Saturday’s Dream Duals in Spokane gave the Enumclaw and White River high wrestling teams a glimpse at the competition eastern Washington teams will bring to February’s state tournament.
In some cases it was an eyeful.
The championship showdown pitted No. 2 Enumclaw against No. 1 University. The Titans won the first four and the last four matches for a 40-27 victory over EHS.
Enumclaw captured a string of middle-weight matches starting at 130 pounds with Hunter File’s 4-0 victory. Cole Snider followed with a pin and the trio of Lucas Somera, Marcus Nichols and Josh Musick earned major decisions before Kario Wallin registered a pin at 160 pounds.
The Hornets face a nonleague challenge tonight, Wednesday, as they host the state’s No. 1-ranked Class 1A school and defending state champion Orting at 7 p.m.
White River found what it was looking for as it faced some of the state’s top 2A teams.
The Hornets dropped a 39-24 match to No. 1-ranked Deer Park, a 33-24 contest to No. 5 Othello and a 39-36 contest to East Valley-Spokane.
Deer Park and Othello squared off in the finals.
“Our intent going into this was to seek out the best 2A competition,” White River coach Joe Klein said. “We got exactly what we expected, great competition and a measuring stick of where we’re at and where we need to be.”
Klein pointed out heavyweight Dave Meagher’s 5-4 loss to Deer Park’s state champion as a highlight. Richard Geddes’ 14-10 loss, also to a Deer Park state champion, was another high point.
“Overall the kids wrestled hard, battled hard,” Klein said.
With three weeks to the state tournament, the Hornets close out the regular season at Fife tonight, Wednesday, and host Sumner Thursday. Both are league matches. The Hornets will also host the 2A subregional tournament Feb. 4 and 5.
EHS scored a 42-25 win over Decatur Thursday. White River’s boys beat Steilacoom 54-18, for details go to courierherald.com.
The Hornets’ junior varsity team competed in the varsity Jaguar Invitational in Puyallup Saturday.
Lucas Doll finished second in the 103 pound championship round.
Bryan Walker, 125, Brennan Gulin, 160, Travis Morris, 171, Andre Fails, 215, and Justin Nale, 285, each finished fourth.
White River’s girls team also participated in the Dream Duals. The Hornets had to forfeit a number of matches and dropped contests to Rogers-Puyallup, Othello and Warden.
