With seven top-ten state ranked wrestlers in their weight classes, the Edmonds-Woodway Warriors flexed their collective muscles and defeated the Mountlake Terrace Hawks 53-18 in a 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference match-up Thursday night at Mountlake Terrace High School.
The Warriors won 10 of 14 matches over the Hawks, two by pinfalls and two by technical falls, and were aided by four Terrace forfeits during the evening.
Both coaches, Brian Alfi of Edmonds-Woodway and Grant Thompson of Mountlake Terrace, were pleased with the effort of their wrestlers.
Alfi, while pushing for a team victory, put the dual meet in the perspective of ultimately reaching year-end goals.
“Team events are a big deal in our program; we’re all about that team concept,” Alfi explained. “But I think we use the entire season. We don’t look at it as this is the end-all be-all. We’re building to something more. We’re always progressing, we’re always growing. And I thing that that’s the better attitude for kids to take with anything.”
“We always want to continually be better the next match than we were this one,” Alfi added.
The Warriors picked up pins by Ousman Fatty, ranked 10th in the state in the 106-pound weight class by washingtonwrestlingreport.net, and Abdoulie Jatta, seventh in the 182-pound state rankings.
Thompson also was looking at the big picture of an entire season of wrestling when he sent his Hawks into battle against the powerful Warriors, to the point of holding back some of his lesser-experienced wrestlers and accepting forfeits in four weight classes.
“I decided tonight to sit a bunch of my younger guys,” Thompson said. “I’m trying to build their confidence a little more.”
Thompson noted that without the 24 points earned from the forfeits, the margin of victory for E-W may not have been so wide.
“Just straight wrestling, we got edged out by 11 points – (that’s) not reflected in the score,” he said. “Toe to toe, we wrestled pretty tough.”
Terrace’s biggest win of the night was in the 160 lb. weight class when he surprised Anthony Lindamood with a pinfall victory at the 5:35 mark of the match.
“Pavel pinned the number two 3A guy in the state tonight, which is pretty fantastic,” Thompson beamed.
Lindamood was wrestling up a weight class Thursday; the senior is ranked no. 2 in the 3A state 152 lb weight class rankings.
Terrace’s Reyne Mack also earned a pin for Terrace in his 195 lb weight class bout against E-W’s Brandon Mitchell.
“They looked good tonight,” Thompson said of his Hawk squad overall. “Edmonds-Woodway is tough. They don’t have any holes. I have a lot of respect for them. I’m happy with the way we wrestled them.”
Alfi also had good things to say about Hawks on Thursday. “They do a good job getting their kids ready,” he noted. “They have some great individuals. They had a really great senior class last year and it looks like they’re getting (their seniors) ready for a good postseason run again.”
At the halfway point of the 2015-2016 season, Alfi likes how his Warriors are progressing.
“I really think that things are starting to come together,” he said. “We have some really nice pieces and we have some young guys that stepped into the lineup and really are starting to come around. And it’s pretty exciting to see some of the development of these kids.”
Both the Warriors and the Hawks will jump into tournament action this Saturday, Jan. 7. Edmonds-Woodway will travel up I-5 for the Everett Classic; first matches are scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Terrace will head west to Bainbridge Island to grapple at the Island Invite at Bainbridge High School; first matches are at 8 a.m.
Prep Wrestling: Edmonds-Woodway at Mountlake Terrace, Jan. 5
Edmonds-Woodway 53 – Mountlake Terrace 18
106 – Angus Tate (E-W) won by forfeit
113 – Ousman Fatty (E-W) defeated Ivan Moulten (MTHS) by pin, 3:00
120 – Mitchell Martinez (E-W) won by forfeit
126 – Jinsung Lee (E-W) defeated Jackson Moody (MTHS) by major decision, 16-4
132 – Michael Marquez (MTHS) defeated Ellis Carlson (E-W) 8-4
138 – Cole Hadaller (E-W) defeated Mujtaba Abossaba (E-W) by technical fall
145 – Sali Hu (E-W) defeated Connor Lefsky (MTHS) by technical fall
152 – Moussa Traore (MTHS) defeated Simon Lee (E-W) 7-2
160 – Pavel Oliferovskiy (MTHS) defeated Anthony Lindamood (E-W) by pin, 5:25
170 – Cesar Ramos-Gunn (E-W) won by forfeit
182 – Abdoulie Jatta (E-W) defeated Aundre Seabrook (MTHS) by pin, 4:36
195 – Reyne Mack (MTHS) defeated Brandon Mitchell (E-W) by pin, 5:19
220 – Robbie Simonton (E-W) won by forfeit
285 – Generous Yeh (E-W) defeated Michael Phu (MTHS) 5-4
Records: Mountlake Terrace 0-1 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference dual meets, 3-4 overall; Edmonds-Woodway 1-0 in 3A Wesco League South Conference dual meets, 4-0 overall
Edmonds-Woodway next meet: at Everett Classic, Saturday, Jan. 7, 9 a.m. at Everett High School
Mountlake Terrace next meet: at the Island Invite, Saturday, Jan. 7, 8 a.m. at Bainbridge High School
–Story and photos by Doug Petrowski
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