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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
January 5, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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January 5, 2012
 
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I i 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.