EVERY SECOND COUNTS at the Mat Classic.
With just six minutes in a match — and only five in the consolation round — there is little margin for error at the state wrestling tournament.
Nobody knows that better than Sequim junior Dakota Hinton, who’s roller-coaster day at the Tacoma Dome on Friday hinged on a matter of seconds.
One moment, he was on the cusp of the Class 2A 171-pound semifinals, tied 2-2 with Jack Nevitt of Burlington-Edison near the end of the second overtime of their quarterfinal match.
The next, he was left shaking his head after the referee ruled he’d applied an illegal figure four, handing Nevitt the 3-2 win.
“If I lost by a takedown or an escape, I’d be OK with it, but a technical fault that is my point . . . that’s not good,” Hinton said.
A few hours later, Hinton’s fortunes turned in the blink of an eye once again.
Down 2-1 after scoring an escape in the second period, Hinton engaged Anacortes’ Andrew Bolton with both on their feet.
Then, in a sequence that took only a few seconds to complete, Hinton was thrown into a headlock and taken down to the mat for a pin.
Just like that, his tournament was over.
“You have to be on top of your game if you want to win here,” said Hinton, who was making his first trip to state.
“If you make one mistake, like I did in my last match, you’re pinned.”
Teammate Emilio Perete-Colin suffered an even more painful defeat on an adjacent mat a minute later.
Ahead 4-3 in the third period after scoring a near fall, Perete-Colin was hit with a quick reversal and subsequent near fall in the last 30 seconds of the match.
The Sequim senior slumped off the mat in tears and into Wolves head coach Len Borchers’ arms after the match was whistled over.
His tournament was over, and so was his high school wrestling career. If not for those final seconds, he would have experienced a Saturday at the Mat Classic.
“It was close, he battled real well, that’s just the way it goes,” Borchers said.
“There’s upset after upset around here. Good kids are behind and they pull it out at the last minute, or they are ahead, and something happens.”
Of course, Hinton experienced the other side of that coin early Friday morning.
That’s when he scored an upset victory of regional champion William Davis of Woodland in the first round.
The two 171-pounders scrambled about the mat with the score tied late in the third round when Hinton finally gained an advantage
With Hinton on top of Davis as the clock ticked down, the referee slapped the mat, awarding him a pin at 5:59 . . . literally the last second of the match.
It ended up being the high note of an up-and-down day at the Dome.
“That was the first time I think I’ve pinned a guy in the last second of a match, so it was pretty cool,” said Hinton, who finished 1-2 at the tournament. “During the season I wasn’t sure if I was at this level.
“I guess that helps me realize I’m at that level and can compete with state-level guys.”
Nathan Cristion’s own mastery of those final moments carried him to Saturday’s semifinals in the 2A 189-pound bracket.
Much like Hinton, the Port Angeles senior was locked in a tie late in his quarterfinal against Logan Ferrier of W.F. West.
Then, with less than 30 seconds to go, Cristion scored an escape, takedown and near fall in three quick movements.
The final score may have read 8-2, but those who saw the match knew it was much closer than that.
“I knew it was going to take six minutes,” Cristion said.
“It’s tough [winning those kind of matches]. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do.
“Everything in your body is telling you you’re done, you want to stop, you want to quit, but all the practice and everything . . you can’t quit. You have to keep going. It’s going to be worth it.”
For Cristion — the lone area semifinalist and highest placer — it certainly was.
Finding a corner
Walk around a corner at the Tacoma Dome on the first day of the Mat Classic, and you’re pretty guaranteed to run into one.
They’re usually sitting alone on the cold concrete, their head in their hands as they rehash those brief moments under the bright lights.
They are, of course, the one-and-dones; wrestlers who came to Tacoma dreaming of a state title only to get eliminated after just one day.
The Peninsula had its fair share of those — 8 of 11 were eliminated Friday — including Andrew Symonds of Port Angeles.
Like many of those wrestlers one finds in the dome’s nooks and crannies, Symonds is a senior whose last shot at state glory ended after two matches.
Except in Symonds’ case, that came after a long road back from a knee injury that robbed him of his junior season.
So it’s not hard to understand why he might retreat to a corner after seeing his high school career come to an end.
“He missed all of last year and came back and had a solid senior year, I was proud of him,” Port Angeles coach Erik Gonzalez said. “It’s tough.
“It’s one of those wouda, shoulda, couldas, I guess.”
Split camp
It’s hard for Forks coach Bob Wheeler to talk about Tyler Cortani’s matches this weekend.
That’s mostly because he didn’t see much of them.
As is sometimes the case with the quirky scheduling of the Mat Classic, 1A Forks often had two wrestlers competing at the same time.
Whenever that happened, which was often, Wheeler took the corner of Spartan 119-pounder Cutter Grahn while assistant Kyle Weakley would oversee Cortani’s match.
Wheeler snuck a peak at Cortani whenever he could, but obviously there was little he could communicate with his 125-pound grappler during matches.
“On those, I was watching both of them,” Wheeler said.
“In the state tournament, there’s not a whole lot you can say anyway, because it’s so loud in here.
“If you’ve done what you’re supposed to all season long, they are going to do what they need.
“Maybe [you give your wrestlers] a little reminder when there’s a break or something like that, but for the most part they are going to be wrestling.”
Down year?
Historically, the 2010-11 wrestling season will go down as a mediocre one for Peninsula teams.
The area had just three wrestlers place at state this year, the lowest such number since 2004.
This is also the first time since 2007 that the Peninsula has failed to produce at least one top-three wrestler.
The good news: nearly half of this year’s state wrestlers (five) come back next season.
Quick hits
■ Forks was the lone area team with a winning record (7-6) at the Mat Classic this year. Sequim went 3-10 and Port Angeles 3-6.
■ Port Townsend didn’t have a wrestler at the Mat Classic for the first time in 14 years.
■ Forks placed at least one wrestler for the sixth straight year. That follows a three-year period in which the Spartans had zero state placers.
■ Forks’ Cutter Grahn and Tyler Cortani both faced the same wrestler twice.
Andres Tereza (Highland) knocked off Grahn twice, while Cortani beat Michael Huckins (Omak) twice.
■ Port Angeles has had five wrestlers place at state in the last three years. That matches the number of Rider placers (five) from 1996-2008.
■ Port Angeles’ Nathan Cristion was the 28th Peninsula semifinalist since 2000.
■ The Peninsula’s record in semifinal matches: 8-20.
■ Sequim failed to have a wrestler place at state for the second straight year.
Prior to that, the Wolves had at least one placer six straight seasons.
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Matt Schubert is the outdoors and sports columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. His column regularly appears on Thursdays and Fridays. He can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.