Fresh off winter break, the Mount Si wrestlers found themselves in a rough-and-tumble battle Thursday, Jan. 7, with the Eastlake Wolves.

Hard-fought efforts from several wrestlers put the Wildcats on top in a close result at the dual meet, held at Eastlake High School in Sammamish.

Behind three pins and a technical fall, Mount Si narrowly took down the Wolves, 32-24.

“Our team put out an excellent effort tonight,” Wildcat coach Tony Schlotfeldt told the Valley Record.

Pins were recorded by Ben Larson (135), Cody Botten (125) and Shane Dixon (171), while Trey Botten (140) took his match by technical fall, a 22-5 result over Eastlake’s Shayne Fuentes. Larson pinned the Wolves’ Kyle Smith; Cody Botten defeated Eastlake’s Max Boucher, and Dixon needed nearly three minutes to beat the Wolves’ Clay Monahan.

What may have turned out to be the match of the event was at the 119 pound class, where Andrew Sypher needed everything to take care of Eastlake’s Andrew Benjamin. Sypher took the match in a 5-4 decision. Freshmen Billy Beach (103), Conor Klupar (145) and Bruce Stuart (130) all fell to Wolves opponents, but their foes had to work hard for it.

Klupar fell to Cole Nevis 6-3, while Beach gave Chris Dallas a run for his money before going down 12-10, and Stuart fell 4-1 to Eastlake’s Jordan Wiley. Schlotfeldt was pleased with the freshmen performance.

“Their efforts kept the score close, giving Mount Si the opportunity to take the team victory,” Schlotfeldt said. Connor Deutch (152) also gave his Wolves challenger, Ryan Green, a bit of a scare before falling 12-9 to the Eastlake opponent.

In other matches, John Farmer (171) fell by pin to Eastlake’s Brad Leinweber, while Lee Amador (160) was no match for the Wolves’ Trevor McKinnen; Amador was defeated 17-10. Brian Copeland (285) won his match for Mount Si by forfeit, helping things.

Mount Si competed in the Everett Classic on Saturday, Jan. 9, finishing 11th out of 21 schools competing with 67 points. Everett was the winner of the tournament. Ben Larson (135) returned to competition following an injury and finished third in his weight class, while Copeland and Josh Mitchell (285) tied for third in their weight division. Deutsch, Cody Botten and Tyler Hutchinson (160) also had solid performances.

Junior varsity wrestlers also fared very well, with Alec Holt (130) and Mitch Rorem (189) winning their weight classes, while Aaron Peterson (135), A.J. Brevick (160) and Beau Bachand (160) all performed solidly.

“This was a huge confidence booster for our team which has attended top notch tournaments this year and has seen this state’s, and surrounding state’s, best wrestlers,” Schlotfeldt said by e-mail. “Some of our best wrestlers had a rough day, but our younger wrestlers really stepped up.”

The Wildcats are at Garfield Thursday, Jan. 14, for a 7:30 p.m. match.

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

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