Yellow Pages
SEDRO-WOOLLEY — The Burlington-Edison boys’ wrestling team had a few points slip away in a few matches against Sedro-Woolley.
That the Tigers could look at a few points point here and there and have it matter against the powerhouse Cubs proved a dramatic turnaround in a rivalry that has featured little drama in recent years.
The Tigers led the Cubs with three matches to go Tuesday before falling 39-30 in a Northwest Conference dual meet.
The teams have a storied rivarly going back as far as the 1950s, but in recent years it has tilted heavily in the Cubs’ direction. Burlington-Edison has been unable to make a dent during the Cubs’ dominance this decade.
“We had some chances. We had some chances,” Tigers coach Kirk Hamilton said. “We made some adjustments and tried to make some mismatches and go for it.”
The teams split the 14 matches evenly, but the Cubs prevailed on points by recording six pins to the Tigers’ three.
“We looked rusty, but give Burlington a lot of credit,” Cubs coach Jay Breckenridge said. “They’ve got nothing to lose coming. They’re going to come and they’re going to fight their butts off. I knew they would be fired up.”
There were factors, and matches, for the Tigers to point to. What if 160-pounder Corey Kleppe, a state competitor last year who was ill, had been able to compete?
What if 215-pounder Dillon Johnson, bumped up to heavyweight and giving away about 50 pounds to Konrad Swartz, had been able to move Swartz’s shoulder those final inches for a pin?
What if 119-pounder Juan Farias, so close to a pin on several occasions, had been able to get those three extra points?
“I think the biggest thing the kids can take from this is they know how close they were,” Hamilton said. “A little bit harder work, a little bit more effort, a little bit of fine tuning and we’re right there.”
The Cubs started off strong, needing just a total of 5 minutes, 19 seconds of mat time to get pins from Ryan Morgan (152), Derek Garcia (160) and Cody Pohren (171).
Pohren’s pin did not come against Burlington-Edison’s Beau Bridgman, whom the Tigers moved up to 189. Breckenridge said he was disappointed two of the county’s top wrestlers, who have never met, didn’t get to face off.
The Tigers were hoping to swap pins at 171 and 189, but Sedro-Woolley’s Taylor Knutson rode Bridgman for all but one second of the final two rounds. Bridgman won 3-0 to begin the long Tiger comeback, but his team still trailed 18-3.
That began a string of seven Tiger wins in the next eight matches, broken up only at heavyweight.
After fighting off his back in the first round, Swartz started on top of Johnson in the second and used his size advantage to pin Johnson 49 seconds into the second round.
During that run, the Tigers got pins from Nick Henderson (103), Enrique Medina (112) and Robert Campos (125).
Also winning were Chad Studebaker (215), Farias and Chad Butterfield (125).
Butterfield trailed Trent Morgan 5-0 early and was still down 5-3 going into the third round, but got a takedown to a near fall late in the third round for a 9-5 victory.
That gave the Tigers their biggest lead at 30-24 with three matches to go.
Shane Hunt (135) quickly tied the match with a pin, setting up what proved to be the decisive match at 140. Anthony Zarate (140), bumped up to 140 to avoid Hunt, battled Joey Curry evenly over the first 3 minutes of their match, but Curry took Zarate to his back and, with 11 seconds left in the second round, recorded the pin.
Sedro-Woolley’s John Janicki (145) finished the match with a 5-0 victory over Kyle Reijm.
“The coolest thing was how big the crowd was at 6 o’clock, to watch the girls and the JV,” Breckenridge said. “It doesn’t matter what the paper says, what everybody thinks, who’s done what.
“When Burlington wrestles us, they’re going to wrestle tough.”
• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at
