PORT ANGELES — The most grueling three weeks of the high school wrestling season begins this weekend when Port Angeles hosts the Olympic League’s Class 2A sub-regional tournament.
A total of seven teams, three of which are ranked in the top 10 of 2A, will descend upon the Roughrider gymnasium to fight for the right to move on to regionals at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma next weekend.
Just four wrestlers will advance from each weight class. And with two defending state champions, 10 state placers and 18 ranked wrestlers competing, that will be no easy task.
“It’s going to be awfully exciting with the strength of our league . . . it really is a wrestling league,” Port Angeles head coach Erik Gonzalez said.
Indeed, there appears to be few gimme brackets in this weekend’s event, which begins tonight at 5 p.m. and resumes Saturday.
All but four brackets feature at least one state-ranked wrestler, with several sporting two or three.
Such is the case at 189 pounds, which features 2A’s third- and fourth-ranked wrestlers at that weight in Freddit Rodolf of Kingston and Nathan Cristion of Port Angeles (33-1).
Those who manage to move on to regionals will enter a bracket that includes athletes from eight schools out of the 2A South Puget Sound League.
Only four will survive that round to go to the Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome on Feb. 18-19.
Port Townsend breaks off into its own 1A sub-regional this Saturday at Orting.
The Redskins are one of five teams — the other four from the 1A Nisqually League — who will vie for three regional spots from each weight class.
The regional will include four Northwest Conference schools and one Sea-King District school at Bellevue Christian.
Forks, meanwhile, will compete with its Southwest Washington League-Evergreen Division brethren in sub-regional action this weekend.
Basketball closing out
On the hardwood, several teams will look to improve or clinch playoff bids as the regular season winds down for girls and boys teams.
The biggest question mark appears to be what happens with the Port Townsend boys basketball team (5-10 in Olympic League, 7-12 overall).
Head coach Tom Webster was under the impression his Redskins had already clinched a playoff berth with Tuesday’s 63-50 win over North Mason.
Yet according to information sent to the PDN by Seattle Christian athletic director Craig Wrolstad, the Redskins are required to finish fifth among the Olympic’s 2A schools in order to advance.
That would mean they would have to at least tie North Mason, who they are currently a half game ahead of, to clinch a spot in a loser-out pigtail home game against the Nisqually League’s fifth-place team.
Thus, if the Redskins can manage a win tonight at home against Bremerton (10-4, 13-5) at 7 p.m., they would be assured of a playoff appearance.
Waiting for the Redskins could very well be Chimacum, which must play three games in five days beginning with tonight’s contest at Life Christian (6-3, 13-4).
Chimacum (2-7, 4-13) must finish ahead of Orting (3-7, 4-11) in order to earn a spot in the pigtail playoff.
Luckily for the Cowboys, one of their last three games includes a game at Orting on Monday that may very well decide who moves on.
Things are much more clear cut for the Chimacum girls (4-5, 6-11), who need only to win at Life Christian (0-9, 2-12) tonight to wrap up a playoff spot.
The Quilcene boys, meanwhile, appear to be in a do-or-die mode as they host Mount Rainier Lutheran tonight at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, several other teams are either playing for seeding or finishing out the regular season in preparation for next week’s first round of playoff games.
That includes the Port Townsend girls, Quilcene girls, Forks boys, Sequim boys, Sequim girls, Neah Bay boys, Neah Bay girls, Clallam Bay boys and Clallam Bay girls.
The Forks girls are already eliminated from contention.
See today’s calendar on Page B2 for times and locations of each game.
