Four Royal wrestlers win titles at Lynnwood Invitational

Published 10:16 am Monday, March 3, 2008

LYNNWOOD — The Lynnwood wrestling team was a perfect 4-for-4 over the weekend.

The Royals advanced four individuals to the championship finals at the Lynnwood Invitational and all four won their matches in the Dec. 17 competition at Lynnwood High School.

“We did a good job,” said Royals coach Carl Wilkins. “The kids have been making steady progress and working hard in the room … we had a good finals round. Anytime you win all your finals that’s a good round.”

Blanchet took home the first-place team trophy, scoring 231 points to runner-up Lynnwood, which finished with 155.5. Mercer Island (146) was third and Meadowdale took fourth (140) in the nine-team tournament.

Lynnwood’s top performance was by junior Jordan “The Body Snatcher” Williams, who recorded three straight pins en route to the 125-pound title. At last year’s invitational, Williams took first place at 119.

Williams pinned Blanchet’s Steve Parco a mere 17 seconds into the match. He also made quick work of his other two opponents with pins at the 53- and 39-second marks.

“I was wrestling free all summer and spring,” Williams said. “I’ve stayed active all offseason so that’s helped coming in a lot.”

Williams improved to 10-0 for the season with eight pins. He has been scored on only twice this year, giving up a reversal and a takedown.

Lynnwood’s strong showing at the tournament and in the dual meet regular season is a result of a lot of hard work by Wilkins, who is in his second season as head coach of the Royals.

“We owe it all to him,” Williams said. “We didn’t even win a dual meet before he got her. Now we’ve won three duals. We’re placing in tournaments. He’s making kids tough and showing them what they need to be shown.”

Two other of the Royals also recorded pins in their championship matches.

Junior Cody Mason (119) pinned Meridian’s Ryder Chance at the 1:55 mark to win his first-ever tournament title. Mason improved to 11-2 with 11 pins.

“I just try to work like I always work,” Mason said. “I try to pin my guy with the same cradle. So far I’ve been pinning everybody with the same move except for one or two different matches.”

Teammate Tanner Detschman rallied from a 4-0 deficit and surprised Blanchet’s Adam McNaghten with a pin at the 5:30 mark. It also was Detschman’s first tournament championship.

“It feels good to come back and win it in the end,” Detschman said.

Detschman said that McNaghten appeared to wear down during the course of the match. Detschman improved to 9-4 with five pins. He finished third at the Lake Washington Invitational two weekends ago.

“I started off a little slow but the last two tournaments I felt I was doing really good,” Detschman said. “The tournaments lately have been bringing up my confidence. Today it felt really good to get that win … it’s been nice to see Lynnwood take four first places. There’s been a lot of turnaround. I see people not giving up in the finals. They want to stick in it.”

Lynnwood’s Josh Miller did not give up in his tough championship match at 130 pounds. Miller prevailed 11-10 over Redmond’s Trevor Long.

Wilkins saw the match as a good learning experience for Miller.

“It was close and Josh is really aggressive,” Wilkins said. “He makes some mistakes that way. That kid caught him in some of those mistakes and scored a lot of points. But I’d rather have a kid gong hard and working hard like that and make a mistake and still learn from that than to have him be conservative. Josh is a real smart kid … it was a good match from the point of view of pressure and continuing to be aggressive.”

It’s no coincidence that Lynnwood’s strengths are in its lower weight classes. Mason, Williams and Miller provide good competition for each other during practice.

“It’s nice that they’re all about the same size,” Wilkins said. “It always helps to have a good workout partner.”

Many of the other Royals gained valuable experience at the tournament. For some, Saturday’s tournament was their first action of the season.

“Some of them got wins,” Wilkins said. “It’s just fun. They’re excited. They’re wrestling well. They’re working hard.”

Meadowdale advanced three individuals into the finals but did not win any titles.

Junior Lane Jennings (152), sophomore Nick Montanari (160) and junior Wes Garton (215) each took second in their respective weight classes.

“We had a bunch of young kids in the finals,” said Mavericks coach Brian Boardman. “The guys that were there (in the finals) deserved to be there. They worked hard and they’re good wrestlers.”