Freshman Farlow finishes sixth at state tourney

The one-day tournament at Ridgeview High was won by Crescent Valley of Corvallis; Crook County was second, Thurston third and Redmond fourth. Crescent Valley took control of the team race in the semifinal round, advancing eight wrestlers to the finals. Seven of those finalists were crowned champions for the Raiders. Hood River scored 16 points and was 24th in the team competition.

Farlow was one of four Hood River Valley wrestlers to compete at state. His older brother Carson, wrestled at 132 pounds, and Robert Wood was at 113 pounds. Dulce Najera wrestled at the all-classification girls state tournament Feb. 24 at Culver High School.

Connor Farlow, who was fourth at district at 106 pounds, beat the 106-pound No. 3 seed — Evan Willis of St. Helens — in the first round at state. Farlow caught Willis in the third round and pinned the sophomore with less than a minute remaining.

That put Farlow in the quarterfinals, where he pinned Zander Campbell of South Albany in the second round. That advanced Farlow to the semifinals, where he ran into Intermountain Conference opponent Billy Jackson of Redmond. Jackson caught Farlow early in the third round and pinned the HRV wrestler.

The loss dropped Farlow into the consolation semifinals, where Jackson’s teammate, Ryder Lee, edged the Eagle wrestler, 9-8. In the match for fifth place, Willis of St. Helens, completed his consolation round comeback with an 8-2 decision over Farlow. Jackson finished second, Lee was fourth and Willis fifth, attesting to Farlow’s tough bracket at state.

Carson Farlow, who led the Gorge qualifiers by winning the 132-pound bracket at the Intermountain Conference district championship at Crook County High School in Prineville two weeks ago, won two of his four state tourney matches. Farlow (25-5 overall) was seeded second and won in the first round with a pin in one minute, 20 seconds over Ruben Gonzalez of Scappoose.

Eagle Point’s Dylan Dahling, who went on to finish runner-up to Crescent Valley’s DJ Gillett, ended Farlow’s state-title run with a first-round pin in the quarterfinals. The HRV wrestler rebounded with a 10-5 decision over Andrew Hall of Wilsonville, but lost in the next consolation round, 15-10, to eventual sixth-place finisher Jarron Huebner of West Albany.

HRV’s Wood, a junior who was fourth at district at 113 pounds, lost to third-seeded Landon Carver, a junior from Lebanon, in the 113-pound first round. Carver went on to finish fourth. Wood lost his next match in the consolation round by a 7-0 decision to Tyler Smith of St. Helens. Wood finished the season with an 11-15 record.

Najera, who had a first-round forfeit, lost her two wrestled matches in the girls state tourney, which included wrestlers from all of the state’s enrollment classifications. She lost in the quarterfinals to Sarahi Chavez of Salem’s McKay High School, and in the consolation round to Kendra Jamison of Sweet Home. Chavez went on to finish second and Jamison was fifth.

Forest Grove won the girls team title, while Springfield’s Thurston High was second.