Road to Mat Classic starts this weekend for West Sound wrestlers

With the calendar reaching February, it means it's time for West Sound wrestlers to begin their trek on the road to the state wrestling tournament. Mat Classic XXXIV is scheduled for Feb. 17-18 at the Tacoma Dome.

This Saturday represents the first hurdle wrestlers must clear in order to advance this postseason: league or "sub-regional" tournaments. Wrestlers who finish high enough in their respective weight classes — usually it's top four, but that number can fluctuate depending on league size — advance to regional competitions, which are held the weekend before Mat Classic. Regionals is the same format as sub-regionals: finish high enough to advance to state, or it's time to go home.

Here are some other bits of information to chew on with Mat Classic two weeks away:

Bremerton hosting Olympic League sub-regionals

The only sub-regional/league wrestling tournament being held in our neck of the woods is Saturday's Olympic League 2A sub-regional boys tournament at Bremerton High School. Matches begin at 10 a.m. The Knights will be joined by Kingston, North Kitsap, North Mason, Olympic, Port Angeles and Sequim.

White River High School is hosting a girls sub-regional tournament on Saturday that will include Olympic League 2A teams as well as Klahowya, which competes at 1A.

Other Saturday tournaments are as follows: South Kitsap boys and girls (South Puget Sound League 4A tournament, Rogers High School, Friday and Saturday); Central Kitsap boys (South Sound Conference 3A tournament, Capital High School, Saturday; Central Kitsap girls (Prairie High School, Saturday); Bainbridge boys (North Puget Sound League 3A tournament, Kent Meridian High School, Friday-Saturday); Bainbridge girls (Decatur High School, Saturday); Klahowya boys (Nisqually League 1A tournament, Life Christian Academy, Saturday).

Rankings include state champs, new faces

Washington Wrestling Report does a fantastic job keeping fans informed of the state's top wrestlers through its rankings board, which is updated during the winter. Those rankings become more accurate once the postseason starts because every wrestler is locked into a specific weight class (as opposed to the regular season, when a wrestler might start the season at one weight class and then drop down).

This year, with Mat Classic dividing the girls tournament into two classifications (4A/3A and 2A/1A/B), Washington Wrestling Report responded by providing separate girls ranking lists.

So which West Sound girls are ranked heading into this weekend's tournaments? From the big schools we have Central Kitsap's Daytona Stoner (5th, 110 pounds), South Kitsap's Rosemary Brooks (2nd, 120) and Monica Kaiser (2nd, 145), and Bainbridge's Alexandra Morrison (6th, 130). From the small schools we have Olympic's Alexandria Templeton (1st, 120), North Kitsap's Emily Gomez (4th, 140) and North Mason's Sadie Evans (2nd, 155).

On the boys' side in 4A, South Kitsap is led by Brennen Williams (2nd, 113), Stone Hartford (2nd, 132), Mitchell Neiner (1st, 138) and Phillip Chobot (2nd, 182), while Quinn Lawrence (6th, 132) is Central Kitsap's top-ranked competitor in 3A. In 2A, notable names are North Mason's Jake Mathews (6th, 160), Bremerton's Thor Michaelson (1st, 170) and Lars Michaelson (1st, 182), North Kitsap's Ben Gomez (3rd, 182), Zakaria Hammou (3rd, 195) and Sofian Hammou (1st, 220).

Hartford, Neiner, Sofian Hammou and the Michaelson brothers all won their first individual state titles in 2022.

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This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Road to Mat Classic starts this weekend for West Sound wrestlers