SNOHOMISH — Though it won the ultimate prize — the team championship at last year’s 4A state meet — the Lake Stevens wrestling team fell short in the regional tournament, finishing second to Yelm.
After a convincing win at this year’s regional tournament on Saturday, the Vikings will have an opportunity to bring home both titles this year.
Lake Stevens finished first with 219.5 points, 65 points better than Curtis which finished second with 154.5.
“It’s always fun to win a tournament, otherwise we wouldn’t keep score at them,” Lake Stevens head coach Brent Barnes said. “It’s cool. It’s an extension of state. It’s an accomplishment for the kids to be proud of and definitely a stepping stone to next week for bigger things.”
Winning regionals after failing to do so a year ago was celebrated by the Vikings, but they have their sights set on another state championship next Saturday, which would be their third in a row.
The Vikings qualified 11 wrestlers for next weekend’s Mat Classic, one more than they had a year ago. Of the 11 qualifiers, six made it to the regional final with four of them winning the championship.
“We wrestled pretty well,” Barnes said. “We went out and competed at every weight and that’s all you can ask for. It’s honestly about what I thought it would be. We got 11 through (to state) and I thought we would be between 10 and 12, so it’s about what I expected.”
The first two Lake Stevens wrestlers that made the final lost, sophomore Nathan Scilley at 106 pounds and senior Tyler Headland at 120 pounds. The next four finalists all won including a string of three straight at 126, 132 and 138 pounds.
Senior Alex Rodorigo was the Vikings first champion, with a 7-1 win over Spanaway Lake’s Angel Coria at 126 pounds.
“I thought he wrestled really well today,” Barnes said of Rodorigo. “He was solid and he was good on his feet and that’s something he’s really worked on over the season. He was injured for quite a while, so he’s starting to get his base back beneath him. He was pretty dominant. He looked good.”
Junior Michael Soler won again for the Vikings at 132 pounds with a pin over Curtis’ Baylee Tran in three minutes, 38 seconds. Soler will look to become a three-time state champion next Saturday, but it will be a challenge. Soler won state at 106 pounds as a freshman and 113 as a sophomore. In order to three-peat, Soler will have to do it making a bigger jump all the way up to 132.
“It’s going to be tough, but it always is, even last year when he moved up to 113,” Barnes said. “The one thing about Michael — and he’s just like his brother (Eric) — is you never want to count him out. They find ways. They’re smart and they’re very technical. We’ll put together a pretty good gameplan for him and hopefully he can make another run at the title.”
Junior Jake Douglas was the third straight Vikings to win the championship with a 4-3 win over Graham-Kapowsin’s Corde Ferreira.
“That was a great match with the kid from Graham-Kapowsin,” Barnes said. “That’s a state finals kind of match, so that’s a really good test for him before next week.”
Senior Cody Vigoren also won the regional championship at 195 pounds with a pin in 1:15. In three matches, Vigoren spent just three minutes and 40 seconds on the mat, winning all three by pin.
With another loaded lineup headed to Tacoma, can Lake Stevens repeat?
“We’re going to take that one day and one match at a time and worry about that when it’s all over on Saturday night,” Barnes said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us. There are some great teams out there and we definitely have to wrestle really well to be able to bring home another title. We’ll have to do some damage, there’s no doubt about it.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Snohomish H.S.
Team scores: 1. Lake Stevens 219.5, 2. Curtis 154.5, 3. Graham-Kapowsin 133, 4. Bethel 120, 5. Rogers (Puyallup) 109, 6. Snohomish 84, 7. Emerald Ridge 57, 8. Puyallup 54, 9. Mount Vernon 47, 10. Spanaway Lake 42, 11. Jackson 35, 12. Mariner 32, 13. Kamiak 29, 14. Monroe 28, 15. Cascade 14.
106—Championship: Eaglin (GK) maj. dec. Scilley (LS) 9-0, Third: Kroneman (R) dec. Hiatt (CU) 7-6; 113—Championship: Riffe (CU) pinned Anderson (J) 5:15, Third: Wheeler (CU) pinned Cossairt (MV) 0:27; 120—Championship: Shatto (R) dec. Headland (LS) 8-3, Third: Simonson (GK) dec. Gershmel (LS) 7-1; 126—Championship: Rodorigo (LS) dec. Coria (SL) 7-1, Third: Leger (MV) dec. Flores (GK) 6-1; 132—Championship: Soler (LS) pinned Tran (CU) 3:38, Third: Butler (SN) dec. Colkitt 8-6. 138—Championship: Douglas (LS) dec. Ferreira (GK) 4-3, Third: Eaglin (GK) dec. Jones (LS) 6-4; 145—Championship: T. Wilson (R) inj. def. O. Springsteen (B), Third: Perales (LS) dec. Bomar (SN) 9-7; 152—Championship: Ty. Wilson (R) dec. D. Springsteen (B) 6-3, Third: Lawrence LS) dec. Proffit (SN) 3-1; 160—Championship: Schroeder (GK) dec. Quintanilla (ER) 3-0, Third: Stuart (CU) maj. dec. Cleek (P) 13-4; 170—Championship: Arnold (ER) pinned Fry (B) 3:00, Third: Aguirre (MO) inj. def. Christoph (GK); 182—Championship: Bridgman (CU) pinned Vasilchenko (MA) 2:21, Third: Beaver (LS) pinned Mitchell (K) 1:44; 195—Championship: Vigoren (LS) pinned Morrill (SN) 1:15, Third: Teu (B) dec. Lorenz (GK) 6-4; 220—Championship: Hodgins (MV) dec. Fairhurst (SN) 8-5, Third: Tate (B) pinned Helmberger (C) 1:26; 285—Championship: Howell (R) dec. Fisher (B) 6-4, Third: Huynh (MA) dec. Raymond (CA) 5-3.
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