The Auburn Mountainview wrestling program has not had a state champion since its inception in 2005.

The Lions came close last season, with Tyler King and TJ Peretti grabbing third-place finishes. Last Saturday, however, the Lions wrote a new page in the school history books with three wrestlers – Peretti (130 pounds), King (152) and Lilia Gudzyuk (152) – all coming away with Mat Classic XXII 3A state titles at the Tacoma Dome.

For coach Adam France, the team’s success doesn’t come as a surprise, just a manifestation of four years of hard work.

“Overall, I was pleased with their performance,” France said.

For Peretti, a senior, the title was a fitting finish to an outstanding prep career.

This season Peretti had lost only three matches, each by a point. At Mat Classic, he swept through the competition in his weight class without giving up a single point to any of his four opponents.

“With TJ, he’s sort of been doing this all year,” France said. “It’s not like hasn’t been dominating in that fashion. But he’s been improving and competing at a higher level. So that wasn’t surprising to me, because I’ve been watching him improve all year.”

Resplendent in his orange finals singlet during last Saturday’s title match, Peretti put away Yelm sophomore James Bradley with a 5-0 decision.

“In my sophomore year, our coach bought us finals singlets as motivation to get into the finals,” Peretti said. “Ever since then, I’ve worn it in the finals, so it has kind of been tradition.

“My finals match was the hardest,” he continued. “The young kid I wrestled was hardest of all. He got pretty good position. Even though I beat him 5-0, he made me work for all the points I got. I couldn’t just get a lead and just stop wrestling. I had to keep pushing the pace to come out on top.”

Peretti said he benefitted from last February’s state tournament experience.

“Last year I think I wasn’t too confident, though I finished strong,” he said. “This year I knew my mindset was different. I knew there wasn’t anyone in the state who could beat me.”

That confidence led to a resounding finish for a relaxed Peretti.

“I was definitely just trying to have fun during my last two matches,” Peretti added. “Before my final my coach came up to me and told me to just have fun. They didn’t tell me anything I had to work on. I think what I’ll remember the most about this whole weekend was that it was just fun for me.”

For King, also a senior, the 152-pound title was especially sweet. In the finals match, King beat his nemesis, Josh Musick of Enumclaw.

Musick defeated King three times this season. Not so on Saturday as King managed to scrape by with a 2-0 decision.

“With Tyler it wasn’t much of a surprise,” France said. “Each week that he had wrestled Josh Musick, we had made adjustments and put together game plans that we thought would work. This time he executed it perfectly, and it worked. Obviously, we were elated, but not surprised at all.”

Added King: “I just was thinking about how much cooler that everything would be if I won. Everything is much better now than if I would have lost.”

The Lions got their third title in the 152-pound girls division with Gudzyuk defeating Mount Tahoma’s Seini Anau, 4-1.

“She’s dominated all year, and the girl she beat in the finals, she had beaten two weeks prior,” France said.

For Peretti and King, sharing the distinction of being the first Auburn Mountainview wrestlers to win titles with Gudzyuk is especially sweet.

“We’ve all been practice partners for several years now,” Peretti said. “And Tyler I’ve known since I was a little kid, so it’s nice that we won titles in the same year. It’s a good feeling. We have that camaraderie that a lot teams strive to have but few do.”

“It’s pretty cool because we had three in the finals, and all three of us won,” King added.

In addition to their three state champions, the Lions also finished seventh in the team competition with 81 points.

Freshman Tyke Reid finished fifth in the 103-pound division.

For France, the team’s success this year is just the foundation for continued success at Auburn Mountainview.

“I’m hoping that this will attract a little more attention from younger athletes who will now want to look toward doing something that will help them become high-level athletes,” France said. “And hopefully they will wrestle up at Auburn Mountainview. This is something we haven’t had before, and hopefully we can build on the newfound success of the team.”

Yelm edged Enumclaw, the defending champion, to capture the 3A team title.

ALSO: Junior Dylan Rutledge helped drive the Auburn Trojans to a fifth-place team finish in the 4A team competition. Rutledge defeated South Kitsap’s Conner Hartmann 5-2 to take home the 171-pound 4A title. Fellow junior Nick Conlan took home second at 285, losing 7-3 to Kabe Fluaitt of Moses Lake in the finals. Also placing for the Trojans were junior Danny Shelton who finished sixth at 285, senior Kelly Maughan who was third at 130 and senior Chris Young who grabbed fifth at 215 pounds. The Trojans finished with 87 team points. University finished first in the 4A team competition with 156.5 points.