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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Quickness is his advantage


University High School assistant wrestling coach Dave Orndorff, top, wrestles 285-weight region champion Brad Peterson during practice. Peterson is one of seven seniors who qualified to wrestle at the state tournament. 
 (Holly Pickett / The Spokesman-Review)
Steve Christilaw Correspondent

In the world of heavyweight high school wrestlers, Brad Peterson is a genuine lightweight.

And that’s fine as far as he’s concerned.

The University senior is the Eastern Regional champion and a No. 1 in the State 4A championship tournament that kicks off Friday in the Tacoma Dome. In a weight class featuring athletes weighing up to 285 pounds, Peterson tips the scale at just 207 pounds.

“I started the season at 226 pounds and I’ve tried to keep the weight on,” Peterson said. “My best friend, Casey Olson, and I would go out to eat and I would sit down to eat all this food while he was trying to cut weight. All he could do was smell.

“It’s funny. Everyone else in the room is so focused on cutting weight. I’m worried about keeping it on.”

Peterson is one of a group of seniors who have made the final weeks of their final season their own.

“It all turned around after we lost our dual match with East Valley,” assistant wrestling coach Dave Orndorff said. “We had seven seniors in the lineup that night and only one of them won their match.

“We went back into the wrestling room after that and (head coach) Don (Owen) and I challenged them to turn their season around.”

Turn their season around they did, and with them the University season.

“To be honest, it was (junior) Brian Owen who really set the tone for us,” Peterson said. “We all just started to follow his lead and work hard in practice and let that carry over to our matches.”

Seven seniors qualified to wrestle at the state tournament and an eighth, heavyweight Levi Wilson, is an alternate. In addition to Peterson, Billy McGlasson (215 pounds), Brandon Oakes (189), Greg Mitchell (171), Kenny Cleveland (152), Nick Bickley (145) and Elliott Nay (140) lead an 11-man state contingent for U-Hi.

“Earlier in the season we were talking about finishing in the top 10 as a team,” Peterson said. “Now we’re looking at finishing in the top three or even challenging for a state title.”

Going into the postseason, Owen and Orndorff asked the seniors to do one thing: outperform expectations.

“We wanted them to out-perform their seeds,” Orndorff said. “And to their credit, they all did just that.”

In Peterson, the Titans have a first-time state wrestler who has not so much as watched a state tournament match in person.

“I’ve never been there, but I’ve wrestled some big matches,” he said. “I’ve wrestled at Tri-State and that’s a much tougher tournament – that’s one of the toughest tournaments in the country.”

Peterson has a big job in front of him in more ways than one: He must navigate a field that each outweighs him by about 70 pounds.

“The thing that Brad does well is that he doesn’t get caught underneath guys,” Orndorff said. “The worst thing that can happen would be to have a 285-pound guy fall on you. If they get on top of you, you’re probably not going to get back up.

“Brad does a nice job of not getting taken all the way to the mat.”

“I like to use my quickness,” Peterson said. “That’s a big advantage. And you can tell when a big guy like that runs out of gas. One second they’re pushing you and trying to muscle you around and the next there’s just nothing left.

“I have a bigger tank than they do.”

In the top weight division, anything can happen, said Orndorff, himself a former heavyweight placer in the NCAA tournament.

“The thing about the heavyweight division is that you can probably wrestle that field 10 times and have 10 different guys win it,” Orndorff said. “Last year you had all the top guys lose their first match and end up knocking each other out in the consolation bracket.”

To help send their teammates off to state with the best chance to win, the University wrestling room was packed this week. Not just the dozen wrestlers heading to Tacoma, but a host of teammates turned out just to be practice partners.

“One of my buddies is in here,” Peterson said. “He’s a senior and he’s probably wrestled two varsity matches in his whole career, but he’s helping get me ready for state. Yesterday we were wrestling matches, then running lines, then wrestling matches, then running lines. I was exhausted.

“But he was right there in my ear, telling me I have to keep going, I have to keep pushing.”

The irony isn’t lost on Peterson: a year ago he was the practice partner for senior Dono Totten.

“When you help get a guy ready to wrestle at state and they do well, you have a part of that,” Peterson said. “You get a sense of satisfaction out of it.”

One thing Peterson has learned: Never overestimate your coach’s weight.

“I said in an interview that he weighed about 350 pounds,” Peterson said, sheepishly. “He doesn’t weigh that much. He’s closer to 300 pounds.

“I came into the (practice) room after the district tournament and he said ‘Thanks for putting 50 pounds on me.’ I want to make sure I correct that.”