Jefferson County has three newly minted state medalists, one each from Chimacum, Quilcene and Port Townsend.

The East Jefferson Rivals high school wrestling team traveled to the Tacoma Dome for the Mat Classic state championships on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 21 and 22, and brought home hardware for each community.

Chimacum sophomore Gracee Liske earned a second-place finish in the 125-pound weight class for Class A/B girls. Quilcene senior Mason Iverson earned a fourth-place finish in the 215-pound weight class for B boys. Port Townsend junior Grady White earned a sixth-place finish in the 157-pound weight class for A boys.

Gracee Liske

Liske entered the event with a lot of questions about her status. She had recently torn a muscle in her shoulder and wasn’t sure she would be ready to compete. With plenty of rest and rehab, she decided to attempt this tournament knowing that her body may not be able to keep up.

But due to her league championship, earned two weeks prior, she was given a bye in the first round, which automatically advanced her to the next round of competition. Liske pinned Phaedra Mathis of Castle Rock in the third round to advance beyond the secnd championship round. She pinned Claire Peterson of Okanagan to advance out of the quarterfinals. Then, in her semi-finals match, she won 12-4 against Lillian Monaghan of Wilbur-Creston.  Monaghan was the No. 1 seed, and this was a major upset. 

Liske was matched up against Kiley Kaiser of Okanagan, a second seed in this weight class, in her finals match.

“Gracee’s finals match was the most explosive and quick-paced I have ever seen her wrestle,” said coach Jim Wilcox. “She earned a hard-fought take-down in the first round that resulted from a scramble, and Gracee dominating from a front headlock position.”

The second round was similar, with another take-down and putting her opponent on her back, which gave her an 8-0 lead going into the last round. 

“All three of us coaches looked at one another, knowing without saying it that we may be on the verge of our first state champ in over 40 years,” said coach Steve Grimm.

At the start of the third round, Liske’s Okanagan opponent chose the top position and never gave Liske a chance to get away. Liske was pinned with less than a minute remaining in the match. 

“Gracee is a focused athlete and it was amazing to see her tough it out at this tournament.  I think it was great to see her peak during the final tournament of our season. She is the natural leader of what may become a powerful girls team in our near future.”

Mason Iverson

Iverson competed in a full 32-man bracket with no byes available due to the higher number of schools in the boys B division. He won his first round championship match with a technical fall 15-0 over Tucker Binns of Goldendale. Iverson’s second match was a quick pin in under a minute over Landen Pillers of Newport. His quarterfinals match was another pin, this time over Chris Eberle of Toledo in the second round. Iverson lost in the semifinals to Damien Spears of Liberty Bell.

In his next match in the consolation semifinals, Iverson pinned Austin Morgan of Okanagan in the third period. This put Iverson in the third/fourth place match against another Okanagan wrestler, Oakley Bonewell, who has over 30 wins this season. Iverson was dominating this match with his trademark heavy hands and relentless, attack-style wrestling that had won him many matches this season.

Entering the third period, Iverson was leading by a few points and in firm control of his match before being reversed and pinned. Iverson is Quilcene’s first state-placer in wrestling.  Last year, he played basketball during the winter.

Grady White

White started his tournament fighting off a cold and a knee injury. On the first day of competition, he also earned a first-round bye due to his league championship two weeks prior. His first match was in the second championship round against a  strong Maddox Rodgers of Rochester.

White pinned him in the second round after dominating early in the match. That night, he continued to fight off his cold and was asleep in the team Airbnb by 6 p.m. Day two of his tournament featured him facing off against Kasen Polzel of Stevenson. Both were ranked in the top 10 of two different ranking organizations, so the thought was that it would prove to be a close match. It was not.

White obliterated his opponent 22-8 in a match that featured White putting his opponent on his back for most of the match, an overall dominating performance. White next had to wrestle an opponent that placed second at state last year, Raul Sanchez III of Wapato. He was the No. 1 seed and ranked as the top guy statewide for most of the season. In another clash of highly technical wrestlers, there was no score in the first period. White pulled ahead in the second period with an escape to lead the match 1-0. In the third period, White was maintaining control and pressure on his opponent when a furious scramble erupted with his opponent attempting to stand up and White pancaking him straight to his back momentarily, which should have won White the match.

But the Wapato wrestler was able to recover and it appeared action was stopped by a whistle. Both wrestlers began walking back toward the center of the mat when someone at the event yelled “Go” and White was taken down literally from behind not aware that the match had not stopped. Now down 2-1 with time running out, White had to attempt some higher risk moves and he got caught and pinned.

“That was a great match for the ages,” coach Grimm said at the Tacoma Dome. “Grady proved today that he can wrestle with anybody at the state at a very high level.”

Following his semifinal loss, White dropped his next two matches to Cael Orth of Royal and Kasen Polzel of Stevenson (his quarterfinal opponent) to finish sixth.

Grimm said the difference between the No. 1 and No. 10 wrestler at state tournaments “sometimes comes down to one move, one takedown, one extra second,” adding, “I am so proud of Grady for his efforts this past month at practice and today.”

Other EJ wrestlers with wins at the state tournament included Silas Klontz (3 wins), Rylen Kruse (1 win), Manaseh Lanphear Ramirez (1 win) and Savannah Grimm (1 win).

Ryan White is a wrestling coach at Port Townsend High School.