The Auburn varsity wrestling squad moves 10 wrestlers and one alternate to this weekend’s West Central District III 4A meet at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup.

The Trojans earned their spot at regionals with a fourth-place team finish at this past weekend’s South Puget Sound League North 4A Sub-regional meet at Kent-Meridian. Auburn earned 222.5 team points, finishing behind first-place Tahoma (441), second-place Kentridge (230) and third-place Kentwood (227).

“This is the most wrestlers we have punched out of the SPSL North League in the past few years,” Trojans coach Dennis Herren said. “This team has been an incredibly close group who support each other. (They) don’t fear putting in the extra work. Even the heavyweight is running as hard as he can during team sprints. Every single wrestler on this team also did his job on the academic side, which is impressive. It has been a great group to coach.”

Junior Balteer Rana led the way for Auburn with his second-place finish at 120 pounds. Also grabbing runner-up finishes at the tournament were junior Bailey Minnar (160) and junior Sam Lindsey (195).

Sophomore Drew Aplin grabbed a third-place finish at 120, with heavyweights Mario Luevano (220) and Jacob Apadaca (285) also nailing down thirds in their weight divisions.

Senior Freddie Pineda (106), sophomore Sjon Snitily (138) and Jarret Bishop (145) all snared fourth-place finishes. Sophomore Jamison Glenn also earned a district berth at 126 pounds. Sophomore Alex Murray is a 160-pound alternate.

“Freddie Pineda and Bailey Minnar had great days, upsetting higher-ranked guys by standing in and doing their best against physical opponents,” Herren said. “Our plan (now) is to train smart and hard this week with the goal of getting every wrestler to the (Tacoma) Dome for the Mat Classic.”

The regional meet begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup.

ALSO: Sophmore Makayla Barnette also qualified for regional competition with her fourth-place finish at 235 pounds.