PORT ANGELES — Kingston crashed the party, beating out host Port Angeles for team honors at the Class 2A Olympic League sub-regional wrestling championships Saturday.
All four North Olympic Peninsula wrestling teams competed at sub-regionals Friday and Saturday with wrestlers finishing in the top four advancing to the regionals next Saturday.
The Roughriders are sending nine while Sequim is advancing six in 2A, Forks is sending 12 in 1A and Port Townsend eight in 1A.
The Riders, hosting the sub-regionals for the first time, went into the second day of the seven-team tournament in first place, but a knee injury ended the season of one of their highly rated wrestlers and it went downhill from there.
The Buccaneers won the tourney with 283 points while the Riders fell to third with 228.
Kacee Garner went storming into the semifinals undefeated but hurt his left knee at 152 pounds and couldn’t continue in Saturday’s competition.
Garner, a junior, won his tough quarterfinal match 3-2 on Friday with his bad knee but it locked up on him overnight and he couldn’t continue Saturday.
“I pulled it off on Friday because I didn’t want to give up,” Garner said after being given his sixth-place medal Saturday.
He wrestled despite being injured in the match.
“It was very, very painful,” he said. “I thought I could go [Saturday] but it locked up on me overnight.”
Garner finished the year with a 19-16 record.
Port Angeles coach Erik Gonzalez was impressed with Garner’s performance.
“He showed some heart and toughness,” Gonzalez said. “That was tough for us as a team because he was ranked and we thought he had a good chance to go on to state.”
The Riders as a whole had a tough time Saturday. They won only one individual title after getting five in the finals.
A couple of wrestlers lost after making crucial mistakes.
“This was not a good day for us,” Gonzalez said.
“We have to go back to work this week. We made a lot of little mistakes.
“Those kids were evenly matched but you can’t make those kind of mistakes in those kind of matches and expect to win.”
Jacob Dostie, a 215-pound senior, was the only winner for Port Angeles.
“It always feels good to get first place but it’s kind of bittersweet because of what happened to my teammates, who have worked hard,” said Dostie, who is now 28-8 on the year.
“It’s disappointing when you work hard but you don’t get it.”
Senior Nathan Cristion, who had only one loss going into sub-regionals, is one of those who claimed second for the Riders.
Now 35-2, Cristion lost 8-4 to Kingston’s Freddy Rodolf (32-1), the only wrestler to beat Cristion this year at 189 pounds.
“I have another week before state,” Cristion said about the loss. “I have to go back to work this week and practice hard.”
Other runners-up for the Riders were Andrew Symonds at 140, Trevor Lee at 160 and Daniel Jenkins at 285.
Symonds, who missed all of last year with an injury, will go into regionals with a 28-5 record.
The 140 champion was Bobby Reece of Kingston, who goes into regionals with a perfect 33-0 mark.
“Symonds is having a great year,” Gonzalez said.
Claiming third for the Riders were Kody Steele at 145 and Zach Grall at 189.
Sequim takes fifth
The Wolves captured fifth with 164 points as four wrestlers took third place and two claimed fourth.
Earning third place were Austin Middleton at 130, Derek Fruin at 135, Emilio Perete-Colin at 215 and Clay Charlie at 285.
Taking fourth were Cody Field at 145 and Dakota Hinton at 171.
Fruin just missed going to state last year when he took fifth at regionals as a freshman.
“It feels really good to take third in my weight class,” Fruin said. “It’s a tough weight class and I wasn’t expecting to do this good.
“I expect to do well at regionals because we have such a tough league. I have been working on shots a lot, like takedowns.”
The 2A regionals are set for Franklin Pierce in Tacoma on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. The top four advance to state.
Redskins send eight
Port Townsend’s Kris Windle upset last year’s state champion to lead the Redskins at the sub-regionals Saturday.
Windle took first at 152 pounds when he pinned Nikko Veltre.
Nick Katsikapes was a runner-up for Port Townsend at 215 while earning third place were Justin Mead at 119 and Mikael Callahan at 130.
“I thought going into the tournament that if we qualified we had a chance of getting eight through if we had a real good day,” Port Townsend coach Joey Johnson said. “I guess we had a pretty good day.”
Four Redskins captured fourth place.
They will compete in the 1A regional at Bellevue Christian next weekend, with only the top three advancing.
Forks sends 12
Cutter Grahn and Nick Atkins each won individual titles to lead the Spartans to a third-place finish out of seven schools at the SWL-Evergreen sub-regional in Elma.
The Spartans had 12 wrestlers finish in the top four to qualify for the Southwest Washington regional next Saturday in Castle Rock.
That included six fourth-place finishes in the consolation bracket and two thirds.
“We had such a bad round there,” Forks coach Bob Wheeler said. “I think five of those we should have won. I think a lot of it is being young.”
Grahn claimed the 119-pound crown after getting two pins and a 7-1 victory in the final. Atkins took a similar route at 145, getting two before claiming a 8-6 triumph in the final.
Tyler Cortani made the final at 125, but lost a 7-1 decision.
Placing third for the Spartans were Jake Claussen (215) and Steven Smith (285).
Sebastian Barragan (119), Rickey Barragan (130), A.C. Parker (145), James Salazar (152), Wilson Avila (160) and Joel Ward (189) were all fourth.
“As young as we are, I was amazed we were where we are,” Wheeler said.
Also qualifying for the 1A girls regional in Hoquiam was Nicole Wade, who was fourth at 130 pounds.