The Shorecrest High School Highlanders hosted the Edmonds Woodway Warriors last night in a late season dual meet

The Shorecrest High School Highlanders hosted the Edmonds Woodway Warriors last night in a late season dual meet.

Both teams are in a rebuilding phase after graduating two state finalist team captains last year. Although the Warriors are an extremely well supported program and have been the uncontested Wesco South Championship team for more than two decades, the Highlander coaches hoped to sneak up on the Warriors tonight with a few of their more experienced middle-weight wrestlers. However, with two unexpected forfeits and some last minute weight changes, the Scots fell behind early on in the team point game and never fully caught up.

It started out a very competitive contest in the middle weight range with both teams trading pins. SC's Peter Grimm (152lb junior) pinned EW's Sergio Lopez in the first round, giving the Highlander crowd something to cheer about. However, the next bout went to the Warriors' senior captain at 160lb (Liam Fitting) who ultimately pinned down Sophomore Shokan Conway-Yasuyama late in the third round despite a valiant effort by Yasuyama to resist that outcome.

The 170lb weight class looked like it might go in Shorecrest's direction in the first round, but SC's Max Rutledge (normally wrestling at 160lbs) started to tarry in the second round, and ran out of gas in the third, losing to EW's Yamada 6-3.

The defeat at the 170lb weight class loss cascaded into three more losses in a row for the Scots with a forfeit at 182lbs, a pin by the Warriors at 195lbs, and a pin by the Warriors at 220lbs. However; SC's Evan Claar stopped the bleeding with a 40 second pin against EW's Belezaire in the heavy weight division, giving the Scots a reason to dream again. But unfortunately, the Warrior win machine revved up again with another Shorecrest forfeit at 113lbs, and another pin at 120lbs. But just when it looked like all was lost, SC's Kaiju Ferguson (126lb, Junior) got things going for the Scots again with a first round pin against EW's Dominic Hansen.

The most intense match of the night was LFP resident Joseph Martinez (SCHS) vs Brian Ramirez (EWHS) at the 132lb contest. Both of these wrestlers are senior captains for their respective teams. Joseph (normally wrestling at 126lbs) was bumping up one weight class to accommodate a teammate. The match went point for point (take down for a take down, escape for an escape) and went into triple overtime before a final escape point was awarded to Ramirez, who won the match 6 to 5. With a point deficit of 30 points, the Warriors' lead was now insurmountable.

However, to finish the night out on a high note (and gain 12 more team points for the Scots), Avi Wylen (132lb freshman) pinned his opponent in 32 seconds; and Kenneth Adams (138lb sophomore) pinned his opponent in the second round. Both wrestlers had bumped up a weight class for those competitions. The final score was 48 EWHS, 30 SCHS, which was the closest point spread any Shorecrest High School Wrestling team has earned against the Warriors in the previous two decades.

There were also some great Junior Varsity and Girls' wrestling contests tonight. Although not part of the official varsity team score, there were some noteworthy highlights:

LFP Wrestler Milo Hamilton (freshman, 138lbs) earned his first win (by pin) tonight. The SCHS coaches believe Hamilton has a lot of raw talent and will be "a bear in the woods" in future years.

Owen Watson (SCHS Junior) also earned his first pin in competition this evening.
LFP Wrestler Ana Reed (Senior, 110lbs) won a tough three round exhibition match against a well seasoned EWHS girls' team leader tonight. Reed, although a "dark horse" among the highly ranked girls throughout the state, is someone to look for in the post season. She has a lot of talent and is an intense competitor.
Final Score: Edmonds-Woodway 48 - Shorecrest 30

152—Peter Grimm (SC) pinned Sergio Lopez (EW) 1:06
160—Liam Fitting (EW) pinned Shokan Conway-Yasuyama (SC) 5:12
170—Ever Yamada (EW) def. Max Rutledge (SC) 6-3
182—Alex White (EW) won by forfeit
195—Reed Burmaster (EW) pinned Carter Nichols (SC) 2:33
220—Mika Serafinas (EW) pinned Mateo Dominguez (SC) 2:44
285—Evan Claar (SC) pinned Edson Belezaire (EW) 0:40
106—Jude Haines (EW) pinned Neta Navot (SC) 1:21
113—AP Tran (EW) won by forfeit
120—Dylan Rice (EW) pinned Micah Fergerson (SC) 1:00
126—Kaiju Fergerson (SC) pinned Dominic Hansen (EW) 1:28
132—Brian Ramirez (EW) def. Joseph Martinez (SC) 6-5 UTB
138—Avi Wylen (SC) pinned Jacob Ramos (EW) 0:32
145—Kenneth Adams (SC) pinned Sam Schimpf (EW) 2:26

LFP resident Joseph Martinez (Boys Senior Captain)