By Aaron Coe
Herald Writer
STANWOOD – For the Lake Stevens wrestling team, dominance never gets boring.
The Vikings were strong from the start of the Western Conference North Division sub-regional meet at Stanwood High School on Friday to its conclusion on Saturday. Lake Stevens ran away with its third consecutive sub-regional title while sending a meet-high 11 grapplers to next weekend’s regional tournament. The Vikings compiled 352.2 points to finish well ahead of Cascade’s 267. Oak Harbor (241.5) and Marysville-Pilchuck (235) were third and fourth, respectively.
The top four individuals from each weight class qualified for the regional tournament to be held at Snohomish High School.
For Vikings coach Brent Barnes, the only thing as exciting as winning the event was the number of great championship matches.
There were no pins in the 14 title bouts, and most of them could have gone either way in the final round.
“It was great to have such good competition,” said Barnes, whose teams have won the last two Class 3A state titles. “It’s a lot of fun to see these final matches that are so closely contested.”
Barnes would know the bouts were close. Lake Stevens had wrestlers in 10 championship matches, and the Vikings won four individual titles.
One match that was not so close involved Barnes’ son, Burke Barnes. The 125-pound three-time state champion pinned his first three opponents before beating Arlington’s Jimmy Jayne by a 21-4 technical fall early in the third round.
Barnes was named outstanding wrestler for the lighter weight classes. Cascade Jesse Erickson won the honor for the heavier half.
Eric Curnett (130 pounds), Jeff Nearing (152) and Christian Anderson (160) won titles for the Vikings.
All 14 No. 1 seeds advanced to the finals of the two-day tournament, but four of them were upset Saturday.
Erickson, a senior 171-pounder, defeated top seed Mitch Canham of Lake Stevens in what was one of the event’s best matches.
Canham trailed 3-2 early with 25 seconds left in the third, but recorded a 2-point take down. There seemed little hope for Erickson as the clock ticked away, but he managed an escape point with a second left to send the match into overtime. Thirty seconds later, Erickson took Canham down for the sudden-death victory.
Marysville-Pilchuck 215-pounder Irwin Weiser knocked off the two top seeds in his weight class. The senior pinned Stanwood’s Mike Bear – last year’s Wesco 3A champ – in the morning. He then beat No. 1 seed Chris Whiteman of Oak Harbor with a 9-4 decision in the final.
In the 103 final, M-P’s John Hanks seemed destined for runnerup status when he trailed Lake Stevens’ Travis Warrington 7-4 with approximately 30 seconds remaining in the third. Hanks took Warrington down and nearly pinned him. Though Warrington managed to keep a shoulder off the mat, Hanks won 9-7 after a 2-point takedown and 3-point near fall.
“I had no idea what the score was,” said Hanks, who didn’t know he’d won until he got up from the mat. “I wasn’t sure if I had to pin him, but I was trying to just in case.”
Stanwood’s C.J. Brown pinned his first three opponents before beating top seed Kevin Lang of Oak Harbor 11-7 in the 112 final
Some wrestlers came from seemingly nowhere to make a splash.
No. 7 seed Tyler Dormaier of Marysville-Pilchuck upset second-seeded Josh Bergman in a 140 quarterfinal on Friday and beat Mount Vernon’s Chad Suomela Saturday morning. Monroe’s Willie Ward pinned him in the third round.
Sixth-seeded Curtis Stribling (135) edged M-P’s Norman Orr by a 14-13 decision Friday and qualified for the final by beating Snohomish’s Tommy McDonnell 11-6. He trailed Mount Vernon’s Robbie Curry 6-2 before suffering what was believed to be a minor knee injury early in the third round and could not continue.
Lake Stevens’ Tony Kubec (119), Oak Harbor’s Brent Thompson (145), Stanwood’s Clancy Seymour (189) and Cascade’s Jesse Calderon (275) won their weight classes.
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