All four high school wrestling teams on the North Olympic Peninsula are young this year but that doesn’t mean that they are lacking for talent or experience at key weights.
The Port Angeles Roughriders have a returning state placer in senior Nathan Cristion, who is undefeated (9-0) on the year while the youthful Sequim Wolves already have a tournament win in the early season (Cardinal Classic at Franklin Pierce last weekend).
The Forks Spartans, meanwhile, are loaded with underclassmen but have three state-ranked wrestlers, and the Port Townsend Redskins also are young but have some standout talent, headed by Kris Windle.
Battling for ax
The Class 2A archrivals Riders and Wolves will square off at today’s eight-team sixth annual Battle for the Axe tournament at Port Angeles High School.
The two teams tangled in the championship round last year with the Wolves coming out on top.
“It was a pretty dramatic match,” Port Angeles coach Erik Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez is hoping for a rematch and has put both teams in opposite pools in the dual-meet format competition in hopes that the teams will end up as pool champions again.
There are four teams in each pool and at the end of the day the No. 1 squads from each pool face each other, the No. 2s go at it as well as the No. 3s and No. 4s.
“Hopefully, we will meet Sequim in the finals,” Gonzalez said.
The Riders won their own tournament the first year in 2004 but are still looking to bring the traveling ax trophy back home.
This will be an especially tough tourney with at least five teams with a good shot at the trophy, Gonzalez said.
He is expecting defending champion Sequim, La Center, Shelton, Kingston and Port Angeles to vie for the title.
Central Kitsap could be in the mix, too, if the Cougars bring their whole team.
“I don’t think they are bringing their full team because some kids are missing because of the holidays,” Gonzalez said.
“The tournament will have a good balance. Sequim still has the axe, and if we want the axe we have to go through them. They have a good team.
“La Center impressed me at the Forks tournament. They beat us by 3 ½ points for the title. They are a solid 1A team with state placers.
“Shelton is 2-0 in dual meets and has good depth with 49 kids. I expect them to be pretty tough.
“Kingston beat us by five points in a dual meet a couple of weeks ago,” Gonzalez said.
The Buccaneers went ahead 24-0 in the lower weights but the Riders came surging back in the middle and upper weights to make a match of it.
“We went ahead at one point but we couldn’t hold on,” Gonzalez said.
The Riders have a lot of freshmen in the lighter weights but have experience in the heavier weights.
“Our strength starts at 140 pounds, and from there we’re pretty solid,” Gonzalez said.
Today’s tournament action starts at 10 a.m. with the first round. Championship and pool crossover competition, the fourth round, is expected to start at about 3 p.m.
The Wolves open tourney action with Central Kitsap in the first round and then battle Columbia River and La Center in rounds two and three, respectively.
The Riders, meanwhile, take on Ocosta in the first round and then compete against Kingston and Shelton in rounds two and three, respectively.
Following are previews of the area wrestling teams.
Port Angeles Roughriders
Port Angeles has two runner-up finishes in tournaments so far this year, taking second to La Center at Forks and second to Sunnyside at Fife.
The Riders finished ahead of the Wolves at Forks. Sequim claimed fourth place.
Nathan Cristion heads the lineup. He captured eighth place at state last year, is a perfect 9-0 on the season and is ranked third for 2A at 189 pounds.
Also ranked for the Riders is senior Jacob Dostie, 10th at 189.
Port Angeles also has to regional placers back in senior Trevor Lee at 160 and Brian Sullivan at 152. Both wrestlers earned sixth place.
Returning regional qualifiers include Dostie (at 215), Kacee Garner at 152, Brian Cristion at 171, Zach Grali at 215 and Corey Roblan at 215.
The Riders get a boost with returning veterans Andrew Symonds and Daniel Jenkins, both seniors and both coming back from season-ending injuries a year ago.
Symonds, at 140, is a two-time regional participant while Jenkins, at 285, also is a regional participant.
Sophomore Josh Basden was fifth at the district meet last year at 103 pounds.
Gonzalez is starting his ninth year as head coach, with a 13th place at state, third at regionals, second twice at sub-district and third in league to his credit.
The Riders have two state champions, Julio Garcia in 2003 and John Camp in 2009 at the end of a perfect undefeated season.
Sequim Wolves
After starting the season with a fourth-place finish at Forks, the Wolves were 13th out of 20 teams at the prestigious Battle at the Border tourney and they won the Cardinal Classic at Tacoma’s Franklin Pierce last weekend.
Dakota Hinton and Clay Charlie are the leaders of the team.
Hinton, a team co-captain, has started the season at 8-2 with six pins at 171 pounds, including a tourney championship at Franklin Pierce and third place at Battle of the Border.
Charlie, meanwhile, was the lone Sequim winner at Forks, took second at Franklin Pierce and fifth at Battle of the Border.
The junior heavyweight is ranked 10th in state for 2A at 215 pounds.
Other wrestlers to watch are Austin Middleton at 130, Derek Fruin at 135, Mustang Riggins at 140, Cody Field at 145 and Kawika Yasumura at 160, Sequim coach Len Borchers said.
“Top newcomers are Chris Falkey [189] and Emilio Peret-Colin [215], who will add some punch to our upper weights,” Borchers said.
“We will need it because we have freshman Agostine Royhon at 103 and have yet to fill 112, 119 and 125 on a consistent basis.”
Another wrestler to watch is Amariah Clift, a girls wrestling state alternate last year who is expected to have a shot at state this season at 285 pounds.
Borchers, who wrestled in high school in 1961 and has been involved in the sport some way almost every year since, is starting his fourth year as Sequim’s head coach.
He also has been a volunteer assistant coach in Yakima and Port Angeles for many years.
Borchers has continued the strong winning tradition at Sequim, taking eight participants to state in 2008-09 and coming home with four state places.
Joe Hutchison and Ethan Hinton were both two-time placers that year. Ethan is Dakota’s older brother.
Sequim has had two state champions, Brian Gilliam at 135 in 2000 and Kyle Keith at 215 in 2002.
Forks Spartans
The future looks bright for the Spartans, who are having one of their biggest turnouts in years.
But most of the athletes are young, so it will take a couple of years for the Spartans to make waves as a team.
“We have a couple of first-year seniors and a first-year junior plus a lot of freshmen,” longtime Forks coach Bob Wheeler said.
“We have a good freshman group. Three have done a lot of freestyle. They should do OK. It will help us out to have them all four years.”
The youthful Spartans showed some muscle by capturing sixth place at the tough 10-team Mount Baker Tournament on Tuesday night.
Forks is led by three standout state veterans who are ranked in 1A.
Two-time state participant Cutter Grahn, a 125-pound junior, captured sixth place last year and is ranked sixth in the current poll.
Grahn captured first place at Mount Baker on Tuesday.
Fellow two-time state participant Tyler Cortani, a 130-pound senior, claimed eighth place in state as a sophomore. He currently is ranked No. 5 at 130.
Cortani was runner-up at Mount Baker.
Dayne House, a 135-pound junior, was a state participant last year and qualified for regionals as a freshman. He is ranked seventh at 135.
House did not participate at Mount Baker because he is under a concussion watch, Wheeler said.
Even though all three are ranked in different weights, they are pretty much the same size, Wheeler said.
“At the end of the year, two of them probably will be at 119 and one at 125,” he added.
Also winning a title at Mount Baker was Nick Atkins at 152. It was the first time Atkins was a tourney championship.
Also doing well at Mount Baker were Ricky Barragan at 130 and Leandro Ordonez at 112. Both wrestlers tied for fifth place at their weights.
Port Townsend Redskins
Port Townsend is another youthful team on the Peninsula.
“We are a very young team and continue to just get better,” veteran Port Townsend coach Joey Johnson said.
“We will be a lot better at the end of the season than we are now.”
The 1A Redskins won four matches against the 2A Riders in a dual meet last week.
Kris Windle at 152 pounds is one of the wrestlers to watch.
“Kris Windle continues to do well,” Johnson said.
Other Port Townsend winners against Port Angeles were Dillon Ralls at 125, Mikail Callahan at 130 and Ryan Taylor at 135.
