Orting and Enumclaw staged a dual meet Wednesday befitting a couple of state wrestling powers, and Enumclaw came away with a 40-29 victory in front of a nearly packed Cardinals gym.
Both sat atop their respective classifications, with 1A Orting No. 2 in the overall state rankings and 3A Enumclaw at No. 10.
Although the Cardinals trailed big early, they rallied behind three-time state champion Drew Templeman, the No. 1 rated 126 pound wrestler in the state.
Wrestling up a weight at 132, Templeman overwhelmed Travis Reano, No. 5 in 3A. Templeman failed to pick up the technical fall but grabbed a major decision with an 18-3 score.
At 152, Orting ran out Beau Gore – their second-string wrestler at 145 – against Enumclaw’s Justin Mitchell, ranked No. 2 in 3A.
Although a mismatch on paper, the two battled evenly throughout until just under a minute remained in the second period, when Gore had an impressive reversal and takedown that nearly led to a pin. With the point swing, Gore, ranked No. 5 in 1A at 145, went on to win, 12-6.
“Beau wasn’t wrestling really well, to be honest with you,” Orting coach Mike Sowards said. “Tonight, he did a lot of high-percentage stuff that we kind of preached to him. And when he does, he’s a tough kid.”
Even with Orting’s rally in the middle matches, Enumclaw overpowered the Cardinals in the end.
Despite the differences in classification, Enumclaw coach Lee Reichert’s reasoning for taking on the three-time defending 1A state champion Cardinals was simple.
“We look for the best competition we can find,” Reichert said. “I don’t care what level it’s at. If I can find a good program to go wrestle, we’ll go wrestle them. Time after time, they are winning state titles, and you don’t do that by not having a great program.”
As for Sowards, he is just happy that Enumclaw was willing to make the trip.
“Enumclaw is nice enough to come in and give us matches like this,” Sowards said. “They don’t have to do that. It’s nice of them to come down.”
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