By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter 

Medical Lake advances 15 wrestlers to regionals

Will compete in home atmosphere of own gym for regionals

 

Last updated 2/8/2018 at 3:45pm

Deer Park Tribune

Medical Lake's Jun Figueredo battles Lakeside's Jeff Friedman in the 113-pound title match at last Saturday's district wrestling championships. Figueredo lost 10-5 but gets another chance at regional competition this Saturday in Medical Lake.

Medical lake wrestlers have overachieved from day one this season. They hope to continue to do so in an effort to return multiple athletes to the state tournament.

The Cardinals earned 241 points and finished behind Deer Park (268) and Colville (263.5) and easily ahead of Freeman 176 in competition at Deer Park.

This week, with berths at Mat Classic XXIX, set for Feb. 16-17 in Tacoma, Medical Lake gets to have a touch of home mat advantage when the 1A regionals are staged in the Cards' home gym. Matches start at 10 a.m.

Being home could work out well for this squad that finished third in the regular season dual-meet standings for the Northeast A League. "It's going to get rowdy, we had a good crowd in Deer Park," head coach Matt Leenhouts said.

"I'd like to bring more than six to state," Leenhouts said. "We kind of calculated it out, we could have double that if we wrestle well."

Medical Lake will have 15 wrestlers compete in day-long matches against both NEA and Caribou Trail League schools. It's up from the 12 they expected and includes brothers Jun and Josh Figueredo, both earning runner-up finishes last Saturday at Deer Park.

Freshmen Jun Figueredo, wrestling at 113 pounds, got to the championship round by beating teammate Weston Thomas, Medical Lake's lone state placer in 2017.

"It was a big shock to us," Leenhouts said. "Both were real shocking," he added of Josh Figueredo, a senior at 145 pounds who got revenge for an early defeat at the hands of Lakeside's

Thomas worked his way back in the consolation round with a win on a pin. Alex Gonzalez (126) and Ethan Davis (132) won their way to regionals, as did Izaiah Schlosser (220) and heavyweight Nick Thompson at 285.

"He had a crazy tournament," Leenhouts said of Thompson. "He had two wins all year long and then he wins three matches at districts." Thompson put himself in a real good spot to get to state, Leenhouts said.

Even in a losing effort in the consolation round helped a handful of competitors advance to Saturday's tournament.

Skyler Peterson (106) and Brayden Petersen (145), along with Sam Griffey (160) and Chris Hurt-Moran (182) will all try to get to state for the first time, as will Justin Warnick (138) and Brent Keith (152), both earning the fifth entry with wins.

Their road to Tacoma will be a tough one, however. The higher the placing in district competition means an easier seeding in regionals. "If you get fifth at our district you get to wrestle the No. 1 from the CTL (Caribou Trail League)," Leenhouts said.

The Cards' Jared Pendell (152) will be an alternate.

Medical Lake's lone girl wrestler, Haili Threadgill, competing at 106 pounds, will advance after a 3-2 effort in districts and competes at East Valley in Spokane.

While the ML gym will be loud for all competitors, perhaps eliminating some of the crowd advantage, there are still perkss that Leenhouts likes about not having to travel.

"You don't have to get up as early, your family shows up, you have a little more town support," Leenhouts said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

 

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