Tahoma remained on top and Kentridge broke through during Friday and Saturday\u2019s sub-district wrestling tournament at Auburn High.<\/p>\n
Tahoma, which won the South Puget Sound League North Division, walked away with the team title, racking up an eyepopping 394 points, well ahead of second-place Auburn at 266. The gap between first and second was the widest since 2008, and the second biggest of the last 10 years. In the process, the Bears advanced 15 wrestlers to the Region III tournament, and crowned five champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 10 years I\u2019ve been at Tahoma, this is the high for us,\u201d said Tahoma coach Chris Feist, noting the numbers the Bears were able to advance. \u201cI try and not make a big deal about it \u2026 it\u2019s what we do. We go wrestle as hard as we can, give a high-five and a butt slap and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tahoma received titles from Steven Hopkins (119), Jesse Vaughn (125), Dan Haniger (135), Tanner Mjelde (145) and Matt Hopkins (160).<\/p>\n
The top four wrestlers in each weight class earned berths to this weekend\u2019s Region III tournament in Shelton. The top four finishers in each weight class at the regional tournament advance to state, which is slated for Feb. 18-19 at the Tacoma Dome.<\/p>\n
Like the Bears, Kentridge also had ample reason to give high-fives. The Chargers advanced eight wrestlers to the regional tournament. It will be the most Kentridge wrestlers to compete at the regional tournament in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d said first-year coach Todd Lantz. \u201cWe had a really good tournament. We feel really good about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time Kentridge pushed more than two wrestlers to the state tournament was 1997, when it advanced three. With Saturday\u2019s performance, the Chargers could be on the brink of big things. State veteran Jeff Seid led the way for Kentridge, securing the crown at 171 with an 11-3 major decision of Kentwood\u2019s Lucas Kelley. Nick Aliment (125) and Andrew Weitzel (215) added second-place finishes for the Chargers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been pretty sick the last couple of days and (Saturday) morning, it seemed full blown,\u201d Seid said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take a lot more than sickness to keep me down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kentwood star Ruben Navejas was \u2013 as usual \u2013 in fine form, winning the 112-pound title with ease. Navejas, the favorite to win the state title this season, improved to 35-0.<\/p>\n
Like Kentridge, Kentwood also advanced eight to the regional tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get into the tournament, you have an idea of who you\u2019re going to take and who you\u2019re not going to take (to regionals) and who has a chance,\u201d said Kentwood coach Ken Sroka. \u201cThere are a couple of guys I thought I was going to take, that I should\u2019ve taken, but that I won\u2019t be taking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navejas was slated to compete against teammate Hayden Peterson for the 112-pound championship. Peterson, who suffered a knee injury two weeks ago, chose to sit out the championship match for precautionary reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came up to me and said he\u2019d rather ice it,\u201d Sroka said. \u201cIf he wanted to wrestle, I can\u2019t take that away from him. He made that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Navejas and Peterson weren\u2019t the only teammates paired up against one another in the finals. Kentlake\u2019s Colton Marlowe outlasted teammate Sean Farr 8-5 for the 130-pound title. The two Falcons highlighted the day for Kentlake, which also advanced eight to the regional tournament.<\/p>\n
And while several Falcons continued to fly high, so did Kent-Meridian\u2019s Big Three \u2013 Josh Smith (140), Luke Barzie (189) and Jean Claude Atkinson (285). Smith pulled one of the biggest surprises of the tournament, grabbing the title with a 23-13 victory over Mount Rainier\u2019s A.J. Antoigue.<\/p>\n
Smith, who has three older brothers who also wrestled at Kent-Meridian, entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed in his weight class. The sophomore standout, however, upset Auburn\u2019s Adam Garcia in the semifinals, working a pin in 4:20<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that was going to be my toughest match of the tournament,\u201d said Smith, who has missed part of this season with an injured rib. \u201cI just went out there and tried my hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n
ALSO: Kentwood\u2019s Sophia Chi (103) and Cassidy Meyers (119) along with Kent-Meridian\u2019s Jaclyn Nagy (285) were the top local placers at the girls sub-regional tournament and all will advance to regionals this weekend. Kentwood also received a fourth-place finish from Sam Mosucci. Kent-Meridian\u2019s Izzy Kasabit (145) chipped in a third-place finish while teammate Heaven Hamilton (171) place fourth for the Royals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tahoma remained on top and Kentridge broke through during Friday and Saturday\u2019s sub-district wrestling tournament at Auburn High.
\nTahoma, which won the South Puget Sound League North Division, walked away with the team title, racking up an eyepopping 394 points, well ahead of second-place Auburn at 266. The gap between first and second was the widest since 2008, and the second biggest of the last 10 years. In the process, the Bears advanced 15 wrestlers to the Region III tournament, and crowned five champions.<\/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-20184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20184"}],"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=20184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20184"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}