STANWOOD — Stanwood wrestling coach Ray Mather said it was no fluke that his team won its first seven meets of the season. Mather also admitted he’s not surprised his Spartans didn’t make it eight in a row.
Facing one of the top teams in the state, Stanwood battled but didn’t have enough in losing to Lake Stevens 66-12 in a Wesco 4A contest Wednesday at Stanwood High School.
“That’s the best team in the state so we knew it was going to be a big challenge, as it always is when you go against Lake Stevens,” Mather said. “But I was proud of our guys. We didn’t have any stalling calls which shows we went after them and didn’t back down. But that’s a great team and they’re strong at every spot and that makes it tough to beat them.”
Mather said his team was dealing with some disciplinary issues and some illnesses, leaving open spots in the lineup. Indeed, the Spartans (0-1 league, 7-1 overall) forfeited four matches to Lake Stevens (1-0, 7-1), handing the Vikings 24 free points.
For its part, Lake Stevens used several younger wrestlers against Stanwood in an effort to get experience, and Vikings coach Brent Barnes was pleased with what he saw.
“It was good to get guys who haven’t been in the ‘big-time’ that much some mat time,” Barnes said. “That will pay off down the road. We were OK, but we’ve got a ways to go.”
If that’s the case, Lake Stevens could be on its way to another state title. The Vikings had two pins, three technical falls and two major decisions in a dominant performance.
“It doesn’t matter who we’re wrestling,” said Lake Stevens heavyweight Cody Schlosser, who had one of his team’s two pins. “We don’t overlook people or get more up for one match than another. We just look at every match as a chance to get better.”
Barnes said that while he hopes that’s true, it is difficult to get a team that has high hopes for a state title to focus on the next match.
“We try to get them to realize that these matches actually count,” Barnes said. “They’re important. They count for seeding and they will be brought up at seeding meetings, so we need to show what we can do every time we’re out there.”
Stanwood actually took the first match when 215-pounder Mike Anderson pinned Shaquille Reed 46 seconds in. Schlosser answered by pinning Blaine Eveland in 33 seconds.
Following a forfeit at 103, sophomore Jesse Peterson scored seven take downs and two near falls in winning by technical fall over Jacob Cole and Dakoda Reynolds followed at 119 with a 15-0 tech fall for a 22-6 Viking lead. Sophomore Eric Soler — wrestling up a class at 125 — earned a major decision over Nick Kinsman.
Stanwood got its second win at 135 when senior Jarred Studley scored a second-round pin over Logan Johnson but Lake Stevens’ Kinsey Johnson got a 13-0 major decision at 140 and Austin Gershmel bounced back from an early takedown to get a tech fall at 145. Jack Reeves then got a pin in eight seconds at 152 and after two forfeits, Brandon Belcher ended the match with a win at 189.
Mather said that while the team was disappointed to drop its first match, there’s no shame in losing to Lake Stevens.
“We came into this just seeing how we could compete and not really worrying about the team score,” he said. “We have a good team but Lake Stevens is a great team and they exposed a lot of things that we need to work on. So we can take that away from this match, get back out and work on those things and get better from here.”
At Stanwood High School
103—Zach Cunningham (L) won by forfeit; 112—Jesse Peterson (L) won by tech fall over Jacob Cole 21-5; 119—Dakoda Reynolds (L) won by tech fall over Josh Tcheng 22-6; 125—Eric Soler (L) won by maj. dec. over Nick Kinsman 14-3; 130—Mick Majors (L) won by forfeit; 135—Jarred Studley (S) pinned Logan Johnson 2:36; 140—Kinsey Johnson (L) won by maj. dec. over Zach Schut 13-0; 145—Austin Gershmel (L) won by tech. fall over Dalton Gilman 17-2; 152—Jack Reeves (L) pinned Steve Mehaffey 0:08; 160—Andrew King (L) won by forfeit; 171—Ryan Olliges (L) won by forfeit; 189—Brandon Belcher (L) def. Clayton Jacks 13-6; 215—Mike Anderson (S) pinned Shaquille Reed 0:46; 285—Cody Schlosser (L) pinned Blaine Eveland 0:33. Records—Lake Stevens 1-0 league, 7-1 overall. Stanwood 0-1, 7-1.
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