Pasco out-wrestles Moses Lake for district title

WALLA WALLA — The Chiefs performed well at the Columbia Basin League District Tournament Saturday, but just didn't have enough to keep up with Pasco.

The Bulldogs outscored Moses Lake 446.5 to 394.5 to claim the district championship.

The Chiefs qualified 16 wrestlers for this weekend's regional tournament, with nine of those reaching the championship finals. In six of the finals matches, Moses Lake wrestlers faced off against Pasco opponents.

The most intriguing of those was in the 215-pound finals, where Moses Lake's Brett Fredericksen renewed his rivalry with Pasco's Dimitri Miles. Both Miles, undefeated entering the district championship match and Fredericksen, who beat Miles in last year's district finals, are legitimate state-championship contenders.

"These two are two of the top four in the whole state," said Moses Lake Coach Jamie Wise of the pair. "It's pretty exciting to watch a match like that."

Miles opened the bout with a takedown, but a Fredericksen escape and then a takedown at the buzzer gave the Moses Lake wrestler a 3-2 lead after the first round.

An escape by Miles early in the second round tied the match at three, but Fredericksen regained the lead with 23 seconds left in the second round by catching Miles in a body lock and nearly taking the Pasco wrestler straight to his back. Fredericksen settled for a 2-point takedown, and when Miles escaped from the bottom late in the round, Fredericksen's lead was cut to 5-4.

In the third round, Fredericksen opened with a quick escape, but was then penalized for stalling, putting the score at 6-5. Fredericksen responded to the stall call with a takedown of Miles, snapping the Pasco wrestler to his knees and spinning around to take an 8-5 lead with 33 seconds to wrestle.

Miles then stood up, and while Fredericksen held on from behind, he was penalized for stalling because he did not force Miles back to the mat. After the wrestlers went out-of-bounds, Fredericksen was able to control Miles on the restart, riding the Pasco wrestler out to secure an 8-6 win.

"It's always been real close," said Fredericksen of his numerous meetings with Miles. "It's always the biggest match of the year for me."

Another big win for Moses Lake came at 119 pounds, where Gabe Guzman won the district title with a dominant 11-2 victory over Pasco's Gerardo Castro. Guzman's recent performance not only impressed Wise, but other head coaches as well.

"A lot of coaches I've seen are really, really impressed with him," said Wise in reference to Guzman.

As Guzman was dominating Castro on one mat Saturday, Matt Palmer was on the other mat putting up an equally impressive effort against Wenatchee's Stuart Hunt. Palmer put Hunt on his back four times in the match, the last one resulting in a fall giving the Moses Lake wrestler the 125-pound championship.

Moses Lake's fourth champion was John Fackrell, who hammered out a 9-1 victory over Eisenhower's Benji Martin.

"Technically, he had a really good match," said Wise of the way Fackrell executed his moves Saturday. "He took care of business."

Other Chiefs did not fare as well in the finals. At 135 pounds, Jordan Hill scored a reversal with four seconds left in the match to force overtime, but Pasco's Justin Schadler countered Hill's takedown attempt in the extra period and took the Chief wrestler down for the district title.

At 140 pounds, Cody Hoiness suffered a 5-2 loss to Davis' Nick Garcia. Josh Nielsen at 160 pounds, Ty Sainsbury at 171 pounds and Tad Harman at 285 pounds all saw their district-title hopes extinguished by Pasco opponents in the finals. Nielsen's loss was the closest of the three, as a takedown and near-fall in the final 20 seconds by Pasco's Roy Manzo broke a 5-5 tie and gave the Bulldog wrestler the win.

Other Chiefs to qualify for the regional tournament included Andrew Valdez (4th, 103 pounds), Tyler Vela (3rd, 112 pounds), Thomas Pfeiffer (4th, 130 pounds), Parker Byington (4th, 135 pounds), Cameron Chlarson (4th, 140 pounds), John Silva (3rd, 145 pounds) and Spencer Fackrell (4th, 189 pounds).

Despite finishing second to Pasco, Wise was pleased with his team's performance.

"It's a couple more than we expected," said Wise of the Chiefs' 16 regional qualifiers. "Being conservative, we were figuring 13. We had some kids sneak in there. It's nice to see some of the young kids come through."