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Local wrestlers advance to state

Posted by Mike Vlahovich

Feb. 14, 2009 10:38 p.m. • 11 comments

Regional wrestling is over. Next up is Mat Classic XXI in Tacoma Feb. 20-21. How did teams fare? Pretty well actually. East Valley in 3A, Deer Park in 2A and Republic in B appear to be the teams most likely to contend for state titles.

The Knights qualified eight to state and had six finalists in a region that included perennial power Sedro Woolley. The Knights won 169.5 to 168, so that bodes well. Neighbors Deer Park and Riverside combined for 19 state berths and with those numbers can be among the placers Republic had five champions and another finalist in a tough region which should stand them in good stead at state.

It seems, however, that most of the eastern regions sort of shared individual wealth. During 4A, things were pretty spread out. Moses Lake, with 10 qualifiers and its share of finalists and champions is returning to its glory days. University had seven qualifiers, three of them champions, but will be hard-pressed to challenge Lake Stevens. And Lakeside, with five champions at the 1A regional, is in the hunt, but might need more depth. Five state titles, however, is worth 150 points or so. And that’s pretty good ammunition.

All told, 135 area wrestlers will converge on the Tacoma Dome next weekend.

11 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

rawkmandale on February 15 at 12:13 p.m.
A great article from the Tri-City Herald:

3A regionals great for wrestling fans, not so much for state title hopes
By Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writer

College basketball has its bracket busters, but high school wrestling has a bracket that is busting the state expectations of some of the best competitors in Washington.

Officially, it is the Region IV 3A tournament, but Saturday’s mat-tastic gathering in Sunnyside has been dubbed “mini-state,” a “handicapper” and a “title killer.”

And, according to one coach who knows something about state titles, it is the reason Enumclaw will be virtually unchallenged for the 3A state team title.

“It’s a disaster for us,” Sedro-Woolley coach Jay Breckenridge said about District 1 joining the CBBN and Greater Spokane League 3As to make the most competitive regional in the state in all classes. “I just about fell down when I found out we were going over there.”

At stake in all four of the 3A regionals are four berths in each weight class to Mat Classic next week in Tacoma. What separates Sunnyside from the other three regionals is that three of the top-five teams in the state (ranked by washingtonwrestlingreport.com) and half of the top 10 will be whittling each other down to a hard core of elite wrestlers.

“You’re going to have guys staying home next weekend that would have been in the top eight in the state,” said Hanford coach Dom Duncan. “It’s unfortunate that the WIAA has chosen to take the two toughest, deepest districts and put them in the same region.”

Throughout the season, East Valley (ranked second), Sedro-Woolley (fourth), Sunnyside (fifth), Ferndale (eighth) and North Central (ninth) have lived up to their billing as teams that would contend for state trophies.

But those hopes took a major blow when the schools found out they would be wrestling a week before state in a tournament that includes half of the top-ranked individuals in the state and could produce nine state champions.

“When you’re trying to win a state title, it comes down to how many kids are in the state tournament,” said Breckenridge, who guided Sedro-Woolley to six straight 3A titles from 2002-07. “That (regional) is going to kill us off.”

Fifty-one of the 112 wrestlers — half of whom will not qualify for state — are ranked in the top 10. No other regional even comes close.

Enumclaw isn’t unchallenged in the Region II tournament, with No. 6 Auburn Mountainview, No. 7 Bonney Lake and No. 10 White River also contending for state spots. Third-ranked Yelm is the only top-10 team in Region III, while the top team in the wafer-thin Region I (King-Co and Metro leagues) is No. 19 Mount Si.

“The saddest part about the whole thing is you have seniors who haven’t placed yet, and they’re ranked this year and this should be the highlight of their lives, and they’re not even going to have a chance,” Breckenridge said.

In the past, the GSL and CBBN 3A (previously Mid-Valley) wrestlers had a better draw for the regional matchup with a westside district. The last two years, it’s been the Metro League, which pretty well guaranteed the top three CBBN/GSL wrestlers would advance to state, and it wasn’t unheard of for the East to sweep all four state berths.

This year, though, it’s Sedro, Ferndale and the rest of District 1 who make the trip.

“It’s good because once you get out of (regionals), you’re looking at a pretty good chance to place next weekend,” said Duncan, who would have had legitimate hopes of advancing all six of his wrestlers to state in any other year, but now may be fortunate to get four in. “The downside of that is we’ll be leaving some guys home we feel could have placed. Every team is going to.

“If the state wants the best 16 kids in the state tournament, they probably should not match up the top two districts.”
rawkmandale on February 15 at 12:14 p.m.
The second part of the article:

What’s a pain for coaches will be a treat for fans, though, with potentially five previews of state championship matches.

The most entertaining weight class (152 pounds) also includes one of the state’s most heavily recruited wrestlers — junior two-time state champion Derek Garcia of Sedro-Woolley.

Also in the mix are second-ranked Jake Rodriguez of East Valley, No. 4 Carey Irwin of Everett, No. 5 Zack Wilkes of Mount Spokane, No. 6 Damien Long of Mount Spokane, No. 8 Conner Brame of Ferndale and No. 9 Joe Barrington-Richard of Mount Vernon. Imagine how hard some of those kids will be wrestling in a winner-to-state, loser-out match.

The 112 bracket also should be entertaining with the top four ranked wrestlers (all from the eastside). Sunnyside state champion Steven Romero won the bracket last week, beating the second-, third- and fourth-ranked wrestlers along the way. His 6-4 victory over North Central’s Nathan Brown very well could have been the first of three straight weeks the two wrestle on a Saturday night.

The other top-ranked wrestlers in the region are Sunnyside’s Christian Reyes (103), Sedro’s Shane Hunt (135) and Cody Pohren (171) and East Valley’s Nic Price (160) and Dakota Lawson (189).

While the coach in him dreads the regional, Breckenridge said his competitive side can’t wait to see what happens.

“We’re trying to teach the kids, no matter what happens, you do what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “I’d say that the kids who can make the top three — even the top four — in this tournament will go on to place (at state). I’d bet a lot of what I’ve done the past 24 years on it.”
rawkmandale on February 15 at 12:24 p.m.
Enumclaw didn’t have much competition in sending 14 to Mat Classic, accordng to the Tacoma paper:

Enumclaw juggernaut pins down another crown
LENA TIBBELIN; For The News Tribune
Published: 02/15/09 12:05 am

The Enumclaw wrestling team is poised to defend its Class 3A state title after an impressive display at the Region II tournament at Bonney Lake High School on Saturday.

The Hornets, smashing a couple of school records along the way, won the team title for the third straight year, this time with 283.5 points, leaving runner-up Auburn Mountainview far back with 170.

Enumclaw had 11 wrestlers in the finals, a school record, and advanced a school-record 14 athletes to next week’s state tournament in Tacoma.

“We talked all week about how this leads us to the state tournament,” Enumclaw coach Lee Reichert said. “We took it one match at a time.”

And that simple approach inspired greatness among the 16 Hornets who wrestled at regional.

Seven Hornets won regional titles: Travis Reano (103), Sam Bauer (125), Jason Gray (140), Kario Wallin (152), Connor Elder (160), Mike Staples (189) and Brad McCutchens (215).

McCutchens’ pin at 3:57 against Kristian Agemoto of Auburn Mountainview meant that last year’s school record of six regional champions was broken.

Bauer, Gray and Wallin all defended regional titles for the Hornets, while the wins by Reano, Staples and McCutchens came as pleasant surprises for the Enumclaw coaching staff who had high expectations for the squad.

“(McCutchens) learned from a loss a week earlier,” Reichert said, referring to a loss in the subregional finals.

For Elder, to finally win a regional title as a senior was a major reward for his season.

“It’s good to see all the hard work pay off,” Elder said.

Bauer and Gray, Enumclaw’s defending state champions, won their respective finals in different fashion.

Bauer had his hands full defeating Sumner’s Tyler Wooding by decision, 5-2, while Gray got a surprise when he caught teammate Josh Musick in a cradle 39 seconds into the match for the pin.

“It’s the best Enumclaw team ever,” Bauer said. “Every time we turn around we break a record.”

Amid all the Hornets’ successes, Bonney Lake’s Addison Tracy (145) improved to 36-0 with a 4-2 win over Jacob Jokela of Enumclaw.

Tracy admitted to being a little nervous as this was his final match in his home gym, and the match was scoreless after the first round before Tracy scored an escape.

His reward was to stand atop the Bonney Lake awards podium he built himself as part of his Eagle Scout project.

Said Tracy: “It was something I wanted to have for the school.”
rawkmandale on February 15 at 12:33 p.m.
Yelm will send a ton of people to Mat Classic, as well:

3A WRESTLING: Coulter, Briggs lead Union wrestlers
Saturday, February 14 | 11:15 p.m.

THE COLUMBIAN

BREMERTON — The dream season for Clinton Coulter, Quannah Briggs and the rest of the Union wrestling team continued Saturday at the Class 3A Region II wrestling tournament in Bremerton.

Coulter and Briggs captured regional championships, leading the Titans to a second-place team finish.

Yelm dominated the tournament, capturing five individual titles and sending 10 into title matches. The Tornados scored 254 points to outdistance Union’s 164.
rawkmandale on February 15 at 12:44 p.m.
The Mat Classic pairings just went up at WIAA:

http://www.wiaa.com/Athletics/wrest/matclassic.asp
sportsfan on February 16 at 1:26 p.m.
Mike are you going to time your weekly or so updates with the actual state tourneys. If not do you know of any other newspapers that actually try and cover High School Sports. The Tri-Cities paper does a pretty good job, maybe you could ask them for some pointers.