Colville’s Lalonde Falls Short In Title Bid

Brandon LaLonde received most of what he wanted for his 18th birthday.

The missing gift was a state wrestling championship.

But LaLonde, like the two other Frontier League wrestlers to make the finals of Mat Classic VII, came up short.

“I’m happy I got there,” said LaLonde, a Colville senior 158-pounder who celebrated his first day of adulthood Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.

“I just don’t think I was completely ready for the match.”

LaLonde, Colville’s first finalist in 17 years, lost to Monroe’s Ryan Aney 5-2.

Aney scored early with two takedowns, then wrestled defensively as he started to tire.

“I knew he had a good takedown,” LaLonde said. “I was trying to figure out how to block it.

“I could feel him holding on at the end.”

Also reaching the finals were senior Casey Stookey of East Valley at 122 and Pullman senior Kazuo Yoshiura at 141.

Yoshiura, in a rematch of last week’s Region IV-AA final that went the same way, lost to John Hash of Othello 5-0.

Yoshiura, strong-legged and low to the ground, couldn’t overcome Hash’s height advantage. But the veteran Greyhound improved greatly upon his two previous trips to state, which ended in the early stages.

Also, by not allowing Nash to score more points, Yoshiura kept Othello from winning the team title. Top-ranked Othello, in its 21st and final season under coach Wayne Schutte, lost by one point to second-ranked White River.

No Frontier team scored enough to finish in the top 10.

There’s one thing in a wrestler that you can’t measure. East Valley coach Marc Perry pointed directly to the chest.

Stookey, a long shot to reach the finals at 122, showed plenty of heart to the end while finishing second.

Stookey needed to fight off Dave Ragsdale in three overtimes before getting an escape to reach the championship. And in the title contest against Othello’s Benji Villareal, he gave up six quick secondperiod points but battled back and was within striking distance before time ran out in a 10-6 loss.

“I didn’t expect to be close to the finals,” said Stookey, who finished 20-10. “I came over to place and the snowball kept rolling.”

Also placing for the Frontier League were third-place 101-pounder Quinn Sharpe of West Valley, who lost in the semifinals on a controversial call that took 15 minutes to settle.

Pullman 275-pounder Earl Eastman finished fourth, and West Valley’s Jeremy Thornton was sixth at 135 - as was Pullman’s Joe Gecas at 178.

The team championship race was a thriller, with White River holding off Othello in Huskies coach Wayne Schutte’s final year, 110-109.