Washougal girls are still the best in Clark County

The Washougal girls wrestling team captured its sixth consecutive Clark County Championship Saturday, at Hudson's Bay High School in Vancouver. "I feel connected to those teams throughout the years because we have all been working hard for this," said senior Abby Lees. "Even though I haven't been on the team for six years, I feel like we are just continuing the legacy." Five individual champions, five finalists and six other medalists helped the Panthers win the 15-team tournament. Washougal scored 220 points, 103.5 more than second-place Skyview. "I hope they can continue to receive this award because it always feels good as a team to pull through together and work together to make this possible," said senior Morgan Ratcliff. Lees and Ratcliff became three-time Clark County champions for Washougal. Lees pinned Fort Vancouver's Abigal Mandiola, and Ratcliff defeated Union's Krista Warren 6-4 in the finals. WHS senior Mialisa Oster also goes out as a Clark County champion after pinning Union's Marissa Montano in the last round. "It just kind of tops it all off," Oster said. Sophomore Jenna Beaver and junior Jaden Robb clinched their first Clark County titles for the Panthers. Beaver pinned La Center's Shelby Kysar, and Robb pinned Skyview's Abby Palandrani in the finals. "Jenna is all heart. She earned every little drop of that championship," said head girls coach Heather Carver. "The leaps and bounds [Jaden] has made from last year to this year is just extraordinary," Carver added. "She believes in herself, believes in her team, and you can see that on the mat. She's really looking crisp." Samantha Eakins, Laura Rasmussen, Mikah Bartel, Brooklyn Wurm-Wertz and Emily Eakins secured second place for Washougal. Ariana Clemente and Aleksi Donahue earned third place. Aria Yang and Sariah Clark took fourth place. Josalyn Tanner finished in fifth place and Ashley Garrison grabbed sixth place. The Washougal boys wrestling team rose as high as fourth at the Clark County tournament, before finishing in sixth place. Juniors Tanner Lees and Michael Hickey reached the championship round for the Panthers, but both ended up settling for second place against elite wrestlers from the 4A level. "As hard as it was for us to see Tanner's undefeated record go away, it's a building block we can use to get ready for state," said head coach John Carver. Carver said Hickey won a "sensational" semifinal by one point. In the championship, he got taken off his feet first and was unable to recover. "At state, you're not going to medal unless you beat the guys on your feet," Carver said. "We saw what we need to work on." John Gable, Scott Lees and Cole Pass grabbed fourth place for the Panthers, and Jason Powell placed sixth. Washougal hosts R.A. Long tonight, in its final home duel of the season. The varsity matches begin at 7 p.m. "When we wrestle R.A. Long, we need to have the same type of performance we had against them when we wrestled them at the Washougal tournament and edged them out for the team title," Carver said. "We expect this to be a very competitive match."

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