Liberty Bell teammates Magnus Treise, top, and Alex Garcia had to face each other in the 170-pound division at the district tournament. Treise won.
Five Liberty Bell High School wrestlers have advanced to the boys’ regional tournament in Kittitas on Saturday (Feb. 10), based on performances at last weekend’s District 5/6 1B/2B tournament at Oroville.
The girls’ regional wrestling tournament for Region 4 is also on Saturday, at East Valley High School in Spokane. Competing for Liberty Bell will be Shelby White, who had a strong season and performed well in the sub-regionals meet at Warden last weekend. The top four finishers in each weight division will advance to the state tournament — Mat Classic XXX — at the Tacoma Dome on Feb. 16 – 17.
From the boys’ regional meet, the top three finishers in each weight class will move on to state tournament.
Wrestling at 195 pounds, Liberty Bell senior Finlay Holston took first place at the boys’ district tournament with a pin over Brandon Barker of Tonasket. Last year, Holston was the Mountain Lions’ only representative at the state tournament, where he took second place in the 182-pound division.
In the 120-pound division at districts, sophomore Jed McMillan took fourth place. He lost to third-place finisher Luis Vazquez of Oroville because of an injury.
Junior Evan Budrow was not able to wrestle at 126 pounds because he was still recovering from an earlier concussion.
Freshman Bodie Paul took second place in the 145-pound division. He beat Darian Range of Oroville, 7-0, then lost 11-1 to Garrett Wilson of Tonasket in the final.
Liberty Bell had two wrestlers in the 170-pound division. Sophomore Magnus Treise took third place. After being pinned by Slade Ginter of Pateros, Treise then faced and defeated teammate Alex Garcia, a junior, who had been pinned by Moses Luevano of Lake Roosevelt. Treise defeated Luevano, 5-0, for third place. Garcia took fifth place.
All the Liberty Bell competitors except Budrow will be eligible for the regional tournament this weekend.
In team scoring, Tonasket took first place with 342 points, Lake Roosevelt second with 153, Oroville third with 113, Liberty Bell fourth with 60, Pateros fifth with 46 and Brewster sixth with 36.
