Wrestling vs Lake Stevens, 1/29/2009

For their final home dual meet of the year, the Oak Harbor Wildcat wrestling team hosted the Lake Stevens Vikings, and the Vikings showed once again why they are the #1 ranked team in the state.

Of the 15 JV matches, the Wildcats were able to win only 4: Justin Everett got a hard-won pin over Olliges, Nick Farrell pinned Carrico with just 5 seconds left in the 2nd period, Collin Higinbotham pinned Svlte in 1:32 and Josh McVey, in his 2nd match of the day, beat Meerkat 11-7. Most of the JV losses were via pin.

First up for the varsity squad was senior John Tuttle at 140 pounds. John is one of the few wrestlers you will ever see that actually went DOWN in weight classes each year. He started his freshman year at 160lbs, and worked his way to his current 140. John was up against BJ Alewine, currently ranked 5th in the state, and Alewine had Tuttle’s number early, getting takedowns that helped him beat Tuttle 7-5. Senior Pen Page was next at 145 and was pinned by Pennington.
Senior Jarred Tyson went up against Anderson, ranked 5th in his weight class, and was on the short end of an 11-6 score. He was followed by Kyle Magana, wrestling George King, the #1 ranked 4A wrestler in the state, and although Kyle fought hard, King won by pin.

Zach Loescher went against #8 LeHuquet and lost 16-0; Jake Lundstrom wrestled #11 Grow and got pinned.

Oak Harbor avoided a possible shutout when senior Brian Howard, down to his fighting weight of 215 pounds pinned Dinh in 2:37. First-year wrestler Phil Rodgers faced off against #4 ranked Truber and was pinned.

Down to the lightweights, Corey Trimbur earned Oak Harbor’s 2nd and final win by beating Reynolds 9-1, Ben Pralle got pinned by Majors, as did Royce Cardwell, by #1 ranked and returning State Champ Josh Heinzer. Connar Zimmerman lost to Stilwell 7-2, Josh Barton to the other Anderson 19-5 (working hard and avoiding the tech fall), and Colton Elliot, returning to the mat for the first time after breaking his thumb in December, wrestled well, but was defeated by Johnson 13-8.

This ends the dual meet season for the Wildcats, and they are now preparing for Districts and then Regionals. Next weekend, the top two wrestlers in each weight class that have enough weigh-ins move on to the District meet, which combines the WESCO North and South school, and the top 8 wrestlers move on to Regionals.

37 prematch and JV photos are posted HERE.

Video highlights, when posted, will be available HERE.