Tahoma made a strong case on Jan. 27 that it has the best wrestling team in the state with a 45-18 victory over Enumclaw in the fifth Battle of the Bone.
The Bears got four pins against the Hornets. Both teams came into the match undefeated, with Tahoma the top-ranked team in 4A, while Enumclaw was and likely still is considered the top team in 3A.
“That just reaffirmed that we’re probably the best team in the state of Washington,” said sophomore 106-pounder Todd Link. “You can’t just listen to what everyone’s saying… you can’t come out with the mindset that you’re going to win. You have to fight for it.”
And that’s exactly what Tahoma did against Enumclaw.
Steven Hopkins, a senior, got the evening started for Tahoma with a pin of Travis Reano with less than 30 seconds left in the third period.
Hopkins had a 10-3 lead when he got Reano on the mat, including a take down where he spun away from his opponent like a running back dancing away from a linebacker on the gridiron, then zipped in for the two points in the 132 pound match. Hopkins won the 103 pound state title as a sophomore and took fourth place at 119 a year ago.
Hopkins said the biggest surprise of the evening for him was the crowd, which filled the Tahoma gym to capacity, probably close to 1,000 spectators. In fact, there were more people on the Enumclaw side than Tahoma normally gets for league dual meets.
“I think it pumped up our guys,” Hopkins said. “It gave us a lot of confidence. (Winning) meant a lot in our eyes because they’re the No. 1 ranked 3A team. I was surprised by how much we won by, I didn’t know we were going to win by more than 20 points. It was still pretty intense.”
In the next match senior 138-pounder Joey Palmer, who won the 125 pound class a year ago at another school, put on a take down clinic against Lucas Somera.
Palmer, who will wrestle at Oregon State next year, was a blur on the mat. He would shoot aggressively and quickly, leaving Somera on his heels, on his back or struggling to get out of Palmer’s grip. In the end, Palmer earned a technical fall with a 24-9 victory, allowing Somera to win points only when he let him escape.
Palmer said that even though Tahoma had beaten Mead in a double dual tournament earlier in the season when the Spokane team was ranked No. 1 in 4A, the squad still had its doubters, and beating Enumclaw was the best way to silence the critics.
Still, Tahoma has more to prove this weekend at the South Puget Sound League 4A tournament Friday and Saturday at Kent-Meridian.
“I think we’ll know by the end of league if we’ve achieved our goal,” Palmer said. “These last two weeks before state are the most important for conditioning.”
Link added, “Mead was definitely tougher and a measuring stick for state. But, a dual is different than a tournament.”
Still, the Bears continued to make a statement in the dual when Tanner Mjelde stepped on the mat.
Mjelde, who competed next at 145, pinned Enumclaw’s Cole Snider shortly before the first period ended.
Dan Haniger nearly had a win over Falani Gill at 152 when he had a chance late in the third period to break a 6-6 tie after scoring a reversal but Gill escaped and held on to the one point victory, 7-6. Haniger, a senior, placed fourth at state in 2011.
Chris McElroy lost in a hard fought match to Ryan Anderson in the 160 pound contest. Anderson sealed it with a take down with 11 seconds left, putting together a 5-1 victory.
Next up was junior Garret Autrey, who also placed at state last year for the Bears with a seventh place finish at 160, who dominated Kelyn Wallin with a 11-0 win in the 170 pound match. Autrey spent much of the third period trying to pin Wallin but had to settle for the decision.
From there, Austin Perry added another six points to Tahoma’s total with his pin of Wyley Stewart little more than halfway through the second period at 182.
Matt Hopkins put together an escape then a take down in quick succession to earn a 3-0 win late over T.J. Cormier at 195.
Ed Torres got a solid win over Chris Williams, winning 5-2 at 285 pounds.
Enumclaw freshman Hunter Haney struggled against Tahoma’s Todd Link, a sophomore, who put together a 6-2 victory.
Tim Whitehead got the Bears final pin of the night at 113 pounds when he put Garrett Jorosz down on the mat with 28.1 seconds remaining in the second period.
The evening ended in front of a packed Tahoma gym with sophomore Cruz Velasquez fighting it out against Enumclaw’s Tyke Reid.
With little less than 90 seconds left in the match it was tied at 2-2 but with 32 seconds on the clock, Velasquez scored a reversal and held on for the 4-3 victory, sealing the win over Reid.
Jesse Vaughan, who lost a tough match at 126, said the win over Enumclaw proved a great deal.
“I think our line up is one of the most solid in state,” Vaughan said. “We have so much depth that we have some state participants on the C team. We want to take what we’ve learned against (opponents) and advance… whether that’s in the bracket or to the next week.”
Haniger added that wins over teams like Enumclaw and Mead means Tahoma is going in the right direction.
“It means to us that we’re on track,” he said. “We know that we’re among the top teams in the state… and the way we’re able to do it so dominantly.”
Matt Hopkins explained that beating Enumclaw raised the profile of the team among his classmates.
“I went to school and people were talking about it,” Matt Hopkins said. “That dual… it made wrestling strong in our school.”
Heading into the post-season, the goal for the first state crown for the Bears since the mid 90s isn’t so lofty if they qualify the 15 or so competitors they expect to get, Haniger said they can count on their reputation to precede them.
“Our depth is going to be a factor at tournaments,” Haniger said. “They’re trying to beat Tahoma. That’s a team everyone wants to beat. We’ve been silencing the critics all year. People will still doubt our performance and us because people think we’re a dual meet team.”
Haniger said despite any critics that may remain the goal to win state remains.
“We’re gearing up for our entire team to have their best tournament at state,” Haniger said. “We’re hoping to take more kids to the state tournament that we ever have in our long tradition.”
In the end, the Battle of the Bone was a fine tune up for the post-season for Tahoma, whom Matt Hopkins said certainly made a case to be considered the best team in the state.
“I think that made a statement,” he said.
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