Editor’s note: Forks’ Hayden Queen won the 182-pound 2B wrestling championship Saturday night.
TACOMA — Forks sits third overall as a team in the Class 1B/2B division with 79.5 points through Friday’s wrestling at Mat Classic, the state wrestling championships at the Tacoma Dome.
The Spartans’ Hayden Queen at 182 pounds was the lone Forks boys wrestler to advance to wrestle for a state championship Saturday, but the Spartans have a number of wrestlers who have placed. Queen’s championship bout was after press deadline.
Conner Demorest at 120 pounds won his third-place match with a pin over JC Merriott of Reardan, while Dalton Kilmer placed third at 126 pounds with a 10-3 decision over Noah Cormier Higgins of Muckleshoot.
Moments later, Walker Wheeler at 138 came in third with a second-round pin over Maddox Strobel of Liberty.
All three wrestlers made it to their respective semifinals.
Demorest lost a 3-1 decision in his semifinal, Kilmer was pinned at 4:27 of his semifinal and Walker Wheeler was pinned at 1:47 of his 138-pound match.
Jake Weakley lost a 5-0 decision in his semifinal and suffered an injury necessitating a medical forfeit to end his tournament in the consolation bracket.
Sloan Tumaua finished fourth at 220 pounds for the Spartans. Tumaua fell in a semifinal match, pinned at 3:34. He bounced back with a 13-6 decision over Tristin Burril of Reardan to qualify for the third-place match, which he lost to Marshall Brockway of Mossyrock in a 10-5 decision.
Forks’ Peyton Johnson lost two matches in the girls 110-pound bracket and was eliminated.
Forks appears locked in to the third spot at best as a team, as second-place Granger has 133.5 points. Lake Roosevelt is right behind Forks at 75.
Port Angeles
The Roughriders’ Natalie Johnson finished eighth at 100 pounds to pick up a medal.
Johnson earned a 3-2 decision in her opening round match over Davis’ Lynette Espinoza, but was pinned at 3:11 of her quarterfinal with Mead’s Taylor Pascua. In the next round she beat Luna Martinez of Centralia 4-3 to get herself into the medals. She ended up going 2-3 at the Mat Classic.
Kennedy Bruch (130) dropped a 16-9 decision to open her Mat Classic against Raina Allen of Arlington, but stayed alive to claim a 3-1 win over Charlize Pasco of North Thurston. She lost 3-1 to Mattison Staybrook of Kennewick to miss out on the medals.
On the boys side, Raymond Rodriguez went 1-2 at 120 pounds, Phoenix Flores was 1-2 at 126 pounds and Zach Gavin went 0-2.
The Port Angeles boys had seven team points to come in 36th. The Port Angeles girls had 12 team points.
East Jefferson
East Jefferson’s Logan Massie is in the Class 1A finals at 170 pounds after earning a 16-2 major decision over Rylin Pavlin of Lakeside. In his semifinal, Massie won with a pin at 3:43 of his match against Royal’s Kaleb Hernandez. Massie’s championship bout was after press deadline.
Lars Wakefield lost two heavyweight matches by pin and was eliminated.
In the girls 115-pound bracket, Mia Lanphear-Ramirez split two matches Friday. Lanphear-Ramirez opened with a pin late in her match with Mount Vernon’s Parker Halgren (5:46) before being pinned by Moses Lake’s undefeated Ashley Dayana Naranjo (24-0) at 3:40. She lost her final match in a 6-4 sudden victory to Jada Hernandez of Warden.
The East Jefferson boys are in 21st place with 23 points, largely because of Massie’s performance so far.
Sequim
Sequim’s two competitors both were eliminated from Friday’s competition.
Petra Bernsten went 2-2 at 140 pounds, earning wins by pin and a 12-6 decision, but was pinned twice and ousted.
The Wolves’ 106-pounder Cayden Beauregard went 0-2.
