Wrestlers advance to district

Keaton Moore gets the top position on Reardan's Jake Flint in the 152 weight class Saturday at St. John At right, Thomas Newton starts to roll over Juan Espinoza of Tri-Cities Prep for a win in the 103 pound class on his home mat at St. John. Newton moved up to the 112 class for the last match of the day at St. John Saturday.

Colfax and St. John/Endicott wrestlers will mix it up with other grapplers in the district Saturday at Ritzville in the first step to the state mat classic at Tacoma. The top six finishers in each weight class at Reardan will advance to the regional round the following week at Kittitas.

St. John hosted a warmup session for the district meet last Saturday with Colfax, Pomeroy, Kittitas, Ritzville, Reardan, Liberty and Tri-Cities Prep bringing in wrestlers.

The entry sheet for the action at St. John totaled more than 100 wrestlers, but the field dropped down to the 60-plus range after the tally of no-shows Saturday morning. The event still qualified as the largest ever meet for the SJE Eagles.

Action took place on two mats with Kittitas and Reardan pairing off in a dual match at the start of the session. Some of the Coyotes and Indians then matched up with competitors from the other schools.

Saturday’s round at Ritzville will include the same teams plus Davenport and White Swan.

Colfax had just two wrestlers in action at St. John, the lineup should be up to at least five at the start of the state elims. Keaton Moore at 152 and Kevin Nellis at 189 had three matches each at St. John. Heavyweight Ben Cochran returned to the lineup this week along with Brenden Lord who had a good run at the freshman tourney in Clarkston two weeks ago. J.T. Thompson is also expected to be in the action.

Daython Maltone, who was hurt in the 215 semi-final match in the Clearwater Classic at Lewiston, will probably be out of action for the balance of the season with the knee injury, and Corey Maltone is not expected to return.

ST. JOHN RESULTS

103-Thomas Newton pinned by Nathan Sorci-Reardan, lst; pinned Kiam Espinoza-TCP, 2nd.

113-Thomas Newton pinned by Nick Tudor, TCP, lst.

130-Gus Bailey pinned by Dobson-Rdn, lst; pinned Kaare Anderson-Rdn, 2nd.

152-Jesse Nichols pinned Kyle Keeling-Rdn, lst.

285-Bo Niehenke pinned by Jeff Warren-Pom, lst; pinned by Gabe Miller-Rdn, lst.

COLFAX RESULTS

152-Keaton Moore pinned Jake Flint-Rdn, 2nd; to Jose Rodriquez, 1-4.

189-Kevin Nellis to Saul Fuentez-Kittitas, 5-11; to Nate Lee-TCP to Tevin Stutzman-TCP 2-14.