Chiefs fall short of Hermiston

SPOKANE — The Moses Lake Chiefs wrestling team capitalized on two individual champions to bring home a second-place team finish from the Inland Empire wrestling tournament in Spokane this weekend.

The Chiefs won back-to-back championships when senior Tom Pfieffer won the championship at 145 pounds and senior Sammy Villegas won the championship at 152 pounds.

Pfieffer and Villegas helped lead the Chiefs to 172 team points as Moses Lake fell just 17-points short of tournament champion Hermiston, Ore.

Moses Lake head coach Jamie Wise was proud of the way his team performed over the weekend.

“I was pretty impressed with how they responded,” he said. “Right now —?this early in the year —?we are pretty confident.”

The Chiefs also had runner-up finishes from junior David Peralez at 119 pounds and junior Ricco Moreno at 130 pounds. Moses Lake also brought home third place finishers in sophomore Brian Chamberlain at 189 pounds and senior Spencer Fackrell at 215 pounds.

Wise said his team made a statement with its performance.

“Everyone has seen our line up now,” he said. “There are a lot of coaches who think we are pretty tough. We have a target on our back.”

Tournament Results

Team scores

1) Hermiston 189

2) Moses Lake 172

3) University 167.5

4) East Valley 145.5

5) Coeur d’Alene 140

6) Mead 133.5

7) Lakeland 112.5

8) Central Valley 110

9) Ellensburg 107.5

10) Post Falls 98

11) Ferris 86.5

12) Cheney 71

13) West Valley 57

14) Richland 37

15) Lewis and Clark 17

16) Eisenhower 13.5

17) Rogers 11

Championship Results

103) Nick Sweeney (East Valley) def. Andrew Palmer (Coeur d’Alene) 10-5.

112) Joey Delgado (Hermiston) pinned Keith Babington (East Valley) 5:30.

119) Jaylee Britt (Hermiston) pinned David Peralez (Moses Lake) 5:07.

125) Kyle McCrite (Lakeland) def. Ben Jorgensen (Hermiston) 4-3.

130) Sam Howard (Coeur d’Alene) def. Ricco Moreno (Moses Lake) 10-4.

135) Brandon Adolf (Hermiston) def. Brandon Matlock (Ferris) 8-1.

140) Brandon Richardson (Lakeland) pinned Kevin Harder (University) 2:43.

145) Thomas Pfieffer (Moses Lake) def. Jake Rodriguez (East Valley) 9-1.

152) Sammy Villegas (Moses Lake) def. Ryan Zumwait (University) 7-2.

160) Jacob Mason (University) def. Nick Bond (Mead) 14-7.

171) Andre Rivera (Ferris) pinned. Cody Stratton (Central Valley) 4:41.

189) Dakota Lawson (East Valley) def. Curtis Berger (Hermiston) 6-0.

215) Jacob Trotter (Mead) def. Cole Amende (Post Falls) 13-5.

285) Blake Nichols (Ellensburg) pinned Brandon Moseley (Cheney) 1:42