Jackson takes third at Edmonds Invite

EDMONDS

A young but increasingly confident Jackson wrestling team made quite a splash at the Edmonds School District invitational.

The 12-member squad had 11 individual placers, advanced four to the finals and won three championships at the eight-team competition Jan. 5 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.

The Timberwolves took third overall, their highest finish ever at the invitational. Edmonds-Woodway outdueled Woodinville to win its first team title since 1992. The Warriors finished with 203 points to the Falcons, which had 199. Jackson scored 160.

“It was awesome, a great day,” said Jackson head coach Gus Anaya. “It was the high placement for Jackson in this tournament ever. Before that it was sixth place. … We’re really young. Out of that entire group, only one is a senior. We’ll get them all back.”

In recent weeks, Anaya has changed the way he’s run practice and some of those changes yielded results in Saturday’s tournament.

“We’ve raised the intensity level in the room,” Anaya said. “We’re running them through some really good conditioning that I think paid off today. Every kid had a lot of success today partly because I think it was the conditioning. They’re getting to where they need to be for the postseason.”

Conditioning played a role in at least two of Jackson’s victories as junior Jared Mead held on for a 5-4 decision over Woodinville’s Zander Mitchell in the 119-pound finals and junior Michael Shapiro scored a 4-2 victory over Mountlake Terrace’s Nate Dabling at 140.

Mead admitted he was pretty winded at the end of his match, which went the distance. Mead had the 5-4 lead as he entered the third round.

“I was ahead by one point and I had the whole round to do and I was dead tired,” said Mead, who took first place at 103 at last year’s tournament. “The first and second round I was losing. … then I got reversal points and went up by one.”

Mead was warned about stalling by the official in the second period, so he knew he still had to be aggressive in the third round. Mead scored a pair of pins to advance to the finals.

Shapiro’s match also went back-and-forth. Shapiro felt fortunate to come out on top and win his first-ever tournament title.

“I think it could have gone either way,” Shapiro said. “I just did everything I could and it worked out.”

Shapiro wasn’t as nervous as he thought he would be in his first tournament finals. Shapiro scored 6-3 and 11-10 decisions en route to the finals.

The early part of the season was a little disappointing for Shapiro.

“My record just wasn’t that great at the beginning of the year,” he said. “I had some close losses by one point. But it’s picking up.”

Shapiro advanced to regionals last season, but missed out on a trip to the state tournament. The increased workload at practice should help Shapiro and his teammates in the postseason.

“Our practices at Jackson have been getting harder and harder,” Shapiro said. “We’ve just got to keep it up and everything should go well.”

Jackson’s lone senior, Myles Bittinger, cruised to a first-place finish at 171. Bittinger recorded three straight pins, including a victory at 2:54 over Woodinville’s Greg Prussia in the finals.

“My first two were pretty quick” Bittinger said. “The last one the guy was a lot better than the first two guys.”

Bittinger also has his sights set on a trip to the Tacoma Dome and the state tournament. After a bit of a mid-season slump, Bittinger feels he’s back on track.

“Hopefully, I’m going to be peaking at about the time districts starts,” he said. “Once the postseason starts, I’ll be in my best shape technically and endurance-wise.”

Jackson’s Timothy St. Marie lost a 3-1 decision to Granite Falls’ Andrew McKibben in the 215 finals. St. Marie nevertheless was still happy with his best-ever showing in a varsity tournament. St. Marie had a large rooting section in the stands.

“I got pumped,” he said. “I was getting really excited. My whole family was here. I had my two brothers and my parents here.”

McKibben has some years on the younger St. Marie. McKibben, a junior, was an alternate to state last season and also has a year of experience on St. Marie, who is a sophomore.

St. Marie recorded a pair of pins in his first round and semifinal matches.

“I thought I was going to lose a couple of those matches,” he said. “Those guys are pretty tough. I was surprised I was able to win those matches. It was a lot of fun.”

A cousin of St. Marie’s wrestled at last season’s Mat Classic.

“My cousin was able to see 20 mats laid out (in the Tacoma Dome),” St. Marie said. “He said it was really cool. I’d really like to be a part of that experience.”

NOTES

MILLER TAKES FOURTH: Jackson senior Tara Miller finished fourth at 112 pounds, losing a 12-3 decision to Lynnwood’s Rodson Ubengen. Miller, who took second place at 103 at last season’s inaugural state girls tournament, had been wrestling at 119 but moved down to what she’ll be wrestling the rest of the season.

“Today was her first day at 112,” said Jackson coach Gus Anaya. “She’s still making that adjustment at that weight.” Miller is 11-0 against girls and 3-2 against boys.

“She’s doing well,” Anaya said. “It’s good to get her down to the weight she needs to be at.”

GOOD SPORT: Zach Jones of Granite Falls was presented with the Mike Hess Sportsmanship award by Ed Aliverti, Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame announcer, and Bryce Cook, WSWCA Hall of Fame coach, prior to the start of the finals. Jones finished second in the 189-pound division.

Hess was a longtime teacher and wrestling coach at Edmonds-Woodway High School. Aliverti also is a member of the NAIA Wresting Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Cook, coached for 30 years in the Edmonds School District, compiling a 255-103-2 dual meet record. He coached his teams to three Wesco titles and coached six individual state champions.