January 5, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Journal photo by Emily Hanson
Shelton's Skylar Core, top, gets close to pinnb teammate Erik Smith at 132 during the first round of the North Mason Classic tournament on
Thursday, Dec. 29.
Three Shelton wrestle:E's place at Pac Coast
By EMILY HANSON
After two days of wrestling and more than 1,700 bo
three of 11 Shelton wrestlers returned home with reed
from the Pac Coast Tournament.
The tournament, held at Hudson Bay High School
Vancouver, Wash. lasted from Wednesday, Dec. 28 throl
Thursday, Dec. 29.
"We did well at Pac Coast," Chris Lacy, head coach, s
"As a team, we took 22nd out of 35 teams. We're wrestlers
we're a little greedy and wanted more wins and more me(
ists but the valuable part of Pac Coast was that every ma
was against a high-quality wrestler."
With multiple past state champion wrestlers as well
multiple past state medalists, Lacy said the tournament
super high-quality.
"Our objective going down there was to go against hi
quality wrestlers in high-quality matches and we defini 1
met both of those," Lacy said. "@his tournament will hellt
out tremendously in postseason." /
At 182 pounds, senior Johnathen Dennis
was the highest placer for the Highclimb-
ers, taking third after winning four of five
matches. [
Senior Ty McCullough, at 113, won t )ur
of seven matches to take sixth place w file
junior Ben Anderson, at 285, won four ot six
matches for seventh place.
"This was the best we've wrestled Lt a
tournament all year long in the consola :ion
Johnathen bracket," Lacy said. "At one point, we ere
Dennis 3-8 on day one and we finished the day -16.
We also got Ivan Fiedler on our lineut, for
the first time this year at 126. He went 2-2
and wrestled well."
While the varsity squad was at Pac Coast, the ju aior
varsity squad traveled north to Belfair for the Hawkins Me-
mortal JV Tournament on Wednesday, Dec. 28, and for the
varsity North Mason Classic on Thursday, Dec. 29.
At the JV tournament, the Highclimbers took 13th lace
with 35 team points while at the classic, the Highclim )ers
took 10th place with 67.5 points.
Winning three and losing two bouts was Hunter Co] at
132 for fifth place. Jesus Nunez won two, lost two at 12 for
fifth place while Jake Lindley won two, lost one at 281 for
third place.
Shelton's Kevin Loza puts all of his weight against his opponent at 126 during the first round of
TONIGHT:
Shelton vs.
Bellarmine,
7 p.m.
the North Mason Classic on Thursday, Dec. 29.
At 132, Kevin Loza won one, lost two
while Alex Almejo won one and lost two at
138. Also wrestling for the Highclimbers at
the JV tournament were Taylor Haskell at
106 and Thomas Hardway at 145.
At the classic, Adam Coffman won four,
lost two at 138 while Nunez won three, lost
one at 126 and Skylar Core won three, lost
one at 132. At 120, Gill Ramos won wo,
lost three while Benny Olivas won two/lost
two at 145 and Lindley won two, lost one at
285. Winning one bout and losing two were
Kaitlin Woods at 120, Loza at 126 and Erik
Smith at 132.
"I'd really like to highlight Adam Coffman and Skylar
Core," Lacy said. "They provided leadership to our younger
wrestlers on how to compete at a tournament."
Lacy said the coaches who were with the junior varsity
squad - Chris Frazier and Logan Roadman - were both ex-
cited about how the younger wrestlers competed.
The Highclimbers are set to compete next at 7 p.m. on
Thursday, Jan. 5, at home against Bellarmine Prep. At 10
a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 7, the girls are scheduled to wrestle
at the Elma tournament while the junior varsity and some
varsity boys' will be wrestling at North Beach High School in
Ocean Shores.
"Bellarmine is a quality program so to win that dual, we're
going to have to work hard and prepare well," Lacy said. "At
North Beach, I'd really like to see our guys come home with
the trophy."
Confessions of a wrestling convert
Confession time: I used to hate wres-
tling. I didn't even consider it a sport.
EMILY
HANSON
I i
I remember being a se-
nior at Timberline High
School in 2004 and argu-
ing with the sports editor
of The Blazer, the news-
magazine there, about
how I absolutely refused
to write the month's sports
article on wrestling.
"It's not a sport!" I
yelled at him and eventu-
ally my stubborness won
out and I was assigned to
write about the boys' basketball team mak-
ing it to the playoffs.
I'm not even sure where my dislike of
the sport came from. I know I just thought
of it as nothing more than two guys rolling
around on a mat wearing ridiculous man-
sized onesies - I didn't even know the uni-
form was called a singlet until about three
years ago.
Also,
the two
sharing
disgusti:
To b
wrestlin
was a w
Univers
It w:
small t
tral W
great s
Tona
success.
state ck
and 201
coached
inducte
tling Cc
has bee
School
By
pete, I
goes in
Page C-4 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Janu
as a germaphobe, the fact that
guys rolling around on a mat were
so much sweat was also completely
g to me.
honest, I never even went to a
g match in high school and if there
estling team at Washington State
ity, I wasn't aware of it.
tsn't until I started working in a
bwn called Tonasket in north cen-
Lshington that I learned what a
ort it is.
sket has a long history of wrestling
The school brought home its first
ampion in 1984 and between then
0, 24 state champions followed, all
by Dave Mitchell. Mitchell was
into the Washington State Wres-
.ches Hall of Fame last winter and
the head coach at Tonasket High
."or more than 34 years.
ratching the Tonasket Tigers corn-
learned exactly how much effort
to wrestling. I realized that while
ry 5, 2012
it's still gross to me how much sweat the
wrestlers put out, that sweat is the result
of putting all of their physical strength
and effort into trying to pin their oppo-
nent. While the singlets still look vaguely
ridiculous, they are necessary because the
wrestlers can't compete properly in baggy
clothes and also get so warm that a thicker
uniform would be competely impractical.
When wrestling season started here,
I was a little surprised to see that I still
enjoy the sport. In Tonasket, I thought I
enjoyed wrestling because by the time the
season started, I knew most of the athletes
as well as nearly their entire families - it
was a really small town - and I was enjoy-
ing watching people I knew win at some-
thing they enjoyed so much.
Since this is a much larger area with
more people, I wasn't sure if I would still
like it but after watching the Highclimbers
and the Bulldogs compete, I'm happy to say
I'm still a wrestling fan.
Though I'm taking photos and unable
to cheer during matches, I still feel the ex-
citement when a wrestler is close to being
pinned and pulls a reversal. I still want to
cheer when a wrestler comes from behind
in points to win the match against all odds.
The cheers "of the families and friends of
the wrestlers mingled with the screamed
instructions of their coaches gets my blood
pumping and I can't wait to see if the wres-
tler can take down his opponent.
I guess my point is this: no matter how
much wrestling haters despise the sport
and may be grossed out by it, there's no
way to say the athletes are not putting
forth all of their effort, especially at tour-
naments when a wrestler can compete be-
tween four and six times for up to six min-
utes per match.
And for those who are not sure whether
or not they like the sport, I say go to a lo-
cal dual match or catch a couple rounds of
a tournament, just to see if, like me, you
actually are a wrestling fan and you just
didn't know it yet.