Heritage finishes strong at Pacific Coast Championships

Sunday, December 31, 2006
By BRIAN T. SMITH Columbian staff writer

Granted, it's still early in the season.

But right now, the Heritage Timberwolves are starting to look like they might be able to give the Battle Ground Tigers a run for their money.

The Timberwolves, who stood in fifth after the first day of competition at the Pacific Coast Championships wrestling tournament, finished in third place Saturday with 146.5 points.

Their score was just 0.5 points off of second place W.F. West's total of 147.

Lake Stevens won the tournament with 204 points.

"I'm happy. This was good for us," Heritage coach Donnie McPherson said. "But I won't say I'm satisfied. We had a good showing here but we've still got a lot of work to do. We've set big goals and we want to reach them all. Win league. Win district. State. It's going to take a lot of work."

By the look of the Timberwolves' showing at the Pac Coast Championships, they're well on their way to those goals.

Heritage was led by Kyle Stults, who won the championship in the 285-pound weight class.

Stults outlasted and eventually defeated W.F. West's Tim Denegar 3-0 for the title.

"I could have wrestled better," Stults said. "He kept running away from me the whole match. But I was finally able to get him where I wanted."

The Timberwolves also had two second-place finishers in the tournament, Donovan Cunningham (189 pounds) and Brandon Richardson (215).

Cunningham fell to Kentlake's Jared Walsh, 7-3, while Richardson retired from his match midway through the third round.

Richardson was down 7-0 to Pasco's Dimitri Miles when an injury to his left shoulder left him unable to continue.

Noticably frustrated afterward, Richardson disappeared into the locker room as soon as his match was over.

"He'll be back," McPherson said. "He's a good kid and a hard worker. He's still getting in shape. When he's in top form, he'll be hard to beat."

Hosted by Evergreen High School and held at Hudson's Bay High School, the Pac Coast Championships drew an estimated 900 attendees over the two-day tournament.

"We had a great showing out here," Evergreen coach Mark Castle said. "I think the combination of having it near I-5 and including all the best schools from Washington and Oregon just makes anyone who's into wrestling interested. This place was packed."

The Plainsmen had the best showing out of the remaining 4A Greater St. Helens League teams involved in the tournament, finishing in 16th place with 73 points.

Evergreen's Cory Dodge took second place at 171, losing 13-6 to Jefferson's Barry Hood.

The Plainsmen's Chessjuan Monk finished in second at 145. He was pinned by Auburn Riverside's Eric Jones 1:46 into the match.

Camas finished in 18th place (60.5 points), Mountain View placed 25th (43), Hudson's Bay took 27th (38), Columbia River was 28th (36) and Hockinson finished 29th (30).

"It was two days of success for all the teams involved," Evergreen assistant coach and tournament coordinator Norm Friehauf said. "Everyone had a lot of fun and got to watch some of the top wrestlers in the Northwest."