Eight hours after a thrilling triple overtime victory in the semifinals, Meadowdale’s Tim Smith found himself in yet another triple overtime battle in the 3A 220-pound state finals.

Only this time victory eluded Smith as Auburn’s Mario Luevano pulled out a 2-1 victory at Mat Classic XXVII Saturday night at the Tacoma Dome.

“He wrestled hard. I think he gave it his all,” Meadowdale coach Brian Boardman said of Smith. “He worked really hard. He’s a great captain. He’s been a great leader and a great individual.”

After a scoreless first period, Luevano took a 1-0 lead after an escape in the second period. Smith tied the score with an escape in the third round. The first overtime period ended with no points scored by either wrestler. In the second overtime period, Luevano started from the bottom position and took a 2-1 lead with an escape. Smith then was in the bottom position and needed to score at least a point to tie, but he was unable to escape from Luevano’s grasp in the third overtime

“He just kept coming and working non-stop,” Boardman said of Luevano. “I’ve got to hand it to the kid. He worked hard and got the win.”

Earlier in the day during the semifinals, Smith pulled out a hard-fought victory over Lincoln’s BJ Hawthorne by scoring a pin at the 7:47 mark.

Smith trailed 5-2 early in the match but eventually took an 8-7 lead before Hawthorne scored an escape point that tied the score at 8 and eventually sent the match into overtime.

Hawthorne seemed to be tiring as the epic clash eventually went into a third overtime where Smith finally gained the advantage and recorded the pin.

Boardman wasn’t sure of what impact, if any, the triple overtime match had on Smith in the championship match.

“I don’t know what happened (in the finals),” Boardman said. “I can’t really say that (semifinal match) did anything or not … He’s in great physical shape.”

Teammate Colton Davis took third place in the 160-pound division with three straight victories on Saturday. Davis edged Peninsula’s Will Lester 10-9, beat Ferndale’s Ben Broselle 11-7 and then defeated Central Kitsap’s Calvin Fischer 15-11 in the third-fourth place match.

“I feel good,” Davis said after the victory. “I’m happy with how I placed.”

Rebounding after a disappointing loss in the quarterfinals on Friday was not an easy thing to do, Boardman said.

“You’ve got people in this tournament that have lost and then quit,” Boardman said. “It showed a lot of character to come back and battle through and win your last couple of matches and take third. That says a lot about who he is.”

In the final match of his high school career, Davis was the aggressor from the start and scored a takedown.

Davis led 4-0 after the first period and 11-5 after the second round despite nearly being pinned by Fischer. Davis avoided the pin and then nearly returned the favor against Fischer.

“Colton came back and put the kid on his back,” Boardman said. “He did very good.”

Davis aggravated a nagging shoulder injury momentarily in the third period, resulting in an injury timeout. Davis, however, finished the match strong.

“I was hungry,” Davis said. “I wanted to get that win. I knew I could do it.”

– By David Pan