Varsity wrestling at the Everett Classic - 1/10/2009

At Everett this Saturday, the varsity wrestlers faced off against 19 teams from around the Puget Sound area, including WESCO opponents Lake Stevens, Everett, Mariner and Arlington. The boys did well, taking 7th place with 89.5 points. The Wildcats had wrestlers in all the weight classes except 112 and 285 lbs.

At 103 lbs, Corey Trimbur was the Oak Harbor representative, and he won his first match, against Issaquah’s Max Tickman by tech fall 15-0. In the 2nd round, Corey lost to eventual champ Ren Bishop of Squalicum, then lost a close 9-7 match to James Nguyn of Westview.

The next weight class with an Oak Harbor wrestler was 119 lbs. Royce Cardwell pinned Justin Hartinger of Decatur in 2:36 then pinned Issaquah’s Brandon Pearson in 3:27. In the 3rd round, Royce wrestled last year’s 103-lb state champ, Josh Heinzer of Lake Stevens. Royce did well, but lost 9-5. In the consolation bracket, Royce got back to pinning his opponents, sticking Everett’s Anthony Lucero in 3:28 to move to the 3rd place match. He wrestled against Vashon Island’s Eduardo Protzeller, but the results of that match were not available.

Connar Zimmerman, at 125 lbs, provided the Wildcats with their only tournament champion. His first match was a pin in 3:59 over Austin Anderson of Squalicum, then beat Kameron Sullivan of North Thurston 5-1. In the semi-final match Connar beat Decatur’s Tyler Thomas 3-0 before beating Mt. Vernon’s Levi Koetje 4-1 for 1st place.

The 130 pound bracket featured Josh Barton who lost his 1st round match 10-1 to Mt. Vernon’s Jordan Watts. Josh then went on to win 2 in the consolation bracket, beating Joe Franco of Decatur 9-8 and Cameron Olson of Emerald Ridge by pin in 1:58. Josh lost his final match of the day 13-0 to Sam Terry of Westview.

Freshman Brandon Stratton wrestled at 135 lbs, also losing his 1st round match, 7-4 to Joe Venskus of Mariner. Brandon won his first consolation match, taking just 21 seconds to pin Joshua Clark of North Thurston. The score in his final match was 805 with Issaquah’s David White the winner.

Senior John Tuttle dropped another 5 lbs, moving to the 140 pound bracket. He won his first match, pinning Mariner’s Chance Cook in 4:04, then beat Decatur’s Greg Bull 7-4 to advance to the semifinals. John then beat Rogen Lopez of Vashon 8-6 to go to the final match. Ryan Makela of Mt. Si won the championship, 5-1, with Tuttle taking 2nd place.

Ben Page, moving up to 145 pounds, lost his first match to Adolph Rivas 9-7, then pinned Everett’s Zach Skorrka in 4:00 even and pinned Mt. Si’s Conner Deutswch in 2:27 before being pinned by Decatur’s Eric Godfrey in 1:27.

At 152 lbs, Oak Harbor entered two wrestlers, Jarred Tyson and Justin Everett. Both wrestlers were beaten in the 1st round, Tyson by Everett’s Cary Irwin in 4:29 and Everett by Mt. Vernon’s Joe Barrington by tech fall, 16-0. Justin lost his consolation match, but Tyson pinned Emerald Ridge’s Mike Munizza in just 25 seconds and beat Mariner’s Alex Coffman by a close 9-8 score before losing to Joey Mahn of Lake Stevens.

Kyle Magana, again at 160lbs lost to Connor Johnson of Mt. Vernon 12-4, but won 2 in the consolation bracket. He first beat Decatur’s Kieron Bronson-Doherty 10-4, then got a forfeit against Josh Fleming of Mt. Rainier. Kyle was finally pinned by Cameron Miller of North Thurston.

Junior Zach Loescher lost at 171 lbs in the 1st round to Mt. Rainier’s Chase Hanlon, and couldn’t advance in the consolation bracket, falling 7-5 to Tom Halsey of Emerald Ridge.

There were two Wildcats in the 189 lb bracket – Alec Castillo and Jacob Lundstrom. Both were pinned in their first round matches and only Lundstrom could advance in the consolation bracket as Alec lost to Josh Mani of Arlington. Jake won 8-7 over Steven Gmazel of Bothell but was pinned by Alex Gonzalez of Lake Washington.

Jarred Green, now wrestling in the varsity 215lb weight class, did not have a good day, getting pinned twice in the first period.