CENTRALIA — For the fourth year in a row, Forks has won the boys’ WIAA 1A District 4 Sub-Regional Wrestling Tournament, winning four weight classes and sending 16 wrestlers to Regionals.
Forks got first-place finishes from Josue Lucas (106 pounds), Garrison Schumack (145 pounds), Jack Dahlgren (195 pounds) and Luke Dahlgren (220 pounds).
Forks eked out Montesano with 361.5 points to Montesano’s 353.5. Hoquiam came in a distant third at 237 points, with Elma fourth at 163 and Tenino fifth at 136.
Eighteen Forks wrestlers entered the tournament and 16 of them earned the right to go to Regionals, with another wrestler going as an alternate.
In addition, all seven Forks girls at their sub-regional will be moving on to regionals.
Coach Robert Wheeler said that in addition to the four first place finishes, Forks cleaned up in the consolation matches, collecting points in myriad weight classes.
“I was very happy with our performance. We have been talking all week that if we were going to be able to beat Montesano, we would need to beat them with our second wrestlers at the weight classes by moving as many wrestlers as possible on to the regional tournament in Hoquaim. We needed to beat Montesano with our wrestlers in the consolation bracket,” Wheeler said. “We did very well with that goal.”
In addition to the first-place finishes, Colby Demorest finished second at 145 pounds (losing in the finals to his teammate Schumack), Gavin Palmer was second at 152 pounds, Brett Moody was second at 160 pounds, Kenny Gale second at 170 pounds and Nathan Flores second at 285.
Finishing third at their weight classes were Keith Kullander at 132 pounds, Keith Thompson at 138 pounds, Josh Salazar at 152 pounds, Shane Queen at 160 pounds, Eden Cisneros at 195 pounds and Tristan Pisani at 220 pounds.
Other Forks wrestlers who placed were Ethan Gossard, fourth at 106 pounds, and Ryan McGraw, fifth at 182 pounds. McGraw will go to Regionals as an alternate.
Among the girls, Marissa Bailey had the best showing, coming in second at 105 pounds. Brynn Peterson was third at 145 pounds, while Rosalia Julio-Flores was fourth at 100 pounds and Kayleen Bailey was fourth at 110 pounds. They will compete at Regionals in Aberdeen.
Qualifying to Regionals as alternatives were Brianna Jacobson, who finished fifth at 105 pounds, and Marbella Ramirez, who finished fifth at 155 pounds.
