By CASEY OLSON, The Mirror
For the first time in a long time, the Federal Way school district has legitimate shots at bringing home multiple individual state champions at this weekend’s Class 4A Mat Classic XX inside the Tacoma Dome.
Three Federal Way wrestlers won regional championships Saturday at two separate tournaments.
The Decatur Gators snared a pair of individual titles at the Class 4A Region II wrestling tournament at Inglemoor High School in Kenmore. Heavyweight Tevyn Tillman and 145-pounder Spencer Kabalac rolled through their brackets Saturday. Beamer’s Trevor Mills continued his impressive junior season by winning the 130-pound title at the Class 4A Region IV tournament at Foss High School in Tacoma.
In total, 10 wrestlers from the Federal Way school district will wrestle inside the Tacoma Dome, including four from Beamer, three from Decatur, two from Federal Way and one from Thomas Jefferson.
Tillman’s crown at 285 pounds ended the same way his title at last weekend’s SPSL North Tournament ended — without a match. For the second week in a row, Kentridge’s Le’Roi Edwards injury defaulted in the final match, giving Tillman the victory. The win moved Tillman to 33-2 on the season, with one of those losses coming at the hands of Edwards, who will play lineman next season on the Air Force Academy’s football team.
Tillman and Edwards will again be on opposite sides of the bracket at the state championships. Tillman, who finished fifth at last year’s state meet as a sophomore, will open up Mat Classic against Lewis and Clark’s Andre Taylor, who finished fourth in the Eastern Washington regional tournament.
Kabalac will make his second consecutive Mat Classic appearance after beating Kentlake’s Jason Bandy in the 145-pound championship. Kabalac, a senior, dominated Bandy, 7-1, in the title match. He also beat Bandy at last weekend’s SPSL North Tournament, 9-5.
Kabalac will take on Moses Lake junior Thomas Pfeiffer, who finished fourth in the Eastern Washington region.
Mills’ 130-pound title also came in a rematch of the league tournament. For the second weekend in a row, it was Mills who got the best of his Beamer teammate Corey Obungen in the championship match at the Region IV wrestling tournament.
This time around, Mills outdueled his teammate, 14-2, in the 130-pound final. At last Saturday’s SPSL South Division Tournament, Mills beat Obungen for the title, 10-2. Both will wrestle at the Mat Classic.
The two points scored by Obungen in the 130-pound championship match, were the only points scored on Mills the entire tournament. The Beamer junior pinned John Ceccarelli in the quarterfinals and beat Graham-Kapowsin’s Jack Miller in the semifinals, 5-0. Obungen beat Rogers’ Tielor Isaac in the other semifinal, 11-7.
Mills will wrestle Woodinville’s Victor Schrenk in the first round at state and Obungen will take on Kentlake’s Zach Callahan.
Other state qualifiers from the district include Federal Way’s Jacob Conklin (152) and Jon Detzler (215), Beamer’s David Sullivan (215) and Tyler Enos (135), Decatur’s Darren Faber (189) and TJ’s Ivan Mukomol (119).
Conklin, Enos and Mukomol all lost in their respective championship bouts, Detzler and Sullivan both finished third and Faber ended up in fourth place.
Beamer placed fifth as a team at the Region IV tournament behind Graham-Kapowsin, Rogers, South Kitsap and Emerald Ridge. Decatur was sixth at the Region II tournament behind first-place Kentwood.
Sports editor Casey Olson: 925-5565, sports@fedwaymirror.com
