FEDERAL WAY — The defending Class 4A state champion Lake Stevens boys wrestling team graduated two individual state champions and four top-five placers from last year’s title-winning squad.
But thanks to several returning state placers and a fresh crop of rising talent, the Vikings will once again be well-represented in the Tacoma Dome for next weekend’s Mat Classic XXIX.
Lake Stevens cruised to the 4A Region 1 title as 11 Vikings qualified for state with a top-four regional finish Saturday at Todd Beamer High School.
Lake Stevens finished with 240 points, nearly 100 points ahead of second-place Auburn Riverside. The Vikings, winners of three of the last four 4A state titles, had three individual champions and eight finalists in the 16-team regional tournament.
“For our young team, it’s awesome,” Lake Stevens coach Brent Barnes said. “We only had two seniors here, so to be able to qualify 11 guys for state is pretty good.”
Lake Stevens sophomore Isaac Gust, making the first regional appearance of his career, provided one of the day’s biggest highlights.
Locked in a hard-fought 145-pound semifinal bout with Jackson senior Cole Anderson, Gust suffered a bloody nose that forced him to the trainer’s table several times during the match. With the five-minute blood clock winding down and starting to become a concern, tape was applied to Gust’s nose and wrapped around his head in an effort to control the bleeding and keep him on the mat.
“My game plan to beat Cole was to try to tire him out,” Gust said. “And with all the stopping with the bloody nose, that was not how it was supposed to go.”
But Gust fought through the adversity.
The up-and-coming sophomore took a two-point lead in the final 30 seconds, and after Anderson forced overtime with a late reversal, Gust answered with a sudden-death takedown in the first period of extra time to advance with a 6-4 win. Gust then earned a 9-4 victory over Enumclaw senior CJ Eckblad in the title bout.
“He’s just come from nowhere, especially in a middleweight where you wrestle mostly seniors,” Barnes said. “(It’s) pretty awesome. I’m really proud of him.”
Also winning regional titles for Lake Stevens were senior Nathan Scilley and junior standout Malachi Lawrence, who each placed third at state last year and opposed a fellow Viking in Saturday’s regional finals. Scilley earned a 5-2 win over sophomore teammate Kyle LaCoursiere in the 120-pound title match, and Lawrence won by forfeit over junior teammate Angelo Loera for the 170-pound crown.
Other regional runners-up for Lake Stevens were sophomore Julian Fryberg (152 pounds) and juniors Jake Bennett (106) and Clayton Brush (126).
Monroe senior Josh Felder led a breakthrough regional showing for the Bearcats, who took fifth place with 84 points and qualified five wrestlers for state. Felder earned a 10-6 win over Mariner senior Cayden Herbert in the 220-pound title bout to become Monroe’s first regional champion in at least a decade, according to Bearcats coach Mark Dalbeck.
Herbert had beaten Felder in their previous two meetings this season, including an encounter in last week’s district tournament. But this time, it was Felder who triumphed.
“He’s not flashy,” Dalbeck said. “He’s not fancy. He’s just going to go out and fight, fight, fight. … He’s been working for this all year long — since the end of state last year — so we’re really proud of him.”
Glacier Peak had a pair of regional champions in senior Ricky Kranz and sophomore Parker Hardy. Kranz earned an 11-3 major decision over Fryberg of Lake Stevens to win the 152-pound title, while Hardy pinned Auburn Riverside sophomore Yusef Nelson in 3 minutes, 43 seconds to capture the 113-pound crown.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Glacier Peak coach Bryan Mossburg said of his team, which will be sending four wrestlers to state. “They put it all on the mat today. For only bringing six guys and being able to take four of them on, and doing as well as we did, I’m proud of them and happy for them. They’ve worked hard and it’s paying off.”
Kamiak senior Warren Han stormed to the 160-pound title with three first-round pins, including a 49-second pin of Auburn Riverside junior Kenny Miller in the finals. It was sweet redemption for Han, who fell just short of a state-qualifying finish at last year’s regionals and suffered an upset loss in last week’s district tournament.
“It was phenomenal,” Kamiak coach Bryan Stelling said. “He was on today. He was disappointed in one of his matches in the (district) tournament, so today he was really focused. I couldn’t ask for a better performance. He was really just hitting his moves.”
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