By NATHAN WHALEN

Special to the News-Times

At least nine wrestlers from Oak Harbor’s boys wrestling team will compete in the Mat Classic state tournament that takes place Feb. 20 and Feb. 21 at the Tacoma Dome.

They qualified for the state tournament by placing in the top four in their weight class during the District 1 North tournament held Saturday at Monroe. Oak Harbor placed third in the eight-team tournament.

“It went really well,” coach Aaron McBride said.

Three wrestlers placed first in their weight class. Elias Hernandez placed first at 144 pounds, Ethan Bezar placed first at 175 pounds, and Malachi Ebai placed first at 285 pounds, according to results posted at TrackWrestling.com.

Josiah Christopherson placed second at 175 pounds. Bezar and Josiah Christopherson flipped a coin to decide who will place first. McBride noted the district tournament was the second time of the season where the two wrestlers were in that situation.

Jhamarrion Jones placed third at 106 pounds, Cole Aichele placed third at 120 pounds, and Joel Christopherson placed third at 157 pounds.

Nolan Maines placed fourth at 132 pounds and Kenneth Anguiano placed fourth at 215 pounds. Neeko Leonard placed fifth at 138 pounds. Jacob Holland placed sixth at 113 pounds.

Wrestlers who placed at least fourth at district qualify for the state tournament. Leonard is traveling to Stanwood Wednesday to wrestle against the fifth-place finisher at 138 pounds from the District 1 South tournament. The winner qualifies for state while the loser goes as an alternate.

“We’ll do what we got to do to get him ready,” McBride said.

The possibility of having 10 wrestlers compete at state is an improvement from the previous season. In 2024, four Oak Harbor wrestlers competed, and one went as an alternate at state.

The District 1 girls wrestling tournament takes place Friday and Saturday at Oak Harbor High School. The tournament was delayed one week due to the snow that canceled school throughout the Puget Sound region last week.