Raider wrestlers ready for sub-regional

Raider Wrestlers finished the regular season last Saturday at Pateros where they wrestled in a preview of this week’s sub-regional meet in Republic.

At the league mixer in Pateros, the Raiders wrestled 27 matches against all-league competition. Some matches determined seeding for the coming Republic event.

“We had a really good day and are ready for sub-regionals,” Head Coach Steve Hood said.

Zack Erickson recorded his fourth win of the season by pinning Meric Merkley of Selkirk in the third round. Jacob Smith wrestled Trent Skelton of Liberty Bell, among the top 10 in the state, who pinned Smith in the second round.

Oscar Pakootas also wrestled top-10 competition at 120 pounds against Jose Marin of Kittitas, Taylor Woodruff of Liberty Bell, and Chase Gleason. Pakootas wrestled a close match against Marin and pinned Gleason. James Monaghan also defeated Gleason by 10 points.

Coltin WIlliams beat Tim Koppin of Northwest Christian in an important seeding match. Williams also took down Carlos Cruz of Pateros 8-5.

Lukas Hermetz fought hard to defeat Leo Curiel of Oroville 11-9, then pinned Chance Chantry of Selkirk in the first round.

Josh Jim wrestled three times at Pateros at 132, facing good wrestlers that have better prepared him for this week.

Kodie Horn wrestled highly ranked Jon Walling of Kittitas at 138 and won 6-2, which places him in a good spot going into Republic.

Lucas Beneditti defeated David Evans of Mary Walker (Springdale) 9-2.

Sean Waters swept the field, pinning all he faced at 182. This dominance will garner a good seed at sub regionals.

New Raider wrestler Jordan Allen won two of his three matches at 170, pinning Doug Mitch of Mary Walker and Ruben Renfro of Oroville both in the third round. Allen moved in from Eatonville and has been practicing since the end of Christmas break; he will be wrestling this week at sub-regionals.

Andrew McClure beat Jacob Klingensmith of Republic 14-3.

Coach Hood noted that Kittitas and Liberty Bell are strong squads with several new wrestlers who were not there earlier in the season.

Sub-regionals will be a rematch of the Pateros match, as the same schools will be going against one another. The action starts at 11 a.m. at the Republic High School gym. The sub-regionals were suppose to be in Springdale, but due to repairs on the gym, the event was moved to Republic.

The top six boys then move on to Reardan for the regional meet next week.

The Raider girls travelled to Quincy on the Jan. 22 for a mixer, where Alexa Hanway won two matches at 106 and Jazmyne Marchand faced off against good competition for the sub-regionals. The girls’ sub-regionals will be held at East Valley High School Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. Unlike the boys, the girls have only one classification, so Hanway and Marchand will face 4A and 3A girls. The top four girls move on to regionals next Saturday.