Keegan Kemmer pushes against Seaside's Aidan Tice in finals as Tice grabs his ankle.

WARRENTON — Trevor Hutson, Daniela Mendez and Serena Kuhn all took first over the weekend at Warrenton. Mendez and Kuhn wrestled at the girls’ open Friday, Dec. 13, Hutson at the boys’ invitational Saturday, Dec. 14.

After three teammates had gone down in their finals Saturday, Hutson wrestled the day’s last match, pinning Knappa’s Kaleb Roe with 16 seconds left to clinch a match in which he was clinging to a 7-6 lead. Keegan Kemmer, Michael Rodda and Malachi Taylor all took second.

Hutson trailed 6-4 entering the second round, in which Roe started out on top. Hutson got control of Roe’s leg, leading to an escape. The two were at an impasse for a while after that. But after a stoppage when they drifted out of bounds, Hutson beat Roe to the punch, immediately grabbing both legs and taking him down. He maintained control for the rest of the round, pinning Roe’s arms behind his back and making him fight hard to survive.

In round three, Hutson started on top and again pinned Roe’s arm back, then locked his head and legs. As the match neared its end, Roe was desperate for a late escape. But Hutson turned back a nearly-successful escape attempt, instead gaining complete control and pinning him with 16 seconds left. Hutson was coming off first-round pins in his quarterfinal and semifinal matches.

Mendez and Kuhn’s first-place finishes, along with a third-place finish by Bethany Martin (1-2), boosted Ilwaco to a fourth-place finish at the ten-team tournament. While the three teams ahead of them all brought between six and 12 wrestlers, Ilwaco had only three.

Mendez took just over three minutes, combined, to pin all three of her opponents. That included a 46-second victory over second-place Elizabeth Hetzler of Yamhill-Carlton.

Kuhn was equally dominant, taking down second-place Dakota Gray of Forest Grove in just 1:15 and pinning her other two opponents in under a minute each.

Rodda pinned Raython Kenworthy in semifinals, then went against Astoria’s Skylar Smith in finals. After time ran out on his escape attempt at the end of round one, he trailed 2-0 going into the second. In round two, Rodda got Smith by his leg but could not bring him down. Instead, Smith brought Rodda to the mat and pinned him.

Taylor got a quick pin in his opening round and went on to semifinals against Astoria’s Gunnar Olsen. Olsen went low and got him by the leg, but Taylor got his head on top of Olsen, brought him down, and pinned him. Austin Atwood of Warrenton pinned Taylor in 1:01 in finals.

In quarterfinals against Clatskanie’s Evan Coe, Kemmer used quick-twitch fakes to wrong foot his opponent and gain an early takedown, setting the tone for the match. In semis against Vernonia’s Pete Crystal, Kemmer struck quickly, getting Crystal by the leg. Crystal countered by getting his head on top of Kemmer, but Kemmer picked him up and slammed him down. He dominated the match, going ahead 11-0 before getting a pin.

In finals against Aidan Tice of Seaside, Kemmer faced a different sort of match. Tice has much longer reach than Kemmer. From the beginning the two were head-to-head, arms locked, which negated the quick moves and leg-strikes Kemmer often favors.

After just over a minute, Kemmer sprawled to avoid a strike by Tice and, in Tice’s momentary vulnerability, grabbed control of his leg. Tice stayed upright for over 30 seconds as he tried to get his leg loose, but Kemmer finally took him down for the first points with 20 seconds in the round. But Tice quickly escaped, and almost simultaneously brought Kemmer down. Tice led 3-2 after the first round.

Trailing 5-2 in the second, Kemmer again got Tice by a leg, and again Tice worked hard to stay upright. This time, Tice was more successful. The two did go to the ground, but as they did so Tice rolled on top of Kemmer and pinned him.

Gabriel McGarish had one of the closest rounds while going 0-2 on the day. Against Dalton Somers of Astoria in his second match, he fell behind 11-2 before turning the match around. He scored a reversal and a near-fall to close the gap to 11-7. He started the next round on the bottom but got a quick reversal, followed shortly by a take-down, cutting it to 11-10. As the match neared an end, he still trailed 14-12 but got a late reversal that nearly forced overtime. However, Somers reversed his reversal in the closing seconds for the 16-14 win.

As a team, Ilwaco’s boys matched the girls with a fourth-place finish Saturday.