The Enumclaw High wrestling team rang in the New Year with nine place winners and a fourth-place finish at the Pacific Coast Wrestling Championships in Vancouver, Wash., Saturday.
For the Hornets it’s another step in preparing for postseason. The Hornets, ranked No. 2 in the state, continue their trek at 7 tonight, Wednesday, as they return to league action looking to keep their 27-match win streak going against No. 12-ranked, cross-river rival White River. The hits keep coming as the team heads to Auburn to face No. 4-ranked Auburn Mountainview Thursday.
“It always seems like our back-to-back matches are our toughest,” coach Lee Reichert said. “White River has a great lineup and it should be a great match at home. We’ll have to have all our ducks in a line to get them.”
The Hornets saw tough competition at the 32-team Pacific Coast championships. After leading after the opening rounds, the top-ranked Hornets battled for every point for their fourth-place finish. Graham-Kapowsin won the tournament with 176 points. W.F. West of Chehalis was second with 162.5 points, Deer Park trailed by one point and EHS came in at 153.5.
“At the end there it was back and forth and everyone was checking the score,” Reichert said. “We’ve never won it, but we’ve always been close.” The Hornets placed third last year.
“I’m pleased with how we wrestled,” Reichert said. “We got what we wanted. We wanted to be stretched. We got stretched.”
The Hornets’ Travis Reano, Hunter File and Josh Musick were third-place finishers.
Reano earned his third-place finish at 119 pounds with a 6-2 win over Terrill Wilson of South Kitsap. The Hornets put two wrestlers in the bracket. Teammate Cole Snider finished sixth. Snider scampered through the bracket with two pins and a technical fall before dropping his semifinal match. Eventually, he met up with Reano, who scored a 10-2 victory to advance.
In what Reichert called the “toughest weight class,” File scored a 3-1 victory over Daniel Leonard of Sherwood for his 125-pound, third-place finish. File opened with back-to-back pins before dropping a 5-1 decision to eventual champion Efrain Aguilar of Graham-Kapowsin. File won four straight, including his 3-1 victory, for third.
Musick earned his third-place at 152 pounds after Neil Sell of Klahowya defaulted with an injury. Musick opened with two pins and an 8-0 decision before dropping a semifinal match to eventual champion Chris Castillo of Zillah, 1-0.
Steven Knapp finished fourth, defaulting with an injury to Tim Peraza of Evergreen at 215 pounds.
D.J. Qualls finished sixth at 189 pounds. He suffered a second-round pin at the hands of Robert Clasey of Evergreen for his medal.
Tanner Southland and Chance Mitchell picked up seventh-place finishes. Southland earned his with a 7-1 win over Kyle McClain of Sherwood and Mitchell pinning Kevin Schiffman of Klahowya in 2 minutes, 38 seconds.
Southland was joined at the 135 pounds by teammate Andrew Fox, who did not place.
Lucas Somera, one of a handful of freshman in the lineup, was the final place winner, picking up eighth with a 5-3 loss to Jesse Borcherding of Olympic at 130 pounds.
Reichert pulled Kario Wallin at 160 pounds after he suffered a hip injury and Kyle Young, at 140 pounds, was just shy of placing.
Jeff Wiltse was also a heartbeat from medaling.
“He got beat in overtime to put us out of medal round,” Reichert said.
