A hard day of wrestling in the Camas warehouse

Five Papermakers entered the Camas warehouse Saturday, and climbed the ladder to the final round of the Southwest Washington 4A district wrestling tournament. One of them came down the chute as champion.

Tye Lommasson defeated Jordan Moore of Evergreen 12-3 in the 126-pound championship match. The Camas High School junior also beat teammate Gavin Grable and Battle Ground’s Colten Blake in their earlier rounds. Grable turned around from his loss to Lommasson and grabbed third place. Both Papermakers generated 36 points to the team score.

“The view from the top is amazing,” Lommasson said. “I’ll remember all the hard work I put in and the teammates I wrestled with. We made some good memories.”

Camas scored 176.5 points for third place at the six-team tournament, which Union won with 276 points. Bryant Elliott, Austin Miller, Dakota Safford and Vince Huber lost some tough championship matches, but they will join Lommasson at the regional tournament Saturday at Heritage High School, 7825 N.E. 130th Ave., in Vancouver.

Andrew Duffy, Talon Edmiston, Wesley Gilge and Grable are also advancing to regionals. Duffy earned a 15-0 technical fall against Skyview’s Tyler Hansen for third place at 138 pounds.

“In past years, I’ve come here and not won a single match,” Duffy said. “To get third place as a senior is pretty much the culmination of all my hard work. If I can make it to state, that would be like the perfect season.”

Down by four points, Gilge came up with a thrilling counter and a pin fall victory against Union’s Brandon Simon with 45 seconds left to finish in third place at 285.

“My teammates were cheering me on and pushing me to beat that guy. I wanted to do it for them,” Gilge said. “You can do one big thing in your life, or you can do 10 small things. In the end, it’s all the small things that lead up to the big things.”

Edmiston delivered a huge takedown in the final seconds of a match that had been tied. He beat Battle Ground’s Sheldon Michalois 5-3 for third place at 195. Grable defeated Battle Ground’s Sean Trenda 4-1 for third place at 126.

Camas senior Taryn Lommasson took second place at the girls sub-regional wrestling tournament Saturday, at Kalama High School. Shauna Adern and Erin Tully finished in fifth place.

Lommasson competes at the regional tournament Saturday, at Battle Ground High School, 330 W. Main St.