Wrestling Roundup | Kentwood cruises to SPSL North title

KENT — Brandon Rodgers was bummed when he lost his first true wrestling match of the season.

He has been beaming ever since.

The Kentwood junior won his 35th consecutive match Saturday at the South Puget Sound League 4A North Division sub-regional tournament at Kent-Meridian, pinning Tahoma's Tyler Lamb to earn the 112-pound title.

And the fourth-ranked Conquerors continued to roll as well, running away with the team title with 412 points. They sent 10 wrestlers to the finals, although Rodgers was one of only three to earn titles. It was Kentwood's first sub-regional championship since 1991.

"To have 10 guys in the finals is beyond what we could have thought," coach Ken Sroka said. "We wrestled well."

Kentwood advances 13 to Saturday's Region I tournament at Jefferson, although the two fourth-place finishers must wrestle "pigtail" matches against the No. 5 qualifiers from KingCo to make the eight-man bracket. Kentlake and Tahoma send 11 each and Decatur takes nine.

Wins have come regularly for Rodgers since a 5-4 loss in early December to Blaine's Jacob Humphrey, a 2A state semifinalist last year.

"I was pretty bummed," said Rodgers, who had received a forfeit victory is his first official match the week before. "I could have beaten him, but I was outconditioned."

Rodgers has been outstanding since, winning at the Pacific Coast Championships and racking up 15 pins. The Conquerors have been impressive overall as they look to return to the dominance they showed in the early 1990's, when they won three consecutive state titles. They have only two seniors in the lineup.

Tahoma senior Andrew Johnson kept his season record perfect, improving to 24-0 as he won 152-pound title, finishing with a pin. The two-time state champion boasts a career record of 92-2. He was one of four sub-regional champs for the Bears.

Johnson was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler for the 152 to 285 weight classes. Kentwood's Cody Quinn (125) earned the award for the lighter weights. Sroka was voted SPSL North coach of the year.

Kentlake's Jared Walsh upped his record to 26-1 by beating teammate Taylor Firman in the 189-pound final, 7-5. Firman wrestled at 215 during the regular season. That gave the Falcons' three straight victories as Bucky Snyder won at 160 and Taylor Johnson took the 171-pound title. Walsh's lone loss came to Kentwood's Justin Shewey at 285.

WesCo

At Marysville-Pilchuck High, Zach Zweifel, Alex Pelligrini, Kelly Kubec, Josh Monson, Mitch Tipton all won individual championships to lead Lake Stevens to the team title with 486 points.

Paul Thier and Richard Reed each were winners for second-place Snohomish, which finished with 319 points.

Seamount

At Kennedy High School, Mount Rainier produced five league champions — Kevin Colbert, David Lepeska, Patrick Flemming, Ricky Dorward and Corey Muma — to take first place with 354.5 points. Renton was second with 248.5 and Kennedy third with 221.5.

Girls

At Bonney Lake High School, Leanna Holmes won at 119 pounds and Kim Lind was victorious at 125 to lead White River to the West Central Region 4 title. The Hornets finished with 74 points, while second-place Franklin Pierce scored 59.

In West Central Region 3, Highline edged Fife 67 to 65.5 for first place.

SPSL 4A North notes

• Tahoma freshman Jordan Higa, who placed third at 103, is the oldest son of Brian Higa, who was the Bears' head coach for 17 years before retiring at the end of the 2000-01 season. Brian Higa continues to coach at Tahoma Middle School and was in the Tahoma corner Saturday for most of the Bears' matches. He guided Tahoma to state titles in 1991 and 1996. The Bears have a talented freshman class and seven of those ninth-graders wrestled in the varsity lineup during the season. Three are moving on to regionals, including 145-champ Nick Bayer.

• One of the wildest matches of the night was at 135, where Tahoma's Matt Terrill posted an 8-6 overtime victory over Kentlake's Zack Callahan. It looked as though Callahan was going to win 6-5 with a late reversal, but officials conferred after the final buzzer and awarded Terrill a last-second escape.