Four wrestlers from Federal Way crowned state champions at Mat Classic
by Terrence Hill
The Mat Classic is a unique event for high school sports in Washington. It’s the only event where every school, from 4A to 1B, can be represented in one venue.
Hundreds of athletes descend upon the Tacoma Dome hoping to come away with the gold medal. On Saturday, four athletes from Federal Way did just that.
Todd Beamer’s Adrian Avena and Hailie Parker, Decatur’s Leviticus Arizpe and Federal Way’s Andrzej Hughes-Murray all returned home as state champions.
“I’m still kind of trying to take it all in,” said Parker after her win. “I can’t really believe it. I went into the finals thinking this was just another tournament, but when I pinned her, there were tears.”
Last year, Parker took sixth in the 235-pound division, winning her first-round match and getting pinned in the quarterfinals.
On Saturday, she entered the tournament ranked as the top wrestler in the 190-pound weight class by washingtonwrestlingreport.com.
Parker sealed her championship win with a pinfall against Aberdeen’s Emily Wharton. She was the only girls representative from Beamer.
The Beamer senior was actually trailing 7-1 after the first round. She held her ground, avoiding being pinned late in the first round. Once the second round began, she regrouped and took the match over.
Much like Parker, Hughes-Murray was the only representative of his gender from Federal Way High School.
He also came to the tournament looking to improve on last year’s performance where he lost in the first round via injury default. He fought his way through the consolation bracket for a third-place finish.
He was undefeated at 37-0 heading into the tournament. Washingtonwrestlingreport.com also ranked him as the top wrestler in the 220-pound division.
Hughes-Murray lived up to his ranking, pinning each of his first three opponents in the first round.
In the final round, he met Chiawana’s Levi McBride. McBride finished third in the 195-pound division a year prior.
McBride took the first lead in the second round with an escape, but Hughes-Murray responded with a takedown to gain the lead.
The next three points went to McBride, who led 4-2 going into the third round.
Hughes-Murray quickly made up the deficit, taking a 5-4 lead 40 seconds into the third round. With 30 seconds remaining, he scored another takedown that all but decided the match. He was the state champion with a 7-5 victory.
Immediately overcome with emotion, he picked up his coaches in a tearful celebration before falling to his knees on the concrete floor.
“I worked hard for this,” Hughes-Murray said with tears still streaming down his face. “As long as you believe in yourself, you can do anything. I’m 41-0 and that’s all that matters. I did this.”
Arizpe entered the tournament with one goal in mind – to send his head coach Mike Bressler out as a winner.
Bressler, the 4A coach of the year, announced earlier in the year that this would be his final season as the coach at Decatur. He has been the coach for the past 18 seasons.
Zach Berry nearly gave Bressler two finalists with a chance to bring home a state championship, but he fell in the semifinals before finishing fifth overall.
Arizpe didn’t have an easy road to the finals. In the semifinals, he faced off against Lake Stevens’ Jake Douglas, the top-ranked wrestler at 138 pounds.
Douglas lost in the 138-pound championship the year prior.
In an evenly contested match, it was Arizpe who left with a 2-1 victory, earning him a spot in the championship.
Arizpe built a 3-2 lead over Pasco’s Jake Covington, which he held as the second round came to a close. With just four seconds left in the round, Arizpe scored on a takedown and nearly pinned Covington, but the buzzer sounded before that could happen.
He was in a defensive position for most of the third round but yielded no points to Covington. He won the match 7-2.
After the victory, he celebrated with a backflip before hugging his coaches.
“I told [Bressler] I was going to put him in those slacks one more time,” Arizpe said. “I really wanted him to get dressed up. I love my coach and he deserves it. It means everything. I wanted him to go out with a bang.”
Arzipe said that the win was “long overdue” for him as he had twice previously taken home the bronze medal in lower weight classes.
“I feel outstanding for that kid,” Bressler said. “It’s well overdue. He was really close last year with a bracket that had two two-time state champions in it and he was seconds away from being in the final. I’m just proud of him. He’s just a hardworking kid and it makes my last day very special. That kid deserves to be a state champ.”
Of the four state champs from the city, Avena may have been the biggest longshot of the group.
Avena was the third ranked wrestler in the 152-pound weight class according to washingtonwrestlingreport.com.
The favorites were Tommy Strassenberg from Union and Dante Springsteen from Bethel. The two met in the semifinals and Springsteen was victorious.
Meanwhile, Avena fought his way through the other side of the bracket, picking up impressive victories along the way.
He won his first with a 10-3 decision over Davonn Keyes of South Kitsap. In his second match, he picked up a major decision with a 15-5 win over JJ Rodriguez of Sunnyside. He pinned Bryce Buckley of Chiawana in the semifinals to reach the championship.
Springsteen beat Avena 6-3 earlier in the season. Avena took the quick lead with a takedown 20 seconds into the match. He never trailed in the match, but did allow Springsteen to tie once at 2-2.
Trailing 7-5 late in the third round, Springsteen went for a takedown and it looked like he was going to force overtime, but Avena managed to sprawl at the last second and return to a neutral position before Springsteen could gain control.
When the official blew the final whistle, Avena immediately began to celebrate his 7-5 victory. He did so with a backflip, just as Arizpe had done.
“Feels like all that hard work paid off,” Avena said. “I’ve been working at this since I was young, in these stands watching these kids wrestle out here. I always wanted to be one of them and I finally did it. It feels so good.”
“I’m really proud of him,” Beamer coach Brett Lucas said. “He kept going for it all week. He knew what he had to do this weekend and he did it. He was all offense. That’s what he did all week.”
Federal Way sent seven girls to the tournament, and while none of them took home the title, they finished in third place as a team with 70.5 points. They were just two-and-a-half points off of second place.
“This is a thankless sport, and all of the time we spend in the offseason, working our butts off day in and day out, people want to count us out, and all we’re going to do is come fight,” said Federal Way coach Travis Mango. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids to be with. We didn’t get to the top as a team, but we’ll be back.”
Jefferson finished 12th with 40 points, Decatur was 13th with 36 points and Parker lead Beamer to 26th place with 27 points. There were 124 teams in the girls tournament.
Beamer’s boys team finished seventh with 61.5 points. Decatur finished 20th with 42 points, and Hughes-Murray powered Federal Way to 26th with 28 points. Sixty schools were represented in 4A.
Other girls placers: Raisa Pleasants, TJ, 100 pounds, third place; Anabella Garcia, FW, 100, fifth; Amanda
Henderson, FW, 100, eighth; Auna Carpio, DEC, 115, second; Anjilia Sumandig, FW, 115, seventh; Jasmine Pleasants, TJ, 130, second; Tally Thomas, FW, 170, third; Mariah Stewart, FW, 235, fourth; Gabrielle Boyd, DEC, 235, sixth.
Other boys placers: Sean Van Earwage, TB, 145, fourth; Zach Berry, DEC, 160, fifth; Mitchell Owens, TB, 182, third; Quinzy Salu, DEC, 220, eighth.
Terrence M. Hill 