Snohomish’s Ottow a wrestling champ at last
Published 3:36 pm Sunday, February 22, 2009
TACOMA — Finally!
After being so close the past two years, Sam Ottow broke through the frustration and what-if regrets. At long last, he became a state champion.
Ottow, a senior at Snohomish High School, bounced back from heart-breaking runnerup finishes in 2007 and 2008, winning the Class 4A 130-pound championship Saturday during Mat Classic XXI at the Tacoma Dome.
In the finals for the third consecutive season, Ottow led 6-4 through two periods and scored a reversal in the third round en route to an 8-4 triumph over senior Trevor Mills of Todd Beamer.
How did it feel for Ottow, who last year lost a 5-4 decision and the year before that was defeated 4-3?
“Remarkable. I’ve waited so long to do that,” said Ottow, who capped a 36-2 season.
Ottow was one of two individual champs for Snohomish, which placed second in the 4A team standings — the best performance in program history. The other Panthers winner was senior Stefan St. Marie. He completed a marvelous undefeated season (39-0) by pinning Tahoma’s Tyler Lamb in the third round of the 135-pound championship. It was a rematch of last weekend’s Region 1 final, also dominated by St. Marie.
St. Marie understands the relief felt by Ottow. Last year St. Marie was unbeaten until he lost against Lake Stevens’ Josh Monson in the title match.
“He’s a pretty remarkable human being. I don’t know if you can compare Stefan to anybody,” first-year Snohomish head coach Rob Zabel said. “They kind of broke the mold with that kid.”
St. Marie earned pins in all four of his matches this weekend, placing him among the most dominant wrestlers in a Mat Classic competition that included about 1,200 athletes in six separate tournaments.
In the 4A team standings Snohomish placed second behind its Western Conference North Division rival, Lake Stevens, which won its third consecutive 4A team championship. Lake Stevens had 10 top-eight individual placers and scored a big-school (now 4A) record 169 points.
Coach Zabel said he was happy for Lake Stevens and extremely proud of his Snohomish squad. The Panthers had never placed better than fourth, Zabel said. It was a big step for Snohomish in its mission to become a program that contends for the top prizes every year, said Zabel.
In addition to individual champs St. Marie and Ottow, Snohomish had three other top-five placers: junior Micah Morrill (third, 152 pounds), senior Spencer Caraballo (fourth, 189) and senior Derek Britton (fourth, 215).
Asked about Ottow, who overcame his previous disappointments at Mat Classic, Zabel said the pre-finals strategy for Snohomish coaches was to prevent Ottow from dwelling on what happened in past years. “We told him not to think out there. We told him, ‘We’ll do the thinking for you. You just wrestle.’”
Before the match Ottow intended to never look at the scorer’s clock and just focus on tallying points. But in the third round as he tried to maintain a four-point lead, his gaze drifted to the dwindling number of seconds that stood between him and a coveted title. Time never seemed to pass so slowly, Ottow said after the match.
From now on he will look back and remember it as six of the best minutes in his life.
Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.
