Farlows win district wrestling championships

The Eagles were led by sophomore Connor Farlow, who won the championship at 113 pounds, and senior brother, Carson, who wrestled to the crown at 132 pounds. Castro, a senior, finished second at 152 pounds; Steffers, a junior, was third at 220; and Tennant, also a junior, was fourth at 170.

The league’s top four wrestlers in each of the 14 weight divisions qualified for the 2023 state meet, on Friday and Saturday at Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Carson Farlow, seeded second at 113, won four district matches, starting with a fall in 2:30 over Aiden Webb of Centennial in the first round. Farlow made quick work of Landen Dean in the quarterfinals, catching the Hillsboro wrestler early and pinning him in 16 seconds. That moved Farlow into Saturday’s semifinals, where he topped No. 3- seed Fredy Garcia of Wilsonville, 15-9.

The 113-pound bracket included four wrestlers who spent this season mixing it up – with mixed results – in tournaments throughout the season. For example, in January at the Bob Beisel Invitational in Forest Grove, Farlow beat Wilsonville’s Garcia in the semifinals, but lost to Dean Williams of Canby in the final. Williams was fourth at district on Saturday, losing to Garcia in the third-place match.

Farlow kept his momentum going in the Saturday evening title match, where he beat senior Kaden Kramer of Wilsonville by a 10-4 decision and improved his record to 31-4 in the process.

Older brother Carson (29-4) had a similar title run at 132 pounds. After a first-round bye, Farlow pinned Canby frosh Elijah Dumanovsky in the second round and then registered a major decision (9-1) over No. 4 seed Jesse Hernandez of Putnam in the semifinals.

That pitted Farlow against Centennial’s Elijah Sweet, the No. 1 seed. The two have a competitive history, for example, at the Bob Beisel Invite, both were wrestling at 138 pounds and Sweet handed Farlow an 8-4 loss. In the district final, however, Farlow took control and won, 13-7, for HRV’s second championship.

Castro (25-12), seeded No. 3 at 152 pounds, used pins over Esteban Keymolen of Hillsboro in the quarterfinals and Ilya Yurko of Centennial in the semifinals to earn a spot in the championship match. Senior Thomas Marquez, the top seed, edged Castro for the crown, 7-3.

Steffers won three of his four district matches. He survived an 8-7 decision in the first round before running into top seed, Sebastian Echeverria of Hillsboro, in the semifinals. Echeverria, who finished second in the 2022 state tourney at 220 pounds, pinned Steffers at 5:08. The HRV wrestler bounced back to earn a berth to state by pinning Rafael Ramos of Hillsboro in the consolation semifinals and then edging Gideon Noss of Canby, 8-5, to place third.

Tennant had the longest road to state, after losing his first match, 10-8, to Zachary Weisong of Hillsboro. The two would meet again, with a state berth at state. But first, Tennant battled through four consolation rounds to earn a spot in the third-place match. George Peykanu of Wilsonville won by fall in the first round of that match, which dropped Tennant into the fourth-place match – essentially a wrestle-off for the state tourney.

Hillsboro’s Weisong, for his part, had stayed alive for four consolation rounds after losing in the quarterfinals. He and Tennant met for the district’s No. 4 170-pound berth to state, and the HRV wrestler dominated the rematch, winning by technical fall, 17-2.

Hood River had six other district placers (top eight). They included frosh Layton Adams, who was fifth at 113; senior Robert Wood, who was fifth at 120; sophomore Jacob Smith, fifth at 132; Jack McLaughlin, tied for seventh at 145; Samuel Blosser, tied for seventh at 152; and Omar Sedano-Peralez, tied for seventh at 285.

Adams won two district matches by pin at 113. Wood won two of five wrestled matches at 120. Smith won four of seven matches enroute to fifth place at 132. McLaughlin at 145 and Blosser at 152, each won one of three wrestled matches at district.