Wildcat grapplers battle at Mat Classic

Wildcat wrestlers Cody Botten, Ryan Makela and Ryan Ransavage took on the best of the state last weekend at Tacoma’s Mat Classic 3A tournament.

Ransavage had the best showing of the three on Friday, Feb. 20, finishing as the runner-up in the 285-pound class. The senior pinned Everett’s Levi Carroll to win his first round match, then easily dismantled Seth Johnson from Olympia’s Capitol High School, 13-0, in the second round.

Ransavage continued his march to the title match on the following day, pinning Steven Taylor from North Central High School in Spokane, in the semifinals. That earned Mount Si’s top wrestler a date with Port Angeles’ John Camp. Camp was ranked the top wrestler in the event coming into the final after having pinned each of his tournament opponents fairly quickly. He likewise made short work of Ransavage, pinning the Wildcat in just 38 seconds.

Makela, wrestling at 140 pounds, took care of Vacouver’s Union High School wrestler Jacob Virtue, 8-0, in round one to move to a second round date with Alec Williams of White River. In a tight match, Williams upset Makela, 7-6, to send the Wildcat senior to the loser’s bracket for his Saturday competition.

In his first match there, he took on a wrestler he’s seen this year, Liberty’s Wright Noel, and beat him, 10-2, sending Noel home for the season. That put Makela into a match match with Enumclaw’s Josh Musick.

Makela struggled against Musick, falling 20-4 to the Hornet opponent in a technical fall. That sent the Mount Si wrestler to the seventh-place match with Bonney Lake’s Josh Peart.

Bonney Lake, like Enumlcaw and White River, are schools from the South Puget Sound League, so based on how things had gone to this point, one could assume Makela would be in for a challenge.

He was, but this time the Wildcat came out on top against Peart in another close shave, 7-5, to take seventh. Musick and Williams, the two competitors Makela fell to, both did well. Musick finished third, while Williams ended up sixth.

Botten, wrestling for the first time at state, was competing in the 112-pound division. It was a short trip there for the freshman, but the experience could be instructive for him as he continues in the program.

Botten was pinned by Sunnyside’s Steven Romero in round one last Friday, then the Wildcat was pinned once again, by Lindbergh’s Luke Garcia, from Renton, ending Botten’s run. Romero went on to win the title, while Garcia ended up eighth.

Mount Si’s threesome helped the team score 30 points, good for a 20th place finish. Enumclaw went on to win the 3A title, while the Wildcats were the top Kingco placer at state.

Contact Snoqualmie Valley Record Sports contributing Writer Rhett Workman at rwteam97@yahoo.com or 425-888-2311.

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