North Olympic Peninsula wrestling teams make a statement at their subregional tournaments Friday and Saturday.
There will be 32 area wrestlers moving on to regional tourneys next weekend, including eight subregional champions.
In addition, the Port Angeles Roughriders made history once again in an eventful 2011-2012 season as they captured the subdistrict team title for the first time after winning the Olympic League dual-meet championship for the first time.
Both the Riders, in the 2A Olympic League subregionals held at Port Angeles High School, and the Forks Spartans, in the 1A SWL subregionals at Montesano High School, had extremely strong tournaments.
Both teams advance 10 wrestlers each to regionals while the Spartans have four subregional champions and the Riders have two.
Port Townsend and Sequim will send six each to regionals and both teams have one champion apiece.
2A subregionals
Riders and Wolves
PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles scored 284 points to beat runner-up Kingston by 21.5 points in the seven-team tourney.
Sequim claimed sixth place with 164.5, finishing just below North Kitsap but ahead of Klahowya.
Team depth is the reason the Riders won the tournament, Port Angeles coach Erik Gonzalez said.
The Riders qualified 10 for regionals (top four) but also had four alternates (fifth place) and four more who scored team points (sixth place) for a total of 18 who placed at subregionals.
“All of these individuals who battled back through the consolation bracket proved to be the difference for us,” Gonzalez said.
Capturing individual championships for Port Angeles were Brady Anderson at 106 pounds and Brian Cristion at 182.
In the title matches, Anderson pinned Andrew Posten of North Kitsap in the second round while Cristion earned a major 13-4 decision over Derrick White of Kingston.
Anderson earned pins in all three of his matches while Cristion had a fall and a technical fall in his first two matches.
Also making it to the finals were runners-up Zach Grall at 195 and Corey Roblan at 220.
In the championship matches, Grall lost 8-2 to state top-ranked Caleb O’Halek of Olympic, and Roblan was pinned by jack Welker of Kingston.
Placing in third place for the Riders were Ozzy Swagerty at 120, Kody Steele at 152 and Kacee Garner at 160 while taking fourth place were Blake Meldrum at 126, Nick Lasorsa at 170 and Michael Myers at 285.
Taking fifth and earning alternate status were Tyler Philp at 132, Matt Robbins at 170, Tim O’Keefe at 182 and Roberto Coronel at 220.
Also for the Riders, Kim Littlejohn placed fourth at the girls subdistrict tourney at White River High School to advance to the regional championships.
Sequim Wolves
Dakota Hinton was the lone Sequim wrestler to grab an individual title as he pinned Albert Lawver of Olympic in 18 seconds at 170 pounds.
Hinton had first-round pins in all three of his matches.
The Wolves had two runners-up in Luke Mooney at 138 and heavyweight Clay Charley.
Mooney was pinned by Jake Velarde of North Kitsap in the title match while Charley lost 3-2 in triple overtime to Kingston’s Walker Larson.
Three earned third place for the Wolves, including Royhon Agostine at 106, Austin Leach at 170 and Chris Goettling at 220.
In the third-place matches, Agostine pinned Kyler Hockaday of North Mason in the seocnd round, Leach shaded Lasorsa 8-6 at 170 and Goettling nipped Tommy Marsh of North Mason 4-3.
Port Angeles and Sequim wrestlers will advance to the regional championships this coming Saturday at Olympic High School in Silverdale.
1A subregionals
Spartans, Redskins
Forks captured third place out of seven teams in its subregionals at Montesano, scoring 207 points.
Elma won the team title with 331 while host Montesano took second with 217.5.
The Spartans would have had a good shot at second place except standout junior wrestler Shane WhiteEagle, who was expected to place in the top four, did not make the tourney because he and two other teammates were battling the flu.
“No question, we were expecting WhiteEagle to make regionals,” Forks coach Bob Wheeler said.
But still, with only two seniors on the roster the Spartans advanced 10 to the regionals (top four) and had a couple more alternates (fifth place).
Forks had four champions.
They were headed by four-year senior and state-ranked Cutter Grahn, who was tops at 132 pounds.
Grahn will be taking his near-perfect 28-1 record to regionals, which will be held at Castle Rock High School on Saturday.
Other champions include Sebastion Barragan (18-15 on the year), who won it all at 120, James Salazar (21-7) at 152 and Joel Ward (19-6) at 195.
Runners-up for Forks were Sebastion Morales at 106 and Jake Claussen at 285.
Claiming third place were Javier Contreras at 120 and Ricky Barragan at 126 while fourth-place finishers were Garrett Brito at 106 and Eugene Haynes at 285.
Alternates at fifth place were Abisai Garcia at 132 and Gavin Castaneda at 182.
The Spartans, who had six girls compete at their own subregionals, had five qualify for regionals.
Winning individual championships were Tristen Williams at 106 and Dawna Chase at heavyweight while earning third place were Sierra Noles at 118, Nicole Wade at 130 and Brooke Peterson at 145.
At regionals, because of the number of teams involved, the top five boys wrestlers will advance to state while the top four girls also will qualify for state.
PT Redskins
The Redskins will send six to regionals, which is set for Bellevue Christian Academy on Saturday.
At the Nisqually League subregionals, Port Townsend had one champion, one runner-up, three third placers and one in fourth place.
Orting won the subregional team title.
Addison Harper was the lone winner for the Redskins as he dominated at 132 pounds.
Dylan Kelly was second at 182 while taking third were Shae Shoop at 106, Dillon Ralls at 138 and Jeff Seton at 152, and claiming fourth was Silas Kinnaman at 145.