After having its first home meet of the year blown away thanks to heavy winds, the HRVHS wrestling team hit the road again for the Best of the West Wrestling tournament in Pasco, Wash., just before Christmas.
While the Eagles did not get a first place trophy to put under the tree, the team did finish eighth out of 25 teams in the tournament after dueling with several highly ranked teams for Oregon and Washington.
After losing to Deer Park in the first round, HRVHS recorded wins against Topenish, Hanford, Crook County, and former Intermountain League rival Pendleton to get into the sixth place game of the consolation bracket before falling to Crook County.
Joe Johnson continued his standout season going 6-0 in the tournament and pushing his season record to 14-1 with 11 pins and No. 11 ranking at his weight class in the state.
Alex Titus showed why he is worthy of his No. 2 state heavyweight ranking going 5-1 in the tournament to push his season record to 9-1.
Lucas Mondragon also finished the tournament with a 5-1 record and is now 13-2 on the season with 8 pins.
Gage Morris recorded the quickest pin for the Eagles when he put down Crook County’s Zach Hite in 31 seconds.
Other wrestlers recording wins for the Eagles included Julio Avila, Brandon Gass, Brandon Nakamura, Sean Baker, Ben Eddy, Aaron Mallon, Bill Hunter, Justin Tolentino and Cameron Kiyokawa.
Thomas Eddy made his varsity debut at 125 pounds for the Eagles.
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