The boys’ wrestling team won the 4A state championship for the second consecutive year, winning five matches in three days, including victories over rivals BCC Barons and Churchill Bulldogs. This year’s team became Whitman’s first wrestling team in the school’s history to win two straight state championships.
The Vikes’ road to the State championship began on Thursday when they faced Magruder in the first round of the regional tournament. They won easily, 53–21. They then went into Friday, needing to win both matches to win the regional championship and advance to the state semi-finals. The first of the matches was a 44–26 victory over Northwest.
Friday afternoon, after beating Northwest, the Vikes faced Churchill in the regional finals, a team they had easily beaten earlier in the season 62–12 and 50–21. This match though, was different, with the stakes being higher and Churchill ready to avenge their first two losses. The Bulldogs came out ready to win, as they jumped out to an early lead, winning surprising matches against a couple of the Vikes stronger wrestlers.
By the time there were three matches left, the Vikes trailed 32–21, needing to win all three matches to advance. First was junior Andy Boshnick, wrestling up a weight class to face the Bulldogs heavyweight. Boshnick pinned him, giving the Vikes hope. Then was sophomore Noah Reising Rubli who had a tech fall versus his opponent, tying the score at 32 with just one match remaining. With the season on the line, Sophomore Avnish Awasthi pinned the Bulldogs 113 lb wrestler, and the Vikes were headed to the state semifinals.
After an incredible comeback win on Friday, the Vikes were in the state semifinals on Saturday morning against a team ranked just two spots lower than them. But unlike the Churchill match, the Vikes won all of the close matches early and advanced to the finals. Junior Jacob Sherman clinched the victory for the Vikes, pinning his opponent to take a 39–20 lead with just two matches left. The Vikes would forfeit those last two matches to make the score 39–32.
With just one match separating the Vikes from a second consecutive state championship, the Vikes faced their crosstown rivals, the BCC Barons. The Vikes dominated the duel from the start and led 38–12 with just five matches remaining. They needed one win to clinch the state championship. In the first of those five matches, senior Laird Ostien pinned his opponent, winning the state championship for the Vikes, in Ostien’s final team match for Whitman. Whitman would lose three of their final four matches to make the score 50–29.
“It meant so much to win it senior year with these guys,” Ostien said. “We worked so hard this year to get this result.”
As the team portion of the season comes to an end, the individual state championships begin. The Vikes will have their county championships this weekend, with regionals the following weekend and individual state championships in three weeks.
