SILVERDALE – Brent Barnes has been coaching wrestling at Lake Stevens for 24 seasons. With six state team championships since 2000, Barnes has a pretty good idea how to judge wrestling excellence.
And what he sees at Orting this season is something special.
“Orting is definitely a great team,” Barnes said. “They have have such high quality kids too. They have some kids who are very, very, very good.”
Orting, a Class 1A school, showed the heavyweights one more time the strength of its program, running away with the Matman Classic team title at Central Kitsap High School Saturday.
The Cardinals took four individual championships and scored 207 points to finish ahead of defending tournament champion Graham-Kapowsin (161.5) and other notable programs such as Lake Stevens (161), Rogers of Puyallup (147), Enumclaw (142), South Kitsap (112.5) and Tahoma (110.5).
Orting's Taylor Meeks, left, goes against Tahoma's Nick Bayer in the 189-pound finals. Meeks won 3-1 (photo by Ron Newberry).
Orting was the only non 4A or 3A school in the 16-team field. And what added to the tournament’s intrigue is that it brought together three defending state champions – Lake Stevens (4A), Enumclaw (3A) and Orting (1A) .
In the end, little Orting stood tallest.
“I used to wrestle for them in little league but then went to G-K,” said Graham-Kapowsin senior Efrain Aguilar, a two-time state champion. “They’re a tough team. Every year it’s tough (facing Orting). They can compete for any class they want.”
Orting sent six wrestlers into the finals and came away with championships from Drew Templeman (119 pounds), Jesse Akins (130), Garrett Mann (135) and Taylor Meeks (189), who was named the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler.
The Cardinals, who turned heads by finishing fourth at the Tri-State tournament in Idaho last month, didn’t leave Silverdale without a setback, though, as Nikko Veltri injured his knee and was kept out of the 145-pound finals as a precaution.
“Hopefully it’s minor,” Orting coach Mike Sowards said.
That setback, however, paled in comparison to the one Lake Stevens is experiencing.
The Vikings came to the Matman Classic minus three of their best wrestlers who were suspended from the program for breaking team rules.
Off the team are three of the state’s best: Two-time state champion Josh Heinzer, Steven Walkley and Josh Villani. Barnes didn’t go into details on the duration of the suspensions.
He was proud of the effort shown by the Vikings who competed Saturday, which included titles by Andrew King (140) and Jacob Anderson (160).
“Like I told the kids, we just go on,” Barnes said. “We’re a team. We step up and wrestle for the team and be unselfish. That shouldn’t change regardless. Everybody counts. Everyone who wrestles here today is important. When something like that happens, you just move on and make the best out of it.”
A pleasant surprise was Eric Solar making the 103-pound finals.
“We competed as well as I wanted to really,” Barnes said. “I can’t complain too much. It was nice to see our 103-pounder get into the finals. He hasn’t been to the finals of a tournament yet so the experience of being in the final and the nerves was really good. The same with our 140-pounder, King. To get a win in the finals tonight was good.
“I just thought overall our team wrestled real hard. We’ve been getting after it, training really hard the last couple of weeks. And working on our conditioning. It started to show up in this tournament this weekend.”
Orting wrestlers pointed to the same recipe for success: Hard work and intense training.
Meeks figured he needed that and more when he faced Tahoma’s Nick Bayer in the 189-pound finals.
Meeks, a feisty wrestler who’s headed to Oregon State University, had beaten Bayer twice already in tight matches this season. They were Bayer’s only blemishes on in otherwise perfect record.
“I knew it was going to be a close one,” Meeks said of the battle between a pair of two-time state champions. “I knew it would go all three rounds.”
The setting was intense in the Central Kitsap gymnasium with Meeks and Bayer battling on one mat and Orting’s Templeman and undefeated Joey Palmer of Rogers wrestling a nail-biter at 119 pounds on the adjacent mat at the same time.
At one point, both matches were tied 1-1 in the third periods, leaving fans in attendance bobbing their heads back and forth.
Meeks ended his match dramatically with a two-point takedown with 19 seconds remaining, winning the title 3-1 to remain unbeaten this season.
“It’s a good match always,” said Bayer, now 21-3 this season. “It’s tough. It’s the biggest challenge for me. He’s the biggest challenge around.”
The Templeman-Palmer match turned into the best of the evening.
The two sophomores who train together during the offseason wound up needing four overtimes to decide the 119-pound match.
In the fourth overtime, Templeman opted to start in the down position, figuring he had a better chance to make an escape than to hold Palmer down. Templeman got the escape and the victory, 2-1.
“I was pretty nervous,” said Templeman, a state champion as a freshman last season. “We wrestle each other all the time in practice in the summer so we know what each other does.”
It’s that sort of familiarity that Olympic sophomore Cody Yeik was afraid of in his 112-pound final with Rogers standout Bryce Evans. Yeik can remember wrestling Evans as far back as age 7. He also can remember the grim results.
“Every time I’ve wrestled him he’s kind of kicked the crap out of me real good,” Yeik said.
Yet, all that changed at the Matman Classic.
Yeik noticed Evans’ hips off the mat and was able to execute a half-nelson from an underhook position.
Evans couldn’t get out of the hold and was pinned in 58 seconds.
“It surprised me,” Yeik said. “I thought he was going to scramble out of it. I was expecting him to. He didn’t move so I stayed in the half.”
33rd Matman Classic results
Team scoring: Orting 207, Graham-Kapowsin 161.5, Lake Stevens 161, Rogers (Puyallup) 147, Enumclaw 142, South Kitsap 112.5, Tahoma 110.5, Lake Washington 88, Central Kitsap 85, Kentwood 76.5, Mount Spokane 58, Olympic 57, Davis (Yakima) 55, Shelton 26, Auburn Riverside 24, Bremerton 4.
Championship finals
103 – Ruben Navejas (Kentwood) won by fall over Eric Solar (Lake Stevens), 2:12
112 – Cody Yeik (Olympic) won by fall over Bryce Evans (Rogers), :58
119 – Drew Templeman (Orting) d. Joey Palmer (Rogers), 2-1 (4 overtimes)
125 – Efrain Aguilar (Graham-Kapowsin) d. Antonio Brown (Orting), 8-4
130 – Jesse Akins (Orting) won by fall over Travis Metcalf (Graham-Kapowsin), 3:22
135 – Garrett Mann (Orting) d. Nick Sauceda (Davis) 7-4
140 – Andrew King (Lake Stevens) d. Dylan Ullery (Kentwood), 6-0
145 – Zach Chrysanthou (Lake Washington) won by injury default over Nikko Veltri (Orting)
152 – Josh Musick (Enumclaw) d. Dylan Evanger (Graham-Kapowsin), 2-0
160 – Jacob Anderson (Lake Stevens) won by fall over Kario Wallin (Enumclaw), 5:29
171 – Conner Hartman (South Kitsap) won by fall over Taylor Whetzel (Mount Spokane), 5:55
189 – Taylor Meeks (Orting) d. Nick Bayer (Tahoma), 3-1
215 – Konner Knudtsen (Tahoma) won by fall over Ricky Manz (Rogers), 3:41
285 – Michael Henry (Graham-Kapowsin) d. Morgan Yarber (Graham-Kapowsin), 8-1
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Wrestllers from Lakes Stevens and South Kitsap tangle in the consolations (photo by Ron Newberry).
Graham-Kapowsin's Michael Henry, right, has trouble budging Central Kitsap's Morgan Yarber in the 285-pound title match (photo by Ron Newberry).
Lake Washington's Zach Chrysanthou, left, ponders his next move against Rogers' Wesley Salyler in the 145-pound semifinals (photo by Ron Newberry).
Drew Templeman of Orting, right, and Joey Palmer of Rogers wrestle in the 119-pound finals (photo by Ron Newberry).
A happy Orting wrestling team after winning the Matman Classic in Silverdale (photo by Ron Newberry).
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