Meadowdale boys wrestling remains undefeated in dual meets

SHORELINE — Meadowdale boys wrestling was caught in a 34-34 deadlock with Shorecrest with just two matchups to go on Thursday. Meadowdale’s Tobin Kantner-Blakeslee stepped in against Shorecrest’s George De Bakker for the 157-pound bout, knowing it could decide the entire match in either direction.

Kantner-Blakeslee jumped ahead 6-1 early with a couple takedowns, but De Bakker managed to pull a reversal and nearly pinned Kantner-Blakeslee, running out of time before the first period ended with Kantner-Blakeslee hanging onto a 9-7 lead.

“I ended up looking at the clock, saw there was three seconds left, and I was like, ‘Alright, let’s just sit, not give up the pin,’” Kantner-Blakeslee said. “And then when we go back to the next round, get back to work and keep the flow going, and make sure I’m never in a deficit.”

He got onto his feet twice before De Bakker twisted him back down to open the second period, then finally spun out for a reversal and regained momentum, extending his lead to 11-7. From there, Kantner-Blakeslee scored three more points with another takedown early in the third before securing the pin with just over a minute left.

After Kantner-Blakeslee put Meadowdale ahead 40-34, Mathew Sleipness earned a 1-0 decision over Shorecrest’s Milo Hamilton to lock up the 43-34 victory for the Mavericks (4-0, 2-0 league), while the Scots (3-1, 2-1 league) suffered their first loss of the season.

Despite the victory, coach Josh Knowles was not satisfied with the effort displayed by most of his wrestlers. After Meadowdale displayed an impressive performance top to bottom in a 64-12 win against Mountlake Terrace on Tuesday, Knowles felt his team had much more to give than they showed in Thursday’s narrow victory, in which the Mavericks held an advantage out of the gate with 18 points via three Shorecrest forfeits.

“We just got way better moves, way tougher moves,” Knowles said. “We have more endurance than we showed tonight. I think we have more heart than we showed tonight. And I love this team, but I got to tell them when their performance wasn’t up to par.”

Shorecrest, meanwhile, has been gutting through injuries and a crowded schedule. Between the short-handed roster and their rivalry matchup against Shorewood coming the following night, Scots coach Bryan Officer rested some of his varsity athletes and sent out a younger lineup, with several freshmen making their varsity debuts.

With all that was stacked against them, Officer felt he learned a lot about what the team needs to work on.

“Closing the gap, finishing every move to the tail end,” Officer said. “Sometimes we get really close to a finish and just come short, or the time expires, so we need these hard lessons.”

The Scots turned a 23-6 deficit into a 28-23 lead with three straight pins from Ethan Johnson (113-pound), Gideon Ryder (120) and Wyeth Finnell (126) before Zadrin Morga-Baisac (132) pulled his team ahead with a technical fall.

After falling behind, the Mavericks won four of the final five matches, which included Kantner-Blakeslee delivering in a decisive moment. However, the 157-pound wrestler believes the match order should have little impact on the team’s mentality.

“I think we need to be focused on our match and our match alone,” Kantner-Blakeslee said. “(…) Obviously, yes, you want to get the pin and get as many team points as possible, but if you focus on the previous things that happen, then you feel like you have to make up for somebody else, and I feel like if you don’t (think that way), at least in my opinion, I can more easily get in that flow state.”

Hector Castro started the comeback in the 138-pound match, overcoming an initial takedown to score two points on a reversal before eventually getting a pin, which put Meadowdale back ahead 29-28. Chris Ramirez provided even more distance at 144, dominating his match from start to finish to win via technical fall and increase the lead to 34-28.

“My main mentality was ‘This guy (Shorecrest’s Neta Navot) is good, but you’re better,’” Ramirez said. “I just drilled that into my mind, that I’m better. That I know what I’ve done. I know the work I’ve put in. Yeah, this guy has put in the work, too, but he hasn’t put the blood, the sweat and the tears on the mat that I have.”

Knowles labeled Ramirez as one of the few wrestlers on the team that pulled his weight, and he did so in an ideal spot.

“He did what I asked,” Knowles said. “He got a lead against a good wrestler, and just built it and built it and built it. He was really trying for the six points and the pin, but we were happy with the five.”

While Ramirez was up to task, he bore some of the responsibility for the rest of the team’s effort as one of the captains, believing it’s on him to keep everyone else in check. In the meantime, the Mavericks will take the win, but will look to bring stronger effort as the season goes on.

“I hope it’s a lesson learned that we can’t just play off the last week’s match that we did well,” Knowles said. “We got to come out and wrestle and be ready to wrestle every single match.”