Lakewood girls lead strong semifinal group

Published 11:27 pm Friday, February 20, 2009

TACOMA — Five girls from Snohomish and Island counties are in today’s Mat Classic XXI championship semifinals after convincing first-day victories Friday at the Tacoma Dome.

Leading the way was Lakewood’s terrific twosome of Keely Caldwell and Christina Ordonez with two pins apiece. Equally dominating was JoMae Alewine of Lake Stevens, who also had a pair of pins.

Also moving into today’s semifinals after two first-day victories were Julia Perry of Monroe and Christina Alter of Oak Harbor.

Caldwell, who competes at 130 pounds, had a first-period pin against Nichole Morris of Rainier and a second-period pin against Salisa Dixon of Rogers of Puyallup. Ordonez, who wrestles at 152, had first-period falls against Haylie Osborn of Yelm and Kaylee Carr of Emerald Ridge.

Caldwell and Ordonez both remained undefeated against girls this season. “And both of them were dominating,” said Lakewood coach Tom O’Hara.

This is Caldwell’s third trip to the Mat Classic, “and she never wrestled well here. But this year she’s been great,” O’Hara said. Ordonez, meanwhile, “was overwhelmed a little bit (last year), but this year she’s looked pretty dang good out there.”

A third Lakewood girl, Autumn Novak at 160, won her first match with a pin, but lost her second match.

Alewine, who wrestles at 103 pounds, was convincing with early pins against Cheyenne Miller of Yelm and Edilene Cuevas of Curtis. The win against Cuevas was particularly gratifying because it avenged Alewine’s 11-2 loss to her at last year’s Mat Classic.

“I thought about that all week,” Alewine said.

Three other Western Conference girls — Stanwood’s Trista Peterson (285) and Casey Mather (119), and Everett’s Justine Palabrica (103) — are still alive in the consolation bracket.

The only two Class 3A boys to reach today’s semifinals were Everett juniors Danny Lopez at 171 and Alec Bird at 215. Lopez pinned Billy Dempsey of O’Dea in the second round and beat Luke O’Halek of Olympic 8-5. Bird pinned Keifer Comstock of Sumner in the final seconds and beat Cameron Akana of Sammamish 5-2.

But the Seagulls, who finished eighth a year ago, also had other wrestlers with disappointing early losses. “We had some kids who are a little bit young and some kids who mentally didn’t come ready to wrestle,” said coach Brien Elliott. “But we also had some other kids that did.”

Lopez and Bird, he said, “are both hard workers and they want it real bad. It’s fun to coach those types of kids.”

The only area Class 2A boy with two first-day victories was Archbishop Murphy’s Cameron Wade at 135. He pinned Justin Burrier of Black Hills in the second round and defeated Joe Hutchison of Sequim 11-3.

Darrington’s boys had a disappointing first day in Class 2B/1B. The Loggers arrived with seven wrestlers, but four lost their opening matches and the other three were beaten in the second round.

“We really struggled this afternoon,” said Darrington coach Chad Monteith. “It was a frustrating day.”