Late pins lift Kamiak over Edmonds-Woodway

MUKILTEO — Kamiak fell into a hole, but battled back out to grab a crucial Western Conference South Division wrestling victory Monday night.

Adam Clarkson, a 285-pound senior for the Knights, and freshman Josh Heitzman, at 103 pounds, scored back-to-back pins late in the match to propel Kamiak to a 38-24 Wesco South win over Edmonds-Woodway in front of a raucous crowd at Kamiak High School.

Both pins happened in less than one minute and helped lift Kamiak out from a 21-20 deficit to a 32-21 lead with just two matches remaining.

Edmonds-Woodway (7-1 league, 7-4 overall) wrestler John Kim tied his thrilling 215-pound match with Kamiak’s Zach Welsh on a takedown with 1 second remaining to force overtime. Kim then earned a takedown with 10.7 seconds left in overtime for a 7-5 decision to give the Warriors a 1-point lead before Kamiak’s consecutive pins.

“We were swimming up stream all evening trying to catch up,” Kamiak head coach Trace Regan said. “… We made a lot of mistakes tonight and we don’t have a lot of time to correct them.”

In fact, the Knights have less than 24 hours to correct those miscues — Kamiak (7-0, 9-1) has a showdown with rival Mariner (7-0 league) at 7 p.m. tonight that could determine the Wesco South title.

“We need to try and not have an emotional let down,” Kamiak associate head coach Otto Olson, a former Mariner head coach, added. “These guys are warriors, I think they’ll step up.”

Facing a 12-0 hole after Edmonds-Woodway took the first three matches, Kamiak struck back with four straight wins to ignite a see-saw match that went down to the wire.

Nate Regan (140 pounds) started the comeback with a 1 minute, 38 second pin of the Warriors’ Loren Fuell.

Mark Strickland (145 pounds) and Dillon Starkenburg (152 pounds) added major decision wins before John Linari’s drawn-out decision over Sam Storino at 160 pounds gave Kamiak a 17-12 lead.

Linari and Storino spent most of the six-minute match in an aggressive waltz trying to figure each other out, but Linari earned an escape and takedown and Storino was penalized for stalling to give Linari the 5-1 decision.

“We’ve wrestled a lot of matches that have gone pretty close,” first-year Edmonds-Woodway head coach Joe Trieu said of the Warriors season. “We haven’t really blown anybody out, we’ve usually been the underdog.

“Regardless of how this (match) turned out, I think the season has turned out well,” Trieu, a 2003 graduate of Edmonds-Woodway, said.

Stefan Carlson gave the Warriors a kick in the opening match at 125 pounds. Carlson took Kamiak’s Braedan Graika to overtime with a late takedown — Carlson earned another takedown in the extra period for the win.

“Those guys wrestled tough up and down their lineup,” coach Regan said of Edmonds-Woodway.

Kamiak has a chance to clinch a division title tonight if the Knights can knock off Mariner.

The Knights last won the Wesco South in 2008, Edmonds-Woodway is the defending division champion.

Kamiak’s Olson listed Clarkson and Heitzman as pivotal matches tonight against Mariner’s 285 and 103-pound wrestlers.

“Those guys are going to be our big matches as well,” Olson said. “ … They can celebrate tonight, but they need to put on their game faces tomorrow.”

At Kamiak H.S.

125—Stefan Carlson (E-W) dec. Braedan Graika 7-5;

130—Mac Hutchison (E-W) dec. Cole Engblom 7-4;

135—Ryan DeWeese (E-W) pinned Tyler Kuenzi 2:41;

140—Nate Regan (K) pinned Loren Fuell 1:38;

145—Mark Strickland (K) maj. dec. Levi Logstrom 15-2;

152—Dillon Starkenburg (K) maj. dec. Ryan Sims 14-2;