TACOMA — Unwavering belief and unrivaled athleticism. These traits are the hallmarks of champions, and Port Angeles’ Matt Robbins and Forks’ Miguel Morales exemplified both in rolling to individual state titles at Mat Classic XXVII at the Tacoma Dome.
The North Olympic Peninsula also had four state runner-up finishes, including Chloe Rogers, who made Port Townsend history by becoming the school’s first girl to earn a win at the state meet.
Robbins went first Saturday, winning Class 2A’s 195-pound crown with a dominant 4-0 victory against Sedro-Woolley’s Nate Vaughn.
Robbins is the Roughriders’ first state champion since John Camp won at 285 pounds in 2009.
“It feels good in a way, but in another way, I knew this was going to happen,” Robbins said. “I’ve been working this hard and I’ve seen it countless times.
“It’s an amazing feeling. I’ve been thinking about this moment the whole season. Since the first day of practice I’ve had that little voice in my head saying, ‘Hey, you can be state champ.’
“And I kept working at it and working at it and seeing it more and more. And seeing me at the top of the 2A podium.”
Robbins made that climb by wrestling a crisp, technical match, denying Vaughn the chance to score any offensive breakouts.
Up 2-0 after an early takedown, Robbins avoided allowing Vaughn to tally escape points and cut into his lead late in the first round and again to start the second.
“I didn’t want to give him anything,” Robbins said.
“I’m going to be on him the whole time. But if he did get up, I was going to be right back on him.”
The title is the third individual champion for Port Angeles under coach Erik Gonzalez .
“He’s been on a mission ever since last year,” Gonzalez said of Robbins, who placed seventh in 2014.
“And we talked about it all year long: he was going to be a state champion. He had no doubt. Honestly, all year long we knew he could do it, and here we are.
Robbins’ title was immensely satisfying for Gonzalez.
“It’s a lot of fun as a coach, obviously, when you have a kid like that who has a goal and is willing to work and put in the time to get there and has the confidence and faith in himself to get it done,” Gonzalez said.
“To see all those things come together and end up in a state title is pretty special.”
Morales’ sealed Class 1A Forks’ first individual championship since Luke Dixon won at 215 pounds in 2009, and did so in convincing fashion.
After Morales pinned Kiona-Benton’s Tanner Cook in 1 minute and 41 seconds, the heavyweight celebrated his win with a touch of style and a showcase of his athletic ability: a triumphant backflip.
“I just came to wrestle,” Morales said.
“It’s what I always wanted he said of winning a title.
“Words really can’t describe how happy I am,” Morales said.
Forks’ typically dour coach Bob Wheeler was full of praise for Morales.
“He controlled and dominated the whole thing,” Wheeler said of the final.
“Not bad when you’ve only wrestled for three years and you end up with a first, a second and a third.”
Morales finished third last season, and was runner-up in his initial year of wrestling in 2013.
“You can’t do too much better,” Wheeler said.
The Spartans ended up fifth in the 1A ranks with 102 team points. Freeman won the title with 169.5.
Port Angeles was fifth in 2A with 83.5 points. Clarkston took home the 2A trophy after scoring 128 points.
Four runner-ups
Four other North Olympic Peninsula wrestlers fell in the finals.
Forks’ 113-pounder Sebastian Morales was the first to wrestle his championship match.
Morales took on defending champion Chase Wickham of Vashon. It was the third straight meeting at state for the pair, with Morales having defeated Wickham in a consolation-round match in 2013, and then falling 2-0 to Wickham in a 106-pound semifinal last year.
This time, the match got away from Morales from the start.
Wickham earned two first-round takedowns to go up 4-1. He earned another two-point takedown 20 seconds into the second round and executed a two-point near fall to lead 8-1.
Wickham controlled Morales, locking his leg and turning him for a pin at the 3:23 mark of the match.
“Wickham is a really solid wrestler who has competed all over the place at a lot of state and national competitions away from high school wrestling,” Wheeler said.
“Sebastian is a good kid. He’s dedicated and has really come up from scratch, having not wrestled in a youth program.”
Morales, a four-year state participant, finishes his career with second-, third- and seventh-place medals.
Port Townsend’s Chloe Rogers saw her Cinderella run through the girls 140-pound bracket end against No. 1-ranked Desiree Zavala of Grandview.
Zavala pinned Rogers 1:57 into the first round.
Redhawks coach Steve Grimm was full of admiration for the second-year wrestler, who is the first state finalist of his tenure and the first Port Townsend girl to earn wins at state.
“I thanked her for the journey she’s brought me on, and that I was able to be a part of this,” Grimm said.
Rogers’ finish tied for the second-highest in school history. Joe Harper is the only Port Townsend wrestler to win a state championship, taking the unlimited weight class in 1982.
Forks’ Brooke Peterson also ran into a formidable opponent in the 145-pound girls final: defending champ Tatum Sparks of Othello.
The squat Sparks overpowered Peterson, getting a pin one minute into the match.
“That’s just a good, good wrestler that Brooke faced,” Forks assistant coach Frankie Torres said.
“It’s as simple as that.”
In the 2A 285-pound final, top-ranked Hunter Mullins of Orting out-pointed Port Angeles’ Roberto Coronel 6-0.
Coronel, a three-time state participant, wrapped up his high school career with fifth-, seventh- and second-place finishes.
Forks’ finishers
Spartans sophomore Jack Dahlgren bounced back from a controversial 3-2 semifinal defeat to Freeman’s Markus Goldbach to finish third at 182 pounds with a 3-2 win against Montesano’s Anthony Louthan.
Goldbach claimed a disputed two-point takedown of Dahlgren to go ahead 2-1 late in the second period of the semifinal.
Forks coach Bob Wheeler was livid because Goldbach and Dahlgren had locked hands before the takedown started, which, in his eyes, rendered it not countable for points.
Goldbach went ahead with an early escape in the third round and won 3-2.
Wheeler gave the referees the business following the match, yelling “You screwed up the match, referee,” as he headed to the scorers table.
Dahlgren, for his part, took the defeat in stride.
“I couldn’t shoot on him too much,” Dahlgren said. “He’s a great wrestler.”
Dahlgren shot through to grab a two-point reversal with 45-seconds left in the third-place match against a familiar league foe, Montesano’s Anthony Louthan.
“I’m pretty happy. This sets me up well to be the first two-timer [state champion] from Forks,” Dahlgren said.
Forks’ Tristen Williams lost the girls 105-pound semifinal matchup 16-0 by technical fall to Grandview’s Viannei Perez.
Williams came through to edge Davis’ Isabel Nunez 5-4 in her next match, but was pinned by Sunnyside’s Jenniya Guillen at 2:30 and ended up with fourth place.
Alvaro Ortiz finished fifth for the Spartans, defeating Connell’s Oscar Ortiz 8-7 in the 120-pound bracket.
Ortiz was pinned at 1:23 of his semifinal matchup with Lakeside’s Dalton Young. He then fell to Royal’s Kiki Chabolla 6-1.
Ortiz had previously topped Chabolla 11-7 in three overtime rounds in Friday’s opening match.
Tristin Tumaua ended up sixth for Forks at 285 pounds. He Lost by pin at 5:14 to Naches Valley’s Gavin Brumley in the fifth-place match.
Garrison Schumack finished eighth at 132 pounds after falling for the second time in as many days to Lakeside’s Cole Ahrendt. Ahrendt took Schumack down 7-0 for seventh place, a day after besting him via technical fall 17-2.
Port Angeles contingent
Roughriders senior Brady Anderson bounced back to finish third after being pinned at 5:46 of his 126-pound semifinal against Logan Sundheim of East Valley of Spokane.
He posted a 7-5 win against Clarkston’s Tanner Benton that included a well-timed three-point near fall with 1:15 left in the match.
“We always talk about not having regrets at the end of the year and making sure you know there’s nothing left in me, and after that one I know there’s nothing left,” Anderson said.
It was Anderson’s first state placement in four trips to Tacoma.
He has ridden a wave of excitement and disappointment in his past trips to Tacoma, and was relieved to have broken through in his final chance.
“Finally being able to win that quarterfinal match was awesome,” Anderson said. “I’ve never felt as calm competing here as I did this year.”
Port Angeles junior Tyler Gale gritted through a lingering ankle injury to secure his third straight state placement at 106 pounds, this time taking seventh after a 4-3 victory over White River’s Cooper Franklin.
Sophomore Ben Basden extracted revenge in his seventh-place match against Cedarcrest’s Parker McBride.
McBride out-pointed Basden 12-7 in Friday’s opening round, but Basden turned the tables with a 6-2 win for seventh place.
Senior Kyle La Fritz beat a familiar foe in his final match, North Mason’s Connor Lundberg, in the 220-pound bracket’s seventh-place match. La Fritz rolled, pinning Lundberg in 56 seconds.
Sequim girls place
Sequim’s Alma Mendoza and Kiara Pierson each placed in their first trips to the Dome.
Mendoza claimed seventh at 125 pounds after a 10-0 shutout of Concrete’s Anjelicka Koenig.
Pierson ended up eighth, falling to Makayla Grimm of Columbia-Burbank 5-2 at 115 pounds.
________
Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsualdailynews.com.
