TACOMA — For the first time ever, both the Forks boys and the girls wrestling squads finished in the top 10 at the Mat Classic at the Tacoma Dome, with Abraham Montealegre as the Spartans’ latest in a long line of individual state champions.
The Forks boys placed three wrestlers and finished sixth with 123 points among 1B/2B schools. Tonasket won the state 1B/2B championship with 276.5 points. The Forks girls placed two wrestlers and finished eighth with 85 points. The girls 1B/2B championship was won by Granger with 184 points.
Montealegre went into the Mat Classic with an outstanding record of 26-2, mostly at 113 pounds. A previous state champion, Rodger Cate of Lake Roosevelt, was in Montealegre’s weight class and entered the Mat Classic with a record of 28-3.
Montealegre won his opening match with a pin in the first round over Lucas Santos of Columbia Burbank, won his quarterfinal with a 12-0 major decision over Luis Veduzco of Tonasket and won his semifinal with a third-round pin over Anthony Torres of Granger.
His match with Cate went into the third round, where Montealegre won with a pin.
Montealegre, who was home sick Monday recovering from a virus, said “it feels pretty amazing. I worked pretty hard for it.
“I had seen Cate wrestle before. I saw him win a state championship when he was a freshman. I knew he was going to be tough,” Montealegre said.
Montealegre said he didn’t plan on showing off his medal to his classmates, but when he returns to school, he expects to hear a lot.
“I’m just going to show up. I know everyone will be happy for me,” he said.
Also having a solid Mat Classic for Forks was Dominick Sanchez, who finished third at 106 pounds. Also placing for Forks was Kenneth Daman, who came in fifth at 285 pounds, going 5-2 over the weekend.
For the Forks girls, Peyton Johnson made it to the championship match at 120 pounds and finished second. Forks’ Jade Blair finished third at 125 pounds.
East Jefferson had two wrestlers who placed, plus another member of the team who placed competing for Quilcene.
The best showing was Gracee Liske, who finished second after making it to the championship match at 125 pounds by winning two matches by pin and her semifinal with a 12-4 major decision of Lillian Monaghan of Wilbur-Creston. In the finals, Liske went three rounds against Kiley Kaiser of Okanogan, but was pinned in the third by a wrestler with a record of 40-3.
For the boys, Grady White finished sixth at 157 pounds, winning two matches over the weekend.
Quilcene’s Mason Iverson finished fourth at 215 pounds, going 4-2 over the weekend.
Port Angeles Swimming
FEDERAL WAY — The Port Angeles boys swim team had all three relay teams place and got some outstanding individual results as the team finished sixth at the 2A swim championships, the team’s best showing at state in more than a decade.
The Roughriders last finished in the top 10 in 2022, when they came in eighth. They also finished eighth in 2015.
Port Angeles earned 120.5 points in the three-day event held this weekend at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Bainbridge won the state championship with 395 points.
The Roughriders’ 200 medley relay team, the 200 freestyle team and the 400 freestyle team all placed.
The 200 medley relay team of Thomas Jones, Nolan Medgin, Miles Van Denburg and Finn Thompson came in seventh with a time of 1:47.88, the 200 freestyle team of Patrick Ross, Jones, Van Denburg and Thompson finished eighth in 1:36.69.
The best showing was by the 400 freestyle relay team, which came in sixth. The team of Van Denburg, Ross, Jones and Thompson had a time of 3:30.74. The three relay teams earned a combined 72 points.
The Riders came on strong during the end of the meet. After seven events, they were sitting in 11th, but they placed swimmers in the final four events to move up to sixth.
Thompson had the best individual finish for the Riders, coming in third in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.74. In a rarity for swimming, he tied for third, touching the wall at the exact same moment as Brock Pollestad of Pullman and earning 15.5 points.
Jones came in fifth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:00.34. Grant Butterworth got the team off to a good start in the diving competition Thursday, jumping up two spots after the semifinal to finish seventh after the finals with 209.25 points.
Gymnastics
SAMMAMISH — Sequim’s Lucy Spelker finished 88th overall out of 139 athletes in the state gymnastics meet held at Sammamish High School.
Spelker’s best finish was in the floor exercise. She scored an 8.825, good for 50th. She was 69th in the beam with a 7.3. Her all-around score was 16.125.
