A Dream Remains Alive

A/B wrestling

Dustin Breazeale had a goal when the Ritzville Broncos arrived at the Tacoma Dome for Mat Classic XII Friday morning. “We want to place in the top 10,” said the 135-pound senior. “We’ve never done that at our school …” Oh, yeah. He also wanted to win a State A/B championship.

Breazeale took a step in that direction with two convincing wins.

Considering he’s the top returning placer in his weight class, that should make him the favorite.

“I feel I’m the best wrestler in my weight class, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to win it,” he said. “Everybody’s tough at state. That’s when a guy gets beat, when he doesn’t take everybody serious. I have real good coaches who teach you to take them one at a time.”

Breazeale pointed to the next mat.

Brett Bise of Brewster had just lost his quarterfinal match. Bise beat Breazeale in the fourth match of the season, although he hasn’t beaten him since.

“I know there are tough kids here,” Breazeale said.

Breazeale was fourth last year, but the champion has moved up 10 pounds and the next two finishers graduated.

Breazeale opened with a 15-7 win over Eddy Cerrillos of Royal and steamrolled Rick Mature of Ocasta 25-8 in the quarterfinals. “In my first match, I didn’t feel I wrestled very well,” he said after the technical fall. “That match, though, I thought I took it to him pretty well. When you run out of point cards (the scoreboard only goes to 20), that’s when you know you’re wrestling pretty well offensively.”

The Broncos, though, suffered some tough losses.

They were 4-2 in the first round, the losses by one and two points. Two more fell in the quarterfinals. Sophomore 152-pounder Nick Portrey joined Breazeale in the semifinals. And only one of four remained alive in the consolation bracket.

“We brought six guys, but we’ve got six quality guys,” Breazeale said.

Almira/Coulee-Hartline and Kettle Falls also have two semifinalists. Defending state champion Craig Winona leads ACH at 171 pounds and Blinn Carstenson is in at 160. For KF, it’s Jerry Henderson at 130 and Rob Ridlington at 215.

The other area wrestler in the final four is Rosalia sophomore Chris Thorensen at 189.

Zillah is running away with the team title. Ritzville is 10th with 33 points.

Clark Pauls lost a controversial match in the 275-pound quarterfinals. The Davenport sophomore was tied with Joe Sloan of ColumbiaBurbank 1-1 heading into overtime. Sloan started the extra session down and escaped for one point in the sudden-death session.

Gorillas coach Rawleigh Fisk protested because overtime is supposed to start with both wrestlers on their feet. He was told the referee gave Pauls two injury timeouts to put loose contacts back in. The argument went all the way to the tournament director before the match was restarted with both wrestlers up.

“The referee misapplied the rule,” Fisk said.

However, when the second overtime came, Sloan won the flip, took the down position and escaped in the final 5 seconds for the win. Fisk was even more unhappy with the overtime.

“He was stalling the whole way. He back-pedaled the whole time. That’s not right,” he said. “Our kid carried the action the whole way.”

Ritzville’s Mike Lynch was honored as 1A/B coach of the year, voted on by his peers.