Shorewood vs Shorecrest wrestling 1/25/19 - the hype wasn't grand enough
Saturday, January 26, 2019
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| Mathew Pease (left), Roman Shadduck (middle), Thomas Rhodes (Right) - celebrate after the Highlanders narrowly defeated the Thunderbirds in the last dual meet of the season. Photo by Sean Rhodes |
By Clark Norton
The match began in the old-school way at 106 pounds. Shorecrest gambled and gave up a win by forfeit and the free six team points it provides by sliding star freshman Thomas Rhodes up to the 113 weight class to face Shorewood junior Kai Layton.
That first match set the tone for an extremely close and intense match. After Shorecrest senior Roman Shadduck dominated his way to a 17-2 tech fall win over his opponent at 120 pounds, Shorewood finally responded.
At 138 pounds it was strength against length as Shorecrest junior Kaiya Conway, ranked #9 in the state, faced off against Shorewood junior Kody Carpenter.
After a 14-4 win by Shorecrest’s Arthur Christopher at 145 pounds and a 5-2 win by Shorewood’s Devin Leach at 152 pounds, the two rivals stood tied at 12 team points apiece with six weight classes to go.
Shorewood moved sophomore Cole Becker up from his usual 152 pound weight class to wrestle against Shorecrest senior Yacob Benazouz at 160 pounds.
In the opening seconds of the match Benazouz lifted Becker high over his head and took him down straight to his back. Becker survived the early throw and escaped the period trailing 7-4.
Becker never quit attacking and with under a minute left got a takedown and turned Benazouz to his back. As the seconds ticked down the two wrestlers gave every ounce of effort within their bodies, but Becker got the pin with just 7 seconds remaining.
Rising to his feet in victory Becker unleashed a primal scream towards his teammates that would have echoed through the gymnasium if it had not been drowned out by the eruption of the home crowd.
Shorecrest immediately answered in the 170 pound match as senior Ian Mortenson was in complete control while he secured a 10-1 win over Shorewood freshman Max Null.
After a pair of victories by Shorewood’s Tom Bert and Phil Ball at 182 and 195 pounds gave the home team a 26-16 lead Shorecrest had only two weights left to try and reclaim the Spartan Cup.
Fittingly, it was one final Shorecrest senior that put the final nail in Shorewood’s coffin. At 285 pounds, Shorecrest’s sixth and final senior David Rivera walked onto the mat and accepted a forfeit with the six team points that accompany it for a dramatic 28-26 Shorecrest win.
Both teams wrestle next next Friday and Saturday at the district tournament. The tournament is being held at Edmonds-Woodway High School. Wrestling begins at 5pm on Friday the 1st and at 10am on Saturday the 2nd.
Shorewood Record: 4-3 WesCo South, 4-7 Overall
Shorecrest Record: 6-1 WesCo South, 8-3 Overall
Shorewood 26 - Shorecrest 28
@ Shorewood High School
106: Double forfeit
113: Thomas Rhodes SC dec. Kai Layton 5-2
120: Roman Shadduck SC tech. fall Quincy Laflin 17-2
126: Aidan Jung SW dec. Aiden Didio 9-4
132: Curt Tanaka SW dec. Kelvin Schmidt 3-2
138: Kody Carpenter SW dec. Kaiya Conway 12-8
145: Arthur Christopher SC maj. dec. Luca Fenlason 14-4
152: Devin Leach SW dec. Trenton Good 5-2
160: Cole Becker SW pinned Yacob Benazouz 5:53
170: Ian Mortenson SC maj. dec. Max Null 10-1
182: Tom Bert SW pinned Christopher Ng 2:14
195: Phil Ball SW dec. Matthew Pease 7-2
220: Elyjah Schultz SC pinned Isaac Kabuchi 3:45
285: David Rivera SC win by forfeit























