Mount Si’s wrestling team had a fair showing last Saturday, Jan. 7, at the Kingco wrestling tournament at Liberty High School.

The Wildcats finished fifth overall as a team with 128.5 points, well behind league champion Bellevue, who scored 246 points.

As expected, Mount Si’s two senior leaders led the way, as Ryan Makela (140) and Ryan Ransavage (285) both won their individual weight classes. For Ransavage, though, the road there may have felt strange, as he had to face his teammate and good friend Michael Nelson in the semifinals of the 285 tournament. Ransavage pinned his teammate in 2:23 to move on, but all was not lost for Nelson, as he ended up finishing fourth in that division, a nice result for the Central Washington-bound athlete.

Makela’s road looked to be tough as well, but he easily beat Jun Hong Park of Bellevue and David Bowman of Mercer Island to take the crown in his weight division.

There were also other solid showings on the day. In the 112 class, Cody Botten took third, earning him a trip to districts. The freshman rallied from a semifinal defeat to pin Sam Merritt of Bellevue, taking the third place spot. In the 130, Ben Larson also had a nice showing, as he, too, finished third in his division. Larson took care of MI’s Salvatore Giampapa to grab the third place trophy. Joe Milks also finished third in his weight class, the 160. He had to rally from a first-round defeat and run the table in the loser’s bracket to take the crown, and he did that with ease, pinning Sammamish’s Grant Ludlam, MI’s Nolan Fisk and Fisk’s Islander teammate Harrison Webster in succession to grab third. With their third place trophies, Larson and Milks also moved on to the next round.

Nelson and Ransavage weren’t the only ones from Mount Si to face each other in a contest at the tournament. Danny Peterson and Andrew Sypher, both at 119, found themselves meeting one another in a loser’s bracket contest, which was won by by Sypher 10-4. He went on to finish fourth, falling to MI’s Kyle Shanafelt in the third and fourth match, while Peterson ended up fifth in the class, winning the spot by forfeit over Liberty’s Corbin Beltz.

Cody Hookland took fifth in the 135, beating MI’s Brian Shin for that spot. Dylan Cochran took fifth in the 145, winning a tight match with the Islanders’ Tucker Vassau for the crown. Shane Dixon rolled over Juanita’s Derek Reubish to take fifth in the 152 category. Brad Reaves finished sixth in the 171-pound class, and Tony Hanna did likewise in the 215-pound class.

The Wildcats who finished well advance to the regionals this weekend at West Seattle High School. It in effect is a district meet, since both Kingco and Metro wrestlers will be competing.