Eagle Wrestlers Flying On To State

Young Lakeside High School wrestlers continued to carve out their niche in the 1996 season.

The Eagles sent a tournament-high seven wrestlers into the finals of last weekend’s Region IV event at Mead High School, qualifying all of them to this weekend’s State A-B meet at Mat Classic VIII in Tacoma.

In all but one weight class between 101 to 148 pounds, the championship matches pitted Lakeside against other schools within the region.

It was a truly stunning show, considering that of the seven, five are either sophomores or freshmen.

“I’m not surprised,” said Eagle sophomore 122-pound champion Anthony Layton. “We may be young, but we do the right things and probably are the hardest working team out there.”

Lakeside’s state qualifiers are senior Chris Padayao at 115, junior Nate Bohl at 148, sophomores Jason Belyea at 108 and Aaron Laughery at 141, freshmen Trevor Blackwell at 101 and Matt Westenfelder at 115, and Layton.

“You’ve got to be happy when you get seven wrestlers into the finals,” Coach Scott Jones said prior to the championship matches.

That’s particularly so because, going into last weekend’s Region IV A-B wrestling tournament, local coaches thought this might be the year wrestlers from the Caribou Trail League would dominate.

Turned out they were partly right.

By winning 11 of 14 finals, including six of seven against the Eagle finalists, the Caribou Trail was indeed strong.

But Northeast A-B District 7 wrestlers earned 29 of 56 state spots and had 15 of the 28 finalists.

“I would say the league did great then,” said Jones. “Coming in, no doubt, their side was strong.”

Lakeside’s success was somewhat tempered in the finals, where only Layton won a regional title and five of the others lost by four or fewer points, leaving Lakeside second to Cashmere for the team title.

That didn’t bother Jones.

“Regional points are important, I guess, but it’s not that big a deal,” said Jones. “How many you get in the state tournament is what counts.”

What bothered him more was that three wrestlers won’t be wrestling at state this weekend.

“As much as I’m excited for the seven finalists,” he said Saturday, “my heart goes out to the kids left behind.”

Included was sophomore Tim Weisser, who lost to a wrestler he had beaten during the year.

But he has future chances. Seniors Cory Hamilton and Wes Bouchia don’t.

Hamilton went 25-5 for the year and pinned 17 opponents but lost twice in overtime.

He and Weiser finished fifth. The top four wrestlers in each weight class qualify for state.

Bouchia thought he was trailing a match he was winning and intentionally let his opponent go for the tying point. Bouchia wound up losing 11-9.

“I hate to see kids dedicate four years of their life, then get left one match short of their big dream,” said Jones.

“Wrestling is a roller coaster. You love it and in the next 10 minutes might cuss it.”

There couldn’t have been much to cuss about Lakeside’s weekend effort. A school that has been among the state’s best five programs for three years is in that position again.

And most of the team returns.

, DataTimes