The Mount Si wrestling team saw its season come to a stunning conclusion at the Mat Classic February 19 in Tacoma, as all five wrestlers were quickly eliminated from the state 3A competition.

One, senior Trey Botten (140), didn’t even get to compete at all, as he was knocked out of action due to a concussion. As for the remainder of the Wildcat delegation, Andrew Sypher (119) fared the best of the four, but he, like the others, went 0-2 and was sent home. Sypher fell to Robinson Ubunga of Lynnwood in a 7-6 decision, then was eliminated in a 3-1 decision to Columbia River’s Jake Crawford.

Senior Ben Larson (135) was pinned twice to end his high school career; the pins came at the hands of East Valley-Spokane’s Sean Biltoft and North Kitsap’s A.J. Millyard. Cody Botten (125) and Lee Amador (160) also were pinned in their first round matches. Botten was pinned by Union’s Tyler Davis, then the Wildcat sophomore was on the short end of a 10-5 decision against another East Valley-Spokane opponent, Alex Rockstrom. Amador was quickly pinned in his first match by Enumclaw’s Kario Wallin, then the Wildcat senior fell in a tight 3-2 decision to Ferndale’s Pedro Mungarro to knock Amador out of the tournament.

Larson, despite his struggles, was happy the whole group got to compete. “I think that it was great for us to all be down there (and) experience the competition. It’s a great level of competition,” Larson said. He added this season was special in many ways. “I think we’re most going to remember just the fact that we had a new coach come in, we had a really young team and how far we made it,” Larson said.

The senior had this message for fans. “They should be a good team to look for. Come out to the matches and support them,” Larson said.