Wrestling 2010-12-03 at Monroe

On Friday, December 3^rd, the Oak Harbor Wildcat wrestling team traveled to Monroe High School for a double dual meet with the Bearcats and the Arlington Eagles.

In JV action vs Arlington, the team did fairly well, scoring pins in 4 of the 11 matches, but unfortunately those were the only OH wins. The pins were by Vester, Smith, Stanford and Quinday. The results were similar versus Monroe, with Tarrant, Payne, Crebbin and Case-Smith all getting wins. Most importantly, the JV coaches got to see their wrestlers going full-speed and can make adjustments to ensure future success.

The varsity went first against host Monroe. There was a double forfeit at 103 lbs, then Corey Trimber was all over Kozemzak at 112 lbs, winning 12-0. Cody Fakkema, at 119 lbs got the first pin of the season, taking only 1:32 to defeat Douglas. In other wins, Ryuta Meany won an 18-7 decision over Brown, Stratton won 15-2 over Dimaggio and Colin Higinbotham won a very close 12-11 decision over Lippert. Higgy ended the 1^st round down 4-2 and down 8-10 at the end of the 2^nd. In the final round, he scored a 2-point reversal and added a 2-point near fall to get the win. While OH won 5 of 11 matches, the team gave up 12 points in forfeits and most of the OH losses were by pin, adding to Monroe’s point total. The final was OH 21, Monroe 47.

Oak Harbor did better against Arlington, with a 9-point differential, 33-42. Again, Trimbur and Fakkema won their matches, both by pin in the 1^st round. Ben Pralle came back from a tough loss vs Monroe to beat King 12-7. Brandon Stratton got his first pin over Shirey in the 1^st round, and Higgy and Jeremy Alonzo both won their matches with pins. Of the 11 matches wrestled against Arlington, OH won 6, all but one by pin, but the two forfeits proved the difference in the match.

In the first rankings of the year released by the Washington Wrestling Report, the Wildcats have one wrestler on the list so far, Brandon Stratton is currently ranked 4^th in 3A and 9^th across all classes in the state.

Video highlights from a few matches are posted HERE.

87 photos from both JV and Varsity are posted HERE.