TACOMA — Beginner’s luck?
Pay attention to the season that Ronin Blair pieced together and luck had very little do with it.
The Centralia High School senior went on a two-and-a-half-month sprint through a wrestling season and ended up with a third place medal in the Class 2A 215-pound weight class at Mat Classic XXXVI on Saturday night inside the Tacoma Dome.
“Exciting, a little bit of disappointment because I wanted to go for that one spot,” Blair said. “I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I didn’t really have any aspirations. I wouldn’t have been mad if I didn’t make (state).”
Part of the reason why the Tigers’ heavyweight didn’t wrestle his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons was because of his dedication to powerlifting. He doesn’t fully regret not coming out until December.
Still, he did ponder what could have been.
“At the same time, powerlifting helped me with my wrestling, it would have been a double-edged sword,” Blair said.
He picked up two wins on the championship side of the bracket, but was pinned in the second period in the quarterfinals against top-seeded Jimmy Conklin of Lakewood. Blair proceeded to register four consecutive pins – two in the first period – to earn the bronze.
In the blood round against North Kitsap’s Lincoln Gould, Blair was down 16-10 before a reversal in the final five seconds of the second period and quickly settled in for the fall.
Blair was up 14-0 before his pin in the third place match versus Pullman’s Sam Sears.
“It definitely gave me a chip on my shoulder and used as motivation,” Blair said. “I’m glad I went in the right direction, which was upward.”
For the second straight Mat Classic, W.F. West’s Kallon Homan took third, but this path came with much more heartbreak.
The senior was up 2-1 in TB-1 and needed 30 seconds of riding out Bainbridge’s Garrett Goade at 175-pounds. Halfway through the second period, Goade got his head out from underneath and picked up the reversal to triumph 3-2.
“He faked the gramby and then hooked it and he was hipping into me,” Homan said. “My foot got caught. I tried to roll through and he felt it, he was heavy on top. Not much you can do at that point.”
Homan lost in the first round last year and went on a magical run to medal. He struggled to have the fortitude to get back on the mat this time.
Until he thought about his teammates.
“We need the points and there was still work to be done,” Homan said. “I couldn’t be all ‘Oh poor me.’ Not much to complain about.”
Like he did in several matches this season and at state, Homan methodically used all six minutes to grind down his opponents and win his last two matches of his high school career 4-0 and 4-2.
Race Scalici (144), Beau Guyette (150), Graysen Serl (157) and Andrew Snyder (165) all ended up on the podium.
Black Hills’ Cash Boos didn’t start wrestling until he joined the team his freshman season. Now, he’s a state medalist.
Similar to a lot of the area wrestlers throughout the two-day tournament for 2A, Boos got to the quarterfinals and started his day with a loss, then turned everything around to take third place in the 126-pound weight class.
“I’ve been so blessed to improve as fast as I have and have such a great team around me,” Boos said.
One of those backside wins was a little personal. Toppenish’s Fransisco Valencia beat Boos’ wrestling partner Jude Bender in the blood round and prevented him from medaling. Boos upended Valencia 9-2.
And his last two wins were by injury default and a three-minute pin.
“Really proud of myself,” Boos said.
Freshman Rorek Foss (120) placed seventh and senior Porter Neklason, who reached the semis via his opponent not making weight, finished fourth. Tumwater’s Mekhi Richardson (157) took fourth and Alex Concepcion (132) notched seventh.
In Class 1A, two of Tenino’s qualifiers in Koy Knox (165) and Rowdie Tafoya (285) both recorded sixth place performances.
