Wrestlers take on Oak Harbor, Arlington and Matman

On Wednesday they wrestled a dual match in Arlington winning 48-18.
On Friday evening, Oak Harbor came to town with hopes of an upset. Instead it was the Wildcats that went home upset falling to the Viking grapplers. The match started at a random weight of 189 lbs., and Oak Harbor built an early lead. They won matches at 189 and 215 lbs before Zach Teuber came through with a quick pin at 285 lbs to get the Vikings on the board.

In the following match at 103 lbs, WA #1 ranked sophomore Viking Josh Heinzer suffered his first true upset of the season getting pinned by Josh Martinez.

He wasn’t happy about it at all. Lake Stevens was down 15-6 at this point, but things would quickly shift. Zach Zweifel scored a major decision over his opponent 15-2.

Jack Stilwell pinned Royce Cardwell. Sean Anderson dominated with a 15-5 outcome over his Wildcat foe. Brandon Austin carried the momentum forward with a pin. Alex Pellegrini made it look easy winning 15-0 over Ben Page.

Finally in the winning streak, team captain Josh Eacrett earned an overtime 5-4 victory over a tough John Tuttle. The Vikings were then up 34-15 putting the match out of reach. The next match resulted in disappointment for everyone in the gym. George King wrestling at 145 lbs, faced Oak Harbor’s Billy Hale. King took Hale down once, then again. The outcome was bleak for Hale. On the first takedown Hale lost part of a tooth. On the second takedown, Hale came down at a bad angle on his head and was eventually carried off the mat by stretcher to the hospital. Because of the impact level of the takedown, the official rewarded Hale with the victory, however King obviously intended no malice in his action (Note: Hale was release the following day from the hospital with a mild concussion and no permanent damage). The Vikings finished the rest of the match with wins resulting in a final score of 49-21.

The very next day, Saturday, the varsity Vikings traveled to Silverdale for the Central Kitsap HS Matman Tournament. Lake Stevens won this tournament last year, and this year was no different. The Vikings brought home another 1st place trophy edging out 3A powerhouse Enumclaw by 6 points. There were 16 participating teams in this event, and 5 of them are among the top programs in the state. The Vikings used their voluminous skilled line-up to make their way through the brackets in a way to maintain their winning ways.

Josh Heinzer absolved himself from his previous evening’s performance by decimating all comers at 103 lbs and being the one of three Vikings to finish in 1st place. Zach Zweifel, who took a narrow 3-2 victory over Graham-Kapowsin’s Efrain Aguilar at the Tri-State tournament in December, suffered a 6-5 loss against the same opponent in the 112 lb. finals to finish 2nd. Freshman Josh Villani met an unfortunate demise in the semi-finals at 119 lbs against Sam Bauer of Enumclaw when he landed badly on a throw and was forced to withdraw due to injury, statistically finishing tied for 5th. Teammate Jack Stilwell finished tied for 3rd at the same weight. Viking Sean Anderson performed in his self-admitted “not flashy” way towards a 3rd place placement. Brandon Austin ran into a couple of tough guys finishing 5th. Another top podium spot of the day belonged to senior Alex Pellegrini who battled to a 135 lb. championship in fine fashion. Josh Eacrett, who has had an amazing run in tournaments in his career coming back through the consolation brackets to gain a medal, fell by a single point in the championship match this time to Rogers’ (of Puyallup) Jared Sterling in another tight 6-5 loss to take the 2nd step. George King wrestling at 145 lbs was the recipient of some unfortunate officiating mistaken calls and a lull in his season’s momentum garnering a 3rd place award. Finally, Lake Stevens dominated the heaviest weight as they did the lightest weight with Zach Teuber reaching the top at 285 lbs in a tight 4-2 overtime win against #1 seeded Elijah Ruhl of Tahoma.

Wrestling action continues this week as the undefeated Vikings go up against the only other undefeated WesCo North team, the Snohomish Panthers on Thursday (the 17th) at 7:00 PM at the Snohomish gym. Hopefully the wrestling-frenzied town of Lake Stevens will turn out to support what is likely to be the only challenge to the dual streak this season.

Photographs from this week’s action as well as an archive of most Viking wrestling events over the last few years can be found at www.jedicheetah.com.