Eagle girls 17th in Hood River wrestling tourney

Five HRV wrestlers scored team points, led by Lauraine Smith, who was second at 155 pounds. Smith pinned her way to the final, winning her four matches in impressive fashion. In the final, La Pine’s Kira Kerr caught the Eagle senior and won by pin in 55 seconds. Kerr, a senior, won the 135-pound OSAA state championship a year ago.

Hood River’s Karol Najera won three consolation matches by fall at 115 pounds, after losing in the second round. Fera Thomas of Lincoln handed Najera her lone loss and then went on to place fourth overall.

At 120, Sophia Keolker won one of three wrestled matches, beating Cleveland’s Kaileh Steffek by fall. Keolker had a tough opening match, losing by fall to eventual runner-up Addison Burleigh of Mountainside.

Xiomara Gordian Gomez won one of three wrestled matches at 140 pounds — by fall over Danica Kirkwood of Hillsboro. Second-place finisher Kaci Anderson of Baker topped Gordian Gomez in the first round.

At 190, Natalia Solorio Campos scored four team points with her first-round pin. McKenzie Mills of David Douglas topped Solorio Campos in the quarterfinals; Mills went on to finish third overall.

Columbia High’s Ashley Totolhua scored her team’s four points by winning one of her three wrestled matches at 105 pounds. Totolhua won by fall over Izabella Logsdon of Sutherlin.

6A/5A Wrestling Regionals

Hood River Valley’s girls wrestlers will vie for spots in the Class 6A/5A OSAA state championship tournament this weekend at the Region 1 finals at Century High in Hillsboro.

The state’s girls wrestling format has the participating Class 6A/5A schools divided into three regions. This is the first season the OSAA has sponsored two girls wrestling state championships (also the 4A/3A/2A/1A).

That tourney will be held Friday and Saturday at Century. The top three wrestlers in each weight division at regionals will qualify for the Feb. 23 state championship tourney at Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

HRV wrestlers got somewhat of a look at the regional competition at last week’s home tournament (see related story, this issue). Of the 32 schools at the HRV tourney, a number of them are part of the OSAA’s Region 1, including the top two team finishers, Hillsboro, and Forest Grove. Forest Grove won last season’s girls state title and Hillsboro was third.

For example, the 145-pound winner at Hood River, Jasmine Hopkins of Forest Grove, was runner-up at that weight division at state in 2022. Forest Grove sophomore Kennedy Blanton, who won the 135-pound title at Hood River, was second at state in 2022 at 130. Nina Deleon of Hillsboro won the 100-pound title last weekend and was a championship quarter-finalist at that weight at state a year ago. And arguably the best of the bunch, Haley Vann of Portland’s Cleveland, won the Hood River title at 130 and is the defending state 120-pound champion.

Eight individuals at the three regional tourneys will automatically qualify for the OSAA’s eight-person bracket in each of the 14 weight classes.