Bennett Finally State Champ; Lakeside Third
2A
Four times Newport wrestler Chris Bennett has been a competitor at Mat Classic. Three times, including last year when he arrived undefeated, Bennett left disappointed.
This time, there was no stopping the Grizzlies senior. Bennett capped a 33-0 season with his second overtime victory and the State 2A 130-pound title.
Bennett was one of the 14 Great Northern League’s 28 state qualifiers to medal on Saturday, three of them champs.
Lakeside’s Kris Bennett won his second state title, at 112 pounds, and 275-pounder Chad Charbonneau capped a third-place team finish for the Eagles, who had won the last two titles, with a victory in the night’s final match.
The GNL’s other finalist, sophomore Phil Eggleston of Chewelah, was beaten 7-0 in the 145-pound title bout.
Bennett, who reached the semifinals with an overtime 9-7 decision on Friday and breezed into the title match, broke a 0-0 standoff against Blaine’s Joe Button with a third-period reversal. But he was docked for stalling, a common occurrence during this year’s state tournament, and gave up an escape with no time remaining to go not one, but two OT periods again.
“I haven’t been held down much,” said Bennett. “I knew I could escape.”
In so doing, Bennett became Newport’s first state wrestling champion. And he didn’t even take up the sport until eighth grade, crediting teammates Shawn Gilmore and Hawk Pagaling for convincing him to turn out.
“I moved here from Nevada and never even heard of wrestling,” he said.
“Four times he’d gone to state and something would happen that was not pleasant,” said his coach, Mike Haptonstall.
That changed this weekend, particularly Friday when his opponent was given a penalty point while earning a takedown to produce overtime.
“People did that to him before without being penalized,” said Haptonstall. “What goes around comes around.”
While Bennett becomes a springboard for building Newport’s program, Lakeside continues to be the GNL’s benchmark.
Matthews, despite two knees that will soon be surgically repaired, repeated his state title of a year ago with a 4-1 win over Jordan Bradbury of Montesano.
“At first it was hard to wrestle because there was a lot of pain,” he said. “Once I got going, I got used to it.”
Charbonneau capped a perfect 36-0 year by overwhelming his weight class. And his victory in the night’s final match enabled Lakeside to leapfrog two schools into third place with 82.5 points.
His 11-4 decision over Russ Teeter brought to a conclusion the tournament and his stellar high school career.
Helping the Eagles to their trophy were fourth-place Austin Laughery, 140, and sixth-place Jason Nees, 103.
Other medalists were Medical Lake third-placers Josh Cruger, 152, Jonny Varona, 215, and fourth-place Adam Gomez, 125. Riverside’s Spencer Murphy, 189, also placed fourth, Chris Nuesse, 275, was sixth and Mike Norton, 160, seventh. Placing eighth were Gilbert Lopez, 112, Newport, and Mark Bietz, 119, Chewelah.
Mount Baker won with 110 points.