BELLINGHAM - During his many years coaching wrestling, Mount Baker's Ron Lepper has developed a system of instructing when multiple matches involving his wrestlers are taking place at the same time.
It's a good thing, too, because Lepper had to put his method into practice plenty during the championship rounds of the Northwest Conference Championships on Saturday, Jan. 14, at Sehome High School.
"It's pretty cool to have so many guys on the mat at the same time (in the finals)," Lepper said. "Luckily, I've been coaching awhile, so I know how to handle it. It's a good feeling, though."
An even greater feeling for Lepper was seeing his Mountaineers win the NWC Championship for the second straight year, as Mount Baker sent a total of seven wrestlers into the championship rounds which sewed up the tournament before the final round of wrestling even started.
The Mountaineers recorded 232 points, Mount Vernon finished in second with 200.5 points as all five Bulldog wrestlers in the finals won their matches, Blaine took third with 181 points, Burlington-Edison finished fourth with 135.5 points and Sedro-Woolley rounded out the top five accumulating 134 points.
Unfortunately, for Mount Baker, the championship matches didn't go as well as rounds leading up to the finals. Out of the seven finalists, Levi Wigg at 170 and Alec Postlewait at 285 were the lone Mountaineers to win championship matches.
"You just want to have a good mental approach when you come into the match," said Wigg, who earned a dominating 13-2 decision over Burlington-Edison's Joel Trujillo. "You have to go out and believe you can win and that all your hard work will pay off. It's always nice to dominate (a tournament) when it's in your own county. This helps a lot with postseason seeding, too."
Postlewait pinned Blaine wrestler Mike Antczak in the finals to win the 285 title, but the Mount Baker senior very nearly missed out on the finals after being significantly pushed by Sehome's Titi Lamositele in the semifinals in what was one of the most thrilling matches between the semis and championship round.
In a three-period battle, Postlewait pulled out an 8-7 decision over the up-and-coming Lamositele that drew a standing ovation from the surrounding crowd at the conclusion of the match.
"We had some wrestlers make some good strides with Titi," Sehome coach Scott Schroyer said. "I thought a lot of younger guys did well."
While some younger Mariners may have improved, it was veteran Dante Gray who earned a tournament title at 182. Gray scored a 1-0 decision over Mount Baker's Vlas Bezugly while Lepper balanced between watching Bezugly and Wigg, who was wrestling during Gray and Bezugly's match on the next mat over.
"(Gray) just got an escape and neither of them were able to get the other one down," said Schroyer, whose Mariners took ninth overall with 81 points. "It was a toss up, but they'll probably see each other three more times this year."
Bellingham's Andrew Peterson and Nolan Takemura are two wrestlers who see each other every day in the Red Raiders wrestling room and, on Saturday, the duo meet up in the 138 pound final.
"First, I'd like to say that Nolan is my friend and that we work out all the time in the gym," said Peterson after his championship match. "We wrestle with each other so much that we know each others' style."
Although Peterson said Takemura tried to deviate from his normal wrestling style in the finals, it wasn't enough as Peterson earned a 7-1 decision over his good friend.
"We're still going to go out and grab a burger after this," said Peterson, who helped his Red Raiders to a seventh-place finish with 117.5 points.
Despite the deceptive result, Blaine's Caleb Johnson (195) and his 9-4 decision over Mount Baker's Tyrel Cronk proved to be one of the closest battles in all the championship matchups.
Down 3-2 in the third period, Johnson managed to escape Cronk's top position to tie the match with one minute left. The Blaine junior then followed his escape with a takedown with 40 seconds left to go up 5-3. A near fall and second takedown as time expired prompted a closely contested 9-4 victory for Johnson.
"I wrestled horribly in the semifinals and (my) coaches said I just pulled it out," Johnson said. "I hate disappointing my coaches, so I just put it all on the line. If you wrestle good here, you get your name out there and have an intimidation advantage at districts."
Blaine's Shaypher Hendricks (145) was the other Borderite to win a tournament title, as he earned a 15-6 decision over Sedro-Woolley's Kyle Morgan.
Lynden, which finished 10th out of 13 schools, and Ferndale, which finished sixth, each had a wrestler win a title.
The Golden Eagles' Isaac Robison (120) worked his way to a 7-0 decision over Nooksack Valley's Tanner Klemann, and Lynden's Caleb Newman (220) pinned Ferndale's Kam Williams in the finals.
Reach Andrew Lang at andrew.lang@bellinghamherald.com or call 360-756-2862.
1. Mount Baker 232, 2. Mount Vernon 200.5, 3. Blaine 181, 4. Burlington-Edison 135.5, 5. Sedro-Woolley 134, 6. Ferndale 128, 7. Bellingham 117.5, 8. Nooksack Valley 106, 9. Sehome 81, 10. Lynden 73, 11. Meridian 68, 12. Squalicum 56.5, 13. Anacortes 12.5
Championship matches: 106: Nathan Allen (Mount Vernon) pin Kyle Gonzales (Blaine). 113: Luis Reyna (Mount Vernon) dec. Carson Monaghan (Mount Baker) 6-5. 120: Isaac Robison (Ferndale) dec. Tanner Klemann (Nooksack Valley) 7-0. 126: Nicky Henderson (Burlington-Edison) dec. Trevor Quint (Burlington-Edison) 17-0. 132: Andrew Peterson (Bellingham) dec. Nolan Takemura (Bellingham) 7-1. 138: Pavel Okara (Mount Vernon) pin Tyler Word (Ferndale). 145: Shaypher Hendricks (Blaine) dec. Kyle Morgan (Sedro-Woolley) 15-6. 152: Stefan Vandenkooy (Mount Vernon) pin Zach Larson (Mount Baker). 160: Jordan Watts (Mount Vernon) pin Jerrid George (Mount Baker). 170: Levi Wigg (Mount Baker) dec. Joel Trujillo (Burlington-Edison) 13-2. 182: Dante Gray (Sehome) dec. Vlas Bezugly (Mount Baker) 1-0. 195: Caleb Johnson (Blaine) dec. Tyrel Cronk (Mount Baker) 9-4. 220: Caleb Newman (Lynden) pin Kam Williams (Ferndale). 285: Alec Postlewait (Mount Baker) pin Mike Antczak (Blaine).
