Prep wrestling notebook: Teams prepare for changes to district tournament, Mat Classic

During the past decade, Mat Classic has had to make minor tweaks from year to year as the sport’s popularity has grown across the state.

But the boom in interest – especially on the girls side – has forced the WIAA to make one of its biggest adjustments yet as the state tournament will go from two days to three this year with expanded bracket sizes across the seven classifications.

“A lot of the changes came down to conversations with the state coaches association and athletic directors to figure out the direction they wanted to go,” said Justin Kesterson, assistant executive director at the WIAA.

The other major shift is the elimination of the regional round, which traditionally took place between districts and Mat Classic. Now each of the six WIAA districts will run their own tournaments to assign state allotments and the qualifying wrestlers from those tournaments will go directly to the Tacoma Dome.

“Some of these changes came down to a financial decision and looking at the cost of running 25 regional tournaments as well as state,” Kesterson said. “The coaches were also big on keeping Mat Classic together with everyone under one roof, so in balancing all of that we came to the decision to remove regionals and add the third day to state.”

With the changes to the WIAA districts this year, Greater Spokane League schools, along with the area’s 1A and B leagues, will now compete in District 6 tournaments with schools from the Tri-Cities area.

Next month’s district tournaments for GSL teams are scheduled at Pasco High School (4A boys), Hermiston (Oregon) High School (3A boys) and Hanford High School (4A/3A girls) on Feb. 7-8. The 2A boys will compete at East Valley and 2A girls at Rogers on Feb. 15.

Mat Classic will begin Feb. 20 with 4A boys, 3A boys and 4A/3A girls, with those finals being wrestled Feb. 21 evening. 2A boys, 1A boys, B boys and 2A/1A/B girls will begin wrestling Feb. 21 morning and finish with a finals session on Feb. 22.

Area coaches earn Hall of Fame spots: Travis Hughes of Mt. Spokane, Phil McLean of Mead and Gonzaga Prep, and Dave Smith of Mountain View Middle School (East Valley school district) were part of the latest Washington State Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame class, honored in November.

The coaches were selected through a voting system of current Hall of Fame members along with the WSWCA executive board.

Hughes led the Wildcats’ program for 21 seasons until he stepped down in 2022. McLean is still in charge of a Mead program that has won the past three State 3A titles and will look to add a fourth next month after a move up to the 4A level. Smith was the Mountain View wrestling coach for 24 years, which included a 20-year streak without a loss.

University fourth in latest rankings: Washington Wrestling Report released its first team rankings Jan. 7 in the 3A classification, with University in the No. 4 slot.

White River and Hermiston (Ore.) earned the top two spots, followed by Lincoln (Tacoma) and the Titans. Mt. Spokane is eighth and Shadle Park is tied for 14th.

U-Hi junior Czar Quintanilla is the top-ranked wrestler at 126 pounds, and teammate Samuel Thomas is first at 165. Mt. Spokane’s Jayson Bonnett (144) and Shadle’s Tyrese Guzman (157) are also ranked first in their weight classes.

In 4A, Mead’s Kaysic Lundquist (120) and Braeden Harvey (215) are ranked first. 2A rankings have not been updated .