Royal wins two titles, advances seven to state
Carlos Hernandez of Royal (in white) looks for leverage against an opponent from Zillah in an elimination match at 120 pounds at the regional wrestling tournament Saturday. He won, 10-7, qualified for stateand went on to third place.
ROYAL CITY - Alex Myrick and Damien DeLaRosa won individual titles at 160 and 182 pounds to lead Royal High School to fourth place at the South Central 1A Regional Wrestling Tournament at Zillah on Saturday.
Royal was barely edged for third place by SCAC East rival Kiona-Benton. The Knights will look to get past the Bears at state and likely will do it.
Royal is sending seven boys to state. Ki-Be is sending six. Ki-Be will have two regional champs and one runner-up. Royal will have two regional champs on two runners-up
On the girls side of things, Royal will send Mariana Alvarez to state. She finished third at regionals, at Wahluke, at 118 pounds.
Brea Diaz will travel to state as an alternate. She took fourth place at regionals at 124 pounds.
The state meet will open Friday at the Tacoma Dome. Myrick and DeLaRosa placed last year and will be among the favorites.
Danny Barajas, at 132, should be among the favorites. He comes in as a regional runner-up but knows how to win a state title, having captured last year's 119-pound crown.
Barajas and Ki-Be's Matt McCallum continued their year-long battle of wills at regionals. This time it was McCallum winning a brutal match, 7-5, for the regional title. They could meet for the state title.
Myrick made it back to state (152 last year) with three victories at regionals. The final one, by a score of 3-2, was an intense affair with Nolin Bare of Goldendale.
DeLaRosa used the same formula to get to state. However, he scored a pin in the finale with Tyler Yorgesen of Wahluke.
Brian Gallardo won his first two matches at 106 to qualify for state and wrestle for the regional title. He ran into Granger buzz-saw Victor Almaguer in the finale and fell, 12-4.
At 120, the Knights got a third-place finish from freshman Carlos Hernandez. After dropping a semifinal, he scored a stirring 10-7 victory in the elimination round and advanced to the third-place match and state.
At 152, Emilio Bustos had a similar afternoon, losing a semifinal then winning an elimination match. He took out Burbank's Tucker Simonton for third place.
Laddie Goroski nearly pulled off the same feat at 145. He won his elimination match to make it to state but came up short in the third-place match.