TACOMA — Four years after being introduced to the sport, Nathan Cristion is the fourth-best 189-pound wrestler in all of Class 2A.
The Port Angeles senior ended his high school career on a bittersweet note Saturday after placing fourth as the top North Olympic Peninsula finisher at Mat Classic XXIII this weekend.
“He didn’t even know wrestling existed prior to his freshman year,” Port Angeles head coach Erik Gonzalez said. “He has come a long way.
“I believe his potential in wrestling . . . he’s barely even touched the tip of the iceberg.”
Three area wrestlers placed in the state championship event at the Tacoma Dome, with Forks getting two of its wrestlers in the top seven at Class 1A.
That included a fifth-place finish from 119-pound junior Cutter Grahn and a seventh-place showing from 125-pound senior Tyler Cortani.
“You might want to be a little better, but you can’t be too upset when they are state medalists,” Forks coach Bob Wheeler said.
“They both ended their season with a win, so that is good.”
That was not the case for Cristion, however.
Despite being the top finisher among 11 area representatives at the Tacoma Dome this weekend, Cristion was forced to go out on a loss.
The defeat ended what was a roller-coaster day for the lone semifinalist from the Peninsula.
That began with a deflating 7-4 loss to state runner up Joey Gomez in the semifinals.
Cristion then scored a pin victory over Steilacoom’s Jake McCane in 4 minutes, 21 seconds, to get into the third-place match.
Going up against “clone,” Kole Braaten of Centralia, in the final match of his career, Cristion fell 5-2.
“It was a battle all the way,” Gonzalez said. “[Braaten] was Nate. They were almost like clones of each other.
“[Cristion] came over afterward, and said ‘Geez that kid is strong.’ I’m laughing because I was thinking, ‘You’re strong yourself.
“It was an interesting battle. Unfortunately, Nate made a couple of mistakes.”
The fourth-place finish was the second placement of Cristion’s career at the Mat Classic, including last year’s eighth-place finish.
Gonzalez said he’s already got a couple of schools looking for Cristion to join their wrestling program.
“He definitely wants to pursue wrestling at the next level, and I think he’s going to be a great college wrestler,” Gonzalez said.
Grahn comes back
The end isn’t quite here for Grahn, however.
In fact, the Spartan junior opened up the possibility of making Spartan history as a senior next year after placing fifth in 1A at 119 pounds Saturday.
“We’ve never had anybody place three times,” Wheeler said. “We’ve had several that have placed twice.”
Grahn and Cortani both joined that company on Saturday.
Grahn did it the hard way, rebounding from a first round upset loss with three straight wins.
Unfortunately for the Spartan, Andres Tereza of Highland was standing in the way of a spot in the third-place match.
And just like he did when the two met in the first round, Tereza topped Grahn by a three-point margin (7-4).
“That kid was a lot better than we really thought,” Wheeler said.
“He blocked the stuff that Cutter was best at, and Cutter didn’t have enough of a backup to come up with something else.”
Grahn finished out the tournament with a pin of Orting’s Dillon Stiles in the fifth-place match in 2:15.
It was his fourth victory of the tournament, the most of any area wrestler, and enough to top his sixth-place mark from a year ago.
Cortani also improved on his last placement — his eighth-place finish in 2009 — after going 3-2 on the weekend.
That included a 2-1 victory in the seventh-place match against Michael Huckins Of Omak.
“Tyler got the first takedown in the first round and then each of them rode the other out and nobody got away,” Wheeler said.
Eight eliminated Friday
All eight of the Peninsula’s other state wrestlers were eliminated by Friday night.
Sequim had three wrestlers come within a win of the 2A medal round, with Dakota Hinton (171), Emilio Perete-Colin (215) and Amariah Clift (285 girls) all winning one match.
“We knew we were still young from last year when we started the year,” Sequim coach Len Borchers said.
“I said, ‘Boy if we get anybody here, it’s going to be a good year. We brought five kids total and they competed well. Now they know what it’s going to take.”
Cristion was the lone Rider of the team’s three state representatives to earn a win this weekend.
“It was a great season,” Gonzalez said. “Our kids came a long way.
“We’re looking forward to next year. We do lose the five seniors, so we have some big shoes to fill, but we feel we have some kids that are ready to step in.”