EDMONDS — The Jackson wrestling team wasn’t at full strength at last weekend’s 31st Edmonds Invitational, but the Timberwolves nevertheless demonstrated that they will be a team that will be heard from in the postseason.
Two individuals won titles and a third finished third at the eight-team tournament Jan. 10 at Edmonds-Woodway High School.
“Everybody had a win today. That’s always a plus,” said Wolfpack coach George Schwope. “We didn’t have our full team here. We had a few injuries … I don’t think we scored like we should have. It was a fun tournament.”
It was especially fun for Charly Eaton and Kevin Fox, who walked away with individual titles in the 130- and 160-pound divisions, respectively.
Eaton jumped to a 4-1 lead over Woodinville’s Matt Johnson in the finals but saw his opponent rally in the second period. At one point, Johnson took a 6-5 lead on a takedown before an escape by Eaton tied the score.
The Jackson senior scored four more unanswered points to take a 10-6 lead into the third period. Johnson again rallied and cut the lead to 10-9 before time ran out as the two wrestlers were sprawled out on the mat.
“It was a pretty strategic match in the last round,” Eaton said. “I didn’t want to take the risk of getting back on my feet and then wrestling from neutral (position). So I just kind of wrestled solid … and made him work more.”
Schwope was on the edge of his seat for most of the match.
“Those are the fun ones, the ones you like to win and hate to lose,” he said. “But they’re real fun to watch on either side.”
Eaton had a first-round bye and then pinned Edmonds-Woodway’s David Alfi at the 5:36 mark to advance to the championship round.
Fox scored a pin over Woodinville’s Nick Johnson in the finals at the 3:39 mark, one of only three championship matches decided by pin.
“I just came out with intensity and wrestled hard,” Fox said.
Fox also scored pins in his first round and semifinal matches.
“This was his best match of the year by far,” Schwope said. “The guy (opponent) got caught in a tough move and Kevin pulled it off real nice.”
Teammate Harrison Warner (215 pounds) was upset by Woodinville’s Shay Wood, who recorded a third-period pin in a first-round match. Warner then rebounded with a pair of decisions in the consolation bracket and exacted a bit of revenge with a pin over Wood 14 seconds into the third-fourth place match.
Warner had defeated both of the wrestlers that reached in the finals earlier in the season.
“He started out sluggishly today,” Schwope said of Warner. “He’s only a sophomore, so he’s learning. He came back this afternoon and made up for it.”
Eaton, who improved to 13-4, has gone up against some quality competition this season.
“I think that’s really helped him out this year and it really showed today,” Schwope said. “He’s getting ready to battle his way through districts … he’ll go on to state, especially if he wrestles like he did today. He was real solid; the same with Kevin.”
Other top-six placers for Jackson included Tony Martinez (112), Sean Perez (119) and Ramsey Nijem (130).
Jackson heads to Puyallup tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 17) for the Emerald Ridge Invitational.
Eaton sees both the team and himself continuing to improve and prepare for the postseason. Eaton’s record is better at this point of the season than it was last year.
“I’m optimistic about how it’s going,” he said. “We’re really stepping it up. We had a lot of tough teams right in the beginning and it was good to start out with those teams. Now I think we’re just going to cruise through the rest of the season and make a big showing at the Wesco tournament.”
Now is the time of the year when Schwope expects his team to start building toward the sub-regional and regional tournaments.
“They’re starting to pick it up,” he said. “The goal of most wrestlers (is) to build as the season goes on and peak toward the end of the season for districts and hopefully state. They’re coming along real well.”
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