Here are the 5 Mat Classic XXXIV championship matchups you should not have missed in the Tacoma Dome

TACOMA - At the end of the night, 98 state champions were crowned at the WIAA state wrestling championships known as Mat Classic.

Three boys - University's Q'veli Quintanilla (145 pounds) in 3A; Toppenish's Jermiah Zuniga (152) in 1A; and Conan Northwind (182) in 'B' - all won their third career Mat Classic titles Saturday night.

One girl - Marysville-Pilchuck's Alivia White (4A/3A 190), who has signed with Iowa - also won her third WIAA title.

Chiawana (4A), Mead (3A), Orting (2A), Toppenish (1A), Tonasket ('B) and Moses Lake girls (4A/3A) and Toppenish girls (2A/1A/B) all captured team championships.

Here are five highlighted matches from championship Saturday in the Tacoma Dome:

Chiawana's Daeton Johnson ends with zinger on historic night

This week, the talk was about which reign-ending contender would emerge out of the Class 4A heap.

Tahoma? The Bears had won four Mat Classic titles?

South Kitsap? The 2018 champions - right before Chiawana caught fire.

Sunnyside? The Grizzlies were the state runners-up in 2020 and last season.

Thing is, the Riverhawks weren't ready to give up their throne. In fact, they completed a historic night as the first program in the modern era to post a 4A four-peat.

"It is unbelievable," first-year Chiawana coach Manuel Plata said. "I don’t know if the kids really know they set history."

Chiawana rode a big consolation-bracket morning session Saturday to create space. And entering the finals, the only school mathematically with a chance to overtake the champions was Tahoma.

Repeat winner Isaiah Medina put it to bed with his title-match 6-4 decision over Lake Stevens' Jacob Christianson at 113. And Daeton Johnson's pin over Tahoma's Nathan Curry in 1:51 at 126 for his first WIAA title was icing on the cake.

"We came into it knowing it was going to be tough," Johnson said. "But if we all wrestled to the best of our abilities, we knew we could do well."

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Changing of the guard: One girls great says goodbye, passes torch across the state

The consensus all season was that the two best girl wrestlers in Washington were Marysville-Pilchuck's Alivia White and University's Libby Roberts.

On Saturday night, as the pin-mastering White was on her way to capturing her third Mat Classic title, she passed the proverbial best-in-state tag to Roberts, just a sophomore.

Both wrestlers ended their tournament with first-round pins - Roberts in 59 seconds over Pasco's Elisa Sanchez at 105, and White in 50 seconds over Bellingham's Isabella Phillips at 190.

White finished her prep career at 113-2. She is set to go off and wrestler at the University of Iowa.

"This atmosphere is amazing for women’s wrestling and I’m excited to get three (titles)," White said. "I was a little nervous, but I got it done."

Roberts, who was a Tri-State finalist in a boys bracket, is halfway to joining the Mat Classic four-timer club. But right now, she will take having family bragging rights.

"Clearly, my family is a big wrestling family," Roberts said. "I was joking with my dad (Kevin) that I have already passed him - I got two under my belt now ad he has one."

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As if University standout Q'veli Quintanilla was not appreciated enough ... ouch!!

Nothing was going to stop high-motor Q'veli Quintanilla from getting what was his - a third Mat Classic title.

He was a scoring machine in the Class 3A 145 finals against Yelm's Lake Harris, posting a 16-0 technical fall in 2:30.

Quintanilla recorded four 3-point near-falls - with the final one ending the match early in the second period.

After the match, he revealed that he's been wrestling with a torn ligament (ACL) in his right knee that will require surgery next week.

"I tore my ACL at Tri-State (in December), and you know I had to battle through it and believe in myself," Quintanilla said.

"There were days I felt like quitting and saying, 'I.can’t do this anymore.' But I am thankful for everyone helping me."

His win Saturday night was a popular one with teammates, even opponents he had defeated over the years - and their coaches.

"It all sank in and I enjoyed every moment of it," Quintanilla said. "I was remember this forever."

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Flor Parker-Borrero's jubilant debut met with mixed emotions in the corner

Graham-Kapowsin ninth grader Flor Parker-Borrero knows this could be the start of something great.

Parker-Borrero combined explosive wrestling moves with an extensive judo background to subdue Camas' Addie Wunderli by pin in 4:32 in the Class 4A/3A girls 140 finals.

She immediately hugged her older sister, Jasmine, who is a volunteer coach for the school and is set to wrestle at the Evergreen State College.

Once upon a time, back in 2018, Jasmine was set up to become a four-time Mat Classic champion as a senior at Lakes High School. She came in for early weigh-ins, but left the Tacoma Dome - and never returned, defaulting out of the tournament.

"I was going through a rough time. I had a lot going on in my life, hanging out with the wrong crowd," Jasmine said. "It was hard for me to come back to the Dome (this weekend)."

What gave her the strength to do it?

"My siblings," she said.

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Bloodied, but calm and engaged, Southridge's Jacob Chapa wins 113 title - twice

There were certainly some, eh, interesting moments at the end of championship matches Saturday that raised the ire of coaches and combatants alike.

One of those tension-filled endings came for Southridge defending champion Jacob Chapa, who thought he had won his Class 3A 113 finals showdown against Spanaway Lake's Logan Heath.

Chapa watched as his 4-3 lead held up as the final seconds ticked away in regulation. He even thought about celebrating.

But when an official came up to the scorer's table and issued a late stall-call penalty, costing him one point, it tied the match at 4-4.

"I said, 'I guess we're going to overtime,'" Chapa said.

After no points were tallied in the first two overtime periods, Heath wiggled out of the bottom position in the third 30-second extra session for a one-point escape to grab a 5-4 lead.

Staying engaged, it was Chapa who would have the final say - a takedown with nine seconds to go to win the match.

"I knew my single (leg) shot was always there as long as I kept moving around," Chapa said. "And I knew he was more gassed than I was. I just pulled the trigger. I only had one more match in the season, so I gave it my all."

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FINAL team scoring

Class 4A: Chiawana 151.0, South Kitsap 130.0, Sumner 127.0, Tahoma 121.5

Class 3A: Mead 199.5, Hermiston 172.5, Stanwood 162.0, Mount Spokane 161.0

Class 2A: Orting 258.5, W.F. West 132.0, Othello 126.0

Class 1A: Toppenish 375.0, Mount Baker 99.0, Omak 86.5

Class 2B/B: Tonasket 202.5, Forks 156.5, Chewelah 123.0

Large-school girls: Moses Lake 136.0, Curtis 120.0, Yelm 109.0 

Small-school girls: Toppenish 299.0, White River 110.0, Royal 70.5