Tuesday night at Edmonds-Woodway High School, an All-Star wrestling squad featuring some of the best wrestlers from Snohomish, Whatcom and Skagit counties took to the mat against Japan’s Under-18 national wrestling team.

Edmonds-Woodway was the final stop for Japan’s Under-18 national wrestling team on its cultural exchange tour through
Washington.

The Japanese contingent, headed up by team leader Kenji Hashizume, wrestled at Royal High School on Wednesday before competing at the Gut Check Challenge in Bremerton over the weekend and at Curtis High School on Monday. Japan won the team title at the Gut Check with four individual champions.

Edmonds-Woodway coach Brian Alfi coordinated this stop on the tour and put together the team of 18 Washington wrestlers to compete against the Japanese, who plan to visit Seattle with Alfi and Shorewood wrestling coach Derek Norton on Wednesday before flying home from Sea-Tac International Airport.

All but one of the matches were wrestled in freestyle wrestling as opposed to the collegiate style normally used by high school teams. When the Japanese sent out 110-pound Ryou Matsui to oppose Everett’s Stephan Erosa in the first bout of the evening, Alfi jokingly countered with Edmonds-Woodway 170-pounder Abdoulie Jatta, whose sculpted physique dwarfed that of Matsui.

“That was Coach (Hideto) Tanaka’s idea last night,” Alfi said. “I think the crowd appreciated it.”

While the Japan team won every match, not all were easy wins. Edmonds-Woodway senior Spencer Schultz (ranked fourth in state in 3A) wrestled Tatsuya Fugii (two-time Greco National Champion) in a very physical match that had Schultze leading early on before Fugii scored the victory. Schultz was all smiles afterward, and said he was proud of his performance.

The final match was a Greco Roman bout between Riley Seward (EW, 6th Greco Fila Cadet and No. 4 in 3A) against Yamato UI (Cadet Greco World Champion), another grueling physical match-up.

U-18 Japanese National Team
Ryou Matsui, 110
Sannshiro Takahashi, 110
Sunao Iwasawa, 121
Yamato Ui, 132
Taishi Narikuni, 132
Juki Takamori, 132
Tsuyoshi Nakamura, 145
Taisei Matuyuki, 163
Yajuro Yamasaki, 185
Tatsuya Fujii, 185
Takashi Ishiguro, 211
Shuhei Nagano, 264

Local All-Stars
Ebrima Fatty, Edmonds-Woodway, 113
Stephan Erosa, Everett, 113
Ty Peth, Burlington-Edison, 120
Tyson Mowrey, Hazen, 120
Gavin Rork, Arlington, 132
Michael Leger, Sedro-Woolley, 132
Cole Anderson, Jackson, 132
Riley Seward, Edmonds-Woodway, 145
Jeremy Nygard, Arlington, 145
Cooper McAuslan, Arlington, 152
Aziriah Crew, Arlington, 170
Ben Broselle, Ferndale, 182
Ruben Crew, Arlington, 182
Spencer Schultz, Edmonds-Woodway, 195
Sam Cleary, Ferndale, 195
Draven Hodgins, Mount Vernon, 285
Ilai Wilson, Mountlake Terrace, 285
Sam Zook, Oak Harbor, 285

— Story and photos by Karl Swenson