TACOMA — A 15-strong contingent of Forks Spartans boys wrestlers hopes to bring home the first team championship in school history at Mat Classic XXIX today and Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
Forks head coach Bob Wheeler, a member of the Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame, said this group is the largest he’s ever brought to a Mat Classic in his nearly 40 years with the school.
Whether it can better the runner-up finish his Spartans earned in 2014, the best mark in school history, remains to be seen.
“I guess we will find out,” Wheeler said.
“We have a team that’s not lacking talent. They won [the Evergreen] League, they won at subs [subregionals] and they won the regional. But they can do even more than they’ve done so far this year. We have excellent athletes. Some of them can do some things that other teams can’t.”
With just two seniors in that group of 15 state competitors, heavyweights Nathan Flores and Thomas Jackson, the Spartans are full of youth, and sometimes that has worked against his wrestlers, Wheeler said.
“It’s been a hard year at times because it’s been difficult to get them to realize how good they can be,” Wheeler said. “Some of that is work ethic, some of that is the mental aspect, but when it comes to actually wrestling they do wrestle hard.”
Maybe too hard at times.
Wheeler said he had to tone down practices this week that were getting out of hand.
“It’s been a long time since I had a team that at this time of the year that I have to watch and decide I need to have them back off from live wrestling because they tend to beat up on each other,” Wheeler said. “I haven’t had that in a while, so seeing that is a nice thing.
“They go so hard I had to have them back off before I got somebody hurt or somebody tired. I had to watch them and cut back on the live wrestling.”
An eight-member core of junior wrestlers, led by defending 106-pound state champion Josue Lucas, are expected to place high at state.
“He’s good enough to repeat,” Wheeler said. “Early on I was really worried about what he was going to do this season, but lately he’s been coming around and wrestling like he can.”
Luke Dahlgren is the top-ranked 220-pound 1A wrestler according to Washingtonwrestlingreport.net. He finished fifth at state at 220 last season and is another candidate for the top of the podium.
Shane Queen, a regional champ at 170, competed but did not place at state last season, and could surprise at Mat Classic this year, Wheeler said.
“Nobody has really thought of him and he’s coming on strong,” Wheeler said. “He was beating up on the kids at practice this week.”
Colby Demorest and Brett Moody at 160, ranked sixth and seventh, are part of a trend on this Forks team — incredible depth. Both wrestled at state last season, with Moody placing eighth.
“They all have good partners,” Wheeler said. “Demorest and Moody and Luke and Tristan Pisani compete with each other in their weights. We have the two heavyweights, and our lighter weights can go against each other.”
Eden Cisneros made the hard choice to help his team out by remaining at 195 pounds this year after a sixth-place state finish last season.
Forks’ main competition for the 1A crown will be Mat Classic-stalwarts Deer Park and Colville. Colville is sending 10 wrestlers after besting Deer Park (sending 11 wrestlers) 212-204½ for the Region 4 title last week.
It’ll be those guys, we’ll be going up against them,” Wheeler said. “There could be a few others, Zillah, they have a bunch of kids (16) and won their subregional and regional that Granger is in.”
To get there, Forks will need contributions and state placements from at least 10 wrestlers, Wheeler said.
“We have a bunch of guys but we may not have an overwhelming amount of finalists, so its going to be about where those other guys place,” he said. “We are going to need a lot of them to place, including some of our freshmen, to get those points.
But Mat Classic is put-up or shut-up time, everything must be earned.
“What I’ve been talking about all year is it’s been expected all year that we would win subs, that we would win regionals,” Wheeler said. “Now we are in a time of the yer where there haven’t been those expectations, we have to go out and earn it.”
Girls Wrestlers
Sequim’s Kiara Pierson (135) is one of three girls wrestlers from the North Olympic Peninsula, along with Forks’ Marissa Bailey (100) and Port Townsend’s Brenna Franklin (155), who will compete in the all-classification girls tournament.
A senor, Pierson is focusing on earning her fourth state medal, this time at a higher weight class. She previously finished third at 120 as a junior, fourth as a sophomore and eighth as a freshman.
Port Angeles and Sequim boys
The Roughriders and Wolves are each bringing two wrestlers to the 2A mats. Jamie Schroepfer (132) and Ben Newell (145) will wrestle for Sequim, while Daniel Basden (120) and Kenny Soule (152) will represent Port Angeles.
Port Townsend/Chimacum
Port Townsend and Chimacum wrestlers compete together for Port Townsend during the regular season, but separate and wrestle for their individual schools in the postseason.
Chimacum brothers Ryan and Kyle Caldwell will wrestle at 182 and 195 pounds, respectively, for the Cowboys.
Gabe Petrick (160) and Dylan Tracer (170) will represent the Redhawks.
Lonnie Archibald/for Peninsula Daily News Forks’ Luke Dahlgren, top, is a strong contender for the 220-pound wrestling title at Mat Classic XXIX, the state wrestling tournament, this weekend at the Tacoma Dome. He’s part of a 15-strong Spartans’ boys team eyeing a team championship.
