Lake Stevens boys continue winning tradition at districts

Published 8:15 am Sunday, February 8, 2026

MILL CREEK — When reflecting on the Lake Stevens boys wrestling program, head coach Derek Lopez referred to it as a “machine.”

With a loaded roster — in both quantity and quality — and a swath of alumni still involved in the program, the Vikings have historically dominated the various iterations of the District 1 4A Tournament. Since 1985, Lake Stevens has lost at this stage just three times, with the most recent being 2012.

In this year’s installment at Jackson High School on Saturday, the “machine” kept chugging, as the Vikings won the team title yet again with 445 points over Arlington (361) and Glacier Peak (227). Lake Stevens had six individual weight class champions, and nine more finish in the top four to qualify for Mat Classic XXXVII in Tacoma on Feb. 19-20.

“The program has been really consistent for a really long time,” Lopez said. “It’s just awesome to be part of such great people who’ve been here for the whole time. … It’s really great to be a small part of this machine.”

The six individual champions for Lake Stevens were Andres Vargas (113), Samuel Owen (120), Brody Hanson (132), Cheyzen Quevedo (150), Nacho Arellano (157) and Mikey Lawrence (285). The latter two tied for the second-most team points scored in the tournament with 28 each. Kamiak’s Jaiden Yoon led the field with 29 after winning the 175 division.

While Lake Stevens’ history can be intimidating, with each new class looking to live up to the ones who filtered through the program before, the wrestlers themselves don’t necessarily view it that way.

“I don’t think it adds a lot of pressure, honestly,” said Arellano, who won his championship round with a pin in 2:59. “We know if we put in the work and keep up the hard work and everything, like the year before, the people before us and everything, as long as we keep on pushing and wanting to do good, the results will show themselves.”

None of the six individual champions felt that more than Quevedo, who trailed 3-1 after the first period of the 150 championship against Glacier Peak’s Tommy Weiss before ultimately securing a 6-3 sudden victory.

After breezing through the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds with pins in each, Quevedo fell behind early in the championship match when Weiss secured a takedown 31 seconds in. It took Quevedo just four seconds to escape, with the senior internalizing the messaging his coaches provide for those situations.

“It’s not like it’s all over just because of a single takedown,” Quevedo said. “And so, like me, I’m a guy that likes to shoot, and I’m a more aggressive guy. So when that happens, I like to get back up and back at it.”

With the choice deferred to him entering Period 2, Quevedo decided to start from the bottom and tied it up 3-3 with a reversal after just 25 seconds. The match remained tied entering Period 3, and Weiss chose to start bottom, which granted him an opportunity to pull ahead with a simple escape.

Quevedo managed to hold him down through the entirety of the two-minute period, but couldn’t score any points of his own despite attempts to flip him on his back. Entering overtime, Quevedo knew he needed to reel in his technique in order to pull off the win.

“It was just get to my shot,” he said. “During the whole match, I got to my shots but I didn’t actually have a good setup, and so during that time, I was saying like, ‘Okay, I need to get my setup, and then I need to shoot,’ instead of just shooting from the open.”

The two wrestlers spun each other down to start overtime, but rolled out of bounds. On the reset, Quevedo got into his setup and executed the takedown to secure the win just 12 seconds into sudden victory. He credited strong coaching and his supportive teammates not only for his individual success, but the team’s at large.

That ‘iron sharpens iron’ mentality has a ripple effect throughout the program. No matter the result on the mat, teammates are consistently lifting their teammates up.

“It’s a cool group of kids because they’re tremendous students. They care deeply about each other,” Lopez said. “A lot of their goals are trying to help other people. … We almost are like, sometimes we have to tell them, ‘Hey, you guys are allowed to get after it a little bit harder in here,’ because they’re just kind of always trying to help each other out.”

After another strong showing across the board at districts, Lake Stevens will aim to return to a higher standing at Mat Classic, where it placed 13th as a team last year following a fourth-place finish in 2024. The tougher matchups like Quevedo’s will prepare the Vikings for the jump in competition, facing the best the state has to offer.

“It’s going to prepare me mentally because it’s going to be tough,” Quevedo said. “It’s going to be harder. A lot harder. And it’s going to prepare me for things that can come my way.”

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District 1 4A Boys Wrestling Tournament

At Jackson H.S.

Team Scores: 1. Lake Stevens— 445; 2. Arlington— 361; 3. Glacier Peak— 227; 4. Mariner— 184; 5. Jackson— 152.5; 6. Kamiak— 111; 7. Cascade— 95.5.

Championship Rounds: 106— Emmett Decker (A) pinned Zach Winterroth (M) 3:02; 113— Andres Vargas (L) dec. Isaac Apodaca (M) 10-3; 120— Samuel Owen (L) pinned Kallel Dusenberry (G) 0:22; 126— Garrett Taylor (G) pinned Alejandro Parra (M) 5:44; 132— Brody Hanson (L) pinned Casey Peterson (J) 2:56; 138— Atheer Alwadi (A) dec. Michael Baxter (A) 2-2 (UTB); 144— Dayton Fitzgibbon (A) tech. fall Alessandro Rush (L) 17-2; 150— Cheyzen Quevedo (L) dec. Tommy Weiss (G) 6-3 (SV); 157— Nacho Arellano (L) pinned Cole Canell (A) 2:59; 165— Tre Haines (A) won by forfeit; 175— Jaiden Yoon (K) pinned Samuel Ecker (A) 1:25; 190— Oliver Martinez (G) dec. Carter Lineweaver (L) 13-12; 215— Ken David Larsen (M) dec. Maxwell Bridges (G) 10-3; 285— Mikey Lawrence (L) pinned Kade Calderon (G) 1:39.