Liberty Bell’s Finlay Holston, center, celebrated his win in the 195-pound division with coaches (from left) Jason Newman, Colton Skelton, Cory Spellman head coach Jonathan McMillan.
Finlay Holston joined the list of Liberty Bell High School wrestlers who have won state championships when he claimed the 1B/2B 195-pound title at Mat Classic XXX last weekend in Tacoma.
The Mountain Lion senior, who took second place at 182 pounds in last year’s state championship meet, pinned Jack Spiess of Kalama in 5:39 to take first place on Saturday (Feb. 17).
Earlier at the state meet, Holston started with a bye and then overwhelmed Hayden Hoff of Ocosta, 12-0, in his opening match. Holston next outlasted Johnny Frank of Darrington for a 5-1 victory in the semifinals.
Also wrestling for Liberty Bell at the Mat Classic were junior Jed McMillan at 120 pounds and freshman Bodie Paul at 145 pounds. Neither placed among the top six in their divisions.
At Tacoma last weekend, McMillan lost his first match to Mason Baker of Pomery, who pinned the Mountain Lion at 2:48. In the consolation bracket, McMillan was defeated, 8-3, by eventual fourth-place winner Tommy Luce of Northwest Christian.
Paul opened the tournament with a 6-0 first-round victory over Cade Noah of St.John-Endicott. In the second round, Paul was defeated by Lucas Ashley of Adna, 15-7.
Paul came back with a 9-0 win over Ted Lester of Rainier, advancing to the semifinals of the third-place bracket. In the semis, Paul faced eventual third-place winner Ethen Tesch of Wilbur-Creston, who won with a pin at the 42-second mark in the match.
Liberty Bell scored 29 points to finish 16th out of 44 teams at the meet, which was won in a runaway by Tonasket with 286.5 points. Reardan was second with 167.5 points. That reversed last year’s outcome, when Reardan took first and Tonasket second.
At the 2017 Mat Classic, Liberty Bell finished 23rd. Holston was the Mountain Lions’ only representative at that event. McMillan was an alternate last year.
The Mountain Lions’ most-recent state champion was Meritt Fink, who took first place in the 145-pound division in 2016.
