Tracy wins crown at 145 pounds with a 6-5 decision
Bonney Lake High wrestling coach Anthony Clarke took a dozen grapplers to the prestigious Pacific Coast Championships in Vancouver, Wash., Friday and Saturday and his Panthers placed 12th in the team standings with 80 points.
“We did better than I thought we would, and if even a couple more of our guys who came so close would have placed, we would have easily finished in the top 10,” Clarke said.
Bonney Lake had one champion, senior Addison Tracy, who has risen a weight class this season and appears even quicker than before. Tracy, currently ranked second among the state’s 3A 145-pounders by washingtonwrestlingreport.com, won a nailbiting 6-5 decision over 4A Kentwood’s Cody Quinn.
With that championship bout tied 4-4 going into the third round, Tracy got a two-point takedown to make it 6-4, where it stayed until Quinn recorded a one-point escape with 35 seconds left.
Placing third while wrestling in the competitive 135-pound bracket was junior Nick Bendon. Bendon lost in the quarter finals to 4A Tahoma High’s Tyler Lamb, but battled back to wrestle for third against 4A South Kitsap’s Kyle Fenton, winning 8-2.
The Panthers’ 152-pound senior Joey Salgado lost early, but refused to be eliminated and rallied to take eighth place.
“What Salgado did is a very tough thing to do. Usually when you lose early like that, it is difficult to come back up through the ranks and place at all,” Clarke said.
Other Panther matmen who came close to placing were Belgian exchange student senior Sam Mebarki at 189 pounds, junior 140-pounder Josh Peart and senior 125-pounder Pat Bendon.
Bonney Lake will have a full dance card this week as it travels to Peninsula High at 7 tonight, Wednesday, and then hosts another South Puget Sound League 3A foe in White River at 7 p.m. Thursday. Saturday, the Panthers’ den will be the site of a 16-team invitational that will include Graham-Kapowsin, Orting, Gig Harbor, Peninsula, Renton, Chief Sealth, Bellarmine Prep, Wilson, Spanaway Lake, Auburn Riverside, Shelton, Tyee, Prairie, Columbia River and Steilacoom high schools.
Reach John Leggett at jleggett@courierherald.com or 360-802-8207.
