With Subs, Castle Rock Wrestling Pins Toledo-Winlock

One has to think, what would it have been like if Castle Rock had brought their real wrestling team? As it was, a group of junior varsity wrestlers took on the combined wrestling team of Toledo and Winlock 42-30 in a hastily scheduled event after snow and floods postponed previous matches. The competition allowed Winlock to have a home event for its senior class and the younger wrestlers of Castle Rock to face quality competition. In fact several athletes from Onalaska and Mossyrock also wrestle with Toledo/Winlock because their own schools don’t feature wrestling.

A.J. McKnight of Winlock wrestled Castle Rock's Joe Gaze.

“Most of these kids are 2nd at their weight, but they wrestled tough,, “ explained Castle Rock Assistant Tom Golden. “When you are 2nd and you get moved up to varsity, it can be tough.” As it turns out, that was plenty for the Rockets at this meet.

Jeff Edwards, Tim Baszler and Cody Shipley of Castle Rock started fast when they pinned their opponents at 145, 152 and 171 pounds respectively. Onalaska’s Gus Randall scored the first pin for Toledo/Winlock at 160. Mossyrock’s Ethan Parry contributed a 4-1 decision at 189. At the smallest weight classes, Winlock’s Allison Morrison won a 7-5 battle while Castle Rock’s Kris Kahler scored a pin at 119.

Winlock's Kyle Archer scored a last second escape to earn a decision over Castle Rock's Riley Horton.

Toledo/Winlock won the last four matches of the evening with Winlock’s A.J. McKnight defeating his opponent 8-1. By far the match and win of the evening belonged to Winlock’s Mike Raupp who went into overtime to score a 9-7 victory over Kyler Lake. “Right there at the end, as soon as I got the take down, both of my legs cramped up.” recalled Raupp. “I saw the score and I thought, I have to work a little bit harder. I had to keep my home winning streak alive.”

Toledo‘s Cody Scholerman had a 5-3 decision at 135 while Winlock‘s Kyle Archer provided a 2 point escape in the final 10 seconds of his match to defeat Riley Horton.

Winlock's Mike Raupp had to go to overtime for his 9-7 decision over Kyler Lake of Castle Rock.

Head Coach Pat Jones was proud of what has been accomplished at the Toledo/Winlock wrestling team. “This program in the last three years, since I have been here, has been pushing for growth and we got new mats for the first time in probably 35 years.” Jones said with pride. “It’s been a long time. We have grown from about seven guys to about 22. Castle Rock is dominant, so overall, we are pretty pleased with what happened here tonight. “

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