A long-standing tradition, on Saturday, January sixth the Cascade High School Wrestling team hosted their annual Bavarian Invitational Wrestling Tournament. It was held from ten a.m. to four p.m. in the CHS athletic wing and boasted the attendance of twelve area schools. The schools that attended consisted of Cashmere, Omak, Ellensburg, White Swan, East Mont, Chelan, Naches Valley, Cle Elum, Wenatchee, Okanogan, and Highland. For the tournament, there were three matches going on at once: two in the big gym, and one in the small gym.
When the final match was called, Cascade came in fourth place with 145 points. Seven Cascade wrestlers placed in the top four in their weight categories: in fourth place was Jonah Bowles (10), in third place was Abraham Gonzalez (11) and Talen Johnson (11), in second place was Axel Pacheco (12), Karsten Bowles (12), and Tristan Sharpe (9), and in first place was Damian Sandoval (11). “The wrestling tournament was very exciting, confusing and all around a blast. There were championship matches going on all the time, and I got to see some of our Cascade wrestlers do extremely well,” explained Benjamin Jerome (11).
“The wrestling tournament was very exciting, confusing and all around a blast. There were championship matches going on all the time, and I got to see some of our Cascade wrestlers do extremely well,” explained Benjamin Jerome (11).
Many Kodiak wrestlers excelled this past weekend; there were four boys who competed in the finals for first place: Karsten Bowles (12), Axel Pacheco (12), Damian Sandoval (11), and Tristan Sharpe (9). “I wasn’t happy with my performance, moving forward I hope I can wrestler better, work harder and not give up,” explained Tristan. All of them put up a tough fight, however Damian came out on top with a first-place medal. “Damian Sandoval wrestled very well, and it was fun to watch him. Even the freshman, like Tristan Sharpe, wrestled well and had a great tournament,” said Mr. Barnes.
The Bavarian Invitational has quite a unique history. This tradition started during the nineties with hopes of expanding the wrestling program and raising money. It is a very important fundraiser for the program, there is an entry fee for each team, tickets at the door, and concessions. This year they made around $3,500: the wrestling team uses the money to pay officials, pay for entry fees to other tournaments, and if they need to stay in hotels for tournaments. The wrestling program then changed the name to John Seagle Memorial Tournament to recognize a previous Cascade wrestler and coach who had passed away. Not long after that change they took a pause in having the tournament for about seven years. A former CHS student and wrestler, Cody Fritz-O’Brien then decided he wanted to bring the tournament back for his senior project. He asked Tim Barnes, who was the head middle school wrestling coach, to mentor and help him. As they worked together to revive the beloved tournament, they decided to change the name back to the original, Bavarian Invitational Wrestling Tournament: hoping to incorporate and promote the community more and it has been a tradition ever since. The purpose of all wrestling tournaments is to set up each athlete’s wrestling records, which are used to seed the wrestlers for districts, regionals, and state tournaments. Throughout the years and progression of the tradition there have been many changes in technology; “The technology that is used to run the tournament, back when it originally started, I was in wrestling and they would just have poster boards to keep score,” explained Mr. Barnes. After each match they had to go in and write down who won, now it is run through a system called Track Wrestling. The bookkeepers are able to go in and put the scores in and anyone can see the statistics wherever they are. “The technology has come a long ways,” confirmed Mr. Barnes.
The Bavarian Invite was run much like other local tournaments; however, one small addition, the coaches' room, was a huge hit with the attendants. This room was a highlight of the event; parents and community members brought an abundance of snacks and drinks. “[My favorite part was] definitely the coach's room, I went in there and stole a lot of food,” explained wrestler Damian Sandoval (11). Mr. Barnes helped set up and organize this area. “All the coaches were bragging about how well it was set up and how good the food was,” he expressed.
The next opportunity to support these athletes is by coming to their next match on January nineteenth through the twentieth, boys at Quincy and girls at Othello.