Winter Sports Roundup: Kelso girls wrestling red-hot and ready to host first-ever State dual championships
Inside Stuff – Prep wrestling, swimming and bowling reports from around The Blast Zone
Matt Baide and Jordan Nailon for Blast Zone Media / blastzonenews@gmail.com
Prep Winter Sports / Roundup
High School Girls wrestling
The Kelso girls wrestling team represented well at its own tournament last weekend, winning The Braided 64 team championship title without putting any individual grappler at the top of the podium.
The Lassies won the team championship with 206.5 points. Cleveland, New Mexico finished second with 185.5 points, while Hermiston (Ore.) placed third with 170.5 points.
“We had four placers, which is crazy,” Kelso head coach Bobby Freund said. “Our girls, they just keep grinding out wins and they’ve been able to keep us out there in the lead.”
And what’s the secret to the Lassies’ success on the mats?
“Just our depth,” Freund said. "Our girls who didn’t place are winning a lot of matches. And thats’ what it’s going to take to go win a State title again.”
— Kelso’s Keisha Hayes earns a win during a 170-pound match at The Braided 64 last weekend at Kelso High School. The Lassies were able to claim a team title with four individual placers on the podium. / Video by Ben Hendrickson for Blast Zone Media —
And Kelso has dominated the team scores this season without the help of last year’s State runner-up, Kamiah Gaerlan. She’s currently working in the background in an effort to make a return before the postseason.
The Braided 64 is the largest girls-only tournament on the west coast with 108 teams and over 1,100 athletes represented this year. The Kelso boys wrestling team helps to host the event, and the annual operation continues to impress locals and outsiders alike.
“We had a lot of good help and support and we’ve been doing it so long that each year it just gets polished out a little bit more,” Freund noted.
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