MARYSVILLE — The season has begun for the Tomahawks wrestling team, and so far the athletes are proving that they are a force to watch this year.
Marysville-Pilchuck faced Arlington High School on Thursday, Dec. 13, and finished the match with a 48-36 win.
It was Coach Iversen versus Coach Iversen during the match, when Arlington’s head coach Rick Iversen and his son, M-P’s head coach Craig Iversen, faced each other.
Every bout ended in a pin, which is fairly unusual for high school wrestling. If Arlington had managed to pin one more athlete, the teams would have been tied.
At 126 pounds, M-P’s Ryan Daurie pinned Parker Spady in three minutes. In the 138-pound weight class, MP’s Rigo Perez pinned Ryan Swierkowski at 1:38, while teammate Killian Page pinned Jesse Driscoll at 2:47 in the 152-pound weight class.
M-P’s Drew Hatch finished the quickest bout of the day when he pinned Kevin Bruch in 19 seconds, at the 170-pound weight class. At the 182-pound weight class, M-P’s Jake Merrick pinned Ryan Willis in 54 seconds, while teammate Ismael Perez pinned Jake Ferro at 3:56 in the 195 pound weight class. Ignat Gabov pinned Arlington’s Gareth Henderson at 1:21 in the 220-pound weight class and teammate Jory Cooper pinned Beni Ries at 1:47 in the 285-pound weight class.
“We are pretty excited for the season,” said Craig Iversen. “Like most teams, we are a little banged up, but we don’t start our league matches until the new year and so we’re trying to get the lineup in and put our best team on the mat.”
Iversen was excited to win in the “Iversen-O-Rama.”
“It was nice to get the win, but it really was just a wonderful night. We had tons of alumni there and that was great,” he said.
The Tomahawks competed in the Paul Reiman Classic in Mount Vernon on Saturday, Dec. 15, and found success there as well.
“We had seven in the finals that we were really happy with,” said Iversen. “We had five champs so that was a nice way to cap off our Christmas break.”
Daurie, Page, Hatch, Perez and Cooper were all champions in their weight classes.
It’s not the first success for Marysville-Pilchuck, who faced Granite Falls and Lakewood at the Jackson High School Double Duals on Dec. 5, and beat both teams — Granite Falls in a 54-22 victory and Lakewood with a 51-25 victory.
The Tomahawks are set to face away Eastmont on Friday, Dec. 28, at 6 p.m. and their first league match-up at home against the Stanwood Spartans on Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.
