MAT CLASSIC WRESTLING: Forks’ Blair, Daman state champions

Published 12:15 pm Sunday, February 22, 2026

TACOMA — For the first time since 1992, the Forks wrestling programs have two state champions.

The Forks boys also for the ninth straight year finished among the top seven teams at state, coming in third as a team at the Mat Classic with a total of eight wrestlers placing, including 285-pound state champion Kenneth Daman.

Joining Daman on the championship podium was Forks’ Jade Blair, who won the 125-pound state title at the girls 1B/2B tournament. Blair won the title with four straight pins, including one match in which she was trailing on points. She beat Jayleth Gonzalez of Kiona-Benton in the title match to finish her season on a perfect high note. Blair finished third at state last year.

Daman won with five straight pins. Not one of his matches reached the third round. He beat Carter Pease of River View in the championship match. He finished fifth last year.

The last time Forks had two state champions was 1992, according to athletic director Kyle Weakley.

The Forks boys finished third with 179 points. Granger won the 1B/2B state championship with 208.5 points while Tonasket was second at 201. Forks finished sixth last year, second on 2024, first in 2023, fourth in 2022, seventh at 1A in 2020 (there was no Matt Classic in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), third in 2019, fourth in 2018 and sixth in 2017.

A total of 15 Olympic Peninsula athletes, 12 boys and three girls, placed at the Mat Classic in various classifications.

Forks had seven other boys who placed beside Daman.

Braden Camacho-Roldan capped off a successful season for the Spartans by finishing third at 126 pounds, going 5-1 at the Mat Classic, winning his third-place match with a 12-0 major decision over Bearett Murphey of Freeman.

Landon Thomas finished fourth at 144 pounds, while Orlando Camacho was sixth at 113, Simeone Jackson-Cruz sixth at 132 and Dominick Sanchez sixth at 106. Luis Ornelas was eighth at 157 and Adrian Sanchez was eighth at 165.

East Jefferson has two wrestlers place at the 1A meet. Manaseh Lanphear-Ramirez won three straight matches at 150 pounds to make it to the championship match. He lost a close decision 4-2 to Connor Crum of Seton Catholic. Crum got a 3-point takedown which ended up being the difference.

Grady White of East Jefferson finished fifth at 165 pounds. He went 3-2 on the day, beating Maddox Rodgers of Rochester in the fifth-place match.

Port Angeles had three wrestlers place. Kyler Williams finished seventh at 126 pounds while team veteran Oliver Martinez was seventh at 175. Both wrestlers went 4-2 on the day.

The Roughriders’ Lilly Lancaster had a busy weekend to finish fifth in the girls 1B/1A/2A meet at 115 pounds. Lancaster had to wrestle eight matches, going 6-2 over the weekend to win her medal. A highlight of her meet was a victory by pin when she was losing on pints 7-3.

And finally, for Sequim Ryan Spelker was eighth at 132 pounds.

One highlight for Quilcene is they had an eighth-grade girl at the Mat Classic, Kindle Iverson. Wresting at 145 pounds, she won her opening match but was not able to place.