Grapplers fall to Snohomish

Prior to the start of the season, Oak Harbor High School wrestling coach Mike Crebbin said Snohomish would be one of the top teams in the WesCo North this season.

On Tuesday, the Wildcats hosted the powerful Panthers’ team and dropped a hard-fought 52-17 decision.

“Snohomish has one of those teams where they put a top wrestler on the mat in every weight class,” Crebbin said. “Sometimes you’ll find a team that has a hole in a couple of weight divisions or a less experienced wrestler, but Snohomish doesn’t. They are strong all the way from 103 to 285 pounds.”

Oak Harbor won five bouts in the match, none of them coming via pin fall, but two major decisions were recorded.

In the opening bout of the match at 125 pounds, Colton Elliot was a 10-2 winner over Josh Sykes and John Tuttle, wrestling at 160 pounds, defeated Paul Dellino 14-3.

Tuttle, who usually competes in the 152-pound weight division, said Crebbin asked him to bump up because one of his teammates failed to make weight and was unable to wrestle.

“Snohomish has a tough team and I give them a lot of credit,” Tuttle said. “They work hard, we just have to work harder.”

Elliot said he didn’t think he wrestled as good as he could have in his bout.

“I didn’t wrestle all that great because I’ve been feeling sick and stuff,” he said. “Other than that, I thought I did pretty good.”

Tyler Elliot was a winner at 189 pounds, defeating Spencer Caraballo 10-5.

“He’s been looking at me all year and trying to beat me and talking, so I was really pumped up tonight,” Elliot said.

In the lightweight divisions, Josh Martinez was a 4-0 winner over Raylin Lucey at 103 pounds and Connar Zimmerman defeated Eric Kalmey 6-2 at 112 pounds.

Crebbin said Martinez lost in overtime to Lucey at the Graham Morin Invitational this past weekend.

“We made some adjustments for tonight and we didn’t play into his strengths,” Crebbin said. “Josh also wrestled better tonight.”

Zimmerman’s victory over Kalmey was a repeat of the championship bout at the Graham Morin tournament.

“Connar pretty much controlled the whole bout and even though the score was close, he was in control” Crebbin said. “At the tournament, he won 4-2.”

Crebbin said the team’s conditioning is getting better and their confidence is also building.

“That’s really important for the kids to have confidence in themselves,” he said.

Snohomish 52, Oak Harbor 17

125 — Colton Elliot (OH) major dec. Josh Sykes 10-2.

130 — Sam Otto (S) pinned Ian Sinchak :51.

135 — Luke Perry (S) pinned Ben Page 2:20.

140 — Brad Perry (S) pinned Phil Gray :32.

145 — Stefan St. Marie (S) pinned Billy Hale 5:32.

152 — John Garcia (S) major dec. Josh Thornton 15-3.

160 — John Tuttle (OH) major dec. Paul Dellino 14-3.

171 — Richard Reed (S) pinned Jacob Martin 1:19.

189 — Tyler Elliot (OH) dec. Spencer Caraballo 10-5.

215 — Derek Britton (S) pinned Chris Neumiller 1:20.

285 — Jake Reinhard (S) pinned Brian Howard 1:11.

103 — Josh Martinez (OH) dec. Raylin Lucey 4-0.

112 — Connar Zimmerman (OH) def. Eric Kalmey 6-2.

119 — Derek Van Wyhe (S) won by forfeit.

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