Decatur High School wrestling coaches asked official scorekeepers to check, re-check then triple-check the final results.
They said they won, but the official computer said they lost. The computer won out in the end and the final score pointed to Enumclaw’s favor – Hornets 363, Decatur 362.5.
Out of 1,344.5 combined points between the six 3A South Puget Sound League teams at the sub-regional tournament on Saturday in Auburn, the top spot was decided by a decimal.
“That’s one match, one fall. It doesn’t get much closer than that,” said Decatur coach Mike Bressler. “It’s tough to take, but sometimes that’s the way it works out.
“We have a good team, but it’s just pretty tough to beat Enumclaw.”
Nine Enumclaw wrestlers made it to the championship matches, but Garrett Grau in the 220-pound class was the only one to win. He survived three rounds against Decatur’s Justin Robinson for a 5-1 victory that ultimately decided the tournament.
“We were counting the points as we were going,” said Hornets coach Lee Reichart. “We were always like ‘Man, now it’s within this, within that.’ You can’t get a tournament any better than that.”
Though Grau provided Enumclaw’s only championship win, it’s still sending 19 wrestlers to the regional tournament next week at Bonney Lake, including its two-time defending state champion Lucas Somera, despite suffering a potentially scary injury in the final.
Somera pinned each of his first two opponents in the 145-pound class before meeting Bonney Lake’s Matt Yuste in the championship. Yuste got underneath Somera and sent him hard into the mat with 24 seconds to go in first round. Somera said he hit the back of his head on the mat as he went down.
“I just kind of got my bell rung,” Somera said.
He got back up after spending a few minutes lying down, but Reichart pulled him when he noticed Somera still looked a little dizzy. Somera pleaded with his coaches to leave him in, but they weren’t taking any chances, especially since he had already missed time with a dislocated kneecap three weeks ago.
The match was tied at 2-2 before Somera took the injury default. Reichart said he doesn’t expect the injury to keep Somera from coming back next week.
“We just didn’t want to risk it,” Reichart said. “He wasn’t looking the way he should have been, so we told him that we would regroup and come back hard next week at regionals.”
It was one of Bonney Lake’s five championship victories, which also included Carson Carballey at 106, Colton Tracy at 120, Cayle Williams at 160 and Chili Sabin at 182. Peninsula’s Randy Nimrick won at 126 and Casey Larson at 152.
Decatur tied Bonney Lake for most championship victories and saw dominant performances from heavyweight wrestler Kyle Gleed and Rowland Gaydosh at 195. Both pinned each of their three opponents.
The Gators also saw first-place finishes from Trysten Dawson (113) – defeating teammate Leviticus Arizpe 15-10 – Isaiah Diggs (132) and Nick Karis (170).
“They have been impressive all year,” Bressler said. “They are just tough kids – really tough kids. We have high hopes for what they can do this year.”
Eagles takes SPSL South: Led by seven champions, Graham-Kapowsin captured the SPSL South subdistrict title at Curtis High School.
The Eagles tallied 3551/2 points, well ahead of Rogers (228) and Todd Beamer (224). They put 10 wrestlers in the finals.
Hornets win close tussle: Pins by Brandon Short in the finals at 145 pounds, and Chris Skinner at 182 put the finishing touches on White River’s win at the SPSL 2A sub-district crown at Orting High School.
The Hornets won with 2611/2 points. Orting, the reigning 1A champion, was runner-up at 2451/2, and Sumner was just behind the Cardinals at 2421/2.
Vashon edges Eatonville in Nisqually: Host Vashon Island won five sub-district titles, mainly in the upper weights, and held off Eatonville for the tournament title.
The Pirates had 326 points while the Cruisers came in second at 301.
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