Several glasses of water were the key element as Seth Paradox became the only Spartan to reach the championship round of Saturday’s 19th Island Invitational.

With the water’s extra weight, the Spartan senior was a couple of ounces above 189 at the morning’s weigh-in. That meant he was technically in the 215 weight class, and therefore eligible to wrestle up a yet another weight at 275.

After pinning a heavier wrestler at :40 in his first match and decisioning teammate Carl Webster 8-3 in the semi-finals, he faced a relatively undersized – perhaps 220 pounds – heavyweight from Lynnwood in the evening’s final match.

Behind 5-1, Paradox scored a takedown midway through the final period to close within 5-3. But that was as close as he could get as his opponent scored a flurry of points to emerge with an 11-3 decision.

One hundred fifty wrestlers from 12 schools competed as the Spartans finished fifth with 127.5 points. Lynnwood – making it first appearance in the tournament – placed six wrestlers in the final round and won with 209.5, last year’s champion Mercer Island was second with 182.5, Tyee was third with 160 and Mountlake Terrace was fourth with 142.

Coach Steve Hohl noted that “the competition this year was much better than last year. I was pleased with how we finished.”

It was a busy day for Spartan wrestlers, with competition beginning at 10 a.m. and lasting through the early evening.

After losing an opening-round decision, Steve Devine (103) came back to win a 9-3 decision, then recorded a fall at :59 to place seventh in his weight class.

Alonso Valenzuela (112) dropped his opening-round match 5-3, then won a fall at 2:25, a 6-4 double-overtime decision, and an 8-4 decision in the final round to place third.

Zach Smith (119) fell behind 9-5 in his opening round match after two rounds, then closed to 10-9 in the third period and appeared on the verge of scoring a takedown in the waning moments but ran out of time. He went on to record a technical fall (winning by 15 points), an injury default and 9-1 decision to finish third. His three wins gave him a total of 19 for the season, one ahead of Nick McCallum for the team lead.

After losing his opening match, John-Michael King (125) rebounded with a fall at 1:41 to earn seventh.

Nick Sturza (130) scored a fall at :36 en route to a sixth-place finish.

Curtis Nelsen (135) lost in the first round, then came back with a fall at 1:22 and an 11-6 decision to place seventh.

Jacob Hayashi (152) opened competition with a fall at 3:35, lost in the quarter-finals, scored a pin at 4:13 in the consolation round, lost a last-second 11-9 decision, then won fifth place by an injury default.

Chris McKay (160) won his first two matches, 11-10 and 13-9, but lost in the semis and wound up in sixth place.

Brian Cook (171) had a first-round bye and easily won his quarterfinal match 11-1. But he lost his semi-final match 18-11 before coming back with a 6-4 win to place third.

Peter Mandell (189) opened with a first-round bye, won his next match 4-3, then lost to the meet’s eventual outstanding wrestler. He lost in his final match to the wrestler he’d beaten earlier and finished sixth.

McCallum (215) opened with a fall at 1:12, then was pinned in the semis by the eventual champion at his weight. McCallum came back to record falls at :37 and 4:51 to place third.

Webster (275) won his opening match 16-8 before losing to Paradox. He rebounded with a fall at 4:34 but was pinned in his final match to finish fourth.