Montesano’s junior high wrestling team wrapped up its season in style last week posting 51 wins and 23 losses in competition with squads from Elma, Hoquiam, Bush, Raymond, Rochester and Shelton. The team had 225 wins and 89 losses on the season.

More impressively, the team had 167 pins and technical falls (wins by 15 or more points).

Two Monte wrestlers remained undefeated as their season concluded. Eighth-grader Cole Ekerson, who has been wrestling since he was 4 years old, finished with 17 wins. First-year wrestler Denali Harris, also in eighth grade, got 12 wins. Harris, who joined the team just prior to midseason, is a quick study, and he and Ekerson should both find success at the high school level, coaches said.

Of the 20 members on the team, 17 finished the season with winning records. Eighth-graders Sean Ryker, Kaleb Ames, Ethan Blundred and Mateo Sanchez each suffered just one loss.

Coach Darrel White, who concluded his first season as Montesano’s junior high coach, believes the eighth-graders will have an immediate effect when they join the high school team next year.

“They are a great bunch of athletes,” White said.

White, who wrestled himself on the earliest Montesano wrestling teams, has been coaching wrestling for 51 years and will be volunteering as an assistant on the high school squad with the conclusion of the junior high season. He expressed appreciation to the junior high wrestlers and their parents for their effort and support. He also praised his assistants and volunteers: Pat Pace, Jacci Ryker and Austin Cain and Linda Cain.

“They are all great people and we are fortunate to have had them working with our kids this season,” White said. He also expressed appreciation for the support staff at the school and indicated that the much improved high school wrestling facilities have been a huge factor in the team’s success.

This week, five members of the team received a special blue-collared T-shirt in recognition of consistent effort to manifest what White referred to as “blue collar values.” Recipients were Ekerson, Ryker, Blundred, Reid Pace and Sanchez.

“Wrestling is a blue collar sport,” White said. “There is nothing easy about it, and I believe that it can be used to teach kids to give an honest day’s effort each and every day.”

Wrestlers of the Week

Named as Wrestlers of the Week for the final week of the season were seventh-grader Cohen Andersen and eighth-graders Harris and Rylee Chapman. All three boys are first-year wrestlers. Andersen won 2 of his final 3 matches and has scored 5 pins this season. Harris has quickly become a favorite of fans because of his quickness, agility and strength, and he is a gifted athlete with virtually unlimited potential. Chapman, who White considers one of the most improved wrestlers on his team, solidified as a wrestler during the past two weeks and won 4 of his last 5 matches, pushing his season record to 7 wins and 6 losses.