Chiefs take fourth with young crew; Quincy earns eighth place

KENNEWICK — An early season test for 18 wrestling programs was given at the Bob Mars Invitational on Saturday and it would be a safe bet to say both Moses Lake and Quincy High Schools passed.

The Chiefs, despite using predominantly a lineup consisting of junior varsity wrestlers, managed a fourth-place finish while the Jacks took home eighth place.

Wenatchee won the title with 148.5 points, while Moses Lake tallied 119.5 and Quincy 78.

“We still have a lot of work to do defensively especially on the bottom,” Moses Lake coach Jamie Wise said. “But in terms of the degree of battling and fighting and not giving up has improved immensely. We had our back up team in a varsity tournament and finishing fourth out of sixteen is not bad. We are pretty proud of them.”

Only one of the wrestlers for the Chiefs, Ricco Moreno, is a consistent member for the varsity and did he make the most of his trip to Kennewick.

The senior, wrestling at 145-pounds, took the title by winning the final 5-4 over Nate Woods of Kennewick.

“Ricco Moreno probably wrestled better that at any other time in his career,” coach Wise said. “He totally dominated the kid in the finals. He changed his strategy when he needed to. It was really fun to watch. And he probably will end up wrestling down in weight so he stepped up.”

Another notable Moses Lake finish came from Omar Suarez who took second at 119-pounds.

“Omar probably wrestled his match in the semifinal, he didn’t make any mistakes,” Wise said. “He rode him hard and totally wore the guy out. He never let the guy get started.”

Suarez lost the final by pin at 3:38 by Roman Holcomb of Pendleton.

Additional top finishers for the Chiefs included, Hayden Wise (4th at 112-pounds), Jonathan Chandler (5th at 112-pounds), Jonathan Peralez (6th at 189-pounds) and James Fitting, Levi Walpole, and Edwin Torres who all placed in the 215-pound class at third, fourth, and sixth respectively.

Fitting beat Walpole 6-4 in the third/fourth match.

“Generally I thought they did real well,” Jamie Wise said. “The lightest guy in the bunch Edwin Torres is actually going to cut some weight soon and be at 189, so he did a great job against some of those big kids.”

Historically Moses Lake has sent its younger wrestlers to the Bob Mars, partially for the experience and also because of Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) bylaws.

“We can’t wrestle kids over 32 times along 16 dates so we typically send our JV kids to this tournament,” coach Wise said. “This makes these kids a lot tougher and it builds depth. This was our JV team wrestling in a varsity tournament and they did an awesome job.”

Quincy coach Greg Martinez also left Kennewick with some positive input from his squad.

“We had a fairly successful weekend for having such a young and inexperienced team,” Martinez said. “Of the 13 varsity spots we have eight first year varsity wrestlers. This includes three freshman, two sophomores, and two juniors. The team is young, but they are scrappers and exciting to watch from the fans stand point.”

Quincy forfeited at the 215-pound class.

Manny Ybarra managed to bring out the best of Jacks wrestling, capturing the 135-pound class title. Ybarra defeated Caleb Gifford of Hanford 5-2.

Breck Webley took third at 171-pounds for Quincy, ending the tournament with a win, 6-2 over Wapato’s Jose Martinez in the third-fourth place match.

Other top finishers included, Daniel Herrera (5th-place at 285-pounds) and sixth-place finishes for Uriel Heras (119-pounds) and Efrain Alvarado (145-pounds).

“The efforts of all of our wrestlers got us to place in the top half of the tournament which was an unexpected surprise,” Martinez said.

Small group finishes 4th

YAKIMA — A small unit of Ephrata Tigers’ wrestlers embarked on a quest to compete at the West Valley Invitational and instead may have crashed the party.

With only seven grapplers in tow, the Tigers still managed to record a fourth-place finish at the invitational.

Anthony Bush took the title at 130-pounds and was joined on the winners’ podium by Kurt Nygard who captured the 145-pound crown.

Second-place medals were brought home by Robert Motzkus (160-pounds) and Christopher Davidson (171-pounds).

Tyler Childs took fourth at 119-pounds.

“The wrestlers performed well,” Tigers coach PJ Anderson said. “We wrestled very offensively and dictated the pace of our matches. It was a good first tournament to start the year.”

Cougars finish 3rd at Pioneer

OMAK — With history on their side the Warden Cougars embarked on a new wrestling season with a strong showing at the Pioneer Invitational on Saturday.

Coach Rick Bowers’ saw his perennial powerhouse take third out of 10 teams to get his newest edition of his program off the ground.

“I was pleased with the way the tournament moved along and the way the kids performed,” Bowers said.

Warden, with 143 points, fell to Cashmere, who won the tournament with 168 points, enough to beat Omak which ended with 160 points.

Sam Suraez took the 140-pound crown for the Cougars, while multiple second-place finishes were recorded by, JP Martinez (119-pounds), Scott Henderson (135-pounds), Kenny Sullivan (152-pounds), and Matt DeLeon (215-pounds).

Dakotah Scott took third at the 189-pound class and Warden captured four fourth-place finishes to cap their performance.