Wildcats pin Cascade 63-18

Anyone who thought Oak Harbor High School had a sub-par wrestling team this season wasn’t in attendance at Thursday evening’s home match against Cascade.

Prior to the first bout, Wildcats’ head coach Mike Crebbin said he thought this match would be a test for the team.

“This match is going to show us what our strengths and weaknesses are and what we need to work on,” he said.

Apparently there isn’t a whole lot of “work” that needs to be done, just perfecting and honing the skills team members already have, as the Cats won 11 of 14 matches and buried the Bruins 63-18.

Oak Harbor dropped the opening match at 145 pounds via pin fall, but back-to-back superior decisions by John Tuttle at 152 pounds and Jarred Tyson in the 160-pound match gave the Wildcats a 9-6 lead.

“He was pretty good and I had a hard time getting him to his back,” Tuttle said about his opponent, Cameron Hawkins. “We worked hard this week to get ready for Cascade because our teams are like neck and neck and we wanted to do good.”

Tyson said his opponent, Masih Ahmad, was kind of aggressive and he had to work around that.

“I think he was trying to intimidate me, so I had to work around that too and take my shots,” Tyson said.

The points just kept on coming as Robert Hubner pinned his 171-pound opponent in the second period and Jacob Martin followed with another pin fall victory at 189 pounds.

“He didn’t want to go to his back and kept bridging a lot, but I was able to get him,” Martin said.

Tyler Elliot won the 215-pound match via forfeit and Chris Neumiller rounded out the heavyweight class with a pin-fall victory over Bryan Katz.

At 103 pounds, freshman Josh Martinez pinned Kyle Robbins in a speedy 28 seconds.

“I felt strong out there and I’ve been wrestling for a long time,” Martinez said. “It’s just kind of natural for me and high school wrestling is another level.”

Brandon Stickland was a forfeit winner in the 112-pound bout and Connar Zimmerman ran his season record to 4-0 with a pin fall victory over Josh Loehr at 119 pounds.

Royce Cardwell and Colton Elliot completed Oak Harbor’s string of wins with pin fall victories in the 125 and 130-pound bouts.

“That was nice,” Crebbin said. “Last year we lost to Cascade and I wasn’t very happy about that. We kind of wanted to send a message this year. Everybody came through for us tonight and we are coming together.”

Oak Harbor’s varsity team wrestles at the Spud Wally Invitational tournament in Sedro-Woolley 10 a.m. today.

Oak Harbor 63, Cascade 18

103 — Josh Martinez (OH) pinned Kyle Robbins.

112 — Brandon Strickland (OH) won via forfeit.

119 — Connar Zimmerman (OH) pinned Josh Loehr.

125 — Royce Cardwell (OH) pinned Dakota Levine.

130 — Colton Elliot (OH) pinned Dakota Levine.

135 — Andy Duncan (C) pinned Ian Cardwell.

140 — Justin Anderson (C) pinned Ben Page.

145 — Keanan Sands (C) pinned Phil Gary.

152 — John Tuttle (OH) dec. Cameron Hawkins 12-1.

160 — Jarred Tyson dec. Masih Ahmad 20-4.

171 — Robert Huber (OH) pinned Zach Stoller.

189 — Jacob Martin (OH) pinned Eric Marks.

215 — Tyler Elliot (OH) won via forfeit.

285 — Chris Neumiller (OH) pinned Bryan Katz.

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