SPOKANE — The Forks wrestlers learned an important lesson about keeping their cool, coming in second to Deer Park at the Dream Duals.
The boys didn’t help themselves with two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. The penalties cost Forks two points and Deer Park won 39-37. This didn’t cost the Spartans first place, but it was still not a good thing, said coach Bob Wheeler.
“Without the loss of those points we would have been tied, but Deer Park would have won on the eighth tie-breaking criterion listed as a tiebreaker. This whole thing upset me because I just don’t believe that our Forks wrestlers should be showing any unsportsmanlike conduct let alone having two in one match,” Wheeler said.
“As usual there was some very good competition in all the matches at this tournament. I just hope our kids are going to take to heart some of the things we did not do well and make some changes in the short time we have left before the post season,” Wheeler said.
Forks did beat Lakeside 42-31 and beat Zillah 45-23 to give themselves a shot at first.
Against Lakeside, the Spartans were actually behind 31-18 at one point, but their heavyweights took over. Winning their matches were Ariel Morales at 126 pounds, Colton Duncan at 132, Hayden Baker at 152, Brett Moody at 170 and Josh Salazar at 182. That made it 31-24 for Lakeside, then Forks won by forfeit in the 195, 220 and 285 divisions to win.
Against Zillah, Forks again got down big at 23-0, but then stormed back with eight straight wins. Winning their matches were Keith Thompson at 145 pounds, Baker, Hayden Queen, Moody, Colby Demorest at 182 pounds, Shae Queen at 195, Eden Cisneros at 220 and Luke Dahlgren at 285.
Against Deer Park, the Spartans got down again 27-5, with Andrew Santos-Delacruz winning hsi match at 113 pounds. Thompson won by forfeit, then Baker, Moody, Demorest, Cisneros and Dahlgren all won their matches to make it razor-thin close at the end.
Forks has a dual at home at 5 p.m. Tuesday against a very good 2A squad from North Kitsap. The Spartans travel to Montesano on Thursday for their final Evergreen 1A League meet.
Port Angeles at King of the Hills
TUMWATER — The Port Angeles wrestling squad had two grapplers place at the King of the Hills tournament at Black Hills High School.
Dom Timperio took second at 195 pounds, while Seth Mann took fourth at 152.
Coach Rob Gale said he only took seven wrestlers because Port Angeles is preparing for an important Olympic League 2A Division dual on Thursday. The Roughriders are 5-0 in league meets, while Olympic is 4-1, so Thursday’s meet, which begins at 6:30 p.m., will be for the league championship.
