Mule wrestlers win at Kelso and Tacoma

This past week the Mule wrestling team completed its regular season with two events, one in Kelso and one at Tacoma Baptist. The mules competed in 25 matches over the two day period, and won 18 of them.

“The team showed up ready to wrestle on both nights,” said Mule coach John Hannah. “The other coaches and myself were really impressed by how hard the team worked each night.”

The Mules first faced off against JV wrestlers from Kelso and Heritage ( Vancouver ) high schools. Kelso is the returning ninth place team in the state at 3A, and Heritage is the returning 10th place team at 4A.

“It was great to see us perform well versus two of the top squads in the state,” Hannah said. “We knew it was going to be a tough night, but each of the wrestlers went out there to win. We only dropped two matches on the night, and in each of those we were trading the lead back and forth.”

“Brady and Joel both had tough opponents versus opponents from Heritage,” said Hannah, “and each of them won by pin.”

The next day the Mules traveled to Tacoma to take part in an exhibition between four schools. The Mules wrestled against Adna, Willapa Harbor , and Tacoma Baptist.

“We were really looking forward to this trip,” commented Hannah, “a few weeks ago Tacoma Baptist came down here and we didn’t perform to our capabilities, and we wanted a chance to prove ourselves again.”

The Mules did very well on the night as they won 11 of 16 matches. Many of the Mule wrestlers had multiple victories.

“It was great to see the team perform at a higher level than last time we faced these teams,” Hannah said. “Every one of our wrestlers had at least one great match.”

“The standout match of the night was by Ben Doumit who beat a wrestler from Willapa Harbor ,” said Hannah. “The kid he wrestled has been tough all year and hadn’t lost a match to a wrestler from a B school. Ben did everything right as we won by decision and nearly earned a major decision victory.”

The Mules will start post season wrestling this Saturday as they will start the first of three post season tournaments. This Saturday is the District championship at Ocosta high school. The top 5 placers will advance to the Regional tournament next week at Elma high school. The top three from Regionals will move on to state the following weekend in the Tacoma Dome.

Wrestling this weekend will begin at 10 a.m. and should conclude by 5 p.m.