O Brother, where art thou? On his way to the postseason

Anthony Varnell learned wrestling at the knee of his older brother, Ismael. It has been a major reason for his success.

“We wrestled all the time,” said Varnell, a Lewis and Clark junior 140-pounder and state third-place finisher last year. “We had a chunk of wrestling mat at home, and we’d have our own little tournaments. He showed me moves and every once in a while let me get a takedown. Most of the time he beat me up pretty good.”

Ismael graduated from Rogers in 2001. He finished third at state by winning five straight times after losing his opening match.

Anthony won his 135-pound medal in identical fashion.

But two-time state-placer Ismael earned his highest finish, at 125 pounds, as a senior, while Anthony has two more years to reach his stated goal of winning a state championship.

Varnell is the anchor of a solid lower-weights Tigers contingent seeking to make postseason inroads beginning this weekend with the District 8 4A tournament at Mead.

He has a 23-3 record, each loss in the finals of invitational tournaments. Two were in overtime, two came at the hands of former or current state champions.

“Anthony hates to lose, that’s his strength,” LC coach Ty Lingo said. “He’s a very fierce competitor, intelligent on the mat and a wrestler through and through. He’s a fan of the sport and absorbs as much as he can.”

Varnell’s goal growing up was to be a four-time state champion. That dream was thwarted when he transferred to LC his freshman year after originally enrolling at Gonzaga Prep.

Last season, his first of varsity eligibility, a dislocated elbow just prior to the Tri-State tournament kept Varnell out of competition for five weeks, until the season’s second-to-last match.

Still, he won the district championship, and was third in regional and state, avenging his tourney-opening match loss en route.

“I was happy with third place, but my goal was to be state champion,” Varnell said.

Maybe this year. LC’s last state champion was in 1988.

The Tigers, with strong performances from wrestlers at 112 through 140, just completed their first winning season since 1987 and came within a win of competing in the four-team GSL championship meets.

Could this be an omen for a wrestler who was toughened up in battles against a brother seven years his senior? His coach hopes so.

“It has been his goal to be a Tri-State and state champion,” Lingo said. “He came close in the other one.”