Three Wolverines pin down gold at district meet

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2002

Friday Harbor High School 2002-2003 Wrestling

Three Wolverines pin down gold at district meet

Story and photos by Matt Pranger

posted 02/09/04
Friday Harbor’s Dane Foley, Britt Banry and Jason Grone won individual titles at the District 1 Class A/B Wrestling Tournament Saturday, Feb. 7 in Darrington and the Wolverines finished second in the team standings.

Seventeen Wolverines finished fifth or better at district and advance to the Class A/B Region 1 Tournament at Bellevue Christian High School Saturday, Feb. 14. The top two regional finishers advance to the state tourney.

"The guys did pretty well today," said Friday Harbor coach Gordy Banry. “We didn’t get as many guys in the finals as I hoped but we got more in the finals I thought we would.”

Concrete won the tourney with 324 points. Friday Harbor compiled 244.5. Darrington placed third with 148. Archbishop Murphy finished fourth with 138.5 and La Conner was fifth with 135.

Dane Foley took down Darrington’s Jason Caveness early in the final match and rode out a 2-0 decision. "It feels really good," said the senior who missed the playoffs last year with an injury.

Britt Banry out-battled Concrete’s Anthony Holt 15-4 in the 152-pound title bout. "It was a really tiring, intense match," the sophomore said. "If you go out there and put everything you got into it, you’re going to win."

"It feels really good to go back to regional. Our league’s bigger. It’s going to be an intense tournament," Banry said of the state-qualifier.

In a battle of Friday Harbor juniors, Grone pinned teammate John Gossom one minute, 35 seconds into the 171-pound championship. "I think today I set a standard for regionals," Grone said. "I’m going to come back against a kid I lost to earlier this year."

"Jason and John both got the job today," Gordy Banry said. "They just need a repeat next week."

In addition to John Gossom, junior Colby Leed (119), freshman Jacob Foley (130) and sophomore Jim Gossom (145) placed second. Concrete’s Matt Ellingson pinned Leed in 4:28 and Darrington’s Justin Friddle stopped Foley in 1:45. The host Loggers’ Tyler Burns beat Jim Gossom 15-0.

Junior Andrea Champlin pinned Luis Almaraz in 3:40 to finish third in the 103-pound division. "That was the best Andrea wrestled him this season. He was scoring points but he wasn’t going to come out on top in the end."

Freshman Kyle Miller defeated Concrete’s Jarrod Webster in the 112-pound consolation final. "Kyle’s coming on here at the end of the season," his coach said.

Friday Harbor’s fourth-place finishers are: freshman Paul Espinoza (140), freshman James Gull (152), junior Jesse Pouillon (160), junior George Meyer (189) and sophomore Peter Grosjacques (275).

Freshman Adam Champlin (119), freshman Michael Guard (140) and senior Courtney Jones (145) placed fifth.

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2002

Three Wolverines pin down gold at district meet