WOODLAND — Cece Saylor’s day — like many of Skyview girls’ wrestlers — began with nerves.
Not on the mat. This was pre-mat.
Their bus arrived late to Woodland High School for the District 4 girls wrestling tournament. Fortunately for them, weigh-ins were running behind, so crisis averted.
“We made it,” she said.
That was about the only thing that went wrong for the Storm’s junior, who cruised to three first-round pins, including pinning her own friend and teammate, Mariana Juarez-Trejo in a 1-minute, 28-second pin in the 170-pound finals to capture her first district title.
She’s one of three Skyview wrestlers, plus three alternates, to advance to next Saturday’s Region 3 meet at Aberdeen High School.
Washougal, with six girls reaching the finals, took the team title with 276.5 points. Woodland also was home Saturday to the Class 2A subdistrict boys meet, where the Panthers made it a girls-boys team sweep. Washougal, behind five boys champions, won the boys team title with 314.5 points to best runner-up Mark Morris (181). The top four boys and girls placers advance to the regional tournaments.
After dislocating her elbow last season five matches in that required six months of healing, Saylor is now 20-1 this season with her lone loss to Sunnyside’s Aylin Bautista, a sixth-place Mat Classic finisher in 2016. Coming into Saturday, she wanted to match what her brother, Jackson Saylor, also accomplished at 170 pounds a few hours earlier: winning a district title.
And she did it against Juarez-Trejo, a teammate she faces daily at practice.
While the two shared smiles and a few laughs during pre-finals introductions, it still remained a serious match, Saylor said.
“She knows my moves, and I know her moves,” she said. “And it’s better than being nervous before a match.”
Impressed is how Hudson’s Bay ninth grader Allison Blaine describes her season that’s far from over. Now 17-0, her 7-2 finals victory over Union’s Annabelle Helm at 130 was a match — and an foe — she’d been looking forward to facing.
“This was my first chance to wrestler,” Blaine said, “and I was hyped for it.”
Saturday was only the third varsity tournament Blaine’s participated in, she said. And next weekend’s regionals will hopefully be adding to the recent family legacy. Her brother, Aaron Blaine, was a four-time state placer for the Eagles from 2011-’14.
Fort Vancouver advanced three of its five entries to regionals, including ninth grader Eliana Duff at 110 pounds, despite nursing a collarbone injury that was re-aggravated during her finals match R.A. Long’s Olivia Lindsey. Lindsey pinned Duff (5:36), and Duff said she’ll be OK for regionals.
“It happens,” she said. “It’s the sport.”
On the boys side, four of Washougal’s five champions were from the 138 through 160 weight classes (Dylen Cherry, Tanner Lees, John Gable, Michael Hickey) plus Dylan Kiemele at 113. Next weekend’s Region 1 boys meet is at Ridgefield.
