All Tigers Go To Regionals

WARDEN -- All four WP wrestlers did well enough at the qualifying meet in Warden last weekend to advance to the regional competition in Kittitas starting on Friday.

The accomplishment was unexpected for the first-year program and underscores the effort each Tiger has put in to get better and wrestle with intensity, head coach Lanny Adams said.

"I'm on cloud nine," Adams said. "It's a very successful year for the kids. It was the kids who did it, not me. Hopefully, we'll come back with some state qualifiers."

Tigers Gabe Escalante, Kavin Kuykendall, Trenton Kitselman and Dalton Larue each placed in the top six at the Warden meet of 13 Southeast Washington high schools on Saturday. Larue faced the largest number of competitors in his 160-pound weight class and Kuykendall, a first-year wrestler, faced the fewest.

Adams said Kuykendall and Escalante put in their best performances of the season yet, propelling them into the playoffs.

Escalante, who wrestles in the 113-pound weight class, lost against Joseph Pruneda from Warden, 9-1, in the first match, but pinned his next opponent, Arthur Martin from White Swan.

The win advanced Escalante to compete for third and fourth places, again against Pruneda. Well into that match, with the athletes matching on the points count, Escalante, the WP coaches and the crowd in the stands thought the Tiger had Pruneda pinned, but "the ref didn't see it," Adams said.

Instead, his arm slipped out of the head-and-arm hold and Escalante was penalized for an illegal head lock, losing the match, 8-7, placing him fourth in his class.

"It was a great match," Adams said. "I don't think we sat down once. We were on our feet the whole time, getting in there with Gabe."

Kuykendall, who was in the company of only three other wrestlers of his 126- pound weight class, qualified automatically to move on to Kittitas. Despite being pinned in his two matches against Cody Erickson from Liberty and Rodrigo Alvarado from White, he showed some promising tenacity, Adams said.

"Kavin wrestled with intensity nobody has ever seen before," the coach recalled. "He kept that up throughout the meet. He wrestled hard."

During the first match, Kuykendall didn't get pinned until a minute and a half into the second round, while the Tiger held out almost two minutes against Alvarado, whom Adams characterized as "a good wrestler. Kavin gave it a fight."

Kitselman, a competitor in the 132-pound weight class, ended up placing sixth in his qualifying performance at Warden.

In his first match against Thomas Newton from St. John Endicott, Kitselman was pinned a minute and a half into the second round after an exchange of reversals.

"It was a good match," Adams said. "Trent made mistakes. He reached back and it cost him. He didn't post on reversal attempts. But he improved quite a bit against Newton this time."

Inclined to ramp up his intensity after a loss, Kitselman came out much stronger against Kaleb Kolb from St. John Endicott for his second match and pinned his opponent with barely half a minute to go in the first round.

"He (Kitselman) wanted to move on to the next round (in Kittitas)," Adams said. "He wanted to keep going."

Kitselman tried to keep up his energy against Saul Hinojosa from Warden, but the more seasoned wrestler anticipated every move the Tiger threw at him, took him down, dominated in body control and pinned Kitselman 45 seconds into the second round.

In his fourth match for fifth or sixth place, Kitselman faced Kyle Hyer of Pomeroy. The WP wrestler who appeared tired from his previous encounters, got away from Hyer until the second round, when the Pirate pinned him with a little more than a minute to go.

Larue, the Tigers' most experienced wrestler, faced the toughest field of competitors, wrestling the maximum five matches to end up among the six finalists going to regionals.

Larue beat John Hylden from Tri Cities Prep on points, 7-3, after scoring several double-leg take downs. The next opponent, Waylen Anderson of Reardon, a technical wrestler who is ranked second in the state in his 160-pound weight division, pinned Larue 40 seconds into the first round.

"Dalton didn't have much of a chance," Adams said.

He then faced Drew Wilke of Lind-Ritzville, who pinned Larue in their last encounter.

"I think Dalton wanted a little bit of revenge," Adams said. "In the second round, he took him (Wilke) down instantly, turned him over and stuck him with less than a minute to go."

Larue couldn't pin his next opponent, Nick Anderson of Wilbur Creston Keller, but beat him on points, 5-2, after exchanging reversals.

"Dalton had Anderson on his back, but just couldn't get the leverage to get him pinned," Adams said. "It was a tough match."

For his fifth fight, Larue faced Cody Payne from Almira Coulee Hartline, who caught the Tiger in a hold, reached over and pinned him 51 seconds into the second round, Adams said.

Having wrestled the maximum of five matches last weekend, Larue has to wait until Friday in Kittitas to wrestle Kevin Knauff from Garfield Palouse for fifth and sixth place. Either way, Larue qualified after wrestling some of the toughest competitors in the district, Adams said.

The regional competition in Kittitas, west of Ellensburg, starts at 3 p.m. on Friday and continues on Saturday for the wrestlers who advance.