GIRLS PREP WRESTLING

Heikkila leads Aberdeen to third place at Kelso Invite

Led by top-ranked grappler Tatum Heikkila, the Aberdeen Bobcats earned a third-place finish at the Kelso Invitational on Saturday.

Competing in the large 600 girl tournament, Aberdeen finished with 158 points as a team. Sunnyside (201 points) and White River (187) placed first and second, respectively.

Aberdeen was led by Heikkila, the top-ranked wrestler in the 190-pound class acccording to washingtonwrestlingreport.net. Heikkila navigated through the 64-wrestler bracket to face Hanford’s Grace Nelson in the championship match. Heikkila pinned Nelson at the 1:07 mark to claim Aberdeen’s first individual title at the prestigious tournament.

“Tatum was incredible this weekend, dominating from start to finish,” Aberdeen head coach Craig Yakovich said. “I can’t say enough good things about this kid, she is just wrestling at another level than her opponents. She was our first ever finalist and to come out as a champion made it just a bit sweeter.”

Aberdeen’s Ciera Skelly earned four pinfall wins on her way to a fifth-place finish in the 130-pound class.

Thalia Cook earned seven wins by fall — second most in the tournament — en route to a seventh-place finish at 170 pounds and Savannah Chandler tallied four pinfall wins on her way to eighth place in the 140-pound weight class.

Aberdeen ended the invitational with 35 pins as a team, second most for the tournament.

“I couldn’t be happier with how our team wrestled this weekend,” Yakovich said. “This is the toughest regular season tournament in the state — packed with state and national placers — and we have been coming here for years, so to finally receive some team hardware was an amazing effort by our entire lineup.”

Aberdeen hosts Centralia in a 2A Evergreen League dual meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

BOYS PREP WRESTLING

Elma’s Garcia earns Blair Invite title

Elma wrestler Jacob Garcia added a tournament title to his trophy case, winning the 220-pound weight class at the Jim Blair Invitational at Castle Rock on Saturday.

Garcia pinned Union’s Levi Harms in the championship match to win the individual title.

“Jacob wrestled very well and has really started to develop an offensive style of wrestling,” Elma head coach Russell Luellen said.

Elma’s Ben Sowers (152 pounds) and Alejandro Hernandez (285) both placed third in their respective weight classes.

A contingent of Eagles wrestlers also competed at the Bash at the Beach Invitational on Saturday at North Beach High School.

Brady Shriver (152) and Benjamin Bridge (220) took home second-place medals for their respective weight classes While AJ Whipple (160), Donovan Bishop (182) and Carter Ayres (285) each finished in third place.

Elma will be back on the mat with a dual meet at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Forks High School.

BOYS PREP SWIMMING

Aberdeen competes at South Sound Relays

Aberdeen kicked off its 2019 portion of its season on the road at Rogers High School at the South Sound Relays on Saturday in Puyallup.

Facing Class 4A and 3A schools, the Bobcats held their own and set themselves up for a key stretch of dual meets over the next two weeks.

“When you are in a run stretch of practices and workouts over the holiday break, you don’t know where you stand against other competitors,” AHS head coach Rob Burns said. “On Saturday, we found out and we were very pleased with the results. We know exactly what we need to do to achieve our goals this month. It wasn’t perfect, but we don’t have to be right now.”

The Bobcats’ 4×50-yard freestyle relay team notched the best overall result of the day, taking fourth place against several Class 4A and 3A state relay teams. The quad of Conner Gates, Kai Kawashima, Logan Sias and Brice Kola comprised the relay team.

Individually, Kawashima, who is the team’s leading diver, led Aberdeen with two top-10 finishes in two-man relays — joining Gates for eighth in the 2×50 free and Trevor Mullin for seventh in the 2×100 breaststroke.

Coach Burns also cited Russell Bates, Jamieson Berney, Michael Smith, Foster Patterson and Clayton Anderson for time drops and overall performances.

At 4 p.m. Monday, Aberdeen will host Shelton in a non-league dual meet at the YMCA of Grays Harbor.

— Rob Burns, For the Grays Harbor News Group

Aberdeen Results (top-16 finish only): 400 Medley Relay — 7. Aberdeen (Bates, Mullin, Gates, Sias), 4:22.99. 2×100 IM — 16. Aberdeen (Kola, Bates), 2:26.85. 2×50 Free — 8. Aberdeen (Kawashima, Gates), 52.01. 11. Aberdeen (Sias, Kola), 53.25. 15. Aberdeen (Burns, Mullin), 55.88. 800 Free Relay — 9. Aberdeen (Berney, Smith, Patterson, Anderson), 12:59.08. 200 Free Relay — 4. Aberdeen (Gates, Kawashima, Sias, Kola), 1:45.86. 2×100 Backstroke — 10. Aberdeen (Bates, Sias) 2:18.51. 2×100 Breaststroke — 7. Aberdeen (Kawashima, Mullin), 2:31.65.