By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Highline placed seven wrestlers in finals and received 10 placers overall and that was good enough to hold off a hard-charging Shelton Highlanders squad as the Pirates laid claim to the first place honors of the Highline School District Invitational held at the Mount Rainier Rams gymnasium Saturday.

Pirates head coach Casey Rice answered the question matter-of-fact when he was asked if he thought his 3A Highline team could beat out seven other schools competing for the invitational title, including 4A school Skyline and current Narrows League co-leader Shelton with a 6-1 record.

"Thought we had a chance," said Rice.

The Pirates scored 186.5 points. Shelton followed with 165.5, then Skyline (Issaquah) had 144.5, Lakes 126 and Mount Rainier 109. Anacortes scored 76, Evergreen-Tyee 66 and Enumclaw 43.5.

It was close, though, in the end, comparatively speaking, as, entering the championship matches, the Pirates owned a bigger cushion than the end over second place Shelton. The Highlanders had 146.5 points going into the final, to the Pirates' 172.5, so the foe picked up 20 points to the Pirates' 15 in the last round.

But it wasn't enough.

The Pirates got three champions on this day, speaking of 145-pound champ Kelvin Herbruger, a senior, and 160-pound winner Justin Herbruger, who is Kelvin's maternal twin. And, also helping the Pirates was Brian Womac, at 285. Then, a few more points were added by other finalist wrestlers, like freshman, Kevin Almazon at 106 getting second, and senior Zach Edson at 132 second. Senior Jimmy Matta at 152 was second and Conner Shea at 182 was second.

So, those guys got the meat of the points for their Pirates team throughout the meet, and, it's fair to say the "twin killing" along with Womac did the most damage in this one for the Pirates' invitational title.
But, brothers, not identical but born one right after the other, did their parts in this one.
Help to have a brother to do well wrestling?

"It's motivation to do better, get better, go farther each match," said Kelvin Herbruger, who took third in another tournament the week before the Highline invitational. "But, at the end of the day, we are, still, brothers."

Kelvin's run to the championship included a first-round bye before he beat Enumclaw wrestler Cody Osborn by pin 1:12 into the first two-minute round. Then, in the semi, Kelvin nailed Jon Sacloco's (Lakes) shoulders to the canvas, at just 54 seconds into round one.

That all led to the final win for Kelvin over another Enumclaw wrestler, Adin Hanrahan, by decision, 6-2.
Brother Justin made nice of things, too, getting a win over three different opponents, going the same "bye" route for a first-round win. Next, Justin won by technical fall, 17-1, over Brent Leffers of Enumclaw. Then, in his semi, he beat Adrian Abraham of Skyline, by pin, at 3:59 of the second round. That set up a final against Hector Andres of Shelton and Herbruger won it, 10-3.

Of his opponent, Justin said things in plural, "My opponents have been tough, I respect them."

And, what about his brother Kelvin?

"I try to get first, he tries to get first, we have a good rivalry," said Justin.

Speaking about his wrestlers, winners and, losers, Rice broke things down to brass tacks.

Matta, in his final, a 14-4 loss, what happened there?

"He got worked," said Rice.

Rice was visibly up from his corner chair, watching Matta, trying to get him to hang in there against a state quality opponent.

"Stay tight, stay low," said Rice as Matta just got a takedown in round three early to cut the Shelton wrestler foe's lead to 9-3. Then, a blood timeout for Matta, a bloody noise, Rice spoke more to his wrestler, in confidential, out on the mat, his last words, to the point.

"Stay tough," said Rice.

So, Matta, who won a 16-team tournament the week before, in the Cardinal Classic at Franklin Pierce High School, got beat in this smaller one. Where to go from here for him?

"Just keep working," said Rice.

Matta said basically similar.

"Another one of those tournaments where you determine where you are at," he said. "Hey, I'm a little disappointed, got second. But, there's a good saying. There are only winners and learners in wrestling."
Edson had a tough go of it, from a weight class standpoint, as, Edson who won his finals match last weekend at the Cardinal Classic, had to wrestle a weight class up from his normal 120 class in this one. That's never going to be easy.

"He had a good, tough, day," said Rice. "He went up to 126."

So he held his own?

"He did more than hold his own," said Rice. "The other guy (in the final) was just trying to hold on. Zach was up, 3-2, and, the guy got a reversal in the third round."

That was it, as Edson just missed giving the Pirates four champs. He got a first-round bye, then a technical fall 16-2 win against Hadriel Rodgriguez of Enumclaw. Then, in the semi, he went against a formidable second Hornets' wrestler, and won, 5-4, in overtime, after the first three rounds couldn't decide the winner, with the score notched, 4-4.

Then, in the final, Edson wrestled tough. He's only got three losses against over a dozen wins this season, and was eighth at state last season at the Tacoma Dome. But, he lost, 4-3, in the final to Nate Swanson of Skyline, a wrestler who's already won a couple tournaments himself and sports a 22-3 record, and is a senior for the Spartans.

Now, the boys have been spoken about pretty well, but, in high school wrestling there's more than just them who wrestle, there's the girls' side of things. And the Pirates' senior, Sophia Munoz, is tough, a state wrestler, but, did not wrestle on this day because of, well, no, not injury, of other things.

"I think, that there were no other girls here that wanted to wrestle Sophia. She has a reputation for being very tough," said Tim Perales of Munoz, who took fifth as a sophomore at state before last season, getting there, too, but dealing with an arm injury so going out early. Perales coaches the girls, mostly, while Rice works with the boys more, but both are helping both Pirates genders.

So, that's Munoz's tournament stats, but there's more, like the Pirates' 145 pound wrestler, MyKayla Birdseye, a sophomore, but she is mighty tough, too. This is her first season wrestling as a Pirate, but she has wrestling in the blood, with sister Emily having made it to state last season. But Mykayla's big sister graduated last season, so she's carrying the torch, so to speak.

Birdseye won a couple matches before the final of the Highline invite, and in the final, in the first round, she was down, 1-0, with no points for herself but one warning point awarded to the foe for what looked like Birdseye was stalling by locking arms in the first round. But both did that. So Birdseye and her Shelton foe spent the majority of the first two minutes just locking arms and jerking and tugging to see who could horse the other down to the canvas.

"She wasn't wrestling in the first round," said Perales, with Birdseye, standing nearby, who pinned a Lakes Lancers wrestler before the championship match of this Highline invite, where girls scored points for themselves, but were not added to the boys' team scoring totals.

"I was thinking too much," said Birdseye.

"Don't think, just do," said Perales.

Sounds like that could add new life to Nike's famous slogan?

Birdseye laughed, saying, "Just do it."

And, that's exactly what Birdseye did in the second round. She did what Perales knew she should have done in the first round -- wrestle. And Birdseye got a pin about halfway through round two's two-minute round.

"She is the toughest one I've wrestled," said Birdseye. "She was really strong. She had really nice arm strength."

Perales added, "She spent the whole first round backing up, got a stall point against her. I purposefully picked the neutral position for her to start the second round."

Birdseye could have started on top, but, Perales gave away that advantage to let Birdseye redo that first round's locking up of arms and try things like shooting and arm wrap-up technique with purpose, like tossing an opponent to the mat.

"I have faith in her throwing and shots," said Perales.

And, that's exactly what happened in the second round. Birdseye got on top, 2-1, with a take down via an arm locking followed by a throw to the canvas that resulted in a pin soon after.

Perales, then, spoke a little history for girls wrestling, starting with Mykayla's sister, Emily.

"In the final at regionals (preceding state meet), Emily was down, 12-0, and, the girl was leg-riding her, and Emily fell backwards, and fell on the girl to adjust nicely and got a pin to win the regional championship."

There's a saying in the Pirates' practice room, too, or, at least an understood reality, that Perales says is contributing to the Pirates' wrestling success which includes an undefeated Seamount season and now a first place tournament finish.

"Part of the success with the girls is that the boys wrestle the girls in practice," said Perales. "There's no girls/boys wrestling in our gym, just wrestling."

Tough being a wrestler, a lot to that mentality, for the boys, but what about the girls?

"All it takes is for them to be confident," said Perales. "For the whole team, we try to teach a mean mentality. Off mat, friends. But, out on the mat, even when wrestling your own team, wrestling a teammate, you have to have an attitude to win. Wrestling is individual but it's a team sport. But, sometimes, you have to wrestle against guys on your own team to go on, in a tournament, or in a dual. Only one goes on. Got to have that tough mentality."

And the attitude is one of rough and ready, but so is the practicing conditions a sweltering reality for those on the Pirates' team.

"I like to think a lot of our toughness is from the room we practice in. It's hot."

And, that room's got some nice lore in it, too, for a Highline program that dates way back to a "stark" reality of success.

"And, I don't know if you've been in there, but the names of great wrestlers are on the wall since 1976, since when coach, Dave Stark, started coaching. He, definitely, bred a tough guy mentality when he was here. I was a Pirate wrestler myself and our teams were undefeated all the years I was here, 2000 to 2004."
So the boys and the girls are tough, and other girls on the team who wrestle deserve a mention, including Carson Torres, at 110, and Gabby Brigden at 130, and Zee Hernandez at 140, and the other wrestler whom Perales said could make some state noise this season, besides Munoz and Birdseye, the 124 weight class wrestler, senior Adanech Mackey.

"She could, definitely, go to state, too. She was two points from making it last year," said Perales.