Rockin the T-Dome!

This weekend was an amazing experience in the Tacoma Dome, and even more memorable than last year's experience. Why you ask? Because Joshua met his goal of a top three finish by ending up in second place! He lost the championship round just 4-2, and put out his best effort.

Friday morning he started out a bit rough, but a win is a win;) That evening he guaranteed a trip to the podium by beating the top ranked kid at state.  Saturday morning was a wild ride against a regional champ who had beaten the eventual champion just the weekend before, so Josh knew he would be tough. Watch this video clip of highlight's to see Josh's reaction (about 37 seconds in). He almost got pinned, then rolled the kid and wondered why the ref whistled to stop the play. Silly Josh didn't realize the ref had signaled a pin, catapulting him into that evening's championship round.



All the kids that medal for each school parade in before the finals. Since their are five classifications, multiple weight classes, and eight medalists at each weight, there are over 700 kids that march in. It is a very memorable part of the weekend. Here you can see Josh and his teammates marching in.

For the finals, Josh faced a kid who had beaten him twice previously this season, Morgan Smith. In the quarter finals, Morgan beat the kid who beat Josh the past two weekends at districts and regionals (Four of Josh's five season losses. The other one was against the kid who won the 2A championship Saturday).  Josh has known Morgan the past couple of summers from camp, and the two have a mutual respect for one another. It was a great match to the finale, and Josh held his head high when it was all over.  Dad was just of proud of Josh's fight in the loss as he was earlier that day in the win, and that's saying a lot!  I took this shot of Mike and Josh leaving the mat together for the final time. A bit bittersweet...

After many hugs and cheers, here he was on the podium...

Josh's number one fans, minus the two little ones that were up playing in the stands.....

Did you notice Josh's Aange haircut from Avatar? It's cut into a purple arrow. I think it gave him super powers for the weekend. If you can't see he has notches in his eyebrow too!  He and his team mates were coloring their hair and giving one haircuts Friday night for team bonding!  See the resemblance?

There's a nice article in the local newspaper that you can find here. If you are really bored, you can go watch his entire championship match at the WIAA site. You can fast forward through other matches to get to the 160 pound match.

Thanks to friends and family who have supported Josh this past weekend and put up with my proud mom and wife stories!