Decatur sends Cardwell off with emphatic duel win against Federal Way

Published 1:30 am Friday, January 30, 2026

For the last time in his coaching career, Zac Cardwell sat matside while his Decatur High School Gators once again beat the Federal Way Eagles in a duel match, 48-34 on Jan. 29.

The Eagles beat Decatur in their lone dual last season, which for Cardwell added some gas to the fire this time around.

“This being the last duel is pretty cool, we came into it with a little bit of a revenge attitude. Coming into the duel we talked about it all week that it is our get back time. Last year they were city champs and took something from us,” Cardwell said.

Cardwell took over from Mike Bressler in 2016 and a program that had momentum, just kept steamrolling down the track.

“It’s meant a lot. It’s been a lot of my lifetime spending with this team. It’s been a lot of fun seeing these young guys turn into men. I am excited to see how the legacy continues and how they continue to grow and become better people,” Cardwell said.

In his 10 years, Cardwell has sent 41 wrestlers to the Tacoma Dome to represent Decatur in the state tournament. Cardwell had 16 placers in state tournaments with wrestlers make the finals six different times throughout his coaching career.

This year’s Gators wrestlers are relatively unproven, sure Rayden Swigart returned alongside Jayden Walker, both of whom went to state last season. But the rest of the lineup has yet to have the opportunity on that big stage. Swigart and Walker missed out on placing last season at Mat Classic XXXVI.

“We don’t have the most experienced team or the best wrestlers. But the boys put out tonight and that’s all we ask for. We ask them for effort and attitude and that’s what they gave us,” Cardwell said.

Against Federal Way the Gators won from five pins, two disqualifications and a forfeit. Chase Ryder was the lone forfeit and Fisher Luft was named winner due to a dangerous takedown from Kaimani Baker, who threw Luft over his head landing Luft on his neck in the first round.

Laft walked off the mat under the assistance of the trainer.

The other disqualification was Kaicen Carter and Josh Driotis at 215 pounds. Carter entered the mat with a skullcap underneath his head gear which he didn’t display to the official awarding Driotis a point before the match started. Carter’s second violation was an illegal hold, granting another point to Driotis. The final violation was as Carter was on top of Driotis and about to pin his opponent, he used profane language and the referee deemed it over the top and ended the match.

Jairus Sinsat won the first match of the night for Decatur before Sergio Lopez responded with an impressive 14-2 win over Connor Ross for Federal Way’s first win of the night.

But the match of the night was Federal Way’s Cohen Vongsady and Russel DesLongchamp. Vongsady came in with a 9-8 record according to Flowrestling and DesLongchamp as a freshman was 7-10.

Vongsady, a senior led DesLongchamp 9-2. But with under a minute to go in the second period, DesLongchamp flipped Vongsady and pinned the Eagle senior. The Gator side of the mat erupted with cheer as the freshman had his hand raised.

Cardwell has seen his group really shape into a team over the past week.

“I feel like we finally came together as a team last weekend, it was nice to see a young group finally coming together,” Cardwell said. “There were a lot of guys that didn’t get pinned or won matches they weren’t supposed to win. That was the biggest difference for us.”

Rayden Swigart won via pin. But then Federal Way found some momentum as Ramil Bayramov and Ricardo Lopez won their matches back to back. The two sides traded wins via pin in the 150 and 157 pound weight classes as Isaiah Latuoco (Decatur) and Matvii Andrusenko (FW) won their matches. The abrupt end of the Luft and Baker match meant Jayden Walker took on his opponent Adam Klein. Walker was extremely agile and strong on the mat as Walker won via pin.

Karamoko Fadiga was also impressive for Federal Way in his first-round win. Fadiga pinned Tyler Miller with just 23.4 seconds left in that first round.

In the final match of the night Will Kurvink took on Armando Guerrero and Kurvink was down 3-0 after being taken down in the first round. But the senior got the score to 4-4 before doing a potentially dangerous act, awarding Guerrero an extra point.

Then in the final moments of the first round, with .03 on the board, Kurvink pinned Guerrero.

The NPSL tournament begins on Feb. 7 at Kent-Meridian, with a district tournament to follow before all eyes in the state turn Feb. 19-20 to the Tacoma Dome.

“I think we can surprise a lot of people. I don’t know who those surprises will be, we are gonna see who shows up that day of the tournament. I know Jayden and Jairus will make it through, i am very confident in that. But then honestly, we could have two or three guys that have a great tournament and surprise a lot of people,” Cardwell said.