By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

No one has stayed with the Highline wrestling team so far this Seamount League season.

The Pirates blew past Kennedy already and now, in their most recent wins, they left Tyee and Evergreen in the dust by 78-4 and 72-9 scores, respectively, on the road in the Wolverines' gymnasium Thursday.

"Still moving," said Highline head coach Casey Rice.

And those wins spoken of above do not include their non-league match victory against the Fife Trojans, a team that's made runs at state titles in 2A in the recent past.

The Pirates handed the Trojans a close loss, 39-38, Wednesday, Dec. 17, a day before the Tyee/Evergreen match, so that's more company added to the Pirates' speedy start to the season so far.

And, going back to that Trojans match, the Pirates received pins from 145-pound weight class freshman Ty Shanklin (1:23) and at 152 senior Kelvin Herbruger (3:49). Junior Brian Womac (:30) won by pin at 220 as did Kenta Niizuma (2:25) at 285. And, at 120, senior Zach Edson earned a technical fall, 19-2. At 160, senior Justin Herbruger scored a 20-2 technical fall, too. Also, only the Pirates' Kevin Almazon, at 106, got a forfeit win while the Trojans got forfeit victories at 138, 182, 195 weights.

So, that's all to say, a nice win for the Pirates against a Trojans team that took third place as a team in the state of Washington in 2012 and fourt in 2013 in Mat Classic state meet action at the Tacoma Dome.
Versus the Totems and Wolverines, who combined as one team, but, still count as two separate matches, the Pirates' benefited from nice efforts by several of their wrestlers, including two pin wins for Kevin Almazon, at 106. He pinned his first man in 1:18 of the first round, and, even quicker, went the Wolverines' wrestler to the canvas, pinned, in 37 seconds of round one. Another freshman, at 113, Kyle Herbruger, pinned his foe to his backside in 3:30 of the second round.

Then, at 120, the senior, Edson, the Pirates' lone state meet representative last season, found things a little tough to start in the first round of his Tyee match against Christian Matlock, who actually pushed into Edson with a power, two-point, take-down move, knocking Edson down in the first round for a 2-0 lead. But the savvy, experienced, Edson, quickly regrouped in the first round, weathering that charge by getting a reversal on Matlock, to tie the match, 2-2, early on.

"I knew him from freestyle, had a little idea what he could do," said Edson, speaking of "freestyle" wrestling done outside of school, that the dedicated wrestlers commit to off-season. Edson, by the way, finished eight place in the state of Washington at last February's Mat Classic meet in the T-Dome. "I don't like the neutral starting position. I'm always more confident top or bottom because I can settle in more, doing my weird stuff."

So, in the second round, Edson got a takedown quickly, along with two near-falls, to counter one loss of point from an illegal hold. So Edson led, 10-3, after the second round. And, in the third round, Edson just continued to show finesse, and power, turning a fairly strong Matlock move into a reversal for a 12-3 lead. And, from there, Edson locked up his foe's arms, and legs, in a pin move at 5:34 of round three.
Edson felt like he could have gone longer in the match, too. A credit to that goes to his head coach, Rice, along with assistantsTim Perales and Vin Tran.

"They work us hard," said Edson. "They condition us very well. That was the biggest factor in the match. I felt like I could have went an extra round or two before being tired."

Edson, who is 3-0 in league, was the only other wrestler who did double duty against the Wolverines and Totems, like Almazon. Both got two wrestles, this due to the nature of the match, being with two schools, and, that, logistically, was how things were done. Edson pinned his second guy, from the Wolveines, in 45 seconds of the first round.

Pirates' coach Rice saw some good things from a lot of his wrestlers, highlighting on a certain surprise from freshman Eli Warner wrestling at 170. Maybe, too,"'surprise" is not the perfect word choice either for Rice's feelings following Warner's wrestle.

"The freshman stepped up to the plate," said Rice. "Got called into action. First varsity match."
Warner went against a formidable foe in the Wolverines' Leonard Simmons, who got up, 4-0, in points, to start the match, via a reversal and a near-fall. But Warner, still, in the first round, turned the tables on Simmons' momentum some with a take-down in the last 30 seconds of the first round, so it was 4-2 Simmons.

Warner was a little worried at that point, as some can probably suspect.
"I knew I had to change something," said Warner. "I had to step up my game, help the team win. I couldn't let my teammates down."

Warner's Pirate teammates were all into Warner's match, and, all the matches, really, as was Wolverine and Tyee coach, Hip Nguyen's team, who cheered, "Pirates," with a team clap in unison, after every single match, showing nice sportsmanship there.

So, Warner was worried, he admitted, but ready for the mission on the mat. Ready beforehand, actually, too.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking going into the match, my first year of high school wrestling, my first match on varsity," said Warner. "But, I hit the kill switch, mentally, in my mind and I knew I won before I stepped on the mat."

Impressively, then, the Pirates' Warner put a little psychology into his psyche, and, it worked, for a nice comeback win for his wrestle.

And, Warner's admissions ran deeper than just being nervous going into the match against Simmons, as, Warner admitted, too, that he found inspiration from a teammate, Ty Shanklin, a fellow freshman, who, at 145, had used a certain wrestling move to pin his foe 3:54 into round two.

"I used Ty's move," said Warner. "He uses a 'cowcatcher' when he got his guy in a headlock."
That's it, exactly, as Warner, first, in the second round, got a near-fall to cut Simmons' 4-0 lead to 4-3 before doing a pin at 4:48 of the second round.

Almazon's freshman efforts on the mat were mentioned, too, by Rice,after already been aforementioned here for a double-pin win. But, the accolades for this young man continue.

"Kevin's 2-0, keeps getting stronger," said Rice. "He's our 106 pounder. Another freshman."
And, so, there's a certain growing theme going on with this Pirate team. They are looking strong now for a lot of years to come, if the talented freshmen keeps up this kind of strong competing throughout the season into sub-districts, regionals and hopefully state, too.

So, with five freshmen of the 14 weight classes for the Pirates, that bodes well for the Pirates' booty in the future in the Seamount -- and beyond.

"Helps us in the long run," said Rice.

Another Pirate wrestler, junior Kenta Niizuma, going up against his Totem foe, Daniel Garcia, found himself on the short end of things, on his back, nearly pinned by Garcia, who got a takedown right at the get-go and a near-fall soon after, as Niizuma struggled to keep both shoulders from being pinned to the mat for the standard three-seconds a referee counts before slamming an arm to the mat, signaling "pin."
So, down, 5-0, after the first round, Niizuma, again, saw Garcia the aggressor, to start round two, as, Garcia did a shoot at Niizuma's legs, with a lunge. And, Niizuma went down, but, before any points by Garcia could be recorded, Niizuma did a reversal. That made it 5-2, Garcia. After Garcia did a reversal of his own, a minute later, in the second round, to up his lead to 7-2, Niizuma pinned him at 3:54.
"Two big wins in a row," said Rice. "He pinned the guy from Fife, too."

Nice comeback of sorts for Niizuma, too, who lost to Kennedy's Sebastian Ferraro a week earlier to the Garcia pin win for Niizuma. Niizuma lost on a first round pin by Ferraro a week ago. But, fairly assessing things, Ferarro is very tough, preseason ranked No. 2 in the state wrestler going into this season in 3A.
Niizuma downplayed his win over Garcia.

"He stuck an arm out, made a mistake, I took the opportunity," said Niizuma.

Warner, Niizuma's teammate, was standing nearby, and he was impressed with how Niizuma came back in this one.

"When a big guy gets another big guy on his back, it's hard to get up," said Warner.
But Warner knew what he found out after watching his upperclassman teammate wrestle on this night against Tyee.

"I found out Kenta could pin real good," said Warner. "Like a freakin' beast."
And, another strong Pirates win by pin developed into beastly reality when junior Brian Womac, at 220, pinned his guy at 1:50 of round one.
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"If he keeps working hard, good things will happen," said Rice. "Looking tough, but, he's still got some work to do."

The other three pins of the night vs the Totems/Wolverines wrestlers were from junior Michael Hall, at 126, and senior Kelvin Herbruger, at 152, and, senior Jimmy Matta at 182 for the Pirates. Hall pinned his opponent at 1:23 of round one, and Herbruger pinned his man at 1:35 of round one, and, Matta pinned his guy at 3:05 of round two.

Tyee's only wrestling win of the night was from their senior, Cameron Doung, at 138, who won by a 14-0 major decision.

Doung scored a lot of points during the match, with getting a takedown and a near-fall in the first round for a 4-0 lead. Then in the second round he got another near-fall and a reversal. His foe did take Doung down in round three, a hard slam to the mat, but Doung just kept his body rolling into the fall, and, kept the takedown from being any points for his foe by getting a reversal. Then a near-fall in the final 30 seconds totaled Doung's score.

Doung's goal, for the Totems, is to make state but it's not namely on his mind.
"Everyone's goal should be to make state, but that's prettty hard for me, being a second-year wrestler," said Doung. "If I can easily get a positive record, then, state woudl be my goal. For, now, making state is a secondary goal. My main goal is finishing the season with a good record."

And Doung wanted to give credit where credit was due, too.

"I want to thank my coaches for pushing me when they know to push me," said Doung. "I thank them for not giving up on the team. They know a lot of these guys are freshmen. It's hard for coaches. They have to keep re-teaching moves."

Also , for the Pirates, wrestling well, was a freshman, Mikayla Birdseye, who pinned her foe in girls wrestling, which is not considered for points in team scoring.

And, while girls are being mentioned, the Pirates' managers, who keep scores of matches for all the teams and help out in practices in any way coaches ask, are Isabelle Heier and Ana Calvo Quintela.