MARYSVILLE  — The Marysville Getchell wrestling team hosted Oak Harbor on Thursday, Jan. 24, but fell to the league-leading Wildcats 50-29.

“We actually did very well, much better than we did against Oak Harbor last year,” said Charger Head Coach Todd Freeman. “For us being a second-year program, we are very happy with how we did.”

Freeman pointed out that the Chargers are a young team with five freshmen and a sophomore starting for the team. But despite their youth, the Chargers were able to keep the matches exciting.

“There were several good matches,” said Freeman. “The best was probably the last one of the night, at 170 pounds, that featured our Cody  Stone against Oak Harbor’s CJ Shavers.  There were about 30 seconds left in the match and we were down by six points. Shavers shot in on Cody, but he was able to flip Shavers and pinned him with about 10 seconds left in the match.”

Freeman also mentioned Alfredo Diaz, 285 pounds, who pinned Oak Harbor’s Tyler Adamson. Diaz has only lost one match this year.

Although he lost his match at 145 pounds to Oak Harbor’s Cody Fakkema, Alex Norton also had a strong performance, said Freeman.

Also wrestling well, according to Freeman, is Billy Almachar at 120 pounds.

In addition to the Oak Harbor match being the final regular season match for the Chargers, it was also Senior Night.

Next up for the Chargers is the 3A North District Tournament at Stanwood High School on Feb. 1-2. From there, the top three finishers in each weight class will move on to the 3A Regional Tournament at Marysville-Pilchuck High School on Feb. 9. The top four finishers in each weight class will then move on to the 3A State Tournament in the Tacoma Dome, Feb. 15-16.

“Right now Billy [Almachar] and Alfredo [Diaz] are our best shots at state,” said Freeman. “If we can get Cody [Stone] and Alex [Norton] out of our district tournament,  they also have a good shot at making it to state.”

Freeman added, “We’ve made a lot of progress this year and the kids are peaking at the right time.”