Vikings send four wrestlers to Tri-State semis

Published 11:41 pm Friday, December 18, 2015

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — As a litmus test for where a team is at near the midway point of wrestling’s regular season, Tri-State can’t be beat.

The competition in each weight class at the two-day tournament at North Idaho College is in some ways tougher than Washington teams will face at Mat Classic, because in-state teams are thrown in together with elite programs from Oregon, Montana and Idaho, regardless of school size.

By the time the weekend is out, the four Snohomish County teams at the tournament — Lake Stevens, Edmonds-Woodway, Snohomish and Darrington — will have a great sense of what they have to work on to get where they want to be in February.

Lake Stevens, which placed its core four of Jake Douglas (138 pounds), Trysten Perales (145), Malachi Lawrence (160) and Michael Soler (170) into Saturday’s semifinal round and sits in seventh in the team standings, is a perennial 4A state title contender.

“Our four through the middle did a great job today,” Vikings coach Brent Barnes said. “Malachi was really impressive.”

Lawrence, wrestling at 160 pounds after working at 182 in early dual meets for Lake Stevens, pinned his three opponents on Friday to ease into the semifinals, where he’ll face Colville’s Ryley Smith, a state runner-up last season.

Perales pulled out a 6-4 overtime decision over Orting’s Ben Gore, a third-place finisher in 2A last year, in their quarterfinal matchup.

“He just out-worked him,” Barnes said of Perales. “It’s just the way he’s been wrestling. He really pushes the pace, he got some really big stall calls in there and he scored when he had to. It was a great win.”

Perales will meet C.J. Herndon of first-place Hermiston (Ore.) in Saturday’s semifinal.

Edmonds-Woodway has a talented roster and is looking to break into the rarefied air that Lake Stevens inhabits as a state power.

It was a bit of a mixed bag for the Warriors on Friday, as seniors Riley Seward (145) and Mason McDaniel (160) reached the semifinals as other stalwarts were derailed in this stacked tournament.

Spencer Schultz (195) lost via technical fall to Freeman’s Sebastian Hyta, a 1A state runner-up last season, in their quarterfinal bout.

Sidat Kanyi (120) lost a wild 16-12 decision in his first-round match, but won three straight consolation matches in dominant fashion to keep earning team points for the Warriors, who sit in 18th place in the 58-team field.

Snohomish is a program trying to work back up the 4A ladder under first-year coach Andy Aichele, who brought the Panthers to Tri-State for the first time in nearly two decades.

Snohomish’s top finishers on Friday were Wyatt Butler (152) and Wyatt Gardner (285), who both lost tough quarterfinal bouts.

“I want our guys to see competition like this so they’re used to it when they go to the state tournament,” Aichele said. “I thought we wrestled really well and we have four guys moving on to tomorrow. I think it’s tougher than state here, because of all the state placers there are. We need the highest-level competition. That’s why we’re here.”

Darrington’s Mason McKenzie, winner of two consecutive 2B state titles for the Loggers, earned a pair of byes before pinning two opponents to earn a berth in the semifinals.

McKenzie will face a huge test Saturday in Deer Park senior Trevor Eicher, who is ranked No. 18 in the nation in the latest Intermat poll.