‘We had to respond.’ Tahoma takes down Orting in marquee wrestling dual
Tahoma’s Owen Marshall didn’t expect to wrestle Trevor ‘TJ’ Anderson in Thursday night’s marquee wrestling dual at Orting High, but he already had a plan.
Three weeks earlier, Marshall watched his friend thrive with “dump” moves at the prestigious Doc Buchanan Invitational (Calif.), unaware a head-to-head matchup loomed. The pair of 2025 TNT Untouchables selections and defending state champions typically wouldn’t cross paths, wrestling in different WIAA classifications and weight classes.
Thursday required an audible: Anderson rose to the 132-pound class for a Goliath vs. Goliath dual meet between 2A-Orting and 4A-Tahoma, setting up a showdown between two of the state’s top wrestlers.
“I just thought me coming in (with a) hand fight, overwhelming him with that… it would give me the edge on the match to get takedowns,” Marshall said. He was right.
Tahoma’s junior managed an early takedown and avoided any true scare to beat Orting’s Anderson via 6-3 decision. The match of the night on paper, Marshall adds another win (31-2) to a quality 2025-26 resume that includes first-place finishes at the Rose City Championship (Ore.), Edmonds Invite, King of the Mountain, and Tri-State (Idaho).
“Owen just does what he consistently does,” Tahoma head coach Chris Feist said. “He stays in a great position. He pressures constantly, and he’s confident. He’s always confident that he’s going to win.
“You put those things together, and you’re going to beat… 98 percent of high school kids, right? He is my most Division-I-ready kid in the classroom, in the community.”
Marshall couldn’t have picked a better time to deliver. He witnessed the night’s biggest upset from the on-deck circle when Orting’s Arcadius Cruz (126 pounds) pinned Brycen Dawley, a 2025 TNT Untouchables pick. The home crowd erupted.
“It fired me up a little bit,” Marshall said. “I just knew I needed to get some points for the team.”
Orting threatened late, but Tahoma’s heavyweights emerged to claim a 40-22 road win over the Cardinals — and it was Marshall that first stole the momentum back.
Wrestling dual or All-Star Game? Orting head coach Jody Coleman considers Thursday night’s meet the unofficial all-classification state championship, an annual tradition four years running. The Cardinals have won four straight 2A state titles at the Tacoma Dome’s Mat Classic, and Tahoma claimed back-to-back 4A team titles in 2024-25.
They’ve split their four dual meets with two wins apiece, of course.
“I think everybody’s 0-2 in their home gym,” Coleman joked.
Here’s a match-by-match recap of the action:
106 — Tahoma’s Braxton Baker defeated Orting’s Declan Rickel via 7-1 decision. (3-0 TAH)
113 — Tahoma’s Logan Wray won via forfeit. (9-0 TAH)
120 — Tahoma’s Crew Lambro defeated Orting’s Marcelo Valencia via fall (2:55). Lambro stormed to a 13-2 lead in the opening minutes before his second-period pin. It was only a matter of time. (15-0 TAH)
126 — Orting’s Arcadius Cruz defeated Tahoma’s Brycen Dawley via fall (3:39), a statement win over one of the state’s top wrestlers. Cruz recalled what Coleman told him ahead of a crowd-igniting upset: Go out there and do something cool. “Coming into this match, I was doubted a lot,” Cruz said. “I’m a smaller guy, obviously, but you have to have self-belief. If you don’t have self-belief, then you’re going to lose. If you walk onto that mat and think you’re gonna lose, the match is already over. I just believed in myself and believed in my abilities.” (15-6 TAH)
132 — Tahoma’s Owen Marshall defeated Orting’s Trevor Anderson via 6-3 decision, flipping momentum with a quality win over a defending state champion and 2025 TNT Untouchables pick. “We had to respond,” Feist said. “A wrestling dual can be an emotional rollercoaster… but you have to answer back.” (18-6 TAH)
138 — Orting’s Dominic Thomas defeated Tahoma’s Paul Tarantino via fall (5:38), a clean and controlled win for the two-time Mat Classic champion. (18-12 TAH)
144 — Tahoma’s Eben Nau defeated Orting’s Ty Satiacum Jr. via 10-8 decision. Knotted in the final moments, Nau’s reversal with eight seconds remaining secured two points and the win. (21-12 TAH)
150 — Orting’s Laithan Lawson defeated Tahoma’s Alex Othon via 11-9 decision. (21-15 TAH)
157 — Tahoma’s Gavin Wells defeated Orting’s Dakota Anderson via 7-5 decision. (24-15 TAH)
165 — Orting’s Michael Fritz defeated Tahoma’s Elam Dunton via 11-0 major decision. (24-19 TAH)
175 — Orting’s Amos Voss defeated Tahoma’s Holsten Brooks via 7-2 decision. The Bears junior stood nearly a foot taller, but Voss countered with energy in one of the more-competitive (and entertaining) matchups all night. Scoreless for more than two minutes, Voss’ second-period takedown sparked chants from the home crowd: “A-mos! A-mos!” (24-22 TAH)
190 — Tahoma’s Ethan Edwards defeated Orting’s Urijah-Henry Satiacum-Codrington via fall (5:10), preserving Tahoma’s lead in the home stretch. No match saw more shifts in momentum, a back-and-forth shootout with the meet at stake. “You’ve just got to go to the next guy and be like, ‘It’s your turn. We need you,’” Feist said. “We need you to do this now. I know we said X, but now we need Y. We had some young kids and some newer kids respond. We knew we were going to have a chance if we could hang with their big guys. Last year, we couldn’t.” (30-22 TAH)
215 — Tahoma’s Tavin Zinniger defeated Orting’s Jaxon Satiacum via 10-1 major decision, the match that sealed the program’s road win Thursday night. (34-22 TAH)
285 — Tahoma’s Harlan Day defeated Orting’s Mason Lee via fall (2:24). “Maybe we’re a better tournament team than we are a dual team, but it was good,” Coleman said. “It was fun, just to have that kind of environment at a high-school wrestling match I don’t think people have anywhere else.” (40-22 TAH)
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
