Wesco North stars look to shine bright this weekend
Published 10:56 pm Thursday, February 2, 2012
MONROE — The success of the Lake Stevens wrestling team often outshines many of the other Wesco North schools. But this year they have company.
Lake Stevens is once again a force as they head into this weekend’s District 1 wrestling tournament. The Vikings have a record of 5-0 in league and 11-2 overall, their only losses coming to Mead and Tahoma.
But lurking behind the Vikings are a number of strong teams, including the Snohomish Panthers, Stanwood Spartans, Marysville Pilchuck and Arlington. In fact if it weren’t for Lake Stevens, last week’s season finale between the Panthers (15-3) and Spartans (13-4) would have been for the Wesco North title.
The Vikings have won four of the past five Class 4A state championships and six of the past 11 (tied for first in 2001), so it’s easy to understand that Lake Stevens coach Brent Barnes doesn’t concern himself much with how the other teams are doing.
“I just worry about my own team and what we have to do,” Barnes said.
But for other teams in the league, Lake Stevens has been a benchmark to measure themselves upon.
“The fact that they (Lake Stevens) are 10-12 miles away from us makes us train harder and work harder,” Snohomish coach Rob Zabel said.
“It’s not a disadvantage. People think it is, it’s not,” Zabel added.
For more than a decade, Lake Stevens has been on top and the Vikings once again swept through the league without a loss. But that doesn’t mean some of the other teams aren’t getting closer. The Panthers are a logical team to challenge. Zabel said wrestling is a year-round sport in Snohomish and the Panthers finished as the runner-up to the Vikings at the 2009 state championships.
Zabel added that he thinks that the Vikings and the Panthers have the most depth in the league, but that the entire league has a lot of talent.
“Every school has two or three kids that are real tough,” Zabel said. “I think Lake (Stevens) and Snohomish maybe have a little bit more depth in our league, but there is nobody we are going to take lightly that’s for sure.”
One of those teams not to be taken lightly is the Spartans. Head coach Ray Mather said the success of the teams in the league begins with the head coaches and getting the kids involved in wrestling from a young age.
Mather said his team is young this year, but that the Spartans would like to qualify at least five wrestlers for the state tournament. He added that 11 of his 14 wrestlers are underclassmen and will be back next year when the Spartans drop down to 3A.
“We have got some growing to do still, but we are definitely headed in the right direction,” Mather said.
In Arlington, new head coach Rick Iversen and assistant coach Barry Knott have helped turn around the Eagles. The pair came to Arlington with close to 75 years of coaching experience. Iversen coached at Marysville Pilchuck and Western Washington and Knott coached at Nathan Hale and Lake Washington before both retired in 1998.
One of the first things the coaches did was start recruiting some of the better athletes at Arlington that had dropped the sport. One of those athletes was Blake McPherson, who starred for the Arlington football team and track and field team. Still worried about his surgically repaired knee — the Arlington QB tore his anterior cruciate ligament playing football in 2010 — McPherson wasn’t going to risk injury and wrestle this season.
“The coaches showed up on my doorstep one day and recruited me,” McPherson said. “I said I’d go slowly and see how it went, but the first day I went out there and was going full speed.”
McPherson never looked back, finishing the season 23-0 and ranked fourth in the most recent Washington Wrestling Rankings at 220 pounds.
As in years’ past, Marysville Pilchuck has a number of wrestlers looking to make an impact at the district tournament, including Christian Mendoza (126 pounds), Chris Herbert (182) and Skyler Hatch (220).
As for the Panthers, they’ve been headed in the right direction for some time and Zabel said he is happy with what his team has accomplished so far.
“It has been a successful season,” Zabel said. “I’m really proud of the amount of growth our kids have shown. I’m really happy that I’ve got a group of kids that are willing to work hard.”
The district tournament is only the first step for the Panthers according to Zabel. He said his team has its goals set higher than just a good showing this weekend.
“Ultimately, I think we are all working at competing at the state level,” Zabel said. “We want to perform at a high level on the state scale, not a small scale.”
Zabel expects success from his top three seniors amongst others. He said that 220-pounder Luke Reinhard, 195-pounder Nathan Proffit and 120-pounder Steven Speer are all ranked in the top two in the league and should have good showings in the postseason.
The Vikings have a slew of wrestlers that Barnes said have a chance to do well in the postseason and because of that he said his team is poised to make another run at a state championship.
“We are in a position this year where I think we can make a run at it,” Barnes said. “Nobody outside of our wrestling room probably believes that, but that’s OK, it’s not about them.”
Based on the Vikings success in the past decade, it would be hard to argue with Barnes.
“Lake’s pretty deep,” Zabel said. “They have got kids that are going to make a run.”
But Zabel said that his team has developed its own identity.
“Our goal is to wrestle the best that we can,” Zabel said. “The goals that we have are kind of between me and the boys and we are going to bust our butt to meet those goals.”
But until somebody knocks them off, the Vikings are the team to beat.
“When we beat Lake Stevens, when that happens, I’m not going to worry about what that says about our identity,” Zabel said. “Right now, until somebody knocks them off, Lake Stevens is the one with the big bulls’ eye on them.”
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4A Northwest District Wrestling Tournament
When: Today at 3:30 p.m., Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (finals at 6:30 p.m.)
Where: Monroe High School
Regional qualifiers: The top five placers in each weight division qualify for the regional tournament. The sixth-place finisher wrestles in a pig-tail match with the third-place finisher from the Greater St. Helens League for the final eighth seed into the regional tournament.
Teams: Arlington, Cascade, Edmonds-Woodway, Jackson, Kamiak, Lake Stevens, Mariner, Marysville Pilchuck, Monroe, Snohomish, Stanwood
Ranked wrestlers: 106—1. Noah Cuzzetto (E-W), 8. David Garcia (Kam), 11. Alex Rodorigo (LS); 113—3. Dakota Reynolds (LS), 7. Gino Obregon (Sno), 13. Josh Heitzman (Kam); 120—2. Jesse Peterson (LS), 11. Steven Speer (Sno); 126—3. Eric Soler (LS), 7. Christian Mendoza (MP), 13. David Bui (Mar); 132—7. Bryce Thomas (Arl), 8. Connor Gonzales (Arl), 13. Mick Majors (LS); 138—2. Kinsey Johnson (LS), 3. Matt Cuzzetto (E-W), 11. Logan Johnson (LS); 145—7. Max Welsh (Mar), 15. Bryan Stringfellow (J); 152—10. Zach Schut (Stan); 160—3. Ammon Morrill (Sno), 4. Kyle Bennett (Stan); 170—6. Zack Perez (E-W), 11. Ryan Olliges (LS); 182—2. Peter St. Marie (Sno), 3. Chris Herbert (MP); 195—3. Nathan Proffit (Sno), 4. Blake McPherson (Arl); 220—1. Shaquille Reed (LS), 6. Luke Reinhard (Sno), 11. Skyler Hatch (MP); 285—2. Brandon Johnson (LS), 6. George Johanson (E-W).
