Marysville-Pilchuck grapplers led by experience

MARYSVILLE — Tommies coach Craig Iversen can’t hold in his smile when talking about this group of wrestlers.

“We’re an older team than we have been,” Iversen said. “And it’s kind of nice because this is the last year we’ll all be together.”

Marysville-Pilchuck will be split with Getchel having it’s own program next year, but that leaves one more year of depth for Iversen’s boys, who bring back a number of seniors looking to make an impact in possibly the toughest league in the state, the Western Conference.

The Tommies will be led by their sole state returner, Brandon Blevins.

“He went to state last year at 125 and now he’s got that experience,” said Iversen about Blevins, who will wrestle 135 this season.

The Tommies took a trio of wrestlers to Mat Classic XXII, and came up with one placer in Brian Donaldson taking fifth in the 140-pound bracket.

Following Blevins will be Demitri Robinson, who won a 1B state championship in 2008 as a freshman at 103 pounds with Tulalip Heritage.

“We get to have him this whole year,” said Iversen. “So we’re excited about that, and we’re trying not to get ahead of ourselves.”

Robinson will wrestle at 152 pounds.

A few other wrestlers are also looking to make their mark, such as Marcus Haughian, who is making a large jump from 152 pounds last year to 189.

“He’s grown quite a bit since last year, and he was dieting a lot,” said Iversen. “Now we’re just letting him wrestle.”

Tanner Daurie, at 119 pounds, will also be another senior wrestling on varsity.

When looking around the rest of the league, the Tommies are going to be challenged by the usual suspects.

“Lake Stevens should be back as a top-3 team and Snohomish looks really strong this year as well,” Iversen said.

Lake Stevens begins its conference title defense as it went 8-0 last season, while M-P finished 6-2 and in a tie for the runner-up spot with Everett.

Contact Marysville Globe Reporter Kirk Boxleitner at kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com or 360-659-1300 Ext. 5052.

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