king at the end result, Arlington looks to have repeated its 2009 effort at the Mat Classic, but the peripherals say otherwise.

The Eagles took a step forward this season, in having five wrestlers compete at the state level, two of which took home medals.

“We’re pretty happy,” said Arlington coach Shaun Williams. “I think everybody that we sent had the opportunity to place, but that’s how a tournament goes.”

Last year, Arlington sent just a pair of wrestlers to the Tacoma Dome.

Both Eagles reaching the podium, Dustin Ward at 152 pounds and Nathan Shortt at 145 pounds finished seventh.

“I thought they had good matches,” said Williams of his placers. “There were some matches where we could have turned it around, but that didn’t happen.”

Arlington’s other state participants, Seth Henderson at 171 pounds, Brady Quinton at 215 pounds and Ben Torve at 285 pounds each took a pair of early losses and did not advance past the first day of competition.

While Williams was happy with the effort and result of his wrestlers, he took time to stress how important it was to his team to not see going to the Mat Classic as the goal.

“If we set our goal to getting here, we’ll lose every time,” he said. “We have to see this tournament for what it is: just a tournament. Winning is what we’re trying to preach and that will get you farther than trying to get here.”

Shortt grinded out a 6-3 win over Lake Washington’s Zach Chrysanthou in the seventh-place match, while Ward defeated Skyline’s Danny Christianson 8-5 to earn seventh.

Arlington finished its season in a tie for fourth place in the Wesco North.