Eight Hood River Valley wrestlers competed in last weekend’s OSAA State Wrestling Championships at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland. Lauraine Smith had the team’s best finish as she placed fourth in the 145 class.
“She’s just tougher than nails,” Tony Rolen, head coach for the Eagles, said. “She does everything her coaches ask of her. She had a successful high school football season this year. She’s told me she’s planning on running track. So, she’s a three-sport athlete. She works hard. A lot of the teachers here at Hood River Middle School are excited and proud of her because they know her when she went to middle school here. She’s just an awesome athlete and we’re super excited for her.”
Smith won by decision over Thurston’s Gabi Gillbert and moved on to the third-place match. There, Smith met and fell to Jasmine Pedersen from Summit.
“We were pleasantly surprised with how many wrestlers qualified,” Rolen said. “We were hopeful that we would have a lot of our wrestlers perform well and they did. A lot of them finished the season really strong and they were really excited to qualify for the state tournament.”
In the lightest class for HRV, Carson Farlow, 106, lost to Eagle Point’s Luke Callahan by decision in the second consolation round on Friday. Farlow ended the season with a 27-12 record.
Like Farlow, Jaime Rodriguez, in the 113 class, fell to Cash Wells from Crook County in the second consolation round. Rodriguez closes the season with a solid 13-5 record.
Chad Muenzer, for the 138 class, placed sixth. Muenzer would have made it into finals but suffered an ankle injury and had to pull out. Crater’s Kellen Kerrigan won over Muenzer by forfeit for fifth place.
In the 152 class, Javier Galvez, lost by fall against Crook County’s Alexander Vail in the first consolation round.
Maverick Geller, 170, only made it to the second consolation round as Everett Chandler, from North Eugene, won by decision.
For the 195 class, Abraham Tinajero fell to Crater’s Joseph Jordahl. Tinajero ended his season with a 20-15 record.
Cody Durham fell to Ulises Aguilar-Soto from Milwaukie by decision in the 285 first round.
“I’m super proud of the team and how hard they worked,” Rolen said. “I think it’s a reflection of the wonderful coaching staff, support from the parents and community and the work that the kids have done. I wish I could take the credit, but the kids do all the work and we just get to coach them. It’s an honor to get to coach these kids, young men and women. They’re not really kids anymore, they on their own, most of them.”
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