Ryan Ransavage dominated everyone but the state champion. In the end, that might have been as good a finish as anyone could have expected.

The Mount Si senior finished state runner-up at the Class 3A state wrestling championships Feb. 21 at the Tacoma Dome, losing only to top-ranked and favorite John Camp of Port Angeles in the 285-pound finals. Camp pinned Ransavage in 38 seconds to win gold.

The match followed a dominant run by Ransavage, in which he won one match by a 13-0 decision and two others by way of fall.

Mount Si's Ryan Ransavage competes in the Class 3A state heavyweight championship match.

“It was good, but being a state champion would’ve been a lot better. I can be happy with second. It’s just frustrating, getting so close,” he said. “The first two matches, I wrestled great. Pinning to get into the state finals was really fun.”

Ransavage began his part of the bracket with a fall of Levi Carroll from Everett in 2:57. That was followed by a 13-0 beating of Seth Johnson from Capital, a win that propelled Mount Si’s heavyweight into the semifinals. Ransavage then pinned Steve Taylor of North Central in 3:27 to meet Camp in the championship match.

Ransavage had lost to Camp earlier in the season. Still, even with that experience advantage, the match was over quickly.

“John is just so much bigger than me, he just kind of dominated me,” said Ransavage, who was outweighed by 35 pounds in the match. “The key to not getting pinned by him is to stay away, but that only works so well for so long. There’s really nothing you can do about it.”

Camp wrestled less than four minutes the entire tournament, pinning his four opponents in the first round each time. No one was even able to last one minute against him.

Mount Si’s Ryan Makela managed a seventh-place finish at 140 pounds. He started off the tournament with an 8-0 victory against Jacob Virtue of Union, before falling in a heartbreaking 7-6 decision to Alec Williams from White River. Makela then dropped to the loser’s portion of the bracket, where he defeated Noel Wright from Liberty 5-3. 

Makela lost to Josh Musick from Enumclaw by a technical fall score of 20-4, before capturing seventh place with a 7-5 victory against Bonney Lake’s Josh Peart.

Wrestling at 112 pounds, Mount Si freshman Cody Botten was defeated in the first round by Sunnyside’s Steven Romero by way of fall and failed to place. Botten was eliminated in his next match by Luke Garcia of Lindbergh by way of fall.

Reach editor Ryan Piersol at editor@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434.

The Mount Si wrestling team crowned two individual champions and placed fifth as a team at the KingCo 3A/2A championships at Liberty High School Feb. 7.

The Wildcats had 11 placers in all, as they finished with 129 team points. Bellevue ran away with the team title with 246 points.

Ryan Ransavage continued to dominate at 285, as he earned a bye in the first round, then posted back-to-back falls to win his division. He pinned Jory Hamilton of Juanita in 1:08 in the championship match.

Mount Si’s other first-place finisher was Ryan Makela at 140, who also received a bye, then won 7-0 in the semifinals and defeated David Bowman of Mercer Island 7-1 in the championship match.

Cody Botten took third in the 112-pound match, losing in the semifinals to the eventual champion. He bounced back to take third by way of a fall.

Ben Larson also took third at 130. He lost his semifinal match, 9-7, in overtime, before winning the third-place bout 12-0.

Joe Milks went the long way to place third at 160. After losing his opening match, he won his next three by way of fall.

Andrew Sypher nearly pulled off the same feat at 119, losing his first match and then winning his next two, before falling in the third-place match and taking fourth.

Cody Hookland at 135, Dylan Cochran at 145 and Shane Dixon at 152 were each fifth.

The Mount Si wrestling team honored its seniors in between a pair of home duals Jan. 29.

Some of those seniors then returned the favor with impressive mat wins.

The Wildcats lost to former league rivals Skyline, 44-34, and Issaquah, 48-19. But senior standouts Ryan Makela and Ryan Ransavage combined to go 3-0 on the night with a fall, a technical fall and a decision victory.

Ryan Ransavage goes for a pin during Mount Si's match with Issaquah.

Six Mount Si seniors in all were honored during their final home matches.

“It’s a small group,” Ransavage said. “There’s six of us, and only two of us have wrestled the entire four years. Ryan (Makela) and I have been through all of the good times and bad times together.”

Senior Michael Nelson also picked up a win for Mount Si by way of forfeit at 285.

After watching Mount Si lose both duals, Makela said the team’s inexperience is showing.

“We just have a really young team and a bunch of new people trying out,” he said. “We should get better next year.”

Mount Si started off in a 12-0 hole against Skyline, but a pair of forfeits and a fall by Cody Botten at 112, helped even the score at 18-18. The Wildcats then got a 9-1 major-decision victory from Andrew Sypher to go ahead.

Another forfeit at 135 and a fall by Makela at 140 kept Mount Si in the lead, 34-27. But the Spartans won the final three matches — two by way of falls and one in a technical fall — to pull out the dual win.

Against Issaquah, the Wildcats led only for a brief period. Josh Mitchell picked up a win by way of fall at 215 to tie the score at 6-6, then Ransavage earned a 5-3 victory at 285 to make it 9-6.

The Eagles, however, won the next four matches to take over. Mount Si wasn’t able to break the string until 130-pounder Ben Larson picked up a 6-3 decision win. By that time, it was 27-12.

Makela added a 21-9 major-decision victory at 140 and the Wildcats’ final win came at 152 with a 10-6 decision victory by Shane Dixon.

“We need to wrestle smart,” Ransavage said of the double-dual. “We have a lot of inexperienced wrestlers out there. There were some true freshman starting tonight, so we should be pretty good in the future.”

Two days earlier, Mount Si fell to league rival Liberty, 48-30.

The Wildcats picked up wins by way of fall from 119-pounder Andrew Sypher, 130-pounder Larson, 145-pounder Connor Deutch and 285-pounder Ransavage, who took down Liberty standout Coleton Langdon in just 1:54. Makela, at 140, also got an impressive 14-10 decision against Wright Noel, while Shane Dixon earned an 11-9 decision win at 152.

Liberty managed the dual win, though, by one forfeit and seven falls. The Patriots earned four straight pins from 160 to 215.

Reach editor Ryan Piersol at editor@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434.

When Ryan Ransavage runs out on the wrestling mat, he doesn’t look all that intimidating. He doesn’t look that strong. He doesn’t even look that quick.

Then again, he doesn’t much look like a pioneer either.

Nevertheless, the Mount Si senior is playing all four parts quite well this winter. Using a rare combination of strength and speed, the heavyweight has launched himself to a No. 2 state ranking in his weight class.

Mount Si senior Ryan Ransavage throws around 285-pound wrestlers like overmatched weights.

It’s unusual territory for a Wildcat. Mount Si has never had a heavyweight in legitimate position to win a state championship, much less actually accomplish the feat. But here Ransavage is — strong, fast and in position to make history.

“It would be pretty neat if I could win (state) and be the first,” he said. “It would be amazing, probably the best thing to happen to me in high school.”

Too often, however, when Ransavage thinks about wrestling, he doesn’t recall the number one, but the number four. That’s how many inches he says he was from advancing to the Class 3A state finals a year ago.

Ransavage lost in the semifinals to Jake Anstett of Everett in overtime. Before that match went to an extra period, Ransavage managed what would have been a match-winning take down, but was just barely out of bounds.

Following that defeat, Ransavage dropped two more matches that day and ended up sixth.

He’s used that disappointing finish as fuel this season, having already won first at the Sedro-Wooley Invitational. He defeated some of the best heavyweights in the state during that tournament and, being the true trailblazer that he is, became the first-ever Wildcat to win a championship there.

“He’s wrestling really well,” Mount Si head coach Jeff Newcomer said. “I think he’s got a really good shot (to win state). I think the biggest thing for him is that he stays focused and stays hungry. If he does end up losing, it will probably only be because he’s complacent.”

Newcomer said Ransavage is a tough match for opponents, because he does so many things well. At 255 pounds, he’s smaller than most of his opponents and, as a result, quicker. He’s also unusually strong, having posted top marks on the football team last spring with a bench press of 325, a squat at 480 and a clean of 265.

“He has incredible strength and he also has a lot of speed. That speed is really rare for a heavyweight. And he’s really good at his techniques, which is something he’s worked really hard at,” Newcomer said.

“I think a lot of people go in underestimating what he can actually do. Because, while he’s really strong and really fast, he doesn’t look like he’s either.”

Ransavage should get a great idea of how he stacks up with the rest of the state this weekend when Mount Si travels to Sequim. Port Angeles heavyweight John Camp, who is the only 285-pounder in Washington ranked ahead of Ransavage, is scheduled to be there. The two could also meet up again later in the season when the Wildcats travel to Port Angeles.

Ransavage should also get a chance to see the state’s No. 3-ranked heavyweight at some point this season since Cody Treddenbarger wrestles for league foe Juanita.

Not that Ransavage is aware of his potential. This summer, while attending a camp at Oregon State University, he faced Beavers 197-pound All-American Kyle Bressler. Battling to the best-of-five in takedowns, Ransavage at one point had a 2-1 lead. With the score evened at 2-2, though, Mount Si’s big man chipped five of his teeth on Bressler’s forearm.

The experience might have been painful, but it was still valuable.

“It was different wrestling him,” Ransavage said. “He was just so much quicker and stronger for his size than most guys I see.”

Soon, Ransavage is scheduled to make an official recruiting visit to Western Washington University in Bellingham. He’ll be going as a football recruit, but certainly hasn’t dismissed the idea of wrestling in college, as well.

“There aren’t as many opportunities to wrestle in college as there are in football, but I’m just hoping I don’t have to make that choice,” he said. “Wrestling in college is so much more intense and you have to be so committed. But I don’t know. I still might rather do wrestling, just because I like it more.”

Reach editor Ryan Piersol at editor@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434. 

So far, so good for the Mount Si wrestling team in duals — and for listening to what coach Jeff Newcomer says.

The Wildcats opened up the dual portion of the season with a convincing 46-25 beating of Interlake Thursday night. The performance followed what Newcomer categorized as “disappointing” in a season-opening visit to the Auburn Invitational days earlier.

Mount Si's Ben Larson, bottom, tries to get out of a hold against Interlake.

Against Interlake, Mount Si picked up four falls and one major decision, as the Wildcats took 10 of the 14 matches on the night.

“We kind of had a rough outing last weekend in Auburn, so it was good to see them go out and pick it up,” Newcomer said. “A lot of it was just intensity. I kind of got on them after last weekend, and the intensity level and the focus was different tonight.”

The Wildcats started quickly, getting a 10-3 victory at 160 by Lee Amadur. Shelby Williams followed that up at 171 with a fall in 2:20 to make it 9-0.

After a 4-2 decision at 189 got the Saints on the board, Mount Si picked up another fall at 215 when Tony Hana pinned his opponent in just 2:50. Back-to-back forfeits at 285 and 103 moved the match to 113, where Wildcat Cody Botten picked up the night’s quickest fall — in just 13 seconds — to make the score 27-9.

Andrew Sypher followed with a fall in 4:28 at 119 and Mount Si wrapped up the victory with a 6-4 win by Ben Larson (130), a 12-10 win by Cody Hookstand (135), a 13-2 major-decision win by Ryan Makela (140) and an 11-9 win by Shane Dixon (152). Dixon’s victory came in the most dramatic fashion of all the matches, as he scored an overtime reversal to win.

At the Auburn Invitational, the Wildcats placed eighth out of eight teams with 35 points. Auburn won the meet with 203.

Mount Si has been one of the most dominant teams in KingCo 3A over the past 10 seasons, yet finds itself in a revamped league this winter. The Wildcats are in the East division of the Crest League, alongside Liberty, Eastlake, Skyline and Redmond. The South division of the Crest league includes Garfield, Newport, Issaquah, Interlake and Sammamish.

“If we can keep up the same intensity in practice, we’ll have a chance to finish in the top three in the league,” Newcomer said. “But it’s a new league, so it’s kind of hard to say.”

Mount Si has a few wrestlers who are not only ranked as some of the best in the league at their weight class, they’re also considered among the tops in the state. Leading the way is Ryan Ransavage at 285. Coming off a successful season playing each side of the line for the Wildcat football team, Ransavage is ranked No. 2 in his weight class by Washington Wrestling Report.

Ransavage won by way of forfeit against Interlake, but showed what he was capable of at the Auburn Invitational by taking first. He defeated Nick Conlan of Auburn in the finals.

“He’s looking great,” Newcomer said. “He won the Auburn tournament and has beaten some good wrestlers already.”

At 140, Mount Si has a returning state qualifier in Makela. After placing eighth at state at 119 last season, he is ranked sixth at 140.

The Wildcats could start up to three freshman throughout this season, which could make for some trying times early on.

“Our lineup is intermingled with youth and experience. We have a few ninth-graders starting for us, which is a tough way to go,” Newcomer said. “But it will be good for them. It’ll make them a lot better in the long run.”

Reach editor Ryan Piersol at editor@snovalleystar.com or 392-6434.