Deer Park put all its wrestlers in the finals today - Blake Adams, Drew Acorn, Billy Rhoads, Brandon Leliefield, Cody Miller and Shawn Burton - to wrap up its second straight State 2A championship in convincing fashion. As coach Matt Jorgensen said yesterday, it's all about putting people through the front door and when you have six it's pretty hard to lose. The Stags have doubled the score in the field and will approach last year's 167.5 point total before it's done.

 

Other GNL finalists are West Valley junior Quinn Gannon (130) and Clarkston's Gabe Hocum (171).

All told the area has 34 finalists, nine of them from the Greater Spokane League. East Valley has three, Chris Tripplet (145), Jake Rodriguez (152) and Dakota Lawson (189). Nic Price got aced out at 160 with a six-point call late in the match to lose 8-6. Two of those seemed to be phantom points from my vantage. I'll check into that later. The Knights are currently two points out of second place. Enumclaw has a 35 point lead.

North Central has two finalists, Nathan Brown, who won his semi 8-3 in multiple overtimes at 112. Ben Carter got in at 171.

University's juniors Ryan Zumwalt (145) and Jake Mason (160) wrestle for 4A championships tonight as do Mead freshman Jordan Rogers (140) and junior Jacob Trotter (125). Lake Stevens has the title wrapped up.

Lakeside is third in 1A. Bryan Baumgarden, Jacob Lauderdale and Ben Fuson its finalists. Chewelah has two in Russell Whitley and Fuson's foe at 285, Mychal Woods. And Newport's Daniel Swain is in at 135.

The B's have 11 finalists, Republic hoping to hang on for a second state team title. The Tigers have a one-point lead heading into the final placing matches this afternoon and evening. Finals begin around 5:15.  

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