High School Sports
A one-man work force: Enumclaw's Gonzales looking for state title

By Sandy Ringer
Seattle Times staff reporter

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Jake Gonzales can't say that striving for a state title is "no sweat." The Enumclaw wrestler does miles and miles of roadwork in addition to regular workouts with his team.
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ENUMCLAW — He's rarely outwrestled and never outworked.

Jake Gonzales goes the extra mile — literally — in his final season at Enumclaw High School. In addition to regular workouts with the team, he runs 4 miles at the local health club before school each morning and is a common sight jogging around the town on weekends.

"If you're driving down the road on a weekend, you'll see Jake," coach Lee Reichert said. "That's just his style. Every kid's got a different way of reaching their goals, and his way is, 'I'm just going to outwork them, if I can.' "

Gonzales' goal is a Class 4A state title at 119 pounds, "but I've got to get there first," he said. He reached the championship match at 112 last year, but lost 9-4 to Ricky Yeager of Vancouver's Heritage.

"I didn't wrestle all that well in the finals," said Gonzales, who finished 37-4 last season. "I don't know what happened."

But he's working as hard as he can to try to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"I've trained harder this year than any other year," he said. "It's my last year. I want to do my very best."

Reichert said no one trains harder.

"He's the hardest-working kid I've ever put on the mat, by far," he said. "He's just an amazing kid. ... He's the first one at practice and the last one to leave."

At the end of nearly every practice, Gonzales generally wrestles with assistant coach Guy Hanson, who won a state championship for Enumclaw at 158 pounds in 1974.

"He teaches me stuff and beats me up," Gonzales said. "It's good for me."

He said he wasn't very good when he took up the sport in seventh grade at the urging of friends.

"I think I only won one match," Gonzales said. "Then in eighth grade I just fell in love with the sport and it's been wrestling ever since."

The Enumclaw community has been in love with the sport for years. Matches often outdraw basketball games and the electric atmosphere is one reason for Gonzales' passion.

"When you go out there and win a match and the crowd's cheering for you, there's no better feeling," he said.

The Hornets have won 47 consecutive South Puget Sound League North Division matches and go for a sixth unbeaten season tomorrow at Tahoma. Gonzales said the streak is special to the wrestlers, especially the seniors.

"It's cool being undefeated for all four years," he said. "We've got one more. Let's win it."

And Gonzales has one more shot at winning a state title. He has qualified for Mat Classic each of the past three seasons and made steady progress: 0-2 at state at 103 as a freshman, 1-2 at 112 as a sophomore and 3-1 at 112 as a junior.

He has bounced between 119 and 125 this season, compiling a 24-1 record, but intends to wrestle at 119 in the postseason. His lone loss came in double overtime against Cory Vombaur from Evergreen of Vancouver in the 125-pound semifinals of the Pacific Coast Championships.

Gonzales beat Vombaur 7-3 in the semifinals of last year's state tournament and called it the highlight of the event for him. Vombaur had been runner-up at 103 pounds the year before as a freshman.

The road to the 119-pound championship next month could be perilous, depending on which weight class other top wrestlers around the state opt for, particularly Vombaur and Kamiakin's Mike Rodriguez. Rodriguez, a senior, is defending champion at 119 and won the 112-pound title the year before. He has wrestled mostly at 125 this season, according to Reichert, and is ranked nationally in that classification. Vombaur also has been going at 125 most of the time, along with Lake Stevens' Lester Brown, who beat Gonzales in the regional semifinals last year and placed fifth at state.

Wrestlers don't have to commit to their weight classes until the sub-regional tournaments, which are a week and a half away, but must have competed in at least half of their regular-season matches at that weight. Gonzales, who intends to wrestle in college, isn't worrying about who might stand in his path. He remains focused on his training and hopes to finish the season with no regrets.

"If I wrestle a good match and I lose, I'm going to be disappointed, but as long as I wrestle well, I can't complain about it," he said.

Sandy Ringer: 206-464-8294 or sringer@seattletimes.com

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