Lakeside, Deer Park Competitive
State A/B wrestling
What you don’t know can’t hurt you is proving to be a good rule of thumb for a pair of Lakeside and Deer Park wrestlers.
Chris Padayao and Anthony Layton of Lakeside and Don Forbes and Clint Umbach of Deer Park are among the seven area wrestlers to advance to the Class A-B semifinals at Mat Classic VIII.
Each won two matches Friday at the Tacoma Dome and guaranteed themselves a top-eight finish when the WIAA/U.S. Bank State Wrestling Championships wrap up today.
“A lot of guys will sit back and try to figure out the other guy’s style,” said Padayao, a 115-pound senior making his third appearance at state. “Our coach is just the opposite. He says to continuously attack until the end of the match. Especially with a guy you’ve never wrestled before, if you go 100 percent from the start the other guy is going to back down.”
After Padayao reached the semis with a pin of Omar Flores of Goldendale in 2:46, Layton took to the same mat and powered to a 6-0 decision over Lakewood’s Chad Hemminger.
“I knew he went to state last year but that’s about it,” said Layton, a 122-pound sophomore. “I didn’t need to know much. Our coach instills in us, no matter who we wrestle, the style doesn’t change … attack, attack, attack, never let up.”
Layton maintained that aggressive game plan even when he opened the season on the junior varsity team because he was behind Padayao. When Padayao determined his best chance was at 115, Layton stepped up to match the state trip he made last year as a 108-pound freshman.
The Eagles have six of seven wrestlers alive, scoring 40 points to sit fifth. Cashmere leads with 68 points, 15 ahead of Blaine.
“We’re about where I expected,” Lakeside coach Scott Jones said.
Deer Park, which chased Lakeside throughout the Northeast A season and the postseason, won four of five matches in the first round and sent Forbes and Umbach to the semis, but only have one other wrestler alive. The Stags have 25 points for 10th.
Umbach is a 141-pound senior in his fourth state appearance.
Though hoping to improve on consecutive second-place finishes at 108 pounds the past two years, Umbach is approaching his last matches as an underdog.
“If I place in the top four I think I’ll have done fine,” he said. “This is a tough weight class. It’s all new wrestlers. It’s pretty hard because they’re all stronger than me.”
Forbes got a break, wrestling regional champion Jeff Dodd of Blaine instead of Dodd’s teammate, Dwayne Magnusson. Magnusson is one of the best wrestlers here but forfeited the regional title to Dodd because of an ankle injury. Now Layton faces Magnusson in the semifinals.
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