Oak Harbor’s Jon Garcia might have missed his chance to capture a state title at last weekend’s Mat Classic, but he didn’t let that get him down.

After narrowly losing his quarterfinal matchup, Garcia fought his way back through the consolation bracket to win his final four matches and take third-place in the 119-pound weight class, the Wildcats best showing in the two-day tournament held at the Tacoma Dome.

“Jon worked extremly hard this year and made it a goal to be a champion,” said his head coach Brian Farmer. “He doesn’t say a lot of words but he just wants to win. He has a tremendous heart and when it really counted he proved to be an excellent wrestler.”

Garcia began the tournament with a third-round pin over Tahoma’s John Maryanski. Down by four points in the final round, Garcia got Maryanski on his back with a throw and scored the pin at the 4:34 mark to move to the quarterfinals.

“He had to throw the guy,” said Farmer. “He was down and he needed that. You don’t want to have to rely on a throw all the time, but Jon’s been getting it this year.”

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