EVERETT — The Archbishop Murphy wrestlers saved their best for first.
In a unique meet, the Wildcats wrestled Lakewood in a non-conference jamboree-style event at an afternoon assembly in front of their entire school Friday. No score was kept as the Archbishop Murphy wrestlers were paired up against Lakewood wrestlers with similar skill levels.
That didn’t stop the home team from putting on a show.
Wildcats sophomore Shota Takei started the match off with a pin in his 128-pound bout, which got the Archbishop Murphy students fired up for the subsequent battles.
“It’s amazing. You always see football games, and everyone cheering, but this time everyone’s cheering for you,” Takei said. “That’s really cool. You’re really motivated by it. Everyone’s cheering for you and you want to do the best you can to get that win.”
Takei wasn’t the only winner for Archbishop Murphy, which won nine of the 11 exhbition bouts. Reagan Gordon pinned his opponent in the third bout, drawing chants of “Reagan, Gordon” from the students in attendance.
“The crowd was going and it was really cool,” Gordon said. “You get a lot of noise but you can’t really hear what they’re saying or understand it. I heard one. I heard an, ‘I love you Reagan,’ out there and that was the only one I heard. It’s really cool to have everybody out there, stomping their feet.”
It’s the first wrestling match of the season for the Wildcats and their first in more than a year. After starting a program in 2003, Archbishop Murphy didn’t have enough wrestlers last season to field a team.
This year, the Wildcats are back. And they’re hoping Friday’s assembly and introductory match drums up some interest from the Archbishop Murphy student body.
“I think it opened up a lot of eyes for the students that were here to watch the match, because that was hopefully pretty fun to be part of that crowd,” said Archbishop Murphy head coach Blaine Gilchrist-Smith. “For the wrestlers, they felt that energy too. Maybe, some of those kids who sat up in the stands are thinking, ‘Wrestling’s pretty cool.’ That can only help us as far as getting kids to turn out for the sport.”
There was even an announcement during the match that, “there is still plenty of room on the team for anyone interested.”
Gilchrist-Smith and Lakewood head coach Tom O’Hara had discussed having a daytime match in the past, but after the Wildcats team was disbanded last season the idea got pushed back. Gilchrist-Smith, who coached at Snohomish last season with no Archbishop Murphy team to lead, was able to get a team back together and talk to O’Hara about resurrecting the idea.
O’Hara loved the idea and didn’t mind sending his wrestlers into a hostile environment.
“It was a good time. It was good for their program and good for wrestling in general,” O’Hara said. “It’s all good. Although, I will say it’s hard to battle that when they get a couple wins at the start and the crowd’s really loud. Some of my kids are only freshman kids, and they’re going out there like, ‘Oh my God! What’s going on?’”
Both coaches agreed the match’s main goal was accomplished: to have fun.
“I want the kids at Archbishop Murphy to see what wrestling is all about, because most of them have never seen a wrestling match at all,” Gilchrist-Smith said. “When I was wrestling — like 100 years ago at Lynnwood High School — in those days there wasn’t anything to do but go to the sporting events. So the stands were always full and it was always loud. It was always fun. They got a chance to feel what that’s like to have that crowd going crazy. It was great. It was a lot of fun.”
Added Gordon: “It’s awesome to have all of this support and the team back again.”
The two teams meet again in a Cascade Conference contest on Jan. 15. Gilchrist-Smith said a team score will be kept then.
“This was just to promote the sport and get the kids some even matches,” he said. “It gave kids a good experience. No team scores were kept. I think it served a purpose. We got what we wanted to get out of it. It was fun.
“We’ll wrestle them later, and then we’ll have a team score.”
At Archbishop Murphy H.S.
128—Shota Takei (AM) pinned Nicholas Metteer, 3:16; 132—Johnny Moore (LW) pinned Tom Chen, 3:54; 138—Reagan Gordon (AM) pinned Ryan Knapp, 3:01; 138—Jacob Lucas (AM) dec. Patrick Berry, 9-3; 152—Matt Keck (AM) pinned Evan Bartlett, 5:36; 160—Alex Saavedra (AM) dec. Jared Hodal, 10-8, OT; 160—Tim Shur (AM) dec. Austin Hudson, 10-1; 170—Taylor Gipson (AM) pinned Richardo Pinherlo, 3:28; 170—Austin Poulton (LW) dec. Kyle Malone, 9-4; 285—Eui Jeong (AM) pinned Trevor Chase, 5:03; 132—Sam Skranak (AM) dec. Matt Ramierz, 11-6.
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