Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
SPANGLE - Davenport wrestler Alex Plasencia only spent a minute-and-a-half on the mat last Thursday, Feb. 6, en route to an easy gold medal at 145 pounds.
Plasencia received two byes to open the 1B/2B League-South district wrestling tournament at Liberty High School.
Then he pinned Noah Sievers of Liberty in 45 seconds in the semifinals and Mike Bauman of Northwest Christian (Colbert) in 46 seconds.
Plasencia led the Gorillas as the team finished second overall with 246 points.
Liberty dominated the tournament, racking up 297 team points. Reardan was third with 168, followed by Lind-Ritzville/Sprague in fourth with 153 and Colfax fifth with 71.
The district champion Lancers had six individual champions at the tournament in their home gymnasium on senior night.
Liberty's Owen Prince won the 120-pound class, Ashton Strobel 132, Cole Prince 160, Jesse Turner 170, Josiah Cwik 220 and Charlie Harrington 285.
Reardan's champions included Ethan Hull at 126, Dylan Bjornberg at 138, Rylan Anderson at 152 and Kobe Martinez at 195. (See related story)
Lind-Ritzville/Sprauge had two champions, Brandon Davis at 106 and Johnny Ryan at 113. Meanwhile, Colfax's lone champ was Caden Noha at 182.
In other team scoring, Northwest Christian (Colbert) was sixth with 55 points, edging Pomeroy with 54. Tekoa-Rosalia was eighth overall with 10.
The Gorillas had 17 competitors on the mats; only those who finished in the Top 4 advance to next weekend's regional tournament at Reardan.
River Crandall finished third at 106.
He lost his opening bout to eventual champion Davis of Reardan in 2:42. After receiving a bye, he pinned Wesley Tracy of Ritzville in 44 seconds to win bronze.
Teammate Caleb Lenocker also took third, at 120 pounds.
Lenocker lost his opening match in a 4-3 decision to Tyson Ramsey of Ritzville. But in the
consolation rounds, he pinned opponents Ben Adams of Tekoa-Rosalia in 58 seconds and then Jacob Rinehart of Reardan in 1:34 to earn the bronze and a regional berth.
Cord Sweetland also finished third for the Gorillas.
He lost his semifinal by pin to Sammy Manina of Northwest Christian (Colbert) in 27 seconds, then received byes to grab third.
At 132 pounds, Mikhail Agney fared better for Davenport.
Agney pinned Nick Hastings of Pomeroy in 3:14 in the semifinals to advance to the title tilt. But Ashton Strobel of Liberty was too much for him, and Agney was pinned in 1:38, dropping him to second-place.
Agney moves on to regionals, as does 132-pound teammate Jakin Griffin, who finished third.
Griffin lost an opening round decision, 8-2, to Reid Bartels of Liberty.
After the loss, he received a bye then pinned Nick Hastings of Pomeroy in 23 seconds, one of the fastest pins logged in the district tournament.
In the third-place bout, he faced Bartels again. This time, Griffin pinned his opponent in 4:32.
Davenport's Matthew Wines came home with a silver medal at 138 pounds.
He opened by pinning Ritzville's Samuel Michels in 3:30, then pinned Josh Haas of Liberty in 4:46 in the semifinals.
In the championship, Reardan's Dylan Bjornberg edged Wines, 11-10, following an overtime tiebreaker.
Wines heads to regionals with 145-pounder Cody Jenkins, who slid into fourth-place for the Gorillas.
Jenkins was pinned by Mike Bauman of Northwest Christian (Colbert) in 3:41 in the opening match.
Jenkins received a bye then topped Noah Sievers of Liberty, 5-0, to advance to the match for third-place. In that match, Caleb Sievers of Liberty pinned Jenkins in 1:40.
At 152 pounds, Davenport's Marcus DelaField ended his season with a sixth-place finish.
He lost his opening match by pin to Hadlee Brown of Liberty in 1:41. In the consolation round, he received a bye before dropping his next bout to Jeshua Cwik of Liberty, 7-0.
And Kolby Slate of Colfax would deny DelaField the alternate designation with a 7-1 decision over the Gorilla.
Teammate Ryan Cash, however, grabbed the alternate slot at 160 pounds after finishing fifth.
He lost his opening match to Mitchell Lencioni of Liberty in a 12-4 major decision.
Cash received a bye in the consolation round before being defeated, 4-0, by Curtis Winona of Pomeroy.
In his last bout, Cash won an 8-5 decision over Jacob Harp of Tekoa-Rosalia.
Cash's teammate Sklyer Henry was also competing at 160 pounds.
Across the bracket, Henry pinned Winona of Pomeroy in 1:30 in the semifinals. He then lost by pin in 1:31 to Prince of Liberty.
At 170, Gorilla Greyson Merrill opened the tournament by pinning Spencer Olson of Lind-Ritzville/Sprague in 3:50 to advance to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, he was pinned by Jesse Turner of Liberty in 1:01.
After a consolation round bye, Merrill pinned Trentin Ensley of Colfax in 56 seconds to take third.
Davenport's Sam Schneider earned a second-place finish and regional berth at 182 pounds. He pinned Sam Nelson of Liberty in 1:26 in the semifinals, but defaulted due to injury to Caden Noha of Colfax in the finals.
Joshua Ziegler went 0-2 in the tournament and didn't place for Davenport.
He was pinned by Ben Pritchett of Liberty in 15 seconds in his first match then was pinned by Reagan Noha of Colfax and was eliminated. The time of that pin was not reported.
Davenport had two entries at 220 pounds, with John Bernardi taking fourth and Alex Meserve second.
Justin Murinko of Reardan handed Bernardi his first loss, pinning him in 1:48,
Bernardi received a bye then pinned Jay Harder of Ritzville in 2:17 to advance to the third-place match to face Murinko again.
Murinki pinned Bernardi in 26 seconds in their rematch.
Gorillas teammate Meserve pinned Harder in 1:02 in the cross-bracket semifinal. But he lost the title match to Josiah Cwik, who pinned him in 1:28.
Davenport heavyweight Wade Sweetland is headed to regionals, too, after finishing third at 285 pounds.
Sweetland was pinned by Thomas Rosen of Lind-Ritzville/Sprague in 1:48 in his tournament-opener.
After receiving a bye, he won his final match by injury default over Jeffrey Staley of Lind-Ritzville-Sprague.
Roger Harnack is the co-owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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