Oak Harbor pair to represent Washington in national wrestling tournaments

Oak Harbor’s Blake Smith, a seventh-grader at Oak Harbor Middle School who wrestles for the Lynnwood Wrestling Club, and Mark Johnston, an eighth-grader at Oak Harbor Christian School who wrestles for the Whidbey Wildcat Wrestling Club, have been selected to represent Washington at national meets this summer.

Oak Harbor’s Blake Smith, a seventh-grader at Oak Harbor Middle School who wrestles for the Lynnwood Wrestling Club, and Mark Johnston, an eighth-grader at Oak Harbor Christian School who wrestles for the Whidbey Wildcat Wrestling Club, have been selected to represent Washington at national meets this summer.

Smith will represent Washington at the national wrestling championships in the schoolboy division in Indianapolis the first week of June.

Smith is the first since Josh Martinez in 2006 to represent Oak Harbor in the national competition, according to Brandy Rickabaugh-Smith, Blake’s mother.

Johnston finished third in the state Greco-Roman state tournament in Mentesano Saturday, April 30, and qualified to represent Team Washington in Fargo in July.

Smith won his weight class in the Washington Greco-Roman state tournament in Montesano and will take part in the state freestyle tournament this weekend.