Medical Lake sends 10 to Mat Classic XXIX

Medical Lake emerged from district wrestling competition with their goal well in reach for this weekend's Mat Classic XXIX in Tacoma.

"The goal at the beginning of the year was a top-10 finish at state," head coach Matt Leenhouts said. "We'll see what happens." That plateau will be reached with 10 total wins on the weekend.

"We probably need 17–18 to be top-5," he added.

At the meet hosted by Medical Lake on Feb. 10, Colville won the team title with 212 points, Deer Park was second 198.5 with Medical Lake third at 132. Fellow Northeast A League members Freeman (No. 4/121.5), Lakeside (5/114.5) rounded out the top five with the Chelan (79.5) the highest Caribou Trail finisher.

"Third as a team at regionals isn't too shabby," Leenhouts said. "Our league dominated, the other league (Caribou Trail) only got six spots out of the 56."

Individually, Medical Lake had a pair of runner-up finishes and five fourth-places who all head to state.

Freshman Jun Figeredo was runner up at 113 pounds losing by a pin to Lakeside's Jeff Friedman. "He wrestled a really tough kid," Leenhouts said. "I'm pretty much figuring we can beat him one time out of 10, hopefully one of those times is at state."

Another freshman, Ethan Davis, was also runner up for ML at 132 pounds. "He beat the No. 1 kid that won districts (Lane Young-Lakeside) in the semis," Leenhouts said.

As a freshman, Davis is naturally prone to an occasional mistake, Leenhouts said, but his coach still thinks he has a chance to be a champion in Tacoma. "Anything in the top-5, we'll be happy with."

Medical Lake had solid success in the consolation rounds, a place where Leenhouts said, "That's where we have shined all year."

Junior Weston Thomas, the lone Cardinal state placer from 2017, finished fourth at 113 after wrestling back from a second-round loss to Friedman. Thomas was pinned at the 3-minute, 57-second mark.

Leenhouts said he went into the regionals expecting to take nine to state, but settled for seven, plus three alternates.

"We had a couple of kids that made it that we didn't expect, like Justin Warnick (138)," a junior who lost 6-4 in his consolation match to Freeman's Nolan Doloughan.

There was also Alex Gonzalez, another freshman at 126 pounds who wound up fourth. "He worked his butt off," Leenhouts said and lost by injury default with a bum shoulder.

Izaiah Schlosser (220) also wrestled his way back from an opening-round loss to earn a berth out the consolation round.

The three others, freshman Skyler Peterson (106), senior Sam Griffey (160) and junior Nick Thompson all won battles for fifth place and travel as alternates. "They go and weigh in, if anyone has a skin problem, misses weight, gets hurt during the week," the alternates take their place.

Two alternates from the Northeast A League got to districts and one advanced to state. "You never know what can happen, we could get more in (to state)," Leenhouts said.

Leenhouts said Thompson has blossomed in postseason with seven wins after just two the entire regular season. "He never wrestled before, he was just a football player who I got to come out," Leenhouts said.

One of the more painful and disappointing finishes was that of junior Brayden Petersen who lost 1-0 in the 5-6 bout at 145 pounds, the deciding point coming with just 4 seconds left.

When everything is wrapped up at the Tacoma Dome during the two-day run Feb. 16-17, "We'd really like to have four medalists, that would be a good day," Leenhouts said.

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