Snoqualmie Valley, a wrestling mecca

Published 8:58 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

It was obvious this past weekend that Snoqualmie Valley is quickly becoming the wrestling capital of Kingco 3A as 10 of the 14 title matches at the Kingco 3A tournament featured at least one participant from Cedarcrest or Mount Si high schools. Seven of those 10 went on to win the Kingco title in their respective weight classes.

Mike Montgomery from Mount Si at 103 pounds, David Howard from Cedarcrest at 112 pounds, Matt Haas from Mount Si at 119 pounds, Aaron Pedeferri from Cedarcrest at 125 pounds, Darren DeBoer from Cedarcrest at 135 pounds, Nick Martindale from Mount Si at 145 pounds and Robby Westermann from Cedarcrest at 189 pounds all came away with titles. For Pedeferri, the two-time state champion, it was his fourth consecutive Kingco title.

In addition to the individual titles, Jeff Newcomer, Cedarcrest head coach and Art Kuehn, Cedarcrest assistant coach, were named Kingco coaches of the year – Newcomer’s second such title in as many years. Also present for the second day of the tournament was Mount Si coach Bruce Caldwell, returning from cancer surgery.

“It was nice to have him here. I kind of knew he was going to show but I did neglect to tell him to dress up.” said a joking Mount Si coach Mike Johnston.

He was also happy with his team’s performance.

“I felt the three kids we had in the finals would be champions. They have been really solid wrestlers the last three weeks so it’s just a matter of continuing that intensity through the state tournament,” he said.

For the complete story, pick up a copy of this week’s Valley Record