighth-ranked 1B-1A wrestler in Washington.

Taylor was not the only Timberwolves wrestler to compete in a stacked weight class at Central Valley.

Tekoa-Rosalia's Bryce Casey had to compete in the stacked 32-man, 145-lb. weight class.

Casey lost the opening round matchup against Central Valley's own Cooper Brown via fall 1:11 into the first round.

Casey would bounce back in the first-round of the consolation bracket, pinning Mt. Spokane's Andrew Naresh 2:26 in the first round.

Casey got to skip the second round of consolations and competed with the final 12 wrestlers in the consolation bracket.

Casey's day ultimately ended there, losing to Liberty's (Spangle) Kellen Tee via fall 42 seconds into the first round.

Colfax also saw several wrestlers compete at the event, with varying success in several weight classes.

Wyatt Southern opened his day with a win over Liberty's Thorne Tissue, pinning the Lancer in 40 seconds.

Southern would advance to the second round of the championship bracket, losing to Freeman's Brenen Ladwig by a 6-4 decision.

Southern would win his first-round match in the consolation bracket by pinning Lakeside's (Nine Mile Falls) Dylan Wisener in 1:30.

Southern's day came to an end in the second round of the 138-lb. consolation bracket, losing to Northwest Christian's Aiden Indahl by fall 1:24 in the first round.

Tristen Burd represented the Bulldogs in the 285-lb. weight class and received a bye in the first round.

In the quarterfinal match, Reardan's Tristin Burrill pinned Burd 27 seconds in the first round.

Burd would compete in the second round of the consolation bracket, losing via a 10-5 decision to East Valley's (Spokane) David Greenwood.

Cooper Phillips came out of the 120-lb. weight class with a sixth-place finish, defeating East Valley and West Valley opponents in the first two rounds of the championship bracket before losing by fall to Mt. Spokane's Kaleb Nelson in 2:03 in a quarterfinal match.

Phillips won by a 7-5 decision over Cheney's Aiden Jackson in the third round of the consolation bracket to advance to the fourth round of the consolation bracket, where he lost to Mary Walker's Seth Finley by fall 2:21 into the match.

Phillips still earned a place in the fifth-place match of the weight class, in a rematch against Kaleb Nelson, but lost due to a no contest. No information was available regarding the no-contest decision.

Hope Lyons and Grace Jones were the two girl wrestlers for the Bulldogs, and both wrestled in the 120-lb. weight class, which was six total competitors.

Both competitors lost in the first round to Hanford wrestlers, with Lyons being pinned by Jordyn Jamison in one minute and Jones losing via fall to Makenzie Shupe in 3:25.

Both wrestlers competed against each other in the second round, with Lyons defeating Jones in a Battle of the Bulldogs via an 11-1 majority decision.

Lyons would compete against Mary Walker's Serenna Swiger in third round, losing by fall in 2:20. Lyons was pinned by Shupe in the third round in 4:10.

In the fifth and final round of the tournament, Reardan's Vaea LaMoureaux pinned Lyons in 3:21, and Lyons was pinned by Jamison in 57 seconds.

Boys competitors in the county will next be in action Jan. 5 at 5 p.m. in a league meet in Colfax, and the girls will next compete in a Jan. 10 league meet at 5 p.m. in Newport.