Paxman helps Cedarcrest win wrestling title
Published 11:07 pm Saturday, February 5, 2011
SULTAN — In a match that would help determine the team title in the Class 2A Northwest District Wrestling Tournament, Cedarcrest junior Cody Paxman found himself in an unfamiliar place Saturday night.
On his back.
Paxman, the state’s top ranked wrestler at 152 pounds accordin
g to Washingtonwrestlingreport.com, was battling with Brandon Gilbertson of Granite Falls. The Tigers were the biggest challengers to Cedarcrest’s hopes for a team title, and for a moment anyway, Gilbertson was getting the better of Paxman. In the end, however, Paxman came away with a second-round pin, which gave his team six much-needed points and a potential 12-point swing to help the Red Wolves repeat as district champions.
And Paxman was far from alone in leading the Red Wolves to victory in the finals. After Granite Falls briefly moved into the lead with victories by Chris Jenkins (103 pounds) and Ryan Nash (112), the Red Wolves went on to win six of the final 10 title matches to finish with 262.5 points, not far ahead of Granite Falls, which finished with 248 points on victories from Jenkins, Nash and Jon Poyner, who captured the 215-pound title.
After falling behind early in the finals, Cedarcrest regained the lead with three victories in four matches. First Gibson Lisk captured the 125 by decision, then Carlos Telodano (130) and Austin Koons (140) added victories to give Cedarcrest the lead for good.
“Guys just wrestled solid,” Cedarcrest coach Eric Pedeferri said. “It’s just about moving on. We put in our hard work before the season, and now we’re just trying to make it pay off.”
But while that string of victories put the Red Wolves ahead, the team victory was still in doubt when Paxman faced off with Gilbertson midway through the finals. A Granite Falls win at that point would put pressure on Cedarcrest’s final wrestlers, but instead Paxman overcame an early scare to help clinch the victory.
“That guy surprised us,” Pedeferri said of Gilbertson, “Put Cody on his back. That’s a good little wakeup call for Cody for the rest of the season.”
Paxman agreed that his early struggles were surprising: “Yeah, a little bit. I did not expect that. That helped me kick it in a little bit.”
Cedarcrest got two more victories on its way to the team title as Martin Vakamoce won by pin at 171 pounds and Robby MacNair claimed the heavyweight title with a 10-6 decision in the night’s final match.
The top three finishers in each weight class qualify for Saturday’s regional tournament at Lynden High School.
The most decorated individual in the tournament, Archbishop Murphy senior Cam Wade, pinned his way to his third-straight district championship. Wade, the defending state champion at 145 pounds, easily won both his matches with first-round pins after getting a bye to the semifinal. For Wade, it was just the beginning of a postseason run he hopes ends with a second straight state title.
“I want to win state again, want to get it a second time,” he said. “… It’s going to take conditioning. It’s going to take a lot more miles on the road. That’s the key. Everybody tells me defending a title is harder. They say the first one’s easy, the second one is a lot tougher.”
Wade’s younger brother, freshman Foster Wade, won the 160-pound title with a third-round pin in the final.
Three wrestlers from Sultan also claimed titles in their home gym as the Turks finished in fourth place. Garrett Varnell won the 119-pound title by decision, while D.J. Mackenzie (135 pound) and Jesse Castillo (189) both won by pin.
Cascade Conference Sub-Regional Qualifier Tournament
At Sultan High School
Team scores
1. Cedarcrest 262.5, 2. Granite Falls 248, 3. Lakewood 205.5, 4. Sultan 179.5, 5. South Whidbey 158.5, 6. Archbishop Murphy, 152.
Championship matches
103—Jenkins, GF, pinned Crowley, GF 1:50. 112—Nash, GF, pinned Werner, Cedarcrest, 0:51. 119—Varnell, Sultan major dec. Short, GF, 8-0. 125—Lisk, Cedarcrest, dec. Nick Decker, Cedarcrest, 8-1. 130—Telodano, Cedarcrest, pinned Wheeler, LW, 3:24. 135—Mackenzie, Sultan, pinned Sun, GF, 1:38. 140—Koons, Cedarcrest, dec. Huckabone, Sultan, 12-7. 145—C Wade, AM, pinned Thompson, SW, 1:09. 152—Paxman, Cedarcrest, pinned Gilbertson, GF, 4:17. 160—F Wade, AM, pinned Gremmert, Cedarcrest, 5:37. 171—Vakamoce, Cedarcrest, pinned Todd, AM, 0:43. 189—Castillo, Sultan, pinned Kruse, AM, 0:35. 215—Poyner, GF, major dec. Dickinson, Sultan, 15-2. 285—MacNair, Cedarcrest, dec. Wilson, LW, 10-6.
