Three Grays Harbor wrestlers overcame rugged competition to earn gold medals at Hoquiam’s Grizzly Alumni Association Invitational.

Edgar Salazar and Tyler Souphommanichanh, both of Aberdeen, and Hoquiam’s Lutra Felten were among the champions in the 38th annual Grizzly Alumni Association wrestling tournament on Saturday at Hoquiam Square Garden.

Possessing so much depth that its junior varsity placed 10th in a 28-team field, Class 3A Lincoln of Tacoma easily repeated as team champion. The Abes, with 265 points, finished 97 points ahead of runner-up Chelan.

Host Hoquiam took third with 126 points. Aberdeen was fifth, Elma sixth and Willapa Harbor seventh in the team standings. Montesano also competed, but sent most of its top wrestlers to Rainier’s Sergeant Norton Memorial Tournament.

Both Aberdeen titles came in all-Harbor finals.

Repeating his title-match victory in North Beach’s Bash at the Beach tourney the previous weekend, Salazar pinned teammate Angel Cisneros in the first round of the 120-pound championship bout. Aberdeen coach Jimmy Martin said that Cisneros will likely drop to the 113-pound weight class in the near future.

The impressive Souphommanichanh piled up a 10-1 lead over Elma’s Andrew Persell after one round of the 126-pound final. He then finished off his opponent by technical fall, 17-2, midway through the second period.

“Overall, we wrestled pretty well,” Martin summarized. “We had some kids sick, which just about everybody has. Tyler and Edgar and Angel all wrestled really well.”

The once-beaten Felten was trailing Lincoln’s Vu Le, 2-0, midway through the second round of a defensive-minded 106-pound final when he took down Le and pinned him at the 3:19 mark.

Felten represented Hoquiam’s lone finalist, but the Grizzlies amassed enough “back door” points in losers bracket matches to place third in the team standings. That encouraged HHS coach T.J. Helland, whose team had first-place punch but lacked depth early in the campaign.

“We had some depth show up and placed pretty well, which is what we’ve lacked,” Helland noted. “We had a number of toss-up matches that we dropped. Lutra wrestled great in a tough bracket.”

Hoquiam 182-pound standout Artimus Johnson was one of the casualties of a tough bracket.

Lincoln’s J.J. Dixon, who had split two matches with Johnson in the previous week’s Gut Check tournament at Silverdale, used a second-round escape and takedown to edge the HHS senior, 3-0, in a tautly wrestled semifinal.

Dixon went on to capture the title by decisioning state placewinner Jack Moen of Cle Elum-Roslyn, 4-1. Johnson settled for a tie for third (the third-fourth place matches were not contested).

Elma, which has struggled with numbers this season, did well to advance three wrestlers to the finals. But the Eagles were blanked in the title round.

Chelan’s Juan Del Cruz, a returning state placewinner, neatly countered the attacks by Eagle junior Justin Sample en route to a 15-4 victory in the 145-pound championship bout.

Elma senior Liam Baxter, a first-year wrestler, gave a good account of himself against Lincoln’s Xavier Williams in the 220-pound final. Williams broke a scoreless deadlock with a two-point near-fall near the end of the second round. Then Williams turned and pinned him with 15 seconds remaining in the contest.

Baxter had scored a pair of first-round pins to reach the title match.

“We are all going in the right direction,” Eagle coach Adam Catterlin said. “We are still getting in the transition phase to get to championship wrestling.”

Class 2B Willapa Harbor had a pair of losing finalists.

Recovering from a recent illness, Willapa Harbor’s Ben Byington seemed to be in command against Cle Elum-Roslyn’s Nick Fordham with a 2-0 lead midway through the second round of their 160-pound final. But Fordham reversed the momentum with an escape and takedown late in that round and went on to take an 8-2 decision.

Joseph Lewis, like Byington a South Bend student, similarly found the going rough late against Lincoln’s Jeremias Sandoval in the 132-pound title contest. Sandoval scored nine of the final 11 points for an 11-3 victory.

Willapa Harbor was missing some of its top wrestlers due to injury and illness.

“It makes it tough to get any momentum going in the team standings,” Willapa Harbor coach Preston Crow said. “But we did pretty well overall. Our kids wrestled well against 3A and 4A kids.”

(Third-fourth place matches were not contested)

106: Championship — Lutra Felten (Hoquiam) pinned Vu Le (Lincoln), 3:21. 3. Aaron Lano (Montesano) and Chien Le (Lincoln JV). 113: Championship — Boira Mokmouen (Lincoln) dec. Joey Moen (Cle Elum-Roslyn), 9-4. 3. Malaki Eaton (Hoquiam JV) and Angel Foley (Foss). 120: Championship — Edgar Salazar (Aberdeen) pinned Angel Cisneros (Aberdeen JV), 1:32. 3. Colten French (Elma) and Jeremiah Duncombe (Lincoln). 126: Championship — Tyler Souphommanichanh (Aberdeen) tech. fall over Andrew Persell (Elma). 3. Johnaven Notti (Lincoln) and Michael Marquez (Mountlake Terrace). 132: Championship — Jeremias Sandavol (Lincoln) dec. Joseph Lewis (Willapa Harbor), 11-3. 3. Nate Say (Cle Elum) and Javier Pastor (Chelan). 138: Championship — Jacob Holm (Liberty-Issaquah) pinned Josh Say (Cle Elum), 2:40. 3. Andre’s Vasquez (Hoquiam) and Elijah Duncombe (Lincoln). 145: Championship — Juan Del Cruz (Chelan) dec. Justin Sample, 15-4. 3. Juan Flores (Liberty) and Cooper Murch (Liberty JV).

152: Championship — Pavel Oliferovskiy (Mountlake Terrace) pinned Erik Alcala (Chelan), 3:32. 3. Jace Duckworth (Willapa Harbor) and Matthew Hitchiner (Elma). 160: Championship — Nick Fordham (Cle Elum) dec. Ben Byington (Willapa Harbor, 8-2. 3. Jacob Lex (Liberty) and Tristian Kwon (Lincoln). 170: Championship — Dominic Martin (Lincoln) pinned Skyler Gordon (Chelan), 3:22. 3. Sage Zinni (Chelan JV) and Gavin Miller (Lincoln JV). 182: Championship — J.J. Dixon (Lincoln) dec. Jack Moen (Cle Elum), 4-1. 3. Artimus Johnson (Hoquiam) and Aundre Seabrook (Mountlake Terrace). 195: Championship — Seth Lindsey (Toledo-Winlock) dec. Reyne Mack (Mountlake Terrace), 5-3. 3. Marco Arteaga (Chelan) and Jonoah Thomas (Lincoln JV). 220: Championship — Xavier Williams (Lincoln) pinned Liam Baxter (Elma), 5:45. 3. Larry Leonard (Hoquiam) and Christian Anderson (Willapa Harbor). 285: Championship — Will Willsey (Lincoln) dec. Jackson Potts (Foss), 3-2 in 2 OT. 3. Skyler Murray (Aberdeen) and Zach Pua (Lincoln JV).