A total of 20 wrestlers — 18 boys and two girls — from the North Olympic Peninsula, including five regional champions, qualified for the Mat Classic in Tacoma next weekend.
Forks qualified a total of 11 wrestlers, including regional champions Jake Weakley, Colton Duncan, Hayden Queen and Karen Ensastegui. Port Townsend qualified three wrestlers, including regional champion Dylan Tracer, while Port Angeles qualified three, Chimacum two and Sequim one.
Forks
HOQUIAM — Perennial powerhouse Forks had the best showing of all the Peninsula schools, finishing a solid second at the Region 2 1A Regionals held in Hoquiam. Winning was Montesano with 308 points. Forks was second with 166.5 points while Castle Rock was third with 139.5 points.
Weakley won his 132-pound weight class with a pin and two decisions, winning his championship bout with an 8-2 decision over Payden Webster of Columbia (White Salmon).
Colton Duncan was first at 138 pounds, going to overtime to win his championship match with a 6-4 sudden victory over Hunter Mallicoat of La Center.
Hayden Queen won at 170 pounds, beating his teammate Hayden Baker for the championship in a 7-4 decision. Baker won two other matches at regionals, finishing second and also going to the Mat Classic.
Wrestling at a different meet down in Kelso, Forks’ Karen Ensastegui won at 100 pounds with three straight pins, beating Praline Werner of Puyallup with a late pin (5 minutes, 56 seconds) in the championship.
Other Spartans qualifying for the Mat Classic include:
Andres Santos-Delacruz, second, 126 pounds. Santos-Delacruz won two decisions and lost in the championship match in a 6-2 decision against Cooper Johansson of Montesano.
Conner Demorest, third, 106 pounds. Demorest went 3-1 at regionals.
Dalton Kilmer, third, 120 pounds; 3-1 at regionals.
Ariel Morales, third, 132 pounds; 2-1 at regionals.
Luis Perez, fourth, 145 pounds; 2-2 at regionals.
Annhelica Wells, fourth, 110 pounds; 4-3 at girls’ regionals.
Additionally, the Spartans’ Hector Dominguez placed fifth at 220 pounds and will attend the Mat Classic as an alternate.
Port Angeles, Sequim
ORTING — Port Angeles sent two wrestlers to the championship bouts of its 2A Region 2 regional held in Orting.
Port Angeles coach Rob Gale said this was one of the strongest regionals he had ever seen at the 2A level.
Adam Borde at 132 pounds won three matches to qualify for the championship bout. He was eventually beaten by Owen Cline of Orting in a 13-3 decision and finished second in his weight class.
Jason Kibe at 182 pounds also made it to the championship bout, beating Isaiah Cowan of Sequim in the semifinals in a close 3-1 decision. In the finals, Kibe had an exceptionally long match, losing in a double-overtime tiebreaker against Elliot Carlsson of Steilacoom to finish second in his division.
Joining Borde and Kibe at the Mat Classic will be Lance Menes, who came in fourth at 195 pounds.
Cowan finished fourth at 182 pounds and will also wrestle at the Mat Classic.
In addition to having wrestlers at the Mat Classic, the Riders learned this week that assistant coach Chris Myers was named the assistant coach of the year for the Olympic League.
Port Townsend, Chimacum
Tracer, who missed over half this season recovering from a broken hand he sustained during football season, got to the finals with pins in the quarterfinals and semifinals at 182 pounds at the 1A Region 1 regionals held at Klahowya. His semifinals pin came against teammate Wes Blue.
In the finals, Tracer won the regionals championship with an injury default over Hunter Wallis of Klahowya.
Joining Tracer at state will be Logan Massie at 145 pounds, who made it to the championship match in his division. Massie had a pair of pins in the quarterfinals and semifinals, then was pinned by Kilian Cronk of Mount Baker in the championship. Massie finished second.
Redhawk Ian Linn-Glasgow also qualified for state, finishing fourth at 152 pounds.
Joining this trio will be a pair of alternates. Blue ended up finishing fifth at 182 pounds and gets to attend the Mat Classic, while Odin Smith also finished fifth at 152 pounds, going to the Tacoma Dome as an alternate.
Port Townsend finished sixth at regionals with 88 team points. Vashon won the region with 197 points.
Chimacum, which competes with Port Townsend as a unified team during the regular season and a separate team in the postseason, has two qualifiers for the Mat Classic.
Kyle Caldwell finished third at 195 pounds to qualify for state, while Robby Collier finished fourth at 170 pounds.
The Mat Classic will be held Friday and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
