Mercer Island wrestling saw a run of five unbeaten seasons in KingCo competition come to an end Thursday night, falling to Bellevue 41-34 at MIHS. The win gave Bellevue a tiebreaker over Mercer Island with one week to go in the KingCo regular season, likely meaning the end for the Islanders’ five-year run as league champs.
Mercer Island wrestling coach Creighton Laughary said after the meet the loss was the Islanders’ first loss to Bellevue in over fifteen years.
“They’re a tough team,” Laughary said. “Their kids got the pins and our kids didn’t stay off their backs, so they got all those bonus points beyond a three-point win. That hurt us, so we’ll focus on that. We’ve got another dual next week, we’ll try and improve and we’ll see them again in the [postseason] tournament.”
The Wolverines registered six wins by pin or forfeit and took four of the meet’s first five matches. Mercer Island trailed 12-0 through the first two rounds before Taylan Yuasa put the Islanders on the board, winning the 120 match by a 25-13 major decision over Aidan Robinson. Bellevue scored wins in the next two matches, winning by pin at 126 and by major decision at 132.
Mercer Island rallied to win four of the next five rounds, with Scott Lee (138), Finn Childress (152) and Nic Meinzinger-Richards (170) all recording pins, and Trevor Gullstad (145) winning by a 12-7 decision over Garrett Williams. But with Bellevue getting pins from John Mancuso (185) and Zachary England (195) in the next two matches, the Wolverines were able to secure the meet win.
The Islanders won the final two rounds of the night, with Evan Condon (220) winning by an 8-2 decision over Alec Palander and Dylan Majewski (285) pinning Zavier Powe.
After seeing the almost six-year streak come to an end, the Islander wrestlers were eager to move past the loss. Gullstad noted Mercer Island’s last KingCo defeat came when his older brother Connor, now a sophomore in college, was a freshman at MIHS.
“Losing a KingCo dual match isn’t really something we’ve dealt with, but I think you just keep going, look forward to the next match and keep trying to get those wins,” Gullstad said.
“Every loss has its lesson,” Lee said. “Sometimes it’s better to lose and learn a lesson than it is to win four years straight.”
Mercer Island will compete in the Jaguar Invite Saturday, Jan. 24 at Emerald Ridge High School before finishing the regular season against Liberty at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29 at Liberty High School. Bellevue finishes its regular season against Sammamish at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bellevue High School.
