EVERETT — Every great team and athlete shows progress as the season continues.
And so while the Arlington wrestling squad showed development Jan. 9 in a midseason dual meet against Cascade, the boys took the meet as an opportunity to continue their development.
From the earliest practices, Arlington coach Shaun Williams emphasized the importance of scoring points — many matches are decided by points and a takedown or reversal can be the difference between a decision and a major decision or technical fall.
This lesson has sunk in for the Eagles, who scored first in all of their wins and earned at least one point even in their losses.
The difference showed up in several matches — junior Chris Berg took a 6-3 advantage at the beginning of the third round into a 10-6 win, while at 145 pounds junior Dustin Ward took a 9-0 lead by the end of the first round en route to a win by technical fall, earning the Eagles five points instead of the three for wins by decision. Freshman Blake McPherson followed Ward with another technical fall in Arlington’s favor, taking an 8-3 lead after two minutes and forcing the technical fall in the third round by a score of 23-8.
Pins by senior Chris Myers and juniors Seth Henderson and Josh Mani in the following rounds gave Arlington one of its widest leads of the night, 43-3.
At 215 pounds, senior Matt Kratzer fell in what was probably the closest match of the night. Leading 6-2 at the end of the second round, Kratzer’s opponent Cory Evans staged a comeback. Kratzer fell 14 seconds short of forcing a decision, pinned in the third round.
At heavyweight, senior Bryant Dickerson was one of several Arlington wrestlers who used their match as an opportunity to work on their endurance. In a tough match against Cascade junior Timothy St. Marie, the senior elected to start neutral.
The point, according to Williams, was for players to build their endurance as they face league favorites Lake Stevens (Jan. 15) and Snohomish (Jan. 22) in the coming weeks.
“I want them to get the mat time,” he said. “Get used to wrestling all six minutes.”
With the win over Cascade, Arlington remains undefeated in league.
