Cruiser Wrestling Program Makes School History
The Eatonville Cruiser wrestling program had a historic weekend at the 2022 WIAA Mat Classic XXXIII this past weekend at the Tacoma Dome.
As a team, they scored 100 points which secured them a second-place overall finish which is the best they have done in school history.
"Toppenish scored a record 402 points. With that total, they would have won the team championship in any of the six classifications. So in our mind, we are state champs," said an exuberant Mario Ragazzo, Eatonville's Head Coach.
The team hadn't been ranked all season and then right after Regionals, they were ranked 7th in the state.
"No one expected us to be here and do as well as we did. Myself, the rest of my coaches, and the kids believed and we got it done," Ragazzo added.
Eatonville sent nine wrestlers to the state tournament and had six athletes place in the top 10.
Day one of the tournament saw five of the Cruiser wrestlers advance to the semifinals and one wrestler still alive in the consolation rounds. Three Cruiser wrestlers were eliminated. Ethan Carter in the 120lb class, Ayden Lilly in the 126lb class, and Carsen Pero in the 285lb class had their days end after dropping their matches in the consolation rounds.
On day two of the tournament, each of the five Cruiser wrestlers was one win away from finding themselves in the championship match.
Unfortunately, only one Cruiser wrestler, Austin Frink (120lb), would move on to the championship round title match while the others dropped into the consolation rounds.
In the 113lb weight class, Kasey Whitney took on Mount Baker's Jorey Johnson in the semifinals. Whitney was trailing until the final minute of the match when he took a 7-6 lead, only to have Johnson fight back in the closing seconds and pull off a 10-7 victory, dropping Whitney into the consolation rounds. In the consolation semifinals, Whitney would pin La Center's Aidan Watson to move on to the finals. In the finals, Whitney battled Wapato's Noeh Martinez and was not able to pick up the win and lost 12-9 to finish in 4th place.
In the 120lb weight class, Austin Frink took on La Center's Malachi Wallway and defeated him 10-8 to move on to the championship match against Toppenish's Miguel Torrez. In the 120lb finals, Torrez would defeat Frink 10-6 to take the title and give Frink a 2nd place finish.
In the 126lb consolation rounds, Riley McFadden would beat Vashon's George Murphy before suffering a 5-2 decision to Castle Rock's Landon Ramos, giving him a 7th place finish.
In the 132lb weight class, Ty Whitney took on Toppenish's Marcos Torrez in the semifinals. Torrez took an early 2-0 lead with a two-point takedown in the first period. He then extended that lead to 5-0 in the closing seconds of the second period. In the final period, Torrez would extend his lead again and take the win 7-0, dropping Whitney into the consolation rounds. In the consolation semifinals, Whitney defeated Wapato's Julio Brizuela 7-2 to move on to the finals with a chance to wrap up a third-place finish. In the finals, he pinned Vashon's Colin McIntyre to secure that 3rd place finish.
In the 160lb weight class, Kaden Olsen wrestled Mount Baker's Elijah Washburn in the semifinals and Washburn would pin Olsen dropping him into the consolation rounds. In the consolation semifinals, Olsen would pin Toppenish's Luis Mendoza to move on to the finals with a chance to wrap up a third-place finish. In the finals, he would wrestle Riverside's Aaron DesRoches and come away with a 2-0 decision to secure that 3rd place finish.
In the 182lb weight class, Hunter Sonnenberg took on Deer Park's Bryon Newby in the semifinals. Newby would take a 4-0 lead late in the 1st period and would hold that lead until he extended it to 6-0 in the waning seconds of the 2nd period. In the final period, Newby would tack on one more point to shut out Sonnenberg 7-0 dropping him into the consolation rounds. In the consolation semifinals, Sonnenberg would wrestle Zillah's Aiden Ford. Ford would strike first and take a 2-0 lead before Sonnenberg would tie it up at the end of the first period. In the second period, Sonnenberg would take a 5-2 lead shortly before pinning Ford to advance to the consolation finals with a third-place finish on the line. In those finals, he would wrestle Connell's Adrian Magana and would pin him to secure that 3rd place finish.
Head Coach Ragazzo was proud of how his wrestlers handled the adversity they had during the tournament, "These kids were resilient all tourney and showed what heart and perseverance were to close out a second-place team finish. These kids have worked hard with excellent junior club coaches, middle school coaches, and high school coaches. It takes a village of coaches to put these kids where they are at! This was the most impressive finish at the state tourney I've been a part of and these are special kids!"
