The Vashon Pirate wrestlers kicked off their season Saturday at the annual Auburn Invitational Tournament at Auburn High School.

The tournament yielded a mixed-bag result, but served as a jumping-off point for the team. Facing teams from Auburn, Auburn Riverside, Kentridge, South Kitsap, Todd Beamer and Cascade Christian schools, Vashon entered 10 wrestlers in the varsity brackets and eight on the junior varsity side.

The Pirates ended the day with six varsity wrestlers in the medals: Logan Nelson and Bryce Hoisington were the team’s two lone champions; Franklin Easton finished a strong second and coming home in third were Luke Larson, Chase Wickman and Clyde Pruett.

Junior varsity medalists were: Rodolfo Flores in first; Ben Angelacos, Alex Arteaga and Nicholas Nuxoll in second; Arthur Moore in third and Adon Ellis and Jackson Bard in fourth place.

Also competing for Vashon were Payton Bonaventura, Preston Petersen, Sean Casey and Shane and Cori Willliams. Matches of note go to Logan Nelson for his no-nonsense domination of both opponents, looking like he is in mid-season form already. Rookie wrestler and senior Arthur Moore was also impressive in his Pirate debut.

The VHS grapplers will take on Montesano on Thursday, Dec. 10, in a much-anticipated head-to-head match up of two of the top 1A wrestling programs in the state. Vashon will host a dual meet against the Montesano Bulldogs with junior varsity action starting at 6 p.m. and varsity at 7 p.m. in the high school gym.

The wrestling team is issuing a “full gym challenge” to the community, and hopes to have so many spectators that they need to pull out the second set of bleachers in the gym.

This match up is a pre-cursor to the state competition in February when many of these grapplers will undoubtedly face each other again.

Both Vashon and Montesano have many wrestlers ranked in the top 10 by Washington Wrestling Report: eight for Vashon and seven for the Bulldogs. For the Pirates, early rankings are given to Luke Larson (7), Chase Wickman (1), Shane Williams (10), Hunter Burger (9), Bryce Hoisington (2), Chester Pruett (4), Logan Nelson (2) and Franklin Easton (5). Based on those rankings, the VHS team is rated second with Montesano getting the edge and holding the top spot.

— Cheryl Pruett is the mother of two VHS wrestlers.