TUMWATER — Lewis Allen has never been a headliner in the W.F. West High School wrestling lineup. Still, he finished top-three in his first three Evergreen Conference Championships and qualified for Mat Classic last year.
For a program rich in history and since Allen entered the room, the Bearcats have been littered with multiple-time state medalists and sprinkle in some state champions to the bowl. The 144-pounder has been around a bounty of talent.
Now, in his final wrestling campaign for the maroon and white, he’s become a main character for W.F. West.
And like the stars of yesteryear, Allen had his moment in the spotlight on Saturday night.
Allen won an exchange of reversals against Aberdeen’s Adonis Hammonds and three nearfall points at the end of the second period and four in the third proved to be the cushion needed to claim a 16-6 major decision triumph at Tumwater High School.
“It feels really good to put a (cap) on my (league) season,” Allen said. “It was a big relief.”
W.F. West, headlined by three champions and five total wrestlers securing spots at the latest rendition of Mat Classic, piled up 377 points to once again win the EvCo team title. Tumwater was second with 301.5 points and Centralia took third with 257 points. Black Hills was fifth at 142.5 points.
The Bearcats, at one point uncertain if they would be able to make it back-to-back years with a state trophy, are seeing reality this could be another memorable trip to the Tacoma Dome. They’ll have 12 guys needing one more win at the 2A Crossover next week in Chehalis.
“The freshmen have matured a lot and we’ve all grown as a team,” senior Race Scalici said.
Coming into Saturday, Allen has placed third, second and second at leagues. He lost to Jesus Campos two years ago and Alex Concepcion 3-0 last year. He was the No. 2 seed this time around and jumped out of the gates with back-to-back pins spanning 3 minutes, 29 seconds.
He scored the first takedown versus Hammonds, then neither wrestler controlled from top and proceeded to reverse each other five straight times.
“He’s a really good roll-through guy and I can play around on roll-throughs,” Allen said. “We both just copied each other.”
Allen’s last reversal was with 34 seconds left in the second and his three nearfall points came with three seconds to go. He chose bottom in the third, reversed Hammonds for the final time and nearly got the pin.
There was a wide smile donned across Allen’s face.
“I finally got that gap and I felt myself calm down more,” he said.
“It is awesome; he came a long way,” classmate Graysen Serl said.
Scalici and Serl dominated their day with a combined five bonus point wins. At 157, Scalici went catch-and-release versus Tumwater’s Zachary Warner until four back points put him in tech fall territory. Serl (175) needed just two minutes to pin Black Hills’ J.J. Oraya in the finals.
The senior duo, with just two combined losses this winter, are three-time EvCo champs.
“I’m content, but I am really happy with the work all three of us put in,” Scalici said.
The host T-Birds saw two juniors in Concepcion (138) and Gavin Kaikkonen (165) had their arms raised in victory. It’s the second straight league title for Concepcion and the first for Kaikkonen. They had six guys clinch Mat Classic berths and nine will wrestle in the crossover.
The 138-pound final between Concepcion and W.F. West’s Gabe Alvarado had plenty of twists and turns. Up 3-0 and on top, locked hands was called on Concepcion then Alvarado got a reversal to knot the bout at 3-3.
“Usually, I don’t think about it. Keep my head down and keep wrestling,” Concepcion said. “When I first joined wrestling, I never thought I’d ever be a league champion.”
Then in the third, Alvarado had his opponent in a chicken wing and the official called a potentially dangerous and awarded Concepcion one point. He proceeded to nab a reversal and four back points for a 10-3 win.
Kaikkonen scored first in the second and immediately took Centralia’s Elijah Day to his back for the pin at 165.
“I didn't put all that work in to just give up,” Concepcion said.
For the Tigers, they walked out with three champions in Adrian Hernandez (106), Benito Escalera (126) and Zachary King (190). Hernandez won by fall, Escalera upended Black Hills’ Cash Boos 6-0 in a top-10 matchup and King dominated his way to a 13-2 major.
Escalera, a transfer from Onalaska, still has just one loss this season heading into Mat Classic. Centralia automatically put seven guys into state in two weeks and eight more can claim spots with wins on Wednesday.
“I love wrestling; I knew I was gonna get better,” Escalera said. “Expanding my pallet a bunch. I’m gassed by the end of practice and that helps my stamina. I can push the pace.”
With Escalera on top in the second, it took him until the waning seconds of the second period to reverse Boos for the first points of the match. He unleashed a double leg takedown in the third to seal the victory.
“Be smart and stick to what I know,” Escalera said. “At first, I wanted to turn him, so I wanted to see if he would make a mistake and see if I could capitalize off it.”
Black Hills witnessed Rashid Farah (120) and Rorek Foss (132) end up on top of the podium. Foss needed just a second period reversal to clip Hunter Van Der Hoeff 2-0 at 132 while Farah was the aggressor from the jump and recorded a pin in 1:47.
The Wolves have four spots booked for Tacoma and could get two more in the crossover.
“I feel like I’m going to place higher; make it to the finals,” Foss said.
It’s the second straight league title for Foss. He never wrestled Van der Hoeff prior to Saturday, but felt it was a stylistic similarity. Neither one finished shots and Foss executed the third period rideout to perfection to hold on.
“It was constant throughout, just an amazing match in my opinion,” Foss said. “As the match kept progressing, I came to realize that was how it would end. I didn’t want to wrestle another match.”
