Hester wins title, makes history for T-birds

Published 9:29 am Friday, February 22, 2008

TACOMA

The wait is over.

For the first time in school history, Shorewood has a state champion wrestler.

Senior Tim Hester became the first Thunderbird to win a state title claiming the 189-pound crown Feb. 16 at Mat Classic XX at the Tacoma Dome.

“It’s awesome,” Hester said.

Hester beat Graham-Kapowsin junior Zach Folden, who came into the tournament unranked, 9-4 in the final.

Hester scored a takedown on his trademark move in the first round and added a near fall to go up 4-0. Folden picked up an escape, but Hester notched an escape and take down to go up 7-1.

Folden managed three escapes in the final round but Hester closed out with a takedown.

After the match, Hester hugged his coaches Arnie Moreno, Derek Norton and Clark Norton, putting a cap on the most remarkable wrestling career Shorewood has ever seen.

Hester, the No. 1-ranked 4A wrestler at 189 pounds all season had a target on his back all year, in a class heavy with talent.

“Everyone at 189, they’re all contenders,” Hester said.

Hester’s win over Folden also clinched the 4A team title for Lake Stevens, which edged Graham-Kapowsin 145 to 139.5.

“That put a lot of energy into it,” Hester said. “It was loud, it was good.”

Hester punched his ticket to the final with a pin of Central Valley’s Jacob Neumann at the 5:26 mark of his semifinal match.

“He didn’t make a mistake until the very end, that’s when I got him,” Hester said.

Hester finished his career 125-18 and 38-1 this season.

Hester suffered his only loss of the season, an upset at the hands of David Gay of Mountain View, in the regionals, where he finished third. Gay ended up seventh at state.

Hester won his quarterfinal match with Erik Halsey of Emerald Ridge 6-4 after pulling off his trademark move twice for takedowns. Hester led 5-0 after the first two round before Halsey rallied for four points in the third before succumbing.

The match was talked up on wrestling blogs as the match that should have been the title match, Moreno said.

“We knew how big this was,” he said.

Hester beat Jordan Krich of Inglemoor 3-1 in the first round.

“He stalled the whole time,” Hester said of Krich. “I’d set up on underhooks and he’d push away.”

Hester said he plans to compete March 28 in the high school nationals at Virginia Beach, VA. Hester hopes to wrestle in college, but hasn’t picked a school. North Idaho Junior College is a possibility.

Another Shorewood senior, Matt Jensen, concluded his senior season and first state tournament appearance with a fifth-place finish at 152 pounds.

Jensen (31-5) took a 7-3 lead in the third round against Kentwood’s Nick Zografos, before Zografos scored a takedown to get within two points. Jensen responded with an escape and takedown for a 10-5 win to snag his medal.

“It’s a good result,” Jensen said. “Just being here is awesome, a couple wins are a plus. I just had a vision of the podium.”

Jensen came up against the returning state champion at 152 pounds, Brad Sweet of Graham-Kapowsin, in the semifinals.

Sweet, who repeated as champion, got a takedown on Jensen after about a minute and took control of the match. Right before the end of the second round, Sweet stuck the pin, sending Jensen into the consolation round.

“He’s a stud,” Jensen said. “I didn’t wrestle my best match, but he deserved it.”

Jensen lost his next match 8-4 to Jesse Chunn of Gig Harbor to fall into the fifth-place match.

Jensen qualified for the semifinals with a 12-10 win over Josh Renfro of Central Valley.

“He wrestled a smart match,” Moreno said. “It was 12-10 but it wasn’t that close. He came through with the big points when he had to.”

Jensen dominated Corey Montgomery of Lake Washington 12-0 in the first round. The tournament marked the end of Jensen’s wrestling career. He plans to attend Western Washington University next year.

ARBANISIN GOES TWO AND OUT: Shorecrest senior Cole Arbanasin made an early exit after losing a 16-0 technical fall to Auburn’s Matt Secenbaugh, who was a 3A state champion at 119 last year.

Randyn Stutesman of Hudson’s Bayhe eliminated him 10-5.

Arbanasin finished with a 21-9 record. Five Shorecrest underclassmen came to watch the tournament to get a feel for what it would be like if they should make it next year, coach Lee Thornhill said.

LACK OF INTIMACY AT CLASSIC? Shorecrest coach Lee Thornhill who started coaching high school wrestling in the Seattle area in the late 1970s isn’t the biggest fan of the Mat Classic, a 24-mat extravaganza featuring 1,018 wrestlers in the Tacoma Dome, which is in his 20th year. It “lacks intimacy,” Thornhill said. Prior to 1989, each classification was held at its own site and fans could see the action up close on a few mats in one gym, Thornhill said. In the cavernous Tacoma Dome, spectators have to sit in the grandstands and pick out their favorite matches from a football-field size floor. With the all-classification tournament, it’s easier for college coaches to scout and recruit, and coaches from all classifications can see each other, Thornhill said, but he misses the coziness of the old format.