While the gym scoreboard showed a lopsided loss for the Mountlake Terrace wrestling team Thursday night, Hawks coach Grant Thompson didn’t show much concern with the final result, instead choosing to dwell on the positive individual performances from many on his squad.

Mountlake Terrace was trounced by the Glacier Peak Grizzlies 60-13 in a Wesco dual meet at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The Hawks were hampered in the team scoring totals by forfeiting five matches during the evening. “Obviously when you have five holes (in the lineup), it’s never easy. That’s 30 points,” Thompson said.

Thompson expects to have a few more wrestlers on the active roster soon but concedes that forfeits in the lower weight classes will continue this season as he will have no one to send out in the 106-, 113- and 120-pound divisions.

“We’re OK. We’re strong where I expect us to be strong,” Thompson added.

Thursday’s results showed four classes where Mountlake Terrace will be very competitive this year. Hawks Pavel Oliferovskiy (138), Taron Castleton (145), Daniel Oliferovskiy (160) and Kevin Massey (170) all won their matches against the visiting Grizzlies.

Thompson was especially impressed by the winning effort of Pavel Oliferovskiy, who defeated senior Mason Fairbanks 10-7. “Technically he’s wrestling well; he’s wrestling smart,” Thompson said of Oliferovskiy. “He’s only a sophomore and he’s won his last three matches. He’s wrestling! He looks like a wrestler, sticking to basics. He’s tough.”

Thompson was also pleased with the Kevin Massey and his 12-4 victory over GP’s Ian Jensen. “He looked really good; he surprised me honestly,” the coach said. “His shots were fast, he was relentless, he was really tough.”

Thompson admits that while team losses in dual meets may continue, he is instead trying to prepare his wrestlers for the big tournaments at the end of the season. “We’re the kind of team, I think, where we’ll focus on state, on regionals and districts. I have four or five guys that have a legitimate shot,” he said.

“We’re set up to be a tough tournament team more than a dual team,” Thompson said. “That’s just the nature of things. Last year we started out this way too; we started out slow, kind of sluggish. Then, I think, we ended the year second in districts and sent five down to Tacoma (the state championships). I think we can do it again.

“I’m not too worried,” Thompson said. “We’ll be good.”

– By Doug Petrowski

MTHS wrestling vs. Glacier Peak

Glacier Peak 60, Mountlake Terrace 13

106 — Morgan Beard (GPHS) won by forfeit
113 — Josh Vail (GPHS) won by forfeit
120 — Max Kiser (GPHS) won by forfeit
126 — Stefano McKinney (GPHS) defeated Moussa Traore (MTHS) by pinfall, 1:17
132 — Aldan MacDonald (GPHS) defeated Chris Smith (MTHS) by pinfall, 1:52
138 — Pavel Oliferovskiy (MTHS) defeated Mason Fairbanks (GPHS) 10-7
145 — Taron Castleton (MTHS) defeated Mats Haneberg (GPHS) 8-2
152 — Ricky Kranz (GPHS) won by forfeit
160 — Daniel Oliferovskiy (MTHS) defeated Micah Palmaffy (GPHS) 7-2
170 — Kevin Massey (MTHS) defeated Ian Jensen (GPHS) 12-4
182 — Griffin Thomas (GPHS) defeated Eric Brezman (MTHS) by pinfall, 5:05
195 — Marcus Becerra (GPHS) defeated Lex Davis (MTHS) by pinfall, 1:58
220 — Jesse Gere (GPHS) won by forfeit
285 — Rafael Gonzales-Bernal (GPHS) defeated Illai Wilson (MTHS) by pinfall, :42

MTHS next match: at the Wildcat Invite, Saturday, Dec. 13, 10 a.m. at La Center High School in La Center, Washington

MTHS next home match: vs. Oak Harbor and Stanwood, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 5:30 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School.