Moses Lake jamboree exorcises jitters

Three local teams hit the mats

MOSES LAKE — The Chief gym floor was covered with wrestling mats for the Moses Lake hosted jamboree Thursday.

Teams from Ephrata, Royal and Wentachee faced off against Moses Lake in a random draw first round and winner versus winner second round to test their conditioning and relieve some early season jitters.

"In these first matches its hard to tell if it's poor conditioning or jitters," said Moses Lake head coach Jamie Wise. "We learned a lot tonight and now we know what we need to work on."

Moses Lake won 11 bouts in the first round with pins from Tyler Vela and John Fackrell.

Vela bested Kurt Nygard of Ephrata after taking an early 2-0 lead with a take down. Fackrell pinned Jake Torgeson of Ephrata after a tough battle that was tied at 5-5.

Other wins for Moses Lake in the first round included Andrew Valdez winning with a coin toss after his bout ended in a 2-2 tie; a 3-0 win by David Peralez over Rigoberto Jiminez of Royal; a 10-7 win by Gabe Guzman over Wenatchee; a 7-0 win by Jordan Hill over Quinton Hendrickson of Ephrata; a 9-3 win by Josh Nielsen over Wenatchee; a 5-0 win by Brett Frederickson over Wenatchee; and wins by forfeit for Johnny Hernandez, Justin West and Tad Harman.

Royal was without a full team Thursday due to the Knights' run into post-season football.

"I'm pleased with the way we wrestled tonight," said Royal head coach Ben Orth. "We've only had the football kids for about a week and we need to work on bottom and top, rides and turns."

Ephrata's powerhouse pair, Jake Horn and Dallas Hintz, swept their respective bouts Thursday.

"We're young," said Ephrata head coach Dave Laird. "They (Horn and Hintz) have done a great job taking the younger kids under their wings and have taken time out of practice to go over and help them."

Laird said he was pleased with his team's performance Thursday but that there was plenty to work on before Ephrata's first dual meet.

Despite the showings by all three local teams, there was a cloud over the night.

In the junior varsity matches Chris Lacelle of Moses Lake was injured. He broke his left tibia and fibula during a match and was taken to the hospital.

"That was the worst part of the night," said Wise.