Heartbreak and elation proved to be the theme Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome for a handful of Kentwood wrestlers.<\/p>\n
Kentwood 103 pounder Ruben Navejas and Jolene Crook-Meyers, competing at 140 pounds in the girls tournament, lit up the Tacoma Dome with ear-to-ear grins.<\/p>\n
Both brought home titles, Navejas in nail-biting fashion and Crook-Meyers with sheer dominance.<\/p>\n
But the night proved bittersweet for the Conquerors.<\/p>\n
Because while Navejas and Crook-Meyers couldn\u2019t contain their excitement, teammates Cody Quinn (140) and Antonia Navejas (152), Ruben\u2019s older sister, fell just short of their dreams.<\/p>\n
Ruben and Antonia were trying to become the state\u2019s first-ever brother-sister state champion combination.<\/p>\n
The younger Navejas did his part, opening the championship round in fine fashion, dispatching Bryce Evans of Rogers (Puyallup), 4-2 in overtime.<\/p>\n
Navejas notched a two-point, title-clinching takedown with 21 seconds remaining in overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is amazing,\u201d said Navejas, a sophomore, who improved to 38-2 this year. \u201cI had a bad match with him (during the season) and I wanted to show everyone I could overcome that. I went out there and I got him.\u201d<\/p>\n
He certainly did.<\/p>\n
And after pulling off the big win, Navejas jumped into the waiting arms of his dad, Ruben Sr.<\/p>\n
Evans is the lone wrestler to have beaten Navejas this year, upending the Kentwood wrestler twice.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good opponent,\u201d said Navejas, who came into the match 1-2 against Evans. \u201cHe brings (out) the best in both of us. And I respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The historic finish, however, wasn\u2019t meant to be as a little more than an hour later, Antonia was pinned by Lakewood\u2019s Christina Ordonez with just seconds remaining in the first period.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t come out 100 percent,\u201d lamented Antonia, who took second last year and first the year before that.<\/p>\n
It was Antonia\u2019s first loss of the season. She finished the year with a 22-1 record and is 97-21 for her prep career.<\/p>\n
While Antonia wasn\u2019t quite able to get it done, Crook-Meyers was as dominant as ever, pinning Skyline\u2019s Alexis Willcher in 1:12 to win the crown.<\/p>\n
Crook-Meyers pinned her way through the league and regional tournaments, but had to go the full six minutes twice during the state tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels really good. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been waiting a long time for,\u201d said Crook-Meyers, who took second at state last year. \u201cI was really surprised (after the pin). I jumped up really quickly, then stood there and wondered, \u2018Did this really happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
But while Crook-Meyers was celebrating her title, Quinn was on an adjacent mat locked into an overtime battle with Jordan Rogers, Mead\u2019s freshman sensation.<\/p>\n
Quinn forced overtime by registering an escape with 7.9 seconds remaining in regulation. Quinn didn\u2019t waste any time forcing the action in overtime, going in for an immediate single-leg takedown. Rogers sprawled out, then circled around the Kentwood senior for the two-point, title-clinching takedown.<\/p>\n
It was a frustrating end to a match that had plenty of questionable calls, Kentwood coach Ken Sroka said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really tough. I like to see kids win matches, I don\u2019t like to see officials or anything else (get into) the match,\u201d the coach said. \u201cCody wrestled well enough to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Quinn became Kentwood\u2019s first-ever four-time state placer. In addition, the second-place finish was Quinn\u2019s best in four attempts.<\/p>\n
\u201cCody\u2019s not only an outstanding wrestler, but a great leader for our program,\u201d Sroka added. \u201cI know it\u2019s not a big deal to him to be our school\u2019s first-ever four-time state placer, but it is a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the best performances, however, came from those who missed out on the championship round.<\/p>\n
Of particular note was Kentwood heavyweight Nathan Herrick, who barely qualified for the state tournament after taking fifth at regionals.<\/p>\n
The junior pulled potentially the toughest draw of the tournament as he was pitted against Decatur\u2019s Tevyn Tillman \u2014 who went on to win the title \u2014 in the first round.<\/p>\n
Herrick challenged Tillman, but ended up dropping the match 10-5. Herrick, however, didn\u2019t lose another match the rest of the way, stringing together five straight wins to bring home first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cNathan\u2019s performance was outstanding,\u201d Sroka said.<\/p>\n
Teddy Zografos (125), who also barely qualified for the state tournament, rounded out Kentwood\u2019s medalists with an eighth-place finish.<\/p>\n
Kent-Meridian\u2019s Jesus Valdez (103) moved up three spots from last season, bringing home a solid fifth-place finish.<\/p>\n
Kentlake\u2019s Austin Carrillo, the lone Falcon to compete in the tournament, took eighth.<\/p>\n
Kentridge\u2019s Nick Aliment, a sophomore, brought home eighth place as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heartbreak and elation proved to be the theme Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome for a handful of Kentwood wrestlers. Kentwood 103 pounder Ruben Navejas and Jolene Crook-Meyers, competing at 140 pounds in the girls tournament, lit up the Tacoma Dome with ear-to-ear grins. Both brought home titles, Navejas in nail-biting fashion and Crook-Meyers with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13455"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}