Since the season began, the Mercer Island wrestling team has had it’s sights set on winning a third straight KingCo tournament title. Despite a strong showing at Liberty High School on Saturday, it wasn’t enough to outdo Mount Si, which won the team title.

The Wildcats had 214.5 points as a team to win, while Mercer Island had 209. Bellevue finished in third with 203.5 points.

The Islanders won the regular season title with a 7-0 record, while head coach Creighton Laughary was named the head coach of the year.

Individually, in the 106 weight class Luke Wilson won the event, beating Mount Si’s Eli Clure with a 16-9 decision. Daniel Shen was fifth overall in the 106 class. Jake Pruchno took second in the 113 weight class, after losing by technical fall to Bellevue’s Christian Villani 15-0.

Taylan Yuasa finished third in the 113 class, beating Gunnar Harrison of Mount Si by fall in 3:28.

In the 120 weight class, Trevor Gullstad took third, beating teammate Scotty Lee by decision 9-3.

Kenji Walker took second in the 126 class, losing to Andy Ewing of Bellevue, by 15-1. Luca Caruccio beat Justin Edens of Mount Si 10-3 in the 132 class.

Connor Gullstad lost to Bruce Stuart of Mount Si in the 138 class, going down 4-0, while Dylan Sullivan beat Mason Gray from Lake Washington by fall 2:34.

In the 145 class, Jack Vassau beat Sammamish’s Kyle Kasner by fall 2:48. Blake Johnson was second in the 160 class, losing to Liberty’s Hamilton Noel by fall in 0:47.

Islanders Chris Richards finished sixth in the 160 group, losing by fall in 3:05 to Sammamish’s Junior Bentiez.

Nick Chandler, competing in the 170 group, lost to Lake Washington’s Yarozlav Petrechko by fall 0:45. Teammate Danny Stanke was fifth in the 170 class, after beating Jake Tierney from Liberty 12-3.

Phil Fraizer earned the KingCo title in the 182 weight class, winning by forfeit, while Brian Rauzi took second for the Islanders.

Andy Picton was third in the 195 class, beating teammate Mikalai Hubarevich by fall in 0:56. Connor Livingston was sixth overall in the 220 weight class, losing by forfeit to Chris Schilicting of Mount Si. In the 285 weight class, Ben O’Connell was sixth after forfeiting to Bellevue’s Forrest Beal.

The top three in each weight class move forward to the Regional meet next weekend. Qualifiers move into the 3A Region I tournament, which will be held on Saturday, Feb. 11 at Skyline High School. The first round begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, with the championships being held at 3:30 p.m.

The top four will make the state meet, held Feb. 17-18 at the Tacoma Dome.