Swamp Cup Wrestling Ends in Split Decision

The Centralia girls captured a 54-30 victory and the W.F. West boys claimed a 55-5 win at Ron Brown Court on Wednesday during a co-ed wrestling rendition of the Swamp Cup.

The Evergreen 2A Conference grappling matches began with the ladies contingent and the Tigers ran out to an early lead. The Tigers ran up a quick 24-0 lead thanks to three forfeits in the first four weight classes plus a pin by Kalyssa Conaway at 105 pounds.

Natasha Dugger stopped the Tigers onslaught momentarily when she pinned her foe at 120 pounds but a pair of forfeits in the next two weight classes put Centralia back up big.

At 140 pounds Xylia Warner got W.F. West back in the winners column with a pin in the first round. After the Bearcats and Tigers swapped forfeits Brisa Leal-Sierra notched a pin at 170 pounds to keep W.F. West on the comeback trail momentarily.

However, Jakayla Shipe dispatched her mark by fall in just over a minute of her 190 pound bout and Syreena Edwards lodged a pin in 27 seconds during her 235 pound match to slam the door on the visitors.

“They wrestled well. I mean, it’s postseason time so we’ve got to get up and get going,” said Centralia coach Mark Holmberg.

However, the Tigers coach was disappointed that there were so many gaps in the bout card.

“It hurts when two of our best wrestlers, Taryn Salazar and Olivia Delaney, don’t get matches,” Homberg said. “We’ve got four or five girls who could make it to state this year if things go our way.”

Due to those forfeits and missed matches the two teams agreed to a pair of exhibition matches. First Rylee Landsidel of Centralia and Riley Johnston squared off at 130 pounds with Johnston securing a pin in under a minute. Later, Ramirez and Gracie Combs of W.F. West faced off with Bernice Ramirez posting a pin.

The Swamp Cup setting served as senior night for Ramirez and Taylor of Centralia.

In the boys affair the Bearcats flirted with a shutout and even had Centralia wallowing in negative numbers on the scorecard before the Tigers muscled their first victory. That negative score was the result of a penalty against a Centralia wrestler who removed his singlet top prior to leaving the mat following a frustrating loss.

Chris Powe helped to get on the Tigers’ nerves early when he pinned his opponent in the first round of his 182 match to get things started. Isaac Revis then notched a pin at 195 and Bryson Boyd lodged a pin at 220. Chase Conaway blanked his foe 6-0 in the heavyweight match before Kayden Ryan and Caden Cunningham became the beneficiaries of forfeits to add to the Bearcats’ tally.

Darren Gray kept things rolling for W.F. West with a 7-3 come from behind win over Juan Gasper and Bo Davis won by fall at 126 pounds. At 132 pounds Zach Evans defeated Centralias Eddie Matias 5-2 and then Mason Morones felled his foe by pin in their 138 pound match.

Centralia finally got on the board when Justin Lake blanked Bryce Laufenberg 5-0 in their 145 pound bout. However, Evan Moon quickly grabbed the momentum back for the Bearcats in his 152 pound match against Trevor Ritchey. Facing a late deficit Moon forced an escape at the buzzer to send the match to overtime and then won on a takedown.

“Meaty wrestled really well. He didn’t start out great but he’s coming on. He’s down to weight for the first time this year and it’s nice to see him dig one out like that,” said W.F. West coach Jamie Rakevich.

At 160 pounds Carver Brennan downed Caleb Hylton of Centralia by a score of 7-6. The final match of the night was also full of drama as Ben Eklund of W.F. West and Cameron Blankenship went into overtime before Blankenship escaped with an 8-6 victory.

“I thought Zach wrestled really well and Darren Gray had a really great match. Those are two really tough kids,” said Rakevich. “Eddie’s tough, so is Juan, love those guys, but those are big wins for our guys as far as seeding and either match could have gone either way.”

With the win in hand Rakevich was equal parts reflective and projective.

“To be honest with you, a lot of those Centralia kids battled really hard. They’ve got some guys who bumped up and their heavyweight was a 220-pounder who came in and battled his butt off,” Rakevich said. “I think they’re feeling good. I’m definitely going to be the crotchety coach at practice tomorrow and talking about the things we need to work on, but they wrestled really well. We’ve just got some things we need to work on before posteason.”

W.F. West will wrestle at the EvCo sub-district tournament on Feb. 2 at the NW Sports Hub. Centralia will send a squad of wrestlers to the All Comers Tournament in Tumwater on Saturday.