Wrestling - Spud Walley Invite at Sedro-Wooley

Eleven varsity wrestlers went to Sedro-Woolley High School for the annual Spud Walley Invite, a wrestling tournament featuring some of the top wrestlers in the state.

Senior Brian Howard was first on the mat. There were 21 present to fill a 16-man bracket, and he was drawn to wrestle a winner-in pigtail bout. He wrestled South Kitsap's Thomas Decker, but could not pull out a win. His trip wasn't in vain, as he wrestled several other heavyweights who lost their pigtail matches.
At 119 lbs, Royce Cardwell lost his first bout by pin, but in the consolation bracket, scored a major decision, a pin, and another major decision to finish in 6th place.
Connar Zimmerman won his first match by major decision 11-2, but lost his 2nd bout to eventual champion Sam Bauer of Enumclaw. Now in the consolation bracket, Connar notched a technical fall 17-1, then a pin to get to the 5th place bout. He won that match by forfeit to capture 5th place.
In the 130 lb bracket, Colton Elliot faced off against Kelly Maughan of Auburn, and about a minute into the first round, while fending off a charge by Maughan, Colton caught his thumb on Maughan's shoulder, bending it back quite a bit. The match went on for a bit, but after a few more seconds, everyone could see that something was wrong. The match was stopped, and Colton was forced to withdraw from the tournament. The unofficial word is he broke the thumb and will be out until at least January. Our thoughts are with him.
Last year's 8th place finisher at the state tournament, John Tuttle, wrestled in the 152-lb bracket. He beat Craig Dyess of S. Kitsap in his first bout 12-7, the beat Enumclaw's Kario Wallin in a close 7-6 match before losing to John Thompson of Orting 12-1. Tuttle was to wrestle Justin Farnsworth of Kelso for 3rd place, but had to default due to injury and took 4th place.
At 160 lbs, Jared Tyson beat lee Amador of Mt. Si 12-2, but lost to eventual champ Conner Edler of Enumclaw by pin, then could not get a win in the consolation bracket.
The same thing happend to Zach Loescher at 171 lbs. He won the first match by pin in the first period over Shelby Williams of Mt. Si, but lost in the next round and was pinned in the consolation.
At 215 lbs, Chris Neumiller pinned Joe Janicki of Sedro-Woolley in 3:28 but lost his 2nd match. In the consolation bracket, Chris beat Cameron Gump by fall, then took just 33 seconds to pin Alex Rutledge of Edmonds. In the 5th place match, Chris was matched up against Janicki again and pinned him in just 1:47 for the win.
Corey Trimbur, Ben Page, and Jake Lundstrom were in the tournament but were eliminated after two matches.
The wrestlers are away all week, with meets at Snohomish on Tuesday and at Everett on Thursda, with a tournament at Squalicum in Bellingham on Saturday.