“Spartan wrestlers led Mercer Island by a single point, 197-196, going into the finals at Saturday’s Island Invitational tournament.But the Islanders’ five finalists produced three wins to take home the first place trophy by a 10-point margin, 212 to 202. Still, second place represented the Spartans’ best finish in five years.Mike Roe (145-pound weight class) led three other teammates in the evening’s finals by winning an 10-2 decision. Roe opened the tournament with an 11-0 decision, won his second match by a fall at 2:39 with a 4-0 lead, and the only points against him came early in his final match with a reversal which Roe quickly turned into a neutral position and moments segued into a takedown.It was the senior co-captain’s first-ever tournament win after many seconds during his four-year career, and it came in his final opportunity before district competition in three weeks. I thought I might be lagging a little, he said, because I was sick yesterday. He got well in a hurry in raising his season record to 17-3. Two matches earlier, Brandon Nall (135) fell into an uncharacteristic 0-8 hole against a Tyee opponent who received several votes for the tournament’s outstanding wrestler. Nall struggled back to close to within 6-10 early in the third period, but couldn’t get the pin he sought and lost 8-13. He had a 3:40 opening round fall and 8-2 second round decision to reach the finals.Brian Cook (171) won his first match with a fall at 3:03 and prevailed in a wild 17-12 second round match to enter the finals. Against a wrestler with a 16-1 record, he led 3-1 in the third round only to commit his one mistake to suffer a reversal and two-point near fall. He escaped with some 30 seconds left, scored what would have been a match-winning takedown had it not been well out of bounds and placed second by a 4-5 score.At 215, Nick McCallum fell behind 3-8 on a series of takedowns and escapes, but battled back to tie at 8-8 on a takedown of his own early in the third round. His opponent escaped and scored another takedown, McCallum reversed with 20 seconds left to close to within 10-11 but ran out of time as both wrestlers were visibly exhausted at the buzzer. His first-round match was a fall at 1:40 and he easily won his second-round match 9-3 as his one-trick-pony opponent kept trying to take him down with headlocks. McCallum simply slipped his head out for several easy two-point takedowns. I thought we wrestled very well in the finals, said Spartan coach Steve Hohl. Roe won, Cook and McCallum both nearly won, and Nall came back strongly after the first round.Four other Spartans took thirds* Travis Dever (125) scored a fall at 5:00 in his first match, dropped his second-round match 3-2 with the decisive point coming on a questionable referees’-decision penalty point, then won a 9-3 decision. Down 2-4 in the third-place match, he scored a very late takedown to force overtime, then won in the second overtime period when his opponent elected the down position and Dever successfully maintained control for the allotted 30 seconds. * Joey Mankes (140) opened with a 16-5 win. In his second-round match against long-time foe Rudy Watson of North Mason, Mankes had a 7-6 lead with three seconds left as the wrestlers went off the mat. At the whistle, Mankes took a step backward and was hit with one of wrestling’s more arcane rules, a one-point stalling violation that forced overtime. He scored a slightly out-of-bounds takedown early in overtime that appeared well within allowable parameters but was disallowed, only to be taken down himself about 30 seconds later. He came back with a pin at 5:15, then opened the final round of his final match – tied at 2-2 – with a reversal coming out of the whistle and went on to win 8-4.* Jacob Hayashi (152) had an opening-round pin at 3:10, lost in the second round by decision, came back in the third round with an 11-2 decision, and recorded a pin in the finals at 2:25 after amassing a 10-0 lead.* Pat Taylor (160) narrowly lost his opening-round match 0-2 on a first-round takedown, then battled back with three straight wins for third. He had an injury default before winning a 19-4 decision. After falling behind 1-2 in the first period of the finals, Taylor initiated a flurry of escapes, takedowns, reversals and near-falls to open a 14-6 lead before scoring a fall at 1:40 of the third round.Alonzo Valenzuela (103) opened with a 15-2 decision, was pinned, then came back with a fall of his own at :49. Down 5-6 in the match for third place, he appeared to score a takedown at the buzzer only to have it waved off as the referee drew ire and fire from the Spartan faithful and wound up fourth.Dan Siegel (171) finished a non-scoring fourth with falls at :32 and 3:20.Peter Mandell (189) won twice to finish fifth.Steve Devine (103) and Seth Paradox (189) each won one match for non-scoring sixth-places.John-Michael King (112), Derek McKay (130) and Dan Bachen (160) won their final matches to place seventh.Casey White of Tyee (140) was voted the meet’s outstanding wrestler. Competition began on a somewhat somber note with one of Forks’ wrestlers having been killed in an auto accident on Wednesday. The team travels to Central Kitsap tomorrow. “