SportsSportsThursday, February 27SECTION B – THE OTHELLO OUTLOOK SPORTS@OTHELLOOUTLOOK.COM

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By erik LaFontainepuBLisher@otheLLooutLook.com

TACOMA – Following last weekend's state wrestling tournament, hydrogen per-oxide sales in Othello are ex-pected to sharply decline as the Huskies return home with a fourth-place team finish and two individual state champs.

Head coach Ruben Marti-nez sent six wrestlers to Ta-coma and brought home two titles, a third and two fourth-place finishes – capping an-other record setting season.

Othello's 97 points were good enough for fourth, be-hind state champion Deer Park's 109, second-finisher Sedro Woolley's 104 and Ort-ing, who finished in third with 98.5 points.

Seniors Bubba Ruiz (285) and Isaiah Barrera (106) both return as state champions. Junior Manny Martinez fin-ished third at 132 pounds, while senior Jesus Montes (170) and sophomore Antho-

ny Ruiz (195) brought home fourth-place titles. Five of the six Othello wrestlers finished top four.

Martinez said his team was in the title race right up to the consolation and state finals.

"We needed one more final-ist and one more win some-where else … one more final-ist would have put us at 108 points," he said. "That is how close the state race was."

Following the close re-gional tournament, Martinez expected the state tournament would also be very close.

"We made a run at it and I am very happy with how we competed … we placed ahead of 52 other AA high schools," he said. "We did come up short of our team goals, but getting two individual state champi-ons was part of those goals we set back in November."

Martinez was impressed with how well Region IV (CWAC and Greater Northern League) schools finished. Of the 42 top-three finishers in

all 14 weight classes, 23 were from the CWAC or GNL.

"This exemplified the im-portance of qualifying for state," he said. "Our region was very tough again and the state champion school was from our region."

The CWAC was repre-sented in nine of the 14 final matches. Overall, 16 wrestlers – out of 28 total – in the finals were from Region IV with five winners from the CWAC and four winners from the GNL.

Martinez thanks all the par-ents, family and community members for their continued support all season.

"I know that I heard your voices in the stands and I am pretty sure the wrestlers did, too," he said. "For Isaiah, Bub-ba and my coaching staff, that was a highlight of our state tournament during the finals. Not only seeing our fans in red, black and white but also hearing the chants and cheers during the heated battles that our wrestlers encountered."

Othello will bring back 17 regional wrestlers and three state wrestlers next year.

"We will need to get in some important work during the off season if we want to be in this similar situation next season," Martinez said.

Bubba RuizSenior, 285 pounds

Ruiz finished off a tremen-dous senior campaign, win-ning the first state title at 285 pounds in Othello history.

He opened round one with a 39-second pin of Devon Jack-son, of Lakewood, followed by a 5-1 win by decision over Olympic's Umu Timoteo in the quarter finals.

"That quarter final match was a close, hard fought match," Martinez said.

A win by injury default during his semifinal match against Ricky Miller, of West Valley-Spokane, set up a champion rematch against Fife's returning state cham-pion Monike Sarte who de-feated Ruiz in last year's final.

"In that match against Miller, it appeared as though his opponent was knocked out and seriously hurt, but the young man came back to watch the rest of the tourna-ment after being checked out," Martinez said.

Against Sarte, Ruiz kept the big man from getting any leverage, with both wrestlers spending most of the match on their feet.

This was the match Mar-tinez had been looking for-ward to and was a chance for Ruiz to avenge last year's loss, which came on a stall-ing call made by the official in overtime.

"This year, we had a plan

where the official could not be the deciding factor and Bubba stuck to the plan and avoided being penalized early in the match," Martinez said.

Ruiz wore his opponent down and was able to get in a scramble situation on the edge of the mat and was able to catch Sarte on his back for a reversal and a two-point near fall.

After six grueling minutes, Ruiz defeated Sarte by 4-2 de-cision, earning his page in the Othello history book.

"Being able to get that loss off his back in the dramatic fashion that he did was incred-ible and a joy to be part of," Martinez said.

Ruiz finished his high school career with a 105-36 record, which included a 34-2 senior season. As a freshman, he finished fourth in the dis-

trict and fifth in the regional. As a sophomore, he finished second in the district, second in the regional and was a state participant. During his junior season, he went 34-5, finish-ing first in the district and re-gional and second in the state. As a senior, he repeated with a first in the district and re-gional, this time finishing tops in the state.

Isaiah BarreraSenior, 106 pounds

Barrera had different chal-lenges toward championship glory, he had to wrestle – and defeat – four consecutive freshman to earn his state title.

Round one opened with a pin in 3:53 over Alex Arm-strong, of White River. Against Ridgefield's Trevor

The Othello wrestlers return two state champs and a top four finish

Bringing home the hardware

photo By eric LaFontaine

Senior Isaiah Barrera defeated four freshmen en route to his first state title at 106 pounds. He ends his career with an overall record of 107-39. He is the second straight Barrera to win a state title. Brother Anthony won last year as a senior.

photo By eric LaFontaine

Senior Bubba Ruiz went 4-0 during the state tournament, becoming the first Huskie to win a state title at 285 pounds. He finishes his career with a record of 105-36.

By eric LaFontaineoutLook puBLisher

TACOMA – For only the sec-ond time in school history, a female Othello wrestler has returned home a state champ.

Othello's Tatum Sparks and five of her teammates battled 86 of the state's top girls high school programs last weekend, leaving Mat Classic XXVI with a state title at 137 pounds, a sixth-place finish at 170 pounds and an 11th overall team finish. Not bad for a program only six years old.

Sparks ran the table at 137 pounds, returning a state champion. Fresh-man Rosana Pena battled to a sixth-place finish at 170 pounds, becoming only the second freshman wrestler in school history to place – Sparks being the first, finishing third two years ago.

Head coach JJ Martinez said his team fell short of their goal for a top 10 finish but was overall excited with how well some of his younger wres-tlers performed.

"Almost everyone won a match

and scored us points and we were very close to that top 10," he said. "Our new goal already is to make his-tory next year with the first two-time state champion and possibly bring home that state title next year."

Warden won their second straight state title with 104.5 points. Puyallup finished second with 88 points, Cen-tralia third with 79 points and Kelso fourth with 60 points.

The Huskies were 11th with 47 points. Grandview tied for sixth with Nooksack Valley, each with 55 points.

With the season ending, Mar-tinez said it was exciting to hear all the girls talking about summer wrestling already.

"That's a really good thing here," he said. "With our strong freshman and sophomore classes, we should be back here with a really strong team."

Tatum Sparks Junior, 137 pounds

Martinez and Sparks had one goal in mind since her second-place finish in last year's tournament – win that

state championship.Thankfully, Sparks didn't disap-

point, dominating every opponent in her path to the title.

"We had one thing in mind and that was a state title … she wasn't

going to be OK with second place this year," Martinez said. "What we found during the season is she wasn't getting enough competition so we would make her go three rounds for conditioning and to get the extra

mat time. Our goal was the title and she prevailed."

Martinez said Sparks was on a mission.

"We were on a mission and we

Sparks wins title, caps 38-0 season

photo By eric LaFontaine

Tatum Sparks went 38-0 during her junior season, returning home to Othello with the second state title in school’s history. She went 4-0 during the tournament, ending her season with an overall record 121 wins and six losses.

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