RAINIER — In what might be their best showing of the year so far, the Forks wrestlers for the second year in a row won the prestigious Sgt. Norton Memorial Wrestling Tournament.
The Spartans not only won the 17-team Friday and Saturday tournament, they won by a huge margin. Forks ended up with 246 team points compared to second-place Lake Roosevelt’s 137.5.
Last year, Forks tallied 204.5 team points at the same event. Forks and Lake Roosevelt were the only two schools at the event with more than 100 points.
Four Spartans won their divisions, with another five Forks wrestlers making it to the championship bout and finishing second.
“I was pleased that they are finally wrestling closer to their abilities. Hopefully, they will continue to improve during the next few weeks,” said coach Bob Wheeler.
In all, Forks placed 11 wrestlers in nine out of the 14 weight divisions.
Winning their weight divisions were:
Ariel Morales, 126 pounds; Colby Demorest, 182 pounds; Tristan Pisani, 220 pounds; and Luke Dahlgren, 285 pounds.
Coming in second place were:
Colton Duncan, 132 pounds; Keith Thompson, 145 pounds
Brett Moody, 170 pounds,
Shane Queen, 195 pounds
Eden Cisneros, 220 pounds (losing in the championship bout to Pisani)
Also placing were Hayden Baker (152 pounds) and Josh Salazar (182 pounds), who both finished fourth.
Forks will next wrestle at an Evergreen 1A dual at Hoquiam on Wednesday.
Port Townsend at Matman Classic
SILVERDALE — Port Townsend placed three wrestlers at the Matman Classic this weekend.
Gabe Petrick, Dylan Tracer and Kyle Caldwell all took co-thirds in their weight divisions. Petrick wrestled at 160 pounds, Tracer 182 pounds and Caldwell at 192 pounds.
“Our wrestlers did great at this tough tournament with Port Townsend being the only 1A there,” said coach Steve Grimm.
“We wanted to see some tough competition. We sought this tournament out. Our wrestlers had 3 to 4 guys in there brackets that were top 10 state ranked for 3A &4A. We knew it was gonna be tough and the boys stepped up to get medals,” Grimm said. “It was a good measuring stick for us. Our competition, they were good but I think we’re right there with them. I think we should have had a few guys make the finals.”
Grimm said the matches of the day was by Carter Swartout who was behind 5-1 in the third round with one minute left, then threw his opponent to his back, gaining 5 points and going ahead 6-5. He ended getting a pin with 10 seconds left.
“Freshman Logan Massie was behind 10-0 and threw his opponent to his back and was looking for a pin to complete the upset but the match was stopped early because the opponents mouth and nose were bleeding. He was so close to a big upset,” Grimm said.
Port Townsend ended up 10th out of 14 schools with 64 points. Peninsula, a 3A school, won the event with 152.5 points.
Port Townsend will next wrestle against Vashon on Thursday.
