Mount Si’s wrestling team held off a late charge from Interlake and scored a win on the mat last night at home in advance of a big tournament this weekend.
Josh Mitchell’s pin of Fine Ngauamo in the 285 lb. class, one of six pins by Wildcat wrestlers on the night, helped deliver Mount Si a hard-fought 42-35 victory over the Saints in a long, but very entertaining contest at Mount Si High School.
“We’re just really happy with this win,” said Wildcat coach Tony Schlotfeldt. “We went into this match knowing it was going to be down to the last match.”
The night started out with the 106 lb. match, and Mount Si’s lighter weights scored in a big way early, with three quick pins to open proceedings. Eli Clure (106), Gunnar Harrison (115) and Ryley Absher (120) scored those pins, and with each pin netting six team points, Mount Si was up 18-0 on the Saints before they could blink. Absher’s pin was especially strong; he only needed 35 seconds to get it done against his foe, Interlake’s Grant Cole.
Tanner Stahl (126) and Justin Edens (132) continued the winning ways for Mount Si, taking their matches in hard-fought decisions over their Saints foes. After Interlake broke into the scoring column with a pin by Daniel Montoya over Wildcat Adam Taylor (138), Aaron Peterson (145) put Mount Si back in business with Mount Si’s fourth pin of the evening, this over the Saints’ Joe Button. “I just had the mindset I was going to win,” Peterson said.
Interlake’s Jacob Wilson took care of Wildcat Tye Rodne (152), pinning the Mount Si competitor early in that match, and that set up what turned out to be the feature match of the evening at 160. AJ Brevick took on the Saints’ Jacob Marks, and it was a tough tussle between the two, and one which looked very much in Marks’ back pocket until the end. With Marks up 12-8 and well on his way to a win by decision, Brevick found a way to come back and score a huge pin on his Interlake opponent, helping the Wildcats move to within striking distance of the team win. “That kid AJ wrestled (Marks) was second in state last year, so that was a big win,” Schlotfeldt said. “We were both pretty tired at the end, but he’s a good wrestler. I really wanted to get to him,” Brevick said.
Interlake then started to take control, with Saints wrestlers defeating Wildcats Cole Palmer (170), Doug Knox (182), Mitch Rorem (195) and Chris Schlicting (220), putting Interlake down just one point, 36-35, in the team standings with Mitchell’s match left to contest. And the senior (and Oregon State-bound football recruit), with his entire family in attendance, was at midseason form, giving Ngauamo all he could handle, so much so the Interlake competitor’s nose got banged up a bit and an injury timeout had to be called to allow trainers to treat that injury. Once that timeout ended, Mitchell went back to work and slammed the door shut both on Ngauamo and the Saints, pinning the Interlake opponent at 1:41 of the first period to grab the six team points and the victory.
Peterson felt the younger wrestlers were key. “A lot of the younger kids really stepped it up mentally and they came out here and wrestled hard and won their matches. That’s what did it for us,” the Wildcat senior said.
Mount Si is headed to the Yakima Valley community of Grandview on Saturday for another big weekend tournament. Look for Mitchell to lead the way once again as the Wildcats are expected to face some real good foes in that tournament, led by host Grandview.
