The Forks High School basketball team finished second overall this season behind Onalaska High School in Southwest Washington League – Evergreen Division play. The Spartans advanced to the district tournament. The team’s first game of the double-elimination tourney is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 10 at Centralia High School at 6:30 p.m. against the Kalama Chinooks who are known for their fast pace of play.
Kalama (13-8) defeated the Montesano Bulldogs 69-39 in a Southwest 1A District tournament play-in game on Tuesday, Feb. 7 played at Kalama.
Spartan wrestling
By Bill Cortani
The Forks Spartan Wrestlers hit the Montesano Bulldog gymnasium over the weekend of Feb 3 – 4 to compete in the Southwest Washington Evergreen 1A Sub-Regional Tournament. Facing the other six teams in the league – Montesano, Elma, Rochester, Hoquiam, Tenino and Rainier – the Spartan Boys were able to pull off a third-place team finish with six Spartans moving on to the Championships.
The Lady Spartans competed at the same event against 17 other girl teams from their sub-region. After all was said and done, the six ladies earned a fourth-overall finish and qualified five to advance on to Regional’s with two taking championship titles.
For the boys, at 106 lbs. Freshman Sebastian Morales ended the two-day event with a second-place finish after falling to a formidable Ryan Wilson of Elma. Also placing at 106 for Forks was Freshman Garret Brito at fourth. At 120 lbs Sophomore Sebastian Barragan took the title after pinning Montesano’s Cruz Carter. Forks Freshman Javier Contreras placed third. At 126 lbs Spartan Ricky Barragan placed third. At 132 lbs Rochester’s Jordan Colombo tried to keep Cutter Grahn from the gold, but Cutter ended Colombo’s efforts late in the first round with a win by pin. Also at 132 Forks Sophomore Abasai Garcia qualified for the next step by placing fifth. At 152 Spartan James Salazar went a hard three rounds against Elma’s number one seed Christian Gutierrez. With an amazing scramble, Salazar took the match 5-4. Sophomore Gavin Casteneda placed fifth after pinning Aaron Deltorre. At 195, third seed Spartan Joel Ward took the championship match against Montesano’s number one seed Blake Wargo. Ward won by first round pin. At 285, Spartan Jake Claussen took second after a long six minutes against Monte’s Joseph Choi. Choi defeated Claussen 5-0. Also making the grade at 285 was Spartan Senior Eugene Haynes placing fourth.
Two Lady Spartan’s fought their way to the championship round. At 106 lbs Freshman Tristen Williams defeated Hoquiam’s Reyna Sanchez with a pin. At 265 Spartan Dawna Chase won the gold with a first round pin of Yelm’s heavy hitter Haillee Llewellen. Seniors Nicole Wade, Sierra Noles and Freshman Brooke Petersen all placed third rounding out a total of 17 wrestlers heading to Castle Rock for the Washington State Regional’s on Sunday, Feb. 12. Those wrestlers that qualify will advance to the Washington State Mat Classics Championships held at the Tacoma Dome the weekend of Feb. 18-19.
