Young boys wrestling team has strength to be regional powerhouse

Though the Blaine boys wrestling team is relatively young, it’s experienced enough that it should once again be a regional powerhouse.

The always-strong Blaine wrestling team has just two seniors out of about 30 wrestlers, but six of the returning wrestlers qualified for state last year.

Senior Gavino Rodriguez is the team’s veteran and he should be a standout. At state last year he finished one match short of placing in the top eight. He wrestled in the offseason and won the Washington State Wrestling Association Greco State Championships in the 220-pound, 19-and-under category in May.

“He’s looking really good right now,” said Blaine head coach Tom Hinz. “He’s the one guy who’s kind of leading on and off the mat.”

Blaine’s team includes five others who went to state last year: Owen Hansen, Luke Westfall, Colton Pederson, Jack Cheatham and Adam MaCauley.

The Borderites once again will fill out the heavier weight classes and this year they have more wrestlers in the lighter weights than the past two seasons. That will give Blaine more opportunities to rack up team points at competition. Freshman Cael Button gives Blaine a boost in the lighter classes; he’s wrestled well at 120 pounds in early competition.

Though Hinz expects big things from his team by the end of the season, the Borderites aren’t there yet, he said. They started their season on December 7 at the White River Classic in Buckley, where Blaine placed 14th out of 18 teams.

The White River Classic includes some of the top teams in the state, such as Toppenish and White River, the first and second place teams at last year’s 2A state tournament.

“We were 14th out of 18, But those four teams that we beat, those aren’t bad teams either,” Hinz said. “It’s just a really tough tournament. The ability to see all those wrestlers early was really good for us. It’s just that our guys are state qualifiers and they’re state placers.”

On December 13 and 14, the Borderites finished 8th out of 16 teams at the Battle at the Border, Blaine’s annual home tournament. Top placers there were Rodriguez (second at 195 pounds), Button (third at 120), Cheatham (4th at 152) and Westfall (4th at 182).

Next, the Borderites travel to the Hammerhead Invitational in Bremerton on Friday, December 20. They next wrestle at home at 7 p.m. on January 8 against Meridian.