Archbishop Murphy wins league wrestling crown

EVERETT

Which first is better, finally beating a team after years of trying or earning a league title?

That’s the question the Archbishop Murphy wrestling team is happily mulling over after clinching the Cascade Conference title with a 57-21 victory over longtime rival South Whidbey on Jan. 24.

“This was a pretty significant meet,” Wildcats head coach Blaine Smith said. “We’ve never beaten South Whidbey and never won a conference championship.”

Smith estimated the Wildcats’ record against the Falcons over the past three seasons was 0-5 before Thursday’s meet, but didn’t hesitate when asked which milestone was more significant.

“Winning the title,” Smith said with a laugh. “It will be nice to get a banner up in the gym.”

Archbishop Murphy won the opening match at 145 pounds by forfeit, but South Whidbey rallied to win the next three as the weight classes moved upward.

“They’re very strong in the upper weights,” Smith said of the Falcons. “They went on a little bit of a run … fortunately Brad (Gee) stepped up at 189 and stopped that.”

Gee pinned his opponent at 189 pounds in two minutes, 28 seconds and teammate Zeke Evers gave the Wildcats back-to-back victories with a pin at 1:51 in the 215-pound bout.

Archbishop Murphy then won seven of the final eight matches to seal the historic victory.

Brett deChadenedes added a punctuation mark to the Wildcats’ night with a victory in the 119-pound match, pinning his opponent in the final seconds.

“That was a pretty good match, very close going into the last round,” Smith said. “We were up by a few points and … Brett ended up pinning him with a couple seconds left over.”

Many members of this season’s Archbishop Murphy team also wrestled last year and Smith said those Wildcats needed no additional incentive to prepare hard for South Whidbey.

“They came really close (to beating the Falcons) last year,” Smith said. “This year they really wanted it. We set the goal high and it became reality tonight.

“Pretty neat.”