Wrestlers make strong showing in Rainier

Raider Wrestling travelled to Rainier Jan. 16, for the Sgt. Justin Norton Memorial Tournament, where all the Raiders on the trip placed.

This annual trip was met with good roads and a good practice on Friday, and Head Coach Steve Hood won the annual bowling game, again prompting many of the wrestlers to practice their bowling skills for next year’s game.

Oscar Pakootas added another gold medal at 132 pounds against the stiff competition at Rainier. Pakootas dominated the field for the start, pinning Matthew Vandenbrock of Kalama and defeating Tanner Frost of Eatonville 13-1. Frost was ranked 10th in the state at 1A.

“He is a strong wrestler and gave Oscar a good workout,” Hood said. “Really proud of his performance.” After the strong win, Pakootas took on teammate Reese Caddy in the semifinals match and defeated him 2-0.

In his finals match, Pakootas came up against Alex Langdon of Castle Rock, who came into the match ranked sixth in State 1A. Pakootas defeated him by pin to continue his streak of gold medals.

At 285, Octavio Alejandre also continued his impressive season by taking home first place at Rainier. Alejandre pinned Zack Gonzales of Kalama, then defeated the 1A 10th-ranked Hayden Baumann of Eatonville, 4-1.

In his championship match, Alejandre took on second-ranked state placer Tanner Cook, of Kiona-Benton, pinning him for the gold medal.

At 113, Jacob Smith placed third. Smith had started the day getting pinned by Casey Brady, of Eatonville. Then Smith turned it around by beating Mario Yanez of Elma 13-6, Andrew Jones of Castle Rock 4-3, and Angel Del Angel of Kiona-Benton 2-0 to claim third place.

Gabe Moses, at 138, also took home third place. After beating Tanner Haugen, of Eatonville, Moses suffered a setback, losing by pin to Jacob Posey, of Kalama. Moses rebounded by winning the rest of his matches by pin to claim his bronze medal.

Reese Caddy, at 132, took home fourth place. Caddy pinned Marq Jackson of Rainier, and beat David Dangleis, of Castle Rock, 8-4. Caddy lost to Pakootas in the semifinal match and lost his placing match 13-4 to Bobby Brien, of Rochester, for fourth place.

“We wanted good competition and we got that,” Coach Hood said. “We are seeing the results of good practices on the mats now.”

Hood noted that there are only two more outings before the postseason and all the good practices are needed to make a run at state.

This week the Raiders are looking at going to Kittitas on Saturday. If that does not work then LR will travel to Ephrata for the Ephrata JV tourney. Both tournaments start at 10 a.m.

At Rainier

Castle Rock 192.5 (2) Kiona-Benton 128.5 (3) Kalama 128.5 (4) Vashon 119

(5) Ocosta 115 (6) Elma 102.5 (7) Lake Roosevelt 86 (8) Highland 84 (9) Rainier 74.5

(10) Bellevue Christian 73 (11) Montesano 68 (12) Eatonville 64 (13) Rochester 63

(14) Port Townsend 14.5 (15) Seattle Academy 7 (16) Pateros 6