3A/2A/1A/B: EV doesn’t show colors

As East Valley wrestler Dan Michalski said about the start of this wrestling season, “We were a pretty green team.”

No pun intended. The green-and-black-clad Knights were, except for Michalski and a handful of his upper-weight compadres, inexperienced and with plenty of uncertainty at year’s start.

Michalski and another veteran, Jimmy Martin, helped put exclamation points with back-to-back major decisions on EV’s dominant 3A subregional weekend victory Saturday that led a solid Greater Spokane League 3A showing.

A total of 22 GSL wrestlers will be in Sunnyside for the state-qualifying regional against Seattle’s Metro League.

Half of those wrestlers are Knights, who piled up 357 points to finish well ahead of Eastmont’s 230.5.

“I’m really pleased with our overall outing,” said EV coach Craig Hanson. “Boy, we had a great day of pinning. We had a lot of major decisions and technical falls. We had some disappointments, but I don’t think we had a bad round.”

EV had six finalists, five in the upper seven of 14 weights, and won four championships. Two, by Caleb Alvarado at 145 pounds and Michalski at 189, were by identical 13-2 scores, and Martin put on a takedown clinic for a 12-3 triumph at 215. Clete Hanson was the other champion, at 171, and he likely would have joined in, having already won three by pin or technical fall, had he not won by injury default in the final.

Two sophomores also were finalists – Jake Rodriguez, a surprise at 130, and Dakota Lawson, who lost a heartbreaker 11-9 at 160. He led 7-2 and nearly had a pin.

Mt. Spokane won the other two GSL championships, Ryan Rabe at 135 by injury default and Noah Hatton by pin over North Central’s Mike Pursel at 152.

It was difficult to fathom what to expect in this year’s subregional because it was bolstered by four former 4A schools and the seven-team Columbia Basin League had 152 individual entries to the GSL’s 66.

But the small contingent of three schools held its own with 20 semifinalists to the CBL’s 36 and ultimately 22 of the 56 regional berths.

EV’s excitement in the finals began typically in the final seven contests. Alvarado scored his 13 points in the first two rounds to work over Southridge’s Tamarich Perez.

“I’ve been in districts three years and never been out of it and thought this year was my chance to do that,” he said of his dominance. “I’m very excited.”

Right afterward, in the only all-GSL final, Hatton was leading 6-2 in the second round when the end came. It was his third pin in four matches.

Hatton – seventh in 4A state last year – said, “I was just able to move him and control the mat and set stuff up.”

Michalski has been dominant, unlike last year when he struggled at the end of the season, his coach said. He took a quick 7-0 lead over Ricky Carrillo and built on it.

“I’ve been working hard all the way through,” he said. “The coaches push us every day.”

Martin, who gives away height to most of his competitors, countered the size disadvantage with quickness and Greco-Roman-style upper body moves against a tough foe. He had four takedowns against Hanford’s Logan Roehm, who was second in state a year ago.

“It’s just about staying in position,” Martin said. “You don’t always beat them with strength. You have to use technique sometimes.”

EV had 19 top-six medalists, two third-pacer finishers and three fourths to qualify for regionals. Mt. Spokane had a gratifying tournament as well, sending seven wrestlers to regional.

“I’ve never left a tournament like this feeling like everything that could go right did go right,” said Mt. Spokane coach Travis Hughes. “In rounds to qualify we went 5 for 5 and had some kids who kind of came out of nowhere.”

NC has four qualifiers, including finalist Pursel and third-place Thomas Montague. Montague was ahead in his semifinal by double-digits, but lost by injury default when his opponent couldn’t continue following a penalized move.

“I kind of hoped for some more,” said NC coach Mike Ranieri, “We had kids wrestle hard today, but lost too many matches in the last 20 or 30 seconds.”

District 7 2A: Riverside, Clarkston and Deer Park were the big winners at West Valley.

Riverside scored 330.5 points, Clarkston 275 and DP 271.

Riverside led qualifying with 14 wrestlers. Clarkston had 13 qualifiers.

DP had the most finalists (eight), including six champions among 10 qualifiers. Among them were last year’s state placers, Levi Zadorozny (112), Brandon Leliefeld (135), Viktor Nesenchuk (140) and Cody Miller (145).

Riverside returning state champion Ryan DeRosches won at 160, one of four district champions among six finalists. Clarkston also had six finalists, including two champions.

District 7 1A: Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) moved nearly two teams’ worth into next week’s regional.

The host Eagles had nine individual champions among 13 finalists and scored 390.5 points to beat runner-up Colfax’s 180.5. Lakeside advanced 23.

Nine returning state placers were in the finals, including Newport’s Eric Moody, who beat two-time finalist Kyle Johnson of Lakeside 8-6 at 130. State placers Jacob Lauderdale, Kyle Cartwright, Wes McAdam, Dustin Baldwin and Reid Chivers were Lakeside district champions as was Newport’s Steffen Ellison.

Southeast B subregional: Kittitas scored 322 points to outdistance host Pomeroy, which had 178.5. Between them they had 12 of 14 champions and 21 of 28 finalists. Springdale’s Alex Kalugin won at 130 and teammate Zac Gilbert (125) finished second, as did Lind-Ritzville’s Nolan Miller (130) and Hector Najera (275).