The state wrestling tournament will be different this year for Dallas Goodpaster. And he’s not talking about the school he will represent or the classification he will wrestle at.
“I’ve lost in the semifinals at state the last two years,” the Evergreen junior said. “I’ can’t let that happen again. I won’t let that happen again.”
Goodpaster took another step toward achieving his goal of winning a state championship Saturday by winning the 220-pound division at the Pacific Coast Championship at Hudson’s Bay High School.
Goodpaster beat Chiawana’s Levi McBride with a pin in one minute, 14 seconds in the finals.
“That was the first time I’ve wrestled (McBride) since a middle school state tournament in the eighth grade,” Goodpaster said. “That match finished like 1-0, but I’ve just improved so much since then.”
After two years at Prairie High School, Goodpaster enrolled this summer in Blair Academy, a prep school in New Jersey.
But a mysterious stomach ailment coupled with homesickness led Goodpaster to return to Vancouver. When he did, his family had moved into Evergreen’s boundary, leading Goodpaster to become a Plainsman.
“I like it at Evergreen,” he said. “It’s a good school, a good program, and Coach (Mark) Castle is a good coach.”
At Evergreen, Goodpaster competes in Class 4A after two years at 3A with Prairie.
“The competition at 4A is a little tougher, but 3A was tough too,” Goodpaster said. “I’m looking forward to competing at state.”
Goodpaster was one of three local winners at the Pac Coast on Saturday.
Union’s Tommy Strassenberg earned a 4-2 win over Caleb Frey of Blaine in overtime to take the 145-pound title.
“I’ve been working in practice on my set-up and shot to create better scoring chances,” Strassenberg said. “That’s what my focus was on when things got late tonight.”
Strassenberg helped Union to a third-place team finish. The Titans scored 148 points, trailing only co-champions Yelm and Toppenish, which both had 155. Union also got runner-up finishes by Ethan Rotondo (106) and Luke Christensen (170).
Mountain View’s Brandon Huft won the 120-pound division title with a 5-1 win over Nolan Miller of Dallas, Ore.
“I hadn’t met him before,” Huft said of Miller. “I heard he had been undefeated. But I have the same plan for every match, so I just wanted to stick with my plan.”
The Thunder nearly had another champion at 138 pounds. But Toppenish’s Danny Juarez got a late escape to force overtime where he earned a hard-fought 6-4 win over Damon Thomas.
