TACOMA — Darrington junior Mason McKenzie earned his second Class 2B/1B state wrestling championship in as many years at 220 pounds, exacting some revenge on Toledo’s Dalton Yoder, who defeated McKenzie 3-1 in the regional final.
McKenzie won 11-5 on Saturday at the Mat Classic, and credits time spent with Burke Barnes’ Pin City Wrestling Club in Lake Stevens with allowing him to sharpen his skills against the best wrestlers in the region.
“I wrestled Greco and freestyle with them, and I wrestled against the guys who were the 4A and 3A runners-up here with them,” McKenzie said. “I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t go there.”
McKenzie said wrestling Yoder previously helped him on Saturday, as did studying video of the regional final.
McKenzie will go for a third title in four years as a senior in 2015-16.
Class 4A
In pulling out a late 4-2 decision over Evergreen Vancouver’s Dallas Goodpaster in the 220-pound final, Snohomish’s Alex Fairhurst became the first Panther state champion since Sam Ottow and Stefan St. Marie both accomplished the feat in 2009.
Fairhurst, who finished seventh a year ago here, earned a reversal with 30 seconds remaining on the clock to break a 2-2 tie.
“It’s an indescribable feeling. All the work of the last four years has paid off,” he said. “I just felt like the other kid was dying there at the end, and that gave me the push I needed to finish it out.”
Goodpaster, who was generally viewed as the favorite in the match, needed to use the bulk of his allotted injury time early in the third period to deal with a hurt leg.
Mount Vernon’s Brenda Reyna was the only area wrestler to reach a final in the girls division after winning her first three matches via pinfall and two major decisions.
Reyna, who was fourth at state last year, went up against defending state champion Marrizza Birrueta of Grandview, and lost 5-0.
Birrueta registered takedowns in the first and third periods, and escaped Reyna from underneath in the second period.
Lake Stevens 126-pounder Alex Rodorigo, who missed a month of his senior season recovering from sprains to his rotator cuff and pectoral muscle, ended his high school career with a loss to Yelm’s Darren Harris in the state final.
Rodorigo will go down as the final opponent pinned by Harris, who holds the state record for most career victories via pinfall.
Class 3A
A freshman wrestler’s first outing at Mat Classic is always a memorable experience, but for Arlington’s Gavin Rork, it will certainly be one he won’t soon forget.
Rork squared off with Auburn Mountainview’s Braham Trujillo on Friday morning in a rematch of the bout that, by Rork’s own admission, propelled him to the success he enjoyed for the Eagles this season.
The first matchup, in the semifinals of the Edmonds Invite on Dec. 6, ended with a 5-4 victory for Rork, but Trujillo was well on his way toward avenging that defeat at the state tournament.
Trujillo took Rork down shortly after the opening whistle to take a 2-0 lead, and widened the advantage to 4-1 following a reversal to start the second period.
Rork was kept afloat in the match by a pair of technical violations called against Trujillo, and when he intentionally let Rork escape to begin the third period, Trujillo held a 4-3 lead.
It was a risky call by Trujillo and Lions coach Jay McGuffin, but with both wrestlers on their feet, the thinking was that Trujillo could avoid being taken down in the last minute to preserve the victory.
Unfortunately for Trujillo, that was exactly what happened.
With 45 seconds remaining, Rork muscled Trujillo to the mat to take a 5-4 lead in the match.
That’s when the controversy began.
Shortly after awarding Rork two points for the takedown, the referee appeared to give Trujillo two points for a reversal, only to change his mind.
While McGuffin and the Auburn Mountainview coaching staff argued their position vehemently, Rork kept paid no attention. The clock was stopped with six seconds to go in the match.
“I just kept wrestling,” Rork said. “I didn’t know that the whole debacle was about. I just looked at the score, and knew I just had to hold him down for six seconds to get the win.”
Trujillo was called for beginning his escape before the whistle, and after the restart Rork rode his man out for the controversial win.
McGuffin protested the match, and officials deliberated for 15 minutes after Rork’s hand was raised while a distraught Trujillo paced around the mat.
The call, and Rork’s victory stood, by the same 5-4 score as the original encounter.
“I knew it was going to be a close match,” Rork said. “He knew what I liked to do, and I know what he does. I think there was a little nervousness in the first two rounds, but I knew I had to bring it in the third period and I flipped the switch.”
McGuffin decried what he saw as “a multitude of bad calls and consistent mistakes” on the part of the match referee.
Just as the win over Trujillo vaulted Rork to success in the regular season, he and the Eagles are hoping the same thing happens at Mat Classic.
“Getting the first one under my belt, I just feel more comfortable, like I’m supposed to be here,” Rork said. “I’m not just some freshman.”
Rork finished fourth at his first state tournament.
Stanwood’s Garret Arrona and Mercer Island’s Evan Condon squared off in the final at 195-pounds, and in a battle of contrasting styles, Condon prevailed in an 8-5 decision.
Arrona got the first takedown and took a 2-0 lead, but Condon scored a reversal later in the third period to make the score 3-2 and never trailed again.
“It was just two different styles,” Stanwood coach Ray Mather said. “(Condon) used the leg ride and slowed the pace down a little bit. Garret got caught flat-footed for those back points that wound up being the difference in the match.”
Arrona, who finished the season 34-4, is at his best when he can be explosive, and use his quickness and athletic ability.
“I’m very proud of him,” Mather said. “He wrestled very well for being in a state final for the first time.”
Mather, like everyone else watching West Weinert’s last-second win in the 138-pound final, got caught up in the excitement of the moment.
Weinert used a Granby roll to reverse Lakes’ Tino Nieves with 3.2 seconds remaining to secure the victory, and though Mather was nervous for Weinert, he said that the senior was well-equipped to handle such a predicament.
“He’s been in the finals before as a sophomore and lost in overtime, and he’s a three-time state placer,” Mather said. “There’s a calm and a maturity there that he used to assess the situation and react in a very short amount of time. We talked to him before the match about not letting anything stop him from winning. That was a pretty tight headlock he was in, but it was just a matter of will. He made that happen for himself.”
The improbable journey of Arlington 160-pounder Ruben Crew came to an end in the state finals on Saturday, as Crew was dominated by North Central’s Izaec Quintanilla in a 12-1 major decision.
Quintanilla, who completed an undefeated senior season with his third state championship, is headed to the University of Wisconsin next season. He completely outclassed Crew on Saturday, but for a wrestler who wasn’t even eligible until districts after transferring from Lake Stevens, the Arlington junior made a big statement by getting to the final.
“It was man and boy out there, but it’s OK,” Arlington coach Rick Iversen said. “Ruben will come back next year and we expect him to be here again. For him to be in the finals this year was magical, but these tournaments are often that way. There’s magic in them.”
Using his leg ride and power half to devastating effect, Edmonds-Woodway’s Hiram Martin advanced to the state championship match at 132 pounds and helped the Warriors to a 16th-place finish in the team standings.
Martin won his first two matches by fall and was on his way to another pin in the semifinals, but Auburn Mountainview’s Dylan Foley was forced into an injury default after the pain from Martin’s go-to move proved too much to bear.
Martin pinned his way to sub-regional and regional titles after not winning any tournaments during the regular season, but fell to Andrew Ramirez of Lakes in the state final.
Edmonds-Woodway coach Brian Alfi, who has a number of wrestlers who use the leg ride in his program, said Martin came alive after finishing the college application process.
“Hiram has a 3.99 GPA and has applied to a lot of Ivy League schools,” he said. “He’s been great for us.”
After being nominated by his peers at the district and regional level, Marysville Pilchuck coach Craig Iversen was named the 3A Coach of the Year before Saturday’s evening session.
The son of Arlington coach and Hall of Famer Rick Iversen, Craig said that the fact that he was chosen by his fellow coaches for the award made it especially meaningful.
“It was very humbling and I’m very grateful to have been chosen,” he said. “All of us go through the same highs and lows in crying and clapping with our kids. It’s a strong feeling of brotherhood that way.”
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