Decatur High School hosted their fifth Hurricane Harris Invitational on Saturday and the results were similar to past years as the Gators wrestling team was once again victorious.
Sixteen schools participated in the tournament.
The Gators have been a model of consistency in sending wrestlers to the Mat Classic. This year should be no different.
At the Hurricane Harris Invite, Decatur had 14 boys wrestlers place in the top five across the 14 weight classes. The only classes they failed to place in the top five were the 138 and 285-pound divisions.
Among the 13 who placed highly, there were five winners of their weight classes for the Gators.
Leviticus Arizpe, who took third place at the Mat Classic last year and is currently ranked as one of the top wrestlers in the state by washingtonwrestlingreport.net, was one of those winners in the 145-pound weight class.
Arizpe pinned Kentridge’s John Shores in 1:15 in the final round of the tournament to claim the title. He was the second wrestler he pinned.
Jeremiah Fleming won the 152-pound class for the Gators by defeating Cascade’s Luke LeBoeuf 6-4. Fleming had two pinfalls in under a minute in his first two matches of the tournament.
Zach Berry won the 160-pound weight class for Decatur by defeating Enumclaw’s Tanner Turnbow 7-2 in the final round. He also had two pinfalls in the prior rounds, including one over Thomas Jefferson’s Nate Bullington at 5:50 in the semi-finals.
Bullington finished tied for third place.
The 170-pound finals were an all-Federal Way affair as Decatur’s Jake Cassaday defeated Jefferson’s Michael Johnson 8-4. Johnson stopped a potential all-Gator final by defeating Nicholas Cruz in the semi-finals by a score of 4-3.
The final winner for Decatur at the Invite was JJ Dixon in the 182-pound weight class. Dixon defeated Kent-Meridian’s Phy Ly 6-1 in the final round tournament. In the semi-finals, he defeated Jefferson’s Matt Roybal.
Roybal tied for third place after the semi-finals loss.
Decatur also had two second-place finishers in the tournament. Fernando Cambray fell to Nathan Hale’s Martin Chavez in the finals of the 106-pound weight class. Austin Thomas lost to Enumclaw’s Kyle Opland in the finals of the 126-pound weight class.
Other top five placers for Decatur were Alex Avelar, Cesar Avelar, David Weir, Elias Benitez and Quinzy Salu. Cruz and Cordell Pickens wrestled for Decatur’s B-team and both also placed.
For Thomas Jefferson, Jorge Rojas, Justin Madden and Carlos Saucedo joined Roybal, Johnson and Bullington as wrestlers who placed in the top five.
Decatur finished first overall as a team with a total score of 228. Kentridge was second with a score of 192.5. Enumclaw finished third with a score of 146. Jefferson finished sixth with a score of 100.
The Gators had a total of 40 wins and 14 losses at the Invitational. They also recorded the second most pinfalls with 17, trailing only Kentridge’s 18.
Federal Way
The Eagles participated in the Wilfong Classic at Puyallup High School on Saturday. They finished 12th out of the 15 teams that participated.
Andrzej Hughes-Murray was the top performer for Federal Way. After a first round bye, he dominated the competition in the 220-pound weight class, picking up two pinfalls in 3:37 and 5:42 and winning the finals by a score of 17-1 over Sultan’s Morgan Yates.
Bryan Hernandez and Wesley Fonoti both picked up fifth place finishes for the Eagles in the 120 and 285-pound weight classes.
Puyallup was the top team at the tournament, finishing with a score of 208.5, edging out Ellensburg who finished with 202.
Todd Beamer
The Titans took a long trip north to Blaine High School, just a few thousand feet from the Canadian border, for the Battle at the Border tournament.
Beamer had four wrestlers place and two winners at the invitational.
Sean Van Earwage was victorious in the 32-wrestler tournament for the 152-pound weight class. Van Earwage had three pinfalls in the first three rounds. He won his semifinal match by a score of 11-7. He defeated Blaine’s Caleb Frey by a score of 5-2 in the finals.
Jake Agustin was one of the few wrestlers who had to wrestle five rounds without a bye in the 106-pound weight class, but it did not stop him from winning the tournament.
Agustin pinned his first two opponents and picked up a close 3-2 win in the quarterfinals. He then pinned the third seeded wrestler, Austin Johnston of Black Hills, in the semifinals. His finals match was close against Tumwater’s Matthew Anfeldt, but he was victorious by a score of 8-7.
Kyle Russell and Adrian Avena also placed for Beamer. Russell finished sixth in the 113-pound weight class and Avena finished fifth in the 160-pound weight class.
The Titans finished sixth out of 23 teams with a score of 125.5. Blaine won the invitational with a score of 248 and East Valley finished second with a score of 239.
Decatur’s girls wrestling team also had a strong showing, picking up multiple wins. Terrence Hill, the Mirror
