Wrestling - Regional Tournament @ Snohomish, 2-14-09

7 Oak Harbor wrestlers started the 2-day tournament at Snohomish Friday evening, 2 are going to the Mat Classic next weekend at the Tacoma Dome, and one as an alternate. The Region I tournament featured teams from the combined WESCO and the South Puget Sound League (SPSL)

Royce Cardwell, 119 lbs - Royce first faced off against Cory Yeaple of Thomas Jefferson HS and earned a pin in 3:43, then was pinned by eventual champ Michael Turner from Auburn Riverside in 3:03. Royce then pinned Jose Cervantes of Lake Stevens in 2:06 to stay in the tournament. Saturday morning, Royce lost to Brandon Blevins of Marysville 10-6, but since he made it to the 2nd day, Royce, although not going to state, wrestled for 7th place. His opponent - Jarred Studly of Stanwood. Royce wrestled Studley twice in last week's district tournament, losing both matches. I don't know how he did it, but Royce dug in deep and won his match 8-6 to capture 7th place overall.

Connar Zimmerman, 125 lbs - Connar, who will be sorely missed next year, pinned Richard Bascom of Stanwood with just 12 seconds left to advance, then blanked Kentwood's Teddy Zografos 8-0 to stay in the winner's bracket. Saturday morning, Connar faced off against a very good #1 seed Sean Anderson of Lake Stevens, and couldn't make it work, falling 9-5. In the consolation bracket, Connar matched up against Jared Mead of Jackson HS, again, and in a very tight match that could have gone either way, won 4-3 to advance to the 3rd place match. He went up against Kelly Maughan from Auburn HS, the #2 seed. Although he lost 4-2, Connar finished in 4th place and earned a trip to the State Championship Tournament in the Tacoma Dome.

Colton Elliot, 130 lbs - Colton, sporting a sore elbow to go with his still-healing thumb, worked hard and earned a trip to the Dome. He pinned Kentridge's Billy Johnson in 3:28 in his first match, then lost to Tahoma's Jordan Higa 14-12 in an overtime match. In Friday's consolation match, he pinned Auburn's Zach Svendgard in 3:52 to keep himself alive. Colton started Saturday with yet another pin, sticking Arlington's Chris Berg in 2:12, then lost to Brian Donaldson of M-P which put him into the 5th place match. This was an important match, as unlike the higher places, only the winner went on to state, and Colton was paired with Jordan Higa again. Determined to go on, Colton, visibly hurting, defeated Higa 8-6 to move on to the Dome.

Brandon Stratton, 135 lbs - Brandon was Oak Harbor's only freshman at the regional tournament, and the only freshman in the 135 lb bracket. Brandon's first match was against Lake Stevens' Kyle Johson, who won by pin in 3:43, then lost to Michael Pewitt of Auburn 16-2. When asked what he learned from his experience, Brandon said "it takes more than just working hard at practice to make it through", and "it's what you do outside of practice that really counts", referring to not just working out, but keeping your body tuned by eating properly and being focused mentally.

John Tuttle, 140 lbs - John came into the tournament as the #1 seed and a first round bye. John said that being the #1 seed didn't put any additional pressure on him - "At this level, every wrestler is good so it does't matter what your seed is - you have to wrestle hard every match". In his first and only match on Friday, John earned a pin in 3:59 over AJ Schults of Auburn Riverside. John's first match on Saturday was against Snohomish's Luke Perry. Regulation time in that match ended in a 3-3 tie, and in the first, sudden victory overtime, neither wrestler scored. In the 2nd overtime period, Perry was able to make an escape to lead 4-3, and John was not able to get a takedown before time expired. John then faced off against Anthony Jacobson of Kamiak, and just couldn't get anything going, losing 7-2 and putting him into the 5th place match. In the winner-to-state match, John wrestled Kyle McIntosh of Thomas Jefferson, and again went to overtime. This match ended in the suddern victory period when McIntosh scored a takedown on Tuttle. John will still be at the Dome as an alternate next weekend.

Jared Tyson, 152 lbs - Jared won his first match in 1:27, pinning Sean Cavanagh from Kentlake, but lost 12-1 to Graham Davis from Auburn. Jared won his Friday consolation match 9-6 over Jeff Seid of Kentridge. On Saturday, Jared's first match was against Tahoma's Zach Schuessler, and Jared just didn't have the answers, going down 14-0 and moving to the 7th-8th place match. In that match he faced Stanwood's Drew Barquist who won 9-3.

Brian Howard, 215 lbs - Brian, still nursing a very sore shoulder, had a tough tournament. His first match was against Derrick Eager from Tahoma HS. During the match, both wrestlers were on their feet, and somehow got turned so that all 430+ pounds of both wrestlers would up on one awkwardly placed Eager leg, and it was too much to handle as Eager's leg was broken in two places along with some ligament damage. It was just one of those things that can happen in wrestling, but Brian felt bad about him. Since Eager was forced to default, Brian advanced to face Tannon Hillis of Marysville. Hillis was able to quickly get Brian onto his back, which normally Brian could have handled, but with his shoulder not working properly, he was not able to 'bridge', or bring his shoulder blades up off the mat without inordinate pain, and because of this Hillis was able to pin Howard in just 41 seconds. After meeting with the trainer, Brian was advised to not wrestle anymore, and he took that advice, injury defaulting to Brady Quinton of Arlington.

No photos, but some video highlight clips should be posted in the near future.