For most of the girls who won titles on Saturday at the sixth edition of Clark County Girls Wrestling Championships, the experience was new.
But for Battle Ground junior Sierra Joner, it was a repeat-repeat performance. Joner has now been a champion at half of the six girls county tournaments. This time she won the 130-pound title with a second-round pin of Signe Zacho of Washougal.
“It means a lot. You’ve got to wrestle with your heart. You can’t focus so much on what’s going to come next. You’ve got to feel what’s inside and focus on that,” Joner said after claiming her third county title and improving to 15-1 this season.
Joner placed sixth at state last season and has bigger aspirations this year. The key. She said, is not to overthink things on the mat.
“I look for a move and I see it and I have to go. I can’t think too much about it. That’s what catches me sometimes is I think too much,” Joner said. “Once I stop thinking about it, it comes naturally.”
While Joner extended her individual dominance at this tournament, the Washougal girls extended their county bragging rights by winning the tournament’s team title for a fifth consecutive year. Washougal finished with 140 points, 61 more than runner-up Union.
Four Panthers took home championships: Samantha Eakins at 100 pounds (uncontested), Baylee Wright at 120 pounds, Mialisa Oster at 135 pounds and Morgan Ratcliff at 140 pounds.
Washougal’s Wright and Skyview’s Haley Horrocks certainly appreciated their Clark County championships. Each is a senior who won this tournament for the first time in four tries.
Wright, who began wrestling as an eighth-grader because her older brother Tyson told her she wouldn’t last in the sport, won the title at 120 pounds by pinning Jasmine Rouch from Fort Vancouver.
She placed second twice and third once at previous Clark County Championships.
“In my senior year, it feels amazing,” Wright said. “I just put my all into the match and went out there and wrestled.”
For Horrocks, who followed two older siblings into the sport as a freshman, the first Clark County title came from a different mindset and a heavier weight division.
“Last year I had some confidence issues. I know that this year I need to believe in myself and know that I can reach my goals,’ Horrocks said.
Pinning pinned Sam Flannelly of Camas 15 seconds into the 170-pound final should provide a boost for Horrocks, whose goal is a top-four finish at the state tournament.
“I’m really excited. I finally won it and reached one of my many goals,” Horrocks said.
Two freshmen won championships with memorable pins, Union’s Annabelle Helm at 125 pounds and Amanda Fry of Mountain View at 145 pounds.
Helm pinned Lacy Dunlop of Camas with one second left. Fry won by second-round pin over Bailey Thompson from Camas after Thompson led 5-0 in the first round.
Union’s Helm is in her sixth year of wrestling. She said high school wrestling is tougher than her experience in youth tournaments and that winning Saturday “means that I feel like I can accomplish something if I put hard work into it.”
Union’s other champion was junior Stephanie Cuevas, who won with a first-round pin at 155 pounds.
Skyview sophomore Hikaru Abe has been wrestling for three months. She started, she said, at the urging of her parents because wrestling is good training for the sport of judo. On Saturday she needed 45 seconds win the 105-pound title, her sixth win in eight high school matches.
