If Spokane didn’t exist, Yelm would be leading state 3A wrestling after the first day

Yelm senior Jefferey Myers has a right to be confident.

He’s 27-0 for the season, ranked second among Washington’s 120-pound Class 3A wrestlers.

When he controlled his quarterfinal match at Mat Classic XXXIII on Friday at the Tacoma Dome from start to finish to defeat Hermiston junior Aiden Favorite, 3-0, Myers let everyone within the sound of his voice in on that confidence.

He ran off the mat shouting “no one can touch me!”

He may have mixed another word in there, too. To his credit, no one has touched him so far and his teammates have made it tough on foes, too. In fact, if the City of Spokane didn’t exist, Yelm might well be leading the tournament.

The Tornados have 95 points after Mat Classic’s first day, good for fourth place behind three beasts of the east: Mead, leading with 136.5 points, University with 111 and Mount Spokane with 104.

Myers, who had drawn a bye, then pinned Mt. Spokane’s Jayson Bonnett earlier, grabbed a 2-0 first period lead. Starting the second round in the up position, he kept Bonnett face-to-the-mat the entire period then picked up a quick escape in the third to finalize the shutout.

“I’m 27-0. I’m going to go out there (Saturday) and kick some butt,” he said, crediting his defense for the win over Bonnett.

Myers will meet Silas’ undefeated junior Elijah Cater in the morning’s semis and, if successful will meet the winner of a match between University’s top-ranked Tyler Walker and David Urcino of Ingraham.

“I’ve wrestled against Elijah since I was eight years old,” Myers said.

Yelm coach Gaylord Strand sees Myers hitting a peak.

“He’s hot. He’s on a mission,” Strand said. “Today, he protected his legs much better and he was very aggressive on top.”

Yelm advanced two other wrestlers to the semi-finals, including 285-pounder Brayden Platt, who weighs nowhere near the limit but used his speed to harass and finally pin Kentlake’s Caden Loudermilk, who came in with a record of 24-5.

“My first match today was a little rough, but I managed to get the pin,” Platt said.

With his brother Logan reaching the semi-finals at 195, the Platt family, which has seen older brother Derrick win two state titles in the past, is within four matches of two more.

“It feels great,” he said. “The family’s kept us going strong through this.”

Two other Thurston County wrestlers reached the 3A semi-finals.

Capital’s Ezekiel McEwen advanced to the 170 semis with a pin of Kelso’s Tyler Roggow and an 18-2 technical fall rout of Mt. Spokane’s Holden Hohman, who came into the day 29-9. He’ll wrestle CJ Hamblin of Mountain View in the semis.

North Thurston’s Marcellus Belton remained alive for a title at 220 by pinning Austin Steinbach of Heritage and Jesse Vassey of Hermiston. He’ll wrestle 18-3 Michael Montgomery of Garfield in the semis.

In 2A, W.F. West rode the efforts of semi-finalists Brady Davis (132), Tucker Land (160) and Brock Guyette (182) to second place after a day, just 11.5 points behind the leader, Orting.

Black Hills Mikey Johnston is still alive at 113, Jesus Campos of Centralia at 120, Ryan Mackiewicz of Shelton at 170.

This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 10:00 PM.