Lakeside Dominates Deer Park To Clinch Tie For Wrestling Title
Chalk one up for youth over experience.
Lakeside arrived in Deer Park and put on a wrestling clinic en route to a 51-12 victory that clinched no worse than a tie for first place in the Northeast A League.
The battle for the title never really materialized, a surprise to Eagles coach Scott Jones.
“In all honesty, when I had it figured out on paper, I had it down to a six-point swing either way.” he said. “This is a young team. I knew they were talented, but they’re wrestling way above my expectations right now.”
Eric Dean got Lakeside off and running with a 7-2 decision over Heath Berger in the 168-pound class. Cory Hamilton (178) followed with a pin over Tom Barclay with 40 seconds left in the second round to give the Eagles a 9-0 lead.
Those two matches set the tone according to Deer Park coach Dean Largent.
“To be honest with you I thought we’d win both of those,” he said. “Losing both of them pretty much took the wind right out of our sails. I think Lakeside just wanted it more than we did; they just outcompeted us.”
The most exciting match of the night occurred between the Stags’ Don Forbes and Lakeside’s Anthony Layton. The 122-pounders battled to a 2-2 stalemate, but Forbes scored a takedown 10 seconds into overtime for a 4-2 win.
The Eagles’ Aaron Loughery (141), a sophomore, came through with an impressive upset over two-time state runnerup Clint Umbach by an 8-1 score.
Jones was pleased with Loughery’s effort.
“Our motto has been ‘hard work makes dreams come true,’ and Aaron is a fine example of that. Beating Umbach has been a dream of his and he’s really been thinking about it for two weeks.”
Freshman Jason Cummings got a big win for the Eagles at 215 when he pinned junior Steve Daniel in 54 seconds.
Eight of the Eagles’ 13 wins were posted by underclassmen.
Lakeside (5-0) takes on Chewelah next Tuesday in the final match before district while Deer Park (3-1) has a double-dual with Newport and Colfax on Saturday.
, DataTimes