RENTON – For the second year in a row, a small community wrestling team dominated the region one highschool wrestling tournament. Unfortunately, that team was not from the Snoqualmie Valley, but rather Sedro Woolley.

The Cubs won the regional tournament held at Liberty High School last weekend in dramatic fashion racking up 256.5 team points, outpacing second-place finisher Squalicum with 134. The closest Kingco competitor was Mercer Island, who took fourth place with 87 points.

Mount Si, sending three wrestlers to the state tournament this coming weekend, took ninth with 54 points and Cedarcrest, also sending three, took 12th with 43 points.

Despite the overbearing presence of Sedro Woolley, the Wildcats and Red Wolves came through in some tough matches. Mount Si was led by Matt Haas wrestling at 130 pounds, who captured the Kingco 3A wrestling crown last week. Haas won his first-round match against the Cubs CJ Davis, 10-0, to move into the semi-finals. He then faced Bellingham’s Nick Sherman, whom he pinned at the 3:36 mark to move into the finals. There he faced Sedro Woolley’s Patrick O’Neil. O’Neil proved too much, notching the win 2-1 in a close match.

For Cedarcrest, David Howard led the charge at 125 pounds. In the opening round he faced Victor Harkness of Bellingham, taking the win 7-0. In the semi-finals, Howard faced Squalicum’s Jace Cutrer. Howard wasted no time notching points and eventually the 6-1 win. In the finals, Howard faced Sedro Woolley’s Michael Lomsdale, who had defeated Issaquah’s Nate Potts 8-2 to move into the finals. Both wrestlers were determined to take home the prize but in the end Lomsdale won 5-4.

Taking a third-place finish for the Wildcats was Trevor Moore at 215 pounds. Moore defeated Burlington’s Omar Aguilar by pin in his first-round match. In the semi-finals he faced Bellingham’s Nick Vlahos, who won 11-3 sending Moore to the consolation round. There he won his first consolation match to move into the third-fourth battle against Sedro Woolley’s Travis Schmelzer. Moore came out strong, defeating Schmelzer 10-4.

Rounding out competitors heading to state for Mount Si was Ryan Magnussen at 135 pounds. Magnussen faced Anacortes’ Peter Wenke in the first round and recorded a 5-4 win to move into the semi-finals. There he faced the eventual 135-pound champion, Devin Knight from Sedro Woolley. Knight racked up 16 points to technical fall Magnussen, sending him to the consolation bracket.

After a consolation bracket win, he again faced Wenke, who had worked his way through the consolation bracket. But this time it would be Wenke who would get the win, 4-2, giving Magnussen fourth.

Two other wrestlers qualified for the state tournament, Dan Claussen at 130 pounds and Connor Baker at 119 pounds, both from Cedarcrest. Claussen lost his opening round match to Bellingham’s Nick Sherman 8-6 in overtime. Sherman went on to lose to the Wildcats’ Haas in the semi-finals, also sending him to the consolation bracket. Working their way through the consolation matches the two faced off again for third and fourth place. Claussen struggled this time with Sherman, losing 10-1, but still taking home a respectable fourth-place finish and a trip to state.

Baker also lost his first-round match but battled his way through the consolation bracket only to face the same wrestler who had defeated him in the first round, Zack Olson from Sedro Woolley. Olson repeated his first-round exploits, defeating Baker again, this time by pin 22 seconds into the match.