A pair of local high school wrestlers impressed on the national stage as they claimed titles at prestigious tournaments over the weekend.
Mia Cienega, a sophomore at Everett, won the 9th-12th Girls 235-pound division at the Brian Keck Memorial Preseason Nationals in Des Moines, Iowa. Cienega, who’s ranked No. 12 in the nation at 235 pounds, pinned athletes from Iowa and Missouri to set up a championship match against Chloe Hooselton of Illinois, who’s ranked No. 6 in the nation. Cienega won the match by a 5-2 decision to take home the title.
“It think I did really well,” Cienega said in an interview with USA Wrestling. “I’ve been working hard and it paid off.”
Koen Mattern, a senior at Lake Stevens, won the 285-pound division at the Boys National High School Recruiting Showcase, which also took place in Des Moines. Competing in a round-robin, Mattern won all three of his matches to earn first place.
“Just staying ready, getting a good warm-up before the matches,” is what Mattern said was the key when interviewed by USA Wrestling. “It was a very small bracket, but it still was a lot of work.”
Arlington grad competing for All-Navy hoops team
Arlington High School graduate Brittany (DeNike) Ommen (21) is competing for the All-Navy women’s team at the 2023 Armed Forces Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship. (Provided photo)
Arlington High School graduate Brittany (DeNike) Ommen is competing at the 2023 Armed Forces Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship, which is taking place this week at Fort Moore, Georgia, as a member of the All-Navy women’s team.
Ommen, a 6-foot guard/post who graduated from Arlington in 2015, is a Petty Officer Third-class Gunner’s Mate, serving as a reservist and drilling out of Bremerton Naval Station, thus qualifying her for the Navy team. She joined the team in April and this is her first time competing at the Basketball Championship.
Ommen and the Navy team opened the tournament with a 75-53 victory over the Marines on Tuesday. The tournament continues through Monday.
EvCC men’s soccer opens NWAC tournament Wednesday
The Everett Community College men’s soccer team opens the Northwest Athletic Conference Men’s Soccer Championship at 2 p.m. Wednesday against Portland.
Everett (11-1-5) qualified as the North Division No. 3 seed and is facing South No. 2 Portland (7-7-2) for a spot in the quarterfinals against East No. 1 Columbia Basin, which is the top-ranked team in the NWAC coaches poll. Everett beat Portland 7-0 when the teams met on Aug. 23 in Tukwila.
The Trojans are led by freshman midfielder Cristiano Whitaker from Brazil, who leads NWAC in goals with 19. Supplementing the attack are sophomore forward and Mariner High School graduate Muhammed Darboe (11 goals) and freshman forward and Monroe High School graduate Reid Schaeffer (nine goals, 11 assists). Sophomore goalkeeper and Meadowdale High School grad Avary Olson marshals the defense.
Baker withdraws from figure skating Grand Prix
Kamiak High School graduate and Olympic ice dancer Jean-Luc Baker and his partner Kaitlin Hawayek have withdrawn from their ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating events because of a concussion suffered by Baker during training.
“While the recovery is going well, if we have learned anything over the course of our career, it is that concussions are not an injury to rush the process of returning from,” Hawayek and Baker wrote in a social media announcement.
Hawayek and Baker, who placed fifth at the Grand Prix Final last year, were scheduled to compete in the Grand Prix de France this weekend and the NHK Trophy in Japan on Nov. 24-26. The announcement said the duo is hoping to return to competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which take place Jan. 22-28 in Columbus, Ohio. Hawayek and Baker are four-time national bronze medalists.
If you have an item for the community sports roundup, email Nick Patterson at npatterson@heraldnet.com.
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