Mount Si wrestlers compete in state tournament at Tacoma Dome

By Evan Pappas • February 21, 2017 6:21 pm
Evan Pappas/Staff Photo Mount Si Wrestlers left from the school on Thursday, Feb. 16 in order to get some practice at the Tacoma Dome before the tournament the next day. From left, back row: David Moses, assistant coach, Josh Mitchell, head coach. Front row: Kinsey Steskal, Brennan Dalgleish, Mason Marenco, Duncan Harrison and Spencer Marenco.
Evan Pappas/Staff Photo Mount Si Wrestlers left from the school on Thursday, Feb. 16 in order to get some practice at the Tacoma Dome before the tournament the next day. From left, back row: David Moses, assistant coach, Josh Mitchell, head coach. Front row: Kinsey Steskal, Brennan Dalgleish, Mason Marenco, Duncan Harrison and Spencer Marenco.

Along with their two coaches, five Mount Si High School wrestlers traveled to the Tacoma Dome for the state tournament on Friday, Feb. 17.

Four wrestlers, Kinsey Steskal, Brennan Dalgleish, Duncan Harrison and Mason Marenco qualified for State, with Spencer Marenco making it in as an alternate.

The two senior wrestlers, Brennan Dalgleish and Mason Marenco, were able to make it into the top 8 in their brackets. Dalgleish took fourth and Marenco took fifth. They both lost to the eventual champion in the semi-finals match.

Harrison won his first match by pin, but lost the next two, including a close match that prevented him from placing. Similarly to Dalgleish and Marenco, Steskal lost to the champion in her first match. She won her next match, but lost a close third match and missed out on placing.

Josh Mitchell, head wrestling coach at Mount Si, said he was proud of the group and was glad the seniors were able to finish their high school wrestling careers on a high note. Mitchell also reflected on the season as a whole.

“I was happy with how the season went, we had a smaller team, but we really improved as the year went on,” he said. “They have wrestled hard all year and they deserve it.”

In looking at next year’s wrestling season, Mitchell is hoping that Mount Si students see the success of their wrestling classmates and are inspired to join.

“First I’m hoping the kids at school will notice what we’ve got going on here. We don’t have the biggest team, but we have success and we have a tough team,” he said. “Especially girls wrestling, Kinsey is as tough as it gets and hopefully her success will get more girls to come out and wrestle. There are other programs in the state that have 30 girls on their team, it’s one of the most growing sports in the state and I think not a lot of girls know about it.”

David Moses, assistant coach, said that one of their goals for next year is to try to fill in some of the weight classes that are missing from the team. With more students, a wider variety of weight classes can be represented at their meets.

“We need to get a few more wrestlers involved on the team, a lot of times we were missing five to six weight classes each time we had a big meet. We are missing a lot of the smaller classes and a couple of the bigger weight classes,” he said.

“One of our goals is to fill most of our weight classes for next year and then get a few more girls involved and maybe even get enough to have a girls team.”

Mitchell and Moses are looking forward to the continued success of and growth of the program next year.

“It’s a tough sport, but you stick it out and you get rewarded,” Mitchell said. “And wrestling at the Tacoma Dome is one of the biggest rewards you can get.”