With a 51-15 win over the Interlake Saints last week, the Mount Si wrestling team has once again won the Kingco wrestling crown. The Wildcats went undefeated in league meets to win the honors and will now head to the league meet for seeding to districts.
“That was our goal at the start of the year and we worked hard to get it,” said head coach Jeff Newcomer.
Despite the win, the Wildcats looked tired against the Saints. Coach Newcomer attributes much of the flat wrestling to the previous night’s match against Cedarcrest; the Wildcats won 35-34.
“The physical approach was not the problem tonight; it was the mental approach,” Newcomer said. “We expended a lot of energy last night with the win over Cedarcrest.”
The meet started at the 160-pound class where Mac Donnell won by forfeit. At 171 pounds, Derreck Hanneman pinned the Saints’ George Karpetrove at the 5:13 mark of the match. Hanneman controlled the match from the start, scoring 10 points prior to the pin.
Seth Merritt wasted no time for Mount Si at 189 pounds as he pinned the Saints’ Justin Grein in under a minute. Merritt scored a quick takedown, then maneuvered his opponent to his back and recorded the pin. At 215 pounds, Dex Moetului followed the lead of Merritt and pinned Richard Silva with 14 seconds left in the first round. Moetului scored a quick takedown and two-point nearfall prior to the pin.
The big man, Jeff Chapman, continued the trend for the Wildcats as he pinned the Saints’ Shadain Akhaban with 30 seconds left in the second round. From the down position, Chapman scored a reversal prior to pinning Akhaban.
Ryan Makala came out strong at 103 pounds, scoring an early takedown for Mount Si. In the second round he scored a reversal and then pinned the Saints’ Jacob Brown with 30 seconds left.
At 112 pounds, Kyle Heath racked up the points in the first round for the Wildcats. He scored a takedown, two-point nearfall and three-point nearfall. In the second round he scored another takedown then pinned Interlake’s Chris Lien 27 seconds into the round. The pin gave Mount Si a commanding 33-0 lead.
The Wildcats forfeited at 119 pounds to give the Saints their first points of the night. At 125 pounds, the Wildcats’ Joe Taklo faced a formidable foe in the Saints’ Jason Marks. Taklo scored first with a takedown, but Marks came back with a reversal. Neither wrestler scored in the second round with Marks holding Taklo down the entire round. In the third, from the down position, Marks scored an escape then took Taklo to the mat and turned him to pull out an 8-2 decision.
At 130 pounds, the Wiildcats’ Jacob Lund pulled out a 14-6 win over the Saints’ Alan Carino. Lund scored first with a takedown but Carino was strong and scored a reversal. Late in the first round, Lund came back with another reversal.
In the second round, Carino scored an early reversal from the down position but Lund came back and scored another reversal.
In the third round, it was all Lund as he racked up eight more points for the decision.
The Saints came back with a decision of their own in the 135-pound class as Ricky Schmidt defeated the Wildcats’ Dallas Liebe 15-8.
At 140 pounds, Jordan Sypher won a 6-0 decision over the Saints’ David Bai. Sypher scored a three-point nearfall late in the second round, then scored an escape and takedown in the third to win the match.
At 145 points, Jay Dochnahl won for Mount Si with an Interlake forfeit. Finally, at 152 pounds, the Wildcats’ Kenny Morrison lost a 7-4 decision to the Saints’ Daniel Wong.
