Wesco’s Middle Men

Published 9:01 pm Saturday, February 12, 2011

LAKE STEVENS — A few words of warning: Don’t mess with Wesco’s Middle Men.

Going into next weekend’s high school state championships, an intimidating group of Western Conference 4A wrestlers is primed to keep dominating in the middle weight divisions.

Ranked No. 1 in the state at

their respective weights according to Washington Wrestling Report, Lake Stevens junior Steven Walkley (140 pounds), Lake Stevens senior Andrew King (152 pounds) and Mariner senior Alex Coffman (160 pounds) all won individual titles on Saturday during the Class 4A Region 1 wrestling tournament at Cavelero Mid High School.

Another top-ranked local wrestler — previously undefeated Marysville-Pilchuck senior Demitri Robinson — was injured at the end of a close loss in the 145-pound final against Lake Stevens’ Jack Reeves. Reeves, ranked sixth in 4A, won 5-2.

Including its dominance in the middle weight divisions, Wesco wrestlers won eight of the 14 championship-round finals in the regional, which included 16 teams: 11 from Wesco and five from the Greater St. Helens League (Battle Ground, Evergreen, Heritage, Skyview and Union) of Southwest Washington.

“It was good to get a (strong) showing from Wesco, representing that way,” Mariner’s Coffman said when asked about his conference’s middle-weight excellence.

In a rematch of the district final, Coffman shut out Snohomish senior Austin Thody 8-0 in the 160-pound regional championship to beat Thody for the second consecutive week.

Coffman, whose only loss this season was against 2A No. 4 Riley Prentice of Tumwater, enjoys camaraderie with his fellow Wesco middle weights.

“Even now, here at the tournament, I can bond with those guys,” he said. “I root for them and they root for me, so it’s a good deal.”

The top four finishers in each weight division qualified for Mat Classic, the state championship tournament set for Feb. 18-19 at the Tacoma Dome. Fifth-place finishers are state alternates.

As expected, 4A top-ranked Lake Stevens won the regional team title. The Vikings scored 203.5 points — 68.5 points more than runnerup Evergreen. More importantly for Lake Stevens, a region-best 10 Vikings qualified for Mat Classic.

Last year Lake Stevens finished second at the regional, sent seven wrestlers to state and had a disappointing fourth-place finish at the T-Dome.

A year ago, “(Lake Stevens) kids weren’t wrestling their best. This year I thought we had a much better regional tournament. We had kids competing, and even kids who lost competed really well,” said Lake Stevens senior Ryan Rodorigo, who beat Evergreen’s Peyton Zeller-Av by technical fall, 20-4, in the 119-pound final.

Rodorigo was the first of Lake Stevens’ five individual champs on Saturday. In addition to Walkley (140), Reeves (145) and King (152), junior Kinsey Johnson (135) also won. The sixth-ranked Johnson beat fourth-ranked Tyler Davis of Union by decision, 9-2.

For Lake Stevens, the difference in mentality and effort from last season to this season is drastic, said Rodorigo, ranked No. 3.

“Last year we were just a bunch of individuals,” he said. “We did better (this year) because even if the guys don’t like wrestling, they want to do it for the team.”

Looking at other local teams, Edmonds-Woodway finished fourth in the team standings and has seven state qualifiers. Marysville-Pilchuck (six state qualifiers) took fifth and Snohomish (five state qualifiers) was sixth.

E-W’s lone individual regional champ was senior Ryan DeWeese. Ranked No. 3 at 130 pounds, DeWeese won by pin in the first two rounds. Then he capped his outstanding tournament by edging second-ranked Clint Powers of Skyview 6-4 in overtime. DeWeese won it with a dramatic takedown in the first 10 seconds of the 1-minute OT period.

M-P’s Robinson, the 145-pound runnerup, qualified for state for the third time but his first time for the Tomahawks. In his freshman and sophomore seasons Robinson represented Tulalip Heritage in the B tournament at Mat Classic, winning the 103-pound title in 2008 and placing third at 125 in 2009.

Robinson suffered an ankle injury at the end of his final match on Saturday and was carried off the mat by an athletic trainer and Lake Stevens assistant coach Andy Knutson.

Robinson’s right ankle “definitely popped. I don’t know if it’s sprained or what,” M-P assistant coach Tony Hatch said.

Hopefully Robinson doesn’t have serious ligament damage, Hatch said, and will be recovered in time for state.

Note: Three Region 1 Coach of the Year awards were announced. The winners were E-W’s Joe Trieu (head coach), E-W’s Brian Alfi (assistant coach) and Lake Stevens’ Dean Width (middle school).

At Cavelero Mid H.S.

Team scores (number of state qualifiers in parentheses)—1. Lake Stevens 203.5 points (10), 2. Evergreen 135 (6), 3. Union 125 (5), 4. Edmonds-Woodway 115 (7), 5. Marysville-Pilchuck 113 (6), 6. Snohomish 105.5 (5), 7. Heritage 62.5 (4), 8. Mariner 55 (2), 9. Battle Ground 42.5 (3), 10. Arlington 48 (3), 11. Stanwood 34 (1), 12. Monroe 29 (2), 13. Skyview 24.5 (1), 14. Cascade 22 (1), 15. Kamiak 19 (0), 16. Jackson 4 (0).

Individual results

Championship matches

The top four finishers in each weight division qualified for Mat Classic (Feb. 18-19 at the Tacoma Dome).

103-Michael Nguyen (Evergreen) pinned Parker (Mariner) 3:07; 112-Matthew Nguyen (Evergreen) pinned Soler (LS) 3:44; 119-Rodorigo (LS) technical fall over Zeller-Av (Evergreen) 20-4; 125-Frazier (Heritage) dec. Blevins (M-P) 5-1; 130-DeWeese (E-W) dec. Powers (Skyview) 6-4 OT; 135-K. Johnson (LS) dec. Davis (Union) 9-2; 140-Walkley (LS) pinned Hutchison (E-W) 2:55; 145-Reeves (LS) dec. Robinson (M-P) 5-2; 152-King (LS) dec. A. Morrill (Snohomish) 3-2; 160-Coffman (Mariner) major dec. Thody (Snohomish) 8-0; 171-Thomas (Union) dec. Bennett (Stanwood) 9-3; 189-M. Morrill (Snohomish) technical fall Simon (BG) 15-0; 215-Peraza (Evergreen) pinned Reinhard (Snohomish) 3:08; 285-Proudfit (Union) pinned Schlosser (LS) 3:05.

Third/fourth-place matches

103-Peterson (LS) pinned N. Cuzzetto (E-W) 2:10; 112-Vulliet (E-W) dec. Reynolds (LS) 4-3; 119-Thomas (Arlington) dec. Gonzales (Arlington) 8-7; 125-Mendoza (M-P) pinned Contreras (Evergreen) 1:55; 130-Berry (Union) pinned L. Johnson (LS) 2:59; 135-M. Cuzzetto (E-W) dec. Peterson (BG) 6-2; 140-Duncan (Cascade) dec. Speer (BG) 9-6; 145-Curnutt (Monroe) won by injury default Spiller (Heritage); 152-Reynolds (Union) dec. Shortt (Arlington) 13-7; 160-Kim (E-W) pinned Foster (Monroe) 4:32; 171-Perez (E-W) pinned Cooper (Heritage) 2:40; 189-Haughian (M-P) dec. Proffit (Snohomish) 4-2; 215-Hatch (M-P) dec. Hoeper (M-P) 4-3; 285-Bagley (Evergreen) pinned Overton (Heritage) 3:20.

Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam and follow Cane on Twitter at MikeCaneHerald.