Patriots win invitational without posting any individual titles
January 12, 2009
By Ryan Piersol
It seems Manny Brown won’t have to do any more preaching to his team about working as one — they’re already a step ahead of him.
Liberty High School wrestler Wright Noel’s headgear slips down during his match against Andrew Smith, of Kent-Meridian, in the championship match of the 140-pound weight class at the Liberty Invitational. By Ryan Piersol
On Jan. 10, at its own invitational, the Liberty High School wrestling squad failed to win a single weight class. Still, in true team fashion, the Patriots managed to pull out the tournament championship.
“That’s a great accomplishment, winning without a personal championship,” said Brown, in his third season as Liberty’s head coach. “It means the whole team chipped in and did a great job coming through with points when we needed them.”The team standings weren’t that close, either. The Patriots took first place with 175 points, while Kent-Meridian was second with 157 and Redmond third with 142.5. Henry Foss, which had a slew of individual champions, placed fourth with 142 points.
The closest Liberty came to winning a weight class was at 135, where Hamilton Noel suffered a 5-4 loss to Redmond’s Nolan Thomas. A takedown by Noel was ruled to have come one second after the match ended, paving the way to a win for Thomas.
It was the second time this season for Noel to lose in a close match to the Redmond rival.
“It was close,” he said. “I feel like I should’ve won. I just let him out of a headlock that cost me.”
Two other Liberty wrestlers advanced to the finals in their respective weight classes. Wright Noel fell to Andrew Smith, of Kent-Meridian, 11-4, at 140, while Malcom Dike lost a 7-2 decision to Ian Case, of Newport, in the 171-pound championship match.
Even though those three Patriots failed to win their weight classes, they picked up valuable team points. When those points combined with points derived from a large amount of third-place finishes, Liberty found itself atop the team standings.
“We have a good tournament team, because we have overall depth throughout,” Brown said. “And tournaments are great. It’s nice to have personal championships, but the whole goal is to get to state. And this is a stepping-off point on our way to state.”
Liberty wrestlers who earned third place at the tournament were: Dan Velasquez at 103, Corbin Beltz at 119, Matt Weik at 125, Jay Chakravarty at 152, Brandon Studer at 160 and Coleton Langdon at 285. Langdon’s third-place match came against teammate Nolan Leifer and ended in a fall at 1:12.
Newport, Interlake, River Ridge and Highline also competed at the eight-team invitational.
“We saw some quality wrestlers out here. We usually see some different schools in this tournament and it has continued to be a good tournament for us,” Brown said. “As a team, we’re progressing. We have five to eight wrestlers we’re hoping to take to state, which means we’ve come a long way in the last three years.”
Reach Reporter Ryan Piersol at 392-6434, ext. 246, or rpiersol@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.issaquahpress.com.
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