There were 32-man brackets in each weight class. There were 35 teams. Only seven squads from Clark County.
With all that, there still was one championship match that featured Clark County vs. Clark County.
Union’s Cody Gromes got the best of Prairie’s Tyler Duncan, winning via pin in the third round of the 195-pound title match Saturday night at the Pacific Coast Wrestling Championships at Hudson’s Bay High School.
“It’s ridiculous,” Gromes said. “Last year, I didn’t even place here. Hard work, and I came back to win it this year. It feels good, especially to get it on a pin.”
Gromes was one of three champions from Clark County.
Dallas Goodpaster of Prairie won at 220 pounds and Kenji Yamashita of Mountain View won his second Pac Coast title, claiming the 138-pound class this season.
Dallas of Oregon won the team title with 159.5 points. Yelm took second with 146, and Union was third at 144.
Gromes said he expects to face Duncan again at the Clark County Wrestling Championships in a couple of weeks. He said the big tournaments in January hopefully will push him to great things in February.
“My goal is to make it to the state finals,” Gromes said. “This is a hard tournament. It’s going to get me ready for it, going up against pretty tough kids.”
Goodpaster, too, has been facing quality opponents this season.
“It’s big,” he said of his Pac Coast victory, “especially coming off of three losses so far this year. It’s good to come through. I’m wrestling good competition.”
Goodpaster defeated Abzael Loeza of Chiawana 4-1 in the finals.
Yamashita came in seeded fourth, despite winning here last season. The seeds are based on state placing in 2013, so Yamashita was not offended.
He was motivated, though.
“We didn’t do as well as a team. I felt I had to show something for them,” Yamashita said, thanking his family and coaches.
Austin Wright of Evergreen (285 pounds) and Gunnar Metzger of Hudson’s Bay (145) joined Duncan as runners-up from Clark County.
The Pacific Coast Wrestling Championships were hosted by the Evergreen wrestling program.
