Medical Lake wrestlers went to work last weekend in a place known for vacationing, coming home from 1A Bi-District competition in Chelan with three wrestlers headed to this week’s Mat Classic XXV in the Tacoma Dome.
“We did well, we took six and placed five,” Cardinals’ head coach Sam Petersen said. As a team, Medical Lake scored 64 points, good for ninth behind champion Quincy’s 196. Chewelah was the Northeast A League’s top team, fourth at 103 points.
Anton King emerged from the 138-pound weight class as a champion, Medical Lake’s top finisher. The senior won by a pin in 1 minute, 11 seconds over Cashmere’s Colton Colwell to open competition. He scored a 5-3 decision over Alexander Aguilar from Omak in the semifinals and took the title in a 7-1 decision over Jacob James, also out of Cashmere.
Ricky Petersen finished third at 132 pounds beating Rafael Varelas from Brewster 15-5 in his opening match before losing to Chelan’s Erick Garcia by a pin in 1 minute, 44 seconds. He came back through the consolation bracket, beating Newport’s Austin Krough 9-7 and using an injury default to earn his finish.
Heavyweight William Kearney finished fourth, beating Quincy’s Jason Quzman 3-2, losing by pin to Dustin Olson before taking the consolation road to a 5-1 win over Newport’s Alex Solis. That earned the sophomore a meeting with Jason Guzman from Quincy who won the battle for third and fourth 5-2 in three overtimes.
Alternates are also headed to Tacoma for Medical Lake.
Freshman Nick Reed was fifth in the 106 pound class losing to Angel Hernandez from Chelan 12-5 in his opening match. He got back on track with a pin in 1:54 over Justin Volking. He lost to Anthony Payton form Okanogan 4-0 before getting a rematch with Hernandez, and a 6-5 win.
Senior Zeb Klemke also finished fifth, opening with a 14-2 win over Ivan Reyes of Chelan before losing to Lakeside’s Darius Judd 5-0. Klemke lost a tight 3-2 match to Austin Calder from Riverside before earning some payback in a rematch against Reyes 7-1.
“We had a couple calls that hurt Zeb in his match with Calder. Zeb handled it well,” Petersen said of the controversy that cost Klemke his outright berth to state.
"We were all impressed with how he composed himself and showed why he is a leader for our team.”
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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