Oak Harbor High School’s Sam Zook placed third and Dymond Piper and Meredith Bain each finished seventh to lead the Wildcats at the state wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday, Feb. 19 and 20, at the Tacoma Dome.
Three other Wildcats – freshman Blake Servatius (106 pounds), junior Zach Aketch (145) and junior Caitlin Woodworth (155) – took part in Mat Classic XXVIII; none placed but each won a match before exiting.
The Wildcat boys, with 32 points, placed 19th as a team out of the 60 3A schools represented. Wesco North champion and top-ranked Arlington won the state crown with 148 points. Wesco’s Edmonds-Woodway finished fourth with 106.
Girls from all classifications competed in the same tournament. Oak Harbor scored eight points to tie for 65th out of the 124 schools that qualified wrestlers for the meet.
Zook, a junior, entered the tournament undefeated and ranked fourth in the 285-pound class in the Washington Wrestling Report standings.
He started the meet with a 7-0 win over eighth-ranked Angus Beaton of Capial and lost by a fall (2:52) to Rogers of Spokane’s second-ranked Markus Robinson. He then ripped off four straight wins to claim third. He stopped Wesco North foe 11th-ranked Austin Brown of Marysville-Pilchuck 3-1, pinned ninth-ranked Bryan Person of Prairie (2:02), nipped Julius McDade of O’Dea 1-0 and collected third by pinning (5:53) fifth-ranked Jackson Potts of Foss. Potts finished fourth, Robinson fifth, McDade sixth and Person eighth.
Eighth-ranked Piper, a 152-pound senior, pinned (4:30) Lincoln’s ninth-ranked Tristain Kwon and then lost 14-1 to second-ranked and eventual champion Bryan Wais of North Central. Piper won by a fall (2:45) over 11th-ranked Anthony Lindamond of Edmonds-Woodway, but lost by a fall (:53) to Kelso’s sixth-ranked John Stuart, who went on to place sixth. In the match for seventh place, Piper defeated fourth-ranked Marcus Wiley of Lincoln by injury default.
Junior Bain (190), ranked fifth, lost by a fall (4:40) to Decatur’s second-ranked Glaysia Sparling, then bounced back to beat ninth-ranked Daniel Jolley of Warden 3-0 and seventh-ranked Natasha Fruh of North Beach 7-3. She then lost 2-0 to White River’s Jacey Linder. In the match for seventh place, she defeated Sunnyside’s 10th-ranked Cassidy Ochoa 5-2. Linder took fifth place and Ochoa eighth.
Servatius opened the tournament by losing by a fall (1:36) to second-ranked Blake Haney of Mount Spokane. He then pinned (4:15) Tony Chen of Roosevelt before losing by a pin (1:58) to Interlake’s 10th-ranked Beau Wiebe. Haney went on to finish second and Wiebe seventh.
Aketch was edged 8-6 by Kennewick’s fifth-ranked Alex Ramos, beat Roosevelt’s Erik Choi 4-1 and lost 12-1 to Fendale’s 10th-ranked Noah Saenz. Saenz eventually nabbed seventh.
Woodworth pinned (3:06) Pasco’s seventh-ranked Jesse Lobos in the first round, lost by a fall (3:12) to Hoquiam’s eighth-ranked Jenna Doll and lost 6-1 to Jordan Christin of Centralia. Doll placed fourth and Christin eighth.
“(I’m) very pleased and happy with our team’s performance,” first-year coach Larry Falcon said. “I am proud of each wrestler’s performance and look forward to next season.”
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Dymond Piper, left, Meredith Bain and Sam Zook all placed in the state wrestling tournament.
