Mule wrestlers busy

The Wahkiakum Mule wrestling team competed at three events last week while they continue to prepare for the upcoming post-season tournaments.

The Mules' first competition was at Adna high school on Thursday last week where they wrestled for seeding purposes against district opponents from Adna, Raymond, South Bend, and Willapa Valley. On Saturday the Mules split their squad between tournaments at Castle Rock and Kelso.

At Adna, district seeding was on the line. The Mules finished the night winning 10 of 16 matches and earning the right for some top seeds at districts in early February. Wrestlers Ben Miles, Levi Cothren, James Goldsmith, Mitchell Vik, Kyle Bergquist and Adam Vasion all won important matches. Blayne Edwards and Jeff Vik won matches against opponents they won't face at districts. Goldsmith and Vasion were standouts as they won all of their matches.

"Adam and James both wrestled as well as I have ever seen them wrestle," said coach John Hannah. "If they continue to progress as they have they will both be able to earn great seeds at districts."

On Saturday the Mules split their squad and sent one group to Castle Rock and one to Kelso. The Castle Rock group consisted of experienced wrestlers to compete in the Jim Bair Invitational, and the Kelso group was comprised of younger wrestlers to compete in Kelso's JV Tournament.

At the Kelso Junior Varsity Tournament, the Mules performed really well, Hannah said. Edwards placed first, Cothren second, Vasion third, and Vik was fourth.

"All of the younger wrestlers did a great job," said Hannah. "Though this is a JV tournament, the competition was tough. They competed versus the JV of 4A and 3A schools and did very well."

"Blayne was a standout all day," commented Hannah. "He looked like a veteran out there today, it is great seeing him progress this year."

At Castle Rock, the only medalist was Bergquist who placed fifth. All other wrestlers were one match away from earning a medal.

Hannah said, "It was an up and down day for us at Castle Rock. We did more to hurt ourselves than being beat by our opponents. It was obvious that we were still rusty from the winter break as we made errors."

Hannah also felt there were lots of positives at Castle Rock as well, "One thing with this year's team is they are fighters. We fought hard in every match and went for big scores each and every round."

The Mules traveled to Ocosta on Wednesday of this week for their last seeding competition and will take part in the Clatskanie Invite this Saturday at 10 a.m.