The Sumner School District put together a novel non-league duel wrestling match last night featuring the two high school’s within that district in SPSL 3A Bonney Lake High and SPSL 2A Sumner High, held at Bonney Lake’s Gym – a.k.a. the Panther Den- and the innovative idea proved to be quite popular, as around 2,000 maniacal mat fans packed into the cozy little arena and watched the opposing varsity wrestlers from the same weight class tussle with one another for a couple of hours.
Bonney Lake would eventually glean bragging rights on the Plateau and the valley below, winning by a lopsided accounting of 66-12, but the score of the grappling Civil War almost seemed irrelevant as everyone seemed to know one another and they all had a good time cheering on the popular wrestlers from both schools.
The exciting Friday Night Under The Spotlight Event was clearly designed to promote and rekindle the competitive spirit and enthralling atmosphere of wrestling in the area in addition to bringing Sumner School District wrestlers and their fans together for a friendly little donnybrook, before the gut wrenching intensity of league action got underway in earnest for the respective 2A and 3A leagues soon enough.
But Bonney Lake showed why many think that this could be the year that the Panthers make their move.
As this crowd-pleasing match began to unfold, the initial bout’s weight was randomly plucked from the hopper.
As fate would have it, this was a bit of a confidence builder for the purple and gold, because the only wrestler among their ranks to represent the SHS standard at the WIAA state wrestling tournament last year, was featherweight 103 pound freshman Travis Filleau.
There are several new weights on the docket in this brand new 2011-12 campaign and Filleau is wrestling at one of them, the 113 pound weight division. Bonney Lake’s Andrew Johnson wasn’t about to wave the white flag of surrender, but it was clear that Filleau was the superior and more experienced wrestler and with 33 seconds remaining in the second round Johnson was pinned.
Sumner was out to a 6-0 upperhand, but this would be the last time that SHS would have the advantage for the extent of this entertaining evening. Next up was Panther sophomore 120 pound whirling dervish, Colton Tracy, who as a freshman last year dazzled wrestling fans, by taking second at state in his flyweight 103-pound weight group on the podium.
With the score now tied at 6-6, the Panther’s exceptional senior captain, Andrew Cunningham, took on one of the more experienced Sumner wrestlers in Marcus Forhan at 126 pounds and after the tandem fought it out for over two rounds, whipping the appreciative gathering into a frenzy, Cunningham finally pinned his worthy opponent.
Bonney Lake 132-pounder Cade Caveness did not waste any time putting away his foe, pinning Sumner’s Wyatt James with eight seconds left in the first round.
Then at 138 and 145 pounds respectively, BLHS’s Jordan Mangrum decisioned his challenger and Matt Yuste pinned his foe 35 seconds into the second round.
With the scoreboard reading 27-6 in favor of the black and teal, the next pair of Panthers recorded pins, but in very different fashions. At 152 pounds, senior stalwart Tyler Hernandez butted heads with one of Sumner’s more adept wrestlers in Zach Wooding and at first it appeared as if the match might go the distance. The relentless Hernandez refused to yield though and eventually pinned Wooding at the 3:08 mark.
Dynamic BLHS 160 pounder, Chilli Saban on the other hand, ever the showman by virtue of his flamboyant style, made short work of his Sumner foe, pinning him at a brisk 55 seconds into the first round, much to the delight of the partisan Panther faithful.
The six point pin by Sabin put the score at 39-6 and Sumner seemed powerless to stop Bonney Lake’s momentum as in the ensuing trio of Bonney Lake triumphs Jake Leuders (170) decisioned his man 5-0, Evan Dorsey (182) won by virtue of a Sumner forfeit and Jordan Schultz (195) dispatched his challenger, putting him away in three minutes and eight seconds.
With the running score standing at 53-6, the Spartans finally made themselves heard as Sumner 220-pounder, Shawn Boles, summoned the strength to rise up and pin Bonney Lakes’ KC Board at the 3:17 juncture in that bout.
But the Boles conquest proved to be Sumner’s swan song as in the final two weight classes of the evening, Bonney Lake’s 285-pound behemoth Stefan Land won by forfeit and ultra lightweight 106-pound freshman Brandon Cunningham, found an obvious flaw in his opponent’s strategy, pinning him with 20 seconds left in the first round.
Bonney Lake’s varsity 14 will be jumping in with both feet in the next few days, participating in today’s much celebrated and well attended White River Classic and then transitioning right into its initial and perhaps most crucial SPSL 3A test of the regular campaign, when it hosts the vaunted Hornets of Enumclaw High, Wednesday, Dec. 7 in the Panther Den beginning at 7 p.m.
