SK matmen sweep Silverdale schools

After passing its biggest test last week, the South Kitsap High School wrestling team proved yet again it is the king of the Narrows League.

The first test came Tuesday at home against a talented Olympic team.

The fiery Trojans had their sights set on ending SK’s 91-match Narrows League winning streak but SK squashed those hopes with a 46-18 win.

Two days later SK struggled early in the unfriendly confines of the Central Kitsap, only to battle back to win 40-25 and extend the league-match winning streak to 93.

Down 14-0 SK won three decisions in a row to make it 14-9 but CK’s Josh Martinelli scored a big 10-6 decision over Evan Winslow to extend its lead to 17-9.

Dean Hoskins (171) came up huge with crucial pin points against Malcolm

Peterson to pull SK to 17-15.

Wrestling at the heavyweight for the first time this year, SK’s Jon Potts earned a pin, giving way to the low ends (Corey Westlin, Micah Kipperberg, Derek Kipperberg, Dustin Johnson) to cap the comeback win.

On Tuesday Olympic jumped out to a 6-0 lead and could have pushed it higher had 103-pounder Alex Jaime not been over the weight limit by a pound.

That gave SK’s Corey Westling a win by forfeit, which tied the score 6-6.

SK coach Ron Hudiburg said he figured SK would win at least six matches and Olympic had four matches.

“That left four matches that I thought were going to be close, and we ended up winning all of them,” Hudiburg said. “We won 10 matches against them and I thought we could get eight. The kids just wrestled really well. When you get up ahead of steam like that, it’s hard to come back on them.”

Brendon Little (130 pounds) started to give SK its momentum with a third-round pin of Curtis Snell with 38 seconds remaining.

Craig Senter (135 pounds) picked up where Little left off and earned a hard-fought 12-6 decision against J.J. Zettle.

John Cisney (140) and Patrick Kelly (145) earned also earned third-round pins to take the wind out of Olympic’s sails.

Kyle Caldon (152) kept his composure against Mike Anglada — who looked like he’d rather brawl than wrestle at times — for a 12-2 major decision.

Evan Winslow (160) held off a tough Luke Switzer to earn a 7-3 decision.

Jon Potts (215) was SK’s other winner. He earned an 11-4 major decision against Austin Hicks.

The match had been hyped as SK’s best chance to end the streak, but Winslow said his teammates had no doubt they would win.

“An hour before the match we were pumped up and ready (in the mat room) to wrestle,” Winslow said. “We were ready to go out there and take it to them.

Winslow said Little set the pace with his late pin.

“We got a few pins in there and every kid wrestled their heart out,” he said.

Little said he respects Olympic’s team but there wasn’t any one wrestler the team feared.

“We had never seen these guys in tournaments and they hadn’t seen us so that’s the way it goes,” Little said. “They didn’t have any guys that were new. They just had a bunch of no-names that are pretty tough. We had a lot of guys that came through and wrestled tough matches.

“I don’t have any excuses for a good old-fashioned butt-whipping, but that’s

exactly what we got,” Olympic coach Darryl Smith said. “We’re a good team and South today and probably every day is a much better team. It doesn’t matter if we’re 0-10 and they’re 10-0. That’s pretty much the highlight of the season. But it won’t be too long before we start to hate losing to South as much as we hate losing to Central.”

SK concludes its biggest week of wrestling with the CK Matmen Tournament today at 10 a.m.

The Wolves wrap up the Narrows League Bridge Division with a home dual match against Gig Harbor Tuesday at 7 p.m.

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