Cascade Conference teams produce seven regional champions

Published 11:37 pm Saturday, February 9, 2008

MOUNT VERNON — Archbishop Murphy, Cedarcrest and Sultan recorded strong showings at the 2A Region 1 wrestling meet which was largely dominated by the Northwest League schools of Skagit and Whatcom counties.

Blaine High School won the regional title with 210 points. Murphy finished a fairly distant fourth with 111 points — the highest local finishing team.

“We’re just trying to climb the ladder — we’re just making improvements,” Murphy coach Blaine Smith said of his fifth-year squad. “We’re looking forward to competing (at state) and hopefully coming back with some hardware. That’s our ultimate goal.

The Wildcats qualified five wrestlers for next weekend’s state tournament at the Tacoma Dome, highlighted by championships by Zeke Evers (215) and Brad Gee (189).

Facing South Whidbey’s Darrin Britton for the third time this season, Evers was in control throughout his 215-pound match. After Britton scored a reversal early in the third period to cut the deficit to 4-3, Evers escaped and followed that with a takedown with 25 seconds remaining to ice the 7-3 decision.

“I came in last year not really in good enough shape,” Evers said. “I wanted to stand on that podium since I was a freshman … I wish I could describe what I’m feeling right now — being a senior and all — it just feels good.”

Gee followed him with a quick pin over Blaine’s Darrell Price to win the title at 189 pounds. Cameron Wade finished second for Murphy at 125 pounds.

Cedarcrest finished in fifth place with 110 points — just one back of Murphy — and also qualified five wrestlers for the 2A state tournament. Ty Howard won the 125-pound title and Brady Paxman won the 171-pound title for the Red Wolves.

Sultan followed its Cascade Conference opponents in sixth place with 91 points.

The Turks also had a pair of champions as they had three wrestlers qualify for state.

Abe Bray won the 152-pound championship in what was arguably the meet’s most exciting match. He won the four-overtime thriller after he rode South Whidbey’s Aaron Mannie for the entire 30-second fourth overtime period to claim the win.

“I was actually so tired out on the mat that I forgot the rules,” the visibly exhausted Bray said afterword. “When they told me I won after the third overtime, I was like ‘I didn’t even score.’ I was confused.”

Fellow Turk Mikey Varnell also won in overtime, with a 5-3 decision over Bellingham’s Michael Takemura at 130 pounds.

Sultan’s Garret Varnell lost to Burlington-Edison’s Enrique Medina 7-1 in the championship match to finish second at 103 pounds.

South Whidbey finished seventh with 88 points. The Falcons’ lone champion was James Schorr, who won at 160 pounds over Bellingham’s Riley Mullet.

Trapper Rawls finished second at 285 for the Falcons, who also qualified five wrestlers for the state tournament.

Andrew McKibben of Granite Falls was the only other local qualifier, finishing third at 285 pounds.

At Mount Vernon H.S.

Team Scores—1. Blaine 210, 2. Bellingham 140, 3. Burlington-Edison 126.5, 4. Archbishop Murphy 111, 5. Cedarcrest 110, 6. Sultan 91, 7. South Whidbey 88, 8. Lynden 81, 9. Mount Baker 74.5, 10. Sehome 56, 11. Granite Falls 23, 12. Anacortes 17, 13. Lakewood 15.

Top four to state fifth place alternate

103—1. Medina (BE), 2. G. Varnell (Sultan) , 3. Lepper (MB), 4. Lisk (Ced.), 5. Barnes (Blaine).112—1. Farias (BE), 2. Arredondo (Ced.), 3.Wattam (AM), 4. Kuykendahl (Bel.), 5. Wright (Ana.).119—1. Humphrey (Blaine), 2. Montanez (Bell.), 3. Stone (Seh.), 4. Gorman (Ced.), 5. Ramirez (BE). 125—1. Howard (Ced.), 2. Wade (AM), 3. Jordan (Blaine), 4. Duncan (Blaine), 5. Campos (BE). 130—1. M. Varnell (Sultan), 2. Takemura (Bell.), 3. Mackowiak (Blaine), 4. Nix (Blaine), 5. Carroll (Ced.). 135—1.Patrick (MB), 2. Perry (Bell.), 3. Kelley (Lyn), 4. Mallak (Blaine), 5. Turner (Sultan). 140—1. Fitzgerald (Bell.), 2. Foster (Blaine), 3. Jacoby (MB), 4. Frey (Lyn.), 5. Kaminski (Sultan). 145—1. Jones (Bell.), 2. Santos (Seh.), 3. Kilthau (Blaine), 4. Miller (AM), 5. Brittain (Ced.). 152—1. Bray (Sultan), 2. Mannie (SW) 3. Lavergne (MB), 4. Yoder (Lyn.), 5. McKeever (LW).160—1.Schorr (SW), 2. Mullet (Bell.) 3. Yazzie (Seh.), 4. Kleppe (BE), 5. Korthuis (Lyn.). 171—1.Paxman (Ced.), 2. Holdass (Blaine), 3. Bridgman (BE), 4. Broyles (SW), 5. Leonard (LW). 189—1. Gee (AM), 2. Price (Blaine), 3. Wise (BE), 4. Brisbane (Lyn.) 5. Estrella (Sultan). 215—1. Evers (AM), 2. Britton (SW), 3. Chavez (BE), 4. Snyder (Seh.), 5. Hathaway (Bell.). 285—1. Hicks (Blaine), 2. Rawls (SW), 3. McKibben (GF), 4.Dobbs (Blaine), 5. Kruse (AM).