Six Class 4A wrestlers finish second at Mat Classic
TACOMA — Motivated by unfinished business, Derick Tollen of La Center and Abby Lees of Washougal won state wrestling championships on Saturday at the Tacoma Dome.
Three Class 2A wrestlers from Clark County lost tight Mat Classic championship matches.
The road to the state finals threw plenty of challenges at La Center’s Tollen. When he arrived in the state finals, the La Center junior delivered a championship performance.
His 16-9 win over John Crise of Chewelah in the 126-pound Class 1A title match that featured four takedowns and eight points from near-falls. He struck with a takedown late in the first round and took over in the second round.
“My whole life I’ve dreamed about wrestling in the finals, and to win it like that is just amazing,” Tollen said.
Tollen placed third in Oregon’s state tournament as a freshman and a sophomore at Eugene’s Churchill High School. He expected to do better than third at those tournaments, and entered Mat Classic on a mission.
“I was supposed to do better. I should have done better,” Tollen said about his two Oregon state tournaments. “I did some things wrong and some calls didn’t go my way. I moved on and learned from it and made sure I won this year.”
After he suffered a separated shoulder while winning the finals of the Clark County Championships, Tollen feared his season might be over.
“It was terrifying. I was horrified,” he said.
But the shoulder healed and held up through a challenging state bracket as he capped a 36-1 season. His only loss this season was to Dalton Young of Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls), who won the state title at 120 pounds.
A month before state Tollen suffered a broken nose in a meet at Stevenson, forcing him to wear a mask for the rest of the season. But that didn’t get in the way of Tollen’s championship vision.
At the Tacoma Dome, challenges were provided by a 2014 finalist in the quarterfinals, and an unbeaten opponent in the semifinals. In Saturday’s semifinals he shook off a 7-2 deficit to defeat previously unbeaten Carlos Hernandez of Royal.
“He ran through some really tough guys and showed some perseverance in those matches,” La Center coach Kyle Simmons said. “Those were nip and tuck and he was able to pull them out. To see him dominate in the finals after that first period, that was evidence of how he wrestles and the work he’s put in.”
Work was also on the mind of Washougal’s Lees after she did herself one better than last year by winning the girls 155-pound title. Lees, the runner-up in 2014, beat Jessica Cardenas of Sunnyside 4-1 in the finals.
“You can’t describe it in words,” she said after shedding a few tears of joy. “Just knowing that you worked your hardest and it paid off in the end, it’s amazing.”
Cardenas beat Lees early this season, but Lees learned from that loss.
“Be patient. Don’t do anything crazy,” Lees said of her approach. “I noticed she kept trying to throw me and as long as I just stayed in position she couldn’t get it.”
That strategy paid off when Lees scored a second-round escape. With both wrestlers on their feet, she nursed a 2-1 lead through much of the final two minutes before sealing the win with a takedown in the final second.
“With Abby it’s about staying in good position, good head position, defending (against) the cheap throw,” Washougal coach Heather Carver said. “I told Abby, ‘You can’t let her hang onto your head for 6 minutes.’ “
“Abby flipped the switch on her. I think that girl was taken back with the physicality that Abby took right back at her,” Carver said.
In Class 2A finals, Ridgefield sophomore Trevor Newburn, Washougal senior Zach Oster and Hockinson junior Cameron Loos all came up just short of championships.
At 113 pounds Ridgefield’s Newburn lost to fellow sophomore Spencer Clegg of Clarkston, who rode a first-round takedown to a 2-0 win. Newburn couldn’t escape Clegg in the second round and was unable to turn him for points in the third round.
Washougal’s Oster finished second at 120 pounds, where Carlos Lopez of Selah won 6-5. The match was tied 4-4 entering the third round, where Lopez scored with an escape and a point for a potentially-dangerous hold. Oster reached the finals with a dramatic semifinal win, beating Adam Adkinson of Sedro-Woolley 8-6 with a takedown with four seconds left in the first overtime period.
At 220 pounds, Hockinson’s Loos lost 3-2 to Dylan Beeler of Clarkson. All the scoring came in the third round, the winning point by escape with 35 seconds left. Loos had tied the match with a reversal 20 seconds earlier, and took Beeler to the mat a split second after the match ended. Loos almost scored an escape in the second round as he got to his feet but never disengaged from Beeler.
