Forks placed second at the XXVI state championship at the Tacoma Dome. At the beginning of the championship round, the leader board showed Forks with 109 points and Blaine with 106.5.
Forks had one lone finalist, Joel Ward, at 220 pounds, and Blaine had two finalists, one at 160 pounds and the other at 285. Blaine did not win in the 160-pound match and Forks did not win at 220 so the score stayed the same.
The state championship came down to the final match of the tournament. If Blaine lost, Forks would win the state title. If the Blaine wrestler won the 285-pound championship, then Blaine also would take home the state title.
Mikey Antczak of Blaine did win the state title over Dustin Olsen of Chewelah with a 5-1 score. That match changed the final team scores to Blaine 110.5 and Forks still at 109 for the second place finish.
In a separate tournament for the girls, Brooke Peterson, a junior, became the first Forks female to earn a state medal. She won her first two matches on Friday to put her into the semi-finals on Saturday.
After a loss in the semi-finals, she also lost her next match by a 2-0 score. She did come back to win her final match by a pin for a fifth-place finish.
These are the seven placers for the boys.
106 Sebastian Morales – junior
Sebastian lost a 2-0 decision in the semi-finals, but worked his way back to a third-place finish to step up from his seventh place from last year.
113 Alvaro Ortiz – sophomore
Alvaro won two matches and lost one on Friday to put him into the medal matches. On Saturday he reached the fifth/sixth place match where he beat Jo Jo Sarigan of Castle Rock who had beaten him on Friday to put him into the consolation bracket.
132 Nanito Sanchez – senior
Most people overlooked Nanito, but he had a great state tournament and came away with a fourth-place finish.
138 Ricky Barragan – senior
Ricky took home a fifth-place medal which was his second state medal.
220 Joel Ward – senior
Joel was second, losing in the state finals to the same wrestler who beat him last year to put him into the consolation bracket where he place third last year.
285 Miguel Morales – junior
Miguel lost his semi-final match, but worked his way back to a third-place finish.
285 Jake Claussen – senior
Jake came away with a sixth-place state medal
