KENNEWICK – The Othello Huskies placed second at Saturday’s Bob Mars tournament at Kennewick High School, the team’s first tournament of the 2022-2023 season.

“We like to start off strong,” Othello Assistant Coach Jacob Johnston said. “We have a lot of young guys, and five state returners and five state alternates. Then, just a lot of young talent after that, but we like to start off at Bob Mars. It’s a good first tournament of the year, you get a lot of that wrestling pool from the Tri-Cities area.”

Othello scored 182 points to place second at Bob Mars, with Chiawana finishing first with 219 points. Two other local teams traveled to Kennewick for the tournament, with Moses Lake placing 10th and Royal placing 22nd.

Twelve wrestlers placed at Saturday’s tournament, including junior Isaac Campos who finished atop the 113 weight class.

“He pinned in the finals, and he got Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament,” Johnston said.

The Huskies return five wrestlers who made it to state a year ago, one of them being Campos, and mix in a strong class of incoming freshmen. To help the newer wrestlers gel with returners, Johnston said the team matches younger and older wrestlers against each other in practices.

“In practice, we do a lot of mix-and-match, there’s some guys that we keep together just because they click really well, but we’re always trying to pair a younger guy with an older guy every now and then so they’re getting advanced technique,” Johnston said.

Freshmen Mason Russell (120 weight class) and Camilo Mendez III (152 weight classes) also placed in their respective weight classes.

Johnston stepped in for Othello Head Coach Rudy Ochoa II, who was sick over the weekend.

“Head coach, there’s a lot of responsibility – that’s why I’m not a head coach,” Johnston joked. “(Ochoa), he does a lot. That was our first tournament, so getting our freshmen and our younger guys into the swing of tournaments go, it’s a lot of talking and guiding them.”

Sammy Rocha, who spent time with the Huskies as an assistant coach last season, also stepped in to help the team on Saturday.

“It just took one phone call from Rudy, and Sammy Rocha was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there,’” Johnston said. “He came out and he had already been there the day before with the girls wrestling, his daughter’s a sophomore.”

Othello returns to the mat for a dual against Selah on Thursday at 7 p.m. For full results from Saturday’s Bob Mars tournament, visit https://bit.ly/3HfygDG.

Ian Bivona may be reached at [email protected].