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Amazing winter for area teams

Time to reflect on some of the highlights from the just-completed winter season.

• We’re four weeks removed from the Washington state wrestling tournaments and I’m still in awe of what North Central accomplished.

The Indians captured the State 3A championship with six wrestlers. That means they didn’t have competitors in eight of the weights. All six placed and two – the Quintanilla brothers, Clai (106) and Izaec (160) – brought home individual titles.

But I must correct an error. I was told the highest previous finish by an NC team was third. Actually the 1965 NC team, coached by Les Hogan, was second. That team was led by Jack Coffey, who won a state title at 148, and Dean Nakagawa, second at 106, and Dave Young, second at 178. The correction along with a copy of NC’s highest finishes at state was courtesy of Anna Mae Hogan, Les’ wife.

Back to the current team.

NC coach Luke Leifer believed his team had a chance of winning a state title but he knew it would have to be as close to a perfect performance as possible.

And it was. With a handful of participants, NC had to have multiple state placers, if not winners, and the Indians obliged.

The title was especially sweet to Leifer, an NC graduate.

“To come in here with six (wrestlers) is unbelievable,” he told me at state. “Usually this is a numbers game. You’ve got to get the numbers through and then you have to have the horses. We had the horses.”

NC will be a factor at state again next year. As will Mt. Spokane.

The 3A landscape changes next year with University, Sunnyside and Decatur bumping up to 4A.


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