Mules place fourth in Clatskanie tourney

The Mule wrestling team competed in two events last week. On Wednesday the Mules traveled to Ocosta High School in Westport for a district seeding competition, and then traveled to Clatskanie to take place in their first annual Clatskanie Invitational.

At the Ocosta meet the Mules competed in 12 matches and won 10 of them. The Mules gained valuable seeding criteria for the district tournament that takes place the first Saturday of February.

"Overall we wrestled great," said head coach John Hannah. "We have been working hard to not only have great technique, but to try and dictate the flow of the matches, and we did that at Ocosta.

"Blayne Edwards, Ben Miles, and James Goldsmith were all standouts tonight," said Hannah. "They each dominated the control of the match, stayed in position, and did what was asked of them."

Last Saturday, the Mule wrestlers traveled to Clatskanie for their invitational. The team finished 4th overall, had three in the finals, and placed five wrestlers.

Champions for the Mules were Blayne Edwards (103lbs) and Kyle Bergquist (140lbs), and James Goldsmith (152lbs) placed second. Third place finishers were Ben Miles (130lbs) and Adam Vasion (160lbs).

Levi Cothren (135lbs) was headed to the finals before he suffered an eye injury. Due to the injury being accidental Cothren was forced to forfeit his way out of the semi-finals and eventually out of the tournament.

"It was too bad for Levi," said Hannah. "He starts off upsetting the #1 seed in a great match and is then injured. This was his best week of wrestling we have seen out of him."

Hannah also said, "It was great to watch Blayne wrestle today. He is so natural, he continues to do things on instinct before he has learned them in the room.

"Kyle wrestled very well, and is almost to the point of winning a lot of tournaments," said Hannah. "He is usually the best athlete in his weight class and when he realizes that he becomes very hard to stop."

Hannah said, "The team is really starting to come together. Each day more and more are buying into the team, each other, and the coaches. If we keep working something wonderful could come out of this season. It is all up to them at this point and all of the coaches are just waiting for it to happen."

The Mules compete at Kalama for their annual Rubber Chicken Tournament on Saturday. The meet will begin at 10 a.m.