Oly opens with a pair of wins

They might not have run out their No. 1 lineup, but the Olympic High Trojan wrestling team did alright for itself Thursday night in a non-league tri-meet with Mt. Tahoma and Bainbridge.

The boys broke open a 6-6 tie with Mt. Tahoma when the Olympic grapplers went on a six pinfall streak from Alex Jaime at 112 pounds to Joe Joslyn at 140 and added four more pins for a 69-12 win.

Heavyweight Josh Allbee started both meets due to the random draw to determine which weightclass starts the event. He proved to be a good place to start when he pinned Mt. Tahoma’s David Tracey in 3:22 and Bainbridge’s Nick McCallum (who also pinned Tracey) in 1:10.

“My earlier matches usually aren’t good,” said Allbee, a 2002 state qualifier who started last season 0-3. “So tonight I was just getting the jitters out and remember everything the coaches told me in practice.”

Allbee wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Olympic coach Darryl Smith was worried about how his team would do against a tough Bainbridge team that tore through Mt. Tahoma 60-16.

“Bainbridge is a solid team and there was a possibility we could get beat tonight,” Smith said. “We didn’t have our No. 1 lineup in and we had four or five guys that stepped up and did really well for us.”

The Spartans nearly came back with four wins, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Olympic’s lead as they lost 36-28.

“Joe Joslyn came through with a big win at 140 (when Beau Green was pulled from the match after injuring his elbow in a fall.) And at 103, sophomore Peter O’Neill did a nice job (against Bainbridge senior Stevie Devine with a pin in 3:56) and set the tone for us after getting pinned against Mt. Tahoma’s Diego Martinez earlier on. And our experienced guys did what we expected them to do.”

The experienced 152-pounder Shane Villanueva dominated the Spartans’ Dan Bachen for their entire match and picked up his second pin in 3:33.

“I felt pretty good tonight,” Villanueva said. “I’m healthy and I’m not cutting weight this year so it makes me feel better.”

And state alternate Clyde Switzer picked up where he left off with two pinfalls at 171.

He made his match with Bainbridge’s Billy Thomas look easy, with takedown after takedown before getting the pin in 3:13.

“I was working on my stuff,” Switzer said of his strategy. “I wasn’t trying to take him lightly but I saw I was stronger than him and better on my feet so I thought I could capitalize on that.”

Switzer frustrated Thomas enough that after the match he cost his team a point for unsportsmanlike conduct for throwing his headgear.

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