MONTESANO — It wasn’t the seniors, but a combination of underclassmen and a handful of forfeits that gave Montesano the win over Elma in an Evergreen 1A League match on Senior Night at Bo Griffith Gym on Wednesday.

The Bulldogs split the contested bouts with the Eagles, each team winning four, but Montesano received six forfeits from Elma to roll to a 55-21 victory.

Montesano’s Tyler Izatt edged out a 9-6 decision over Elma’s Andrew Persell at 132 pounds and was the only senior Bulldog to notch a victory in his last home match. In addition to Izatt, Brent Hollatz (138), Tony Williams (145) and Tanner Rossmaier (182) each earned wins for the Bulldogs to help top the Eagles.

“We rolled with our younger lineup and when you don’t have your starters going, it is hard to get that momentum sometimes,” Monte head coach Jeff Klinger said. “Overall, I thought it was a good performance, not the best, but we are not trying to perform our best right now. We are looking to perform our best in four weeks. That is the goal — to be ready at state.”

Elma coach Adam Catterlin said he shifted around his lineup, with multiple wrestlers stepping up classes, to ensure there would be several quality matches. Matt Hitchner stepped up a weight class to beat Monte’s Carson Klinger 4-2 in the 160-pound match. Colten French (120), Kyle Olson (170) and Liam Baxter (220) each recorded pins for Elma.

“It was all about the individual matchups today,” Elma head coach Adam Catterlin said. “We bumped guys around to give them the quality matches. We could have put guys at different weights and won a few more matches, but we don’t care about points, we just want to see kids have a good quality match at their toughest level.”

One of the toughest matches came early in the proceedings with Hitchner facing off with Klinger. The two wrestled to a scoreless tie through the first period, before Klinger escaped to start the scoring early in the second. Hitchner locked up and took Klinger down to grab the lead with 15 seconds left in the second period, but a blood time allowed for a restart and Klinger slid free to tie it up 2-2 going to the third. Hitchner started on bottom for the last period and was able to slip around and get the reversal with just under a minute to go in the match. Klinger had one last chance to get reversal with a restart with 10 seconds on the clock, but Hitchner was able to tie up and keep the lead.

“(Hitchner) goes out there and doesn’t give up in any situation,” Catterlin said. “He is just getting after it. He has just been doing all the right things and I’m really impressed with him.”

Izatt was the only one of Montesano’s four seniors who were state participants a year ago to wrestle on Senior Night and his match did not disappoint. Persell shot in quickly to grab the lead with a takedown early, but Izatt got a reversal to tie it up at 2-2 after one period. A takedown by Persell was sandwiched between escapes by Izatt in the second to make it 4-4 late in the period. Izatt took advantage of a stumble on a shot by Persell and earned a takedown with 12 seconds left in the second and led the rest of the way to a 9-6 decision.

Returning state champions and seniors Taylor Rupe and Austin Cain as well as 2016 state participant and senior Jacob Ellefson did not wrestle on Senior Night. Cain and Ellefson were nursing injuries, while Rupe received a forfeit at 285. While all of the seniors for Monte didn’t wrestle, Jeff Klinger said it was hard not to be emotional about the final home match for Izatt, Rupe, Cain and Ellefson.

“It is the last home dual for four kids that are pretty special,” Jeff Klinger said. “They came in and everybody was talking about how good they are going to be and they delivered.”

Jeff Klinger also cited seniors Jordan Tibbitt, Nicolai Vikklsoe, Eicke Schoneberger and Ben Lopez for their effort over their final season.

106 — Andy Fry (M) won by forfeit. 113 — Aaron Lano (M) won by forfeit. 120 — Colten French (E) pinned Jordan Tibbit, 1:40. 126 — Nicolai Vikklsoe (M) won by forfeit. 132 — Tyler Izatt (M) dec. Andre Persell, 9-6. 138 — Brent Hollatz (M) pinned Ryan Mesojednik, 3:23. 145 — Tony Williams (M) dec. Justin Sample, 11-2.

152 — Ben Sowers (M) won by forfeit. 160 — Matt Hitchner (E) dec. Carson Klinger, 4-2. 170 — Kyle Olson (E) pinned Jesse Wojcik, 5:09. 182 — Tanner Rossmaier (M) pinned Tanner Kribbelcz, 3:30. 195 — Agustin Arreguin (M) won by forfeit. 220 — Liam Baxter (E) pinned Ben Lopez, 1:25. 285 — Taylor Rupe (M) won by forfeit.