Three Raider wrestlers move on to state match

All three Raider wrestlers who competed at the Regional Tournament at Northwest Christian on Feb. 14th advanced to Mat Classic XXVII. Not all had an easy road making it to State but all three placed and as a team scored 53.5 team points to finish as a team 8th overall at the 26-team tourney.

Octavio Alejandre defended his 2014 regional championship by claiming it again in 2015 at 285 pounds. In his first match of the day, Alejandre pinned Trevor Morris of Davenport in the first round, then earned a 5-1 decision against Chad Edwards of Tonasket.

In the championship match, Alejandre squared off against Tristan Newman of Waitsburg-Prescott, who had won his first two matches handily. Alejandre held Newman off, and came away with a regional championship. Alejandre is now focusing on state and placing high in his last run.

Jacob Smith had many obstacles to overcome at 113 pounds to secure a state berth. He lost his first match to Justin Volking of Kettle Falls by pin, but then pinned Randy Ordway of Republic in 30 seconds. That set up a rematch with Adrian Tapia of Warden.

In the past two weeks Tapia and Smith have seen a lot of each other. At regionals Smith came out of the match the winner by pin setting up another rematch for Smith, this time against Volking. In the 3-4 place match, Smith got his revenge on Volking, pinning him early in the second round to place third at regionals and move on to state.

Oscar Pakootas started his day at 132 winning with a 15-0 technical fall against Travis Knuff of Garfield-Palouse. In his next match Pakootas faced the very talented Kain Feltwell of Liberty-Spangle. Feltwell and Pakootas were evenly matched but Feltwell eked out a win, 2-0.

Pakootas rebounded against Clark Rabe of Northwest Christian, winning 6-2. In the match to determine third and fourth place, Pakootas rematched with Knuff winning again by major decision, 8-0 for third place and trip to the Mat Classic in Tacoma.

Mat Classic XXVII starts Friday at 10 a.m. in the Tacoma Dome and runs through Saturday until 9:30 p.m. The finals round starts at 5 p.m.

The LR team will leave on Thursday after a send-off at Gailord Nelson Gym.

Smith with face Kobe Christian of Ocosta in his first match Friday. Oscar Pakootas will face Riki Thompson of Ilwaco in his first match. Octavio Alejandre starts his final Mat Classic against Mark Dituri of Mary Walker (Springdale). Dituri and Alejandre have faced off many times in the past three years, and this could be one very exciting match.

Team scores at regionals

Warden 159.5 (2) Reardan 113 (3) Tonasket 107 (4) Liberty Bell 95 (5) Republic 60

(6) Davenport 59 (7) Selkirk 57 (8) LR 53.5 (9) Kittitas 52 (10) Liberty-Spangle 44

(11) Colfax 41 (12) Mabton 37 (12) Mary Walker 37 (13) Brewster 34 (13) NWC 34

(14) Garfield-Palouse 32 (15) Wilbur-Creston-Keller 30 (16) Kettle Falls 29

(17) Okanogan 28.5 (18) Waitsburg-Prescott 20 (19) Pateros 19 (20) Pomeroy 12.

ACH, Oroville, Lind-Ritzville/Sprague, Riverside Christian, Tri-Cities Prep, and White Swan all tied for 21st with 0 team points.