Two invitationals highlights mat action

MOSES LAKE — A new wrestling season has already brought with it various new story lines to compel Columbia Basin fans of the sport.

From Moses Lake’s journey toward another state title to the local 2A schools battling out with even squads, to the continual dominance of Warden and rebuilding job at Royal, wrestling still provides some of the best entertainment around.

A new episode of wrestling’s “As the World Turns” takes place this weekend with two tournaments promising some of the better competition this side of the planet.

The Othello Leonard Schutte Invitational and the Ephrata Wrestling Invitational both rest in the spotlight Saturday as the all-important structure of such events come in handy as teams prepare for such a format at state tournament time.

It also provides additional opportunities for wrestlers to fine-tune their individual game.

"The importance of our early season tournaments is to get as many our wrestlers competing,” Othello coach Ruben Martinez said. “Generally in our league our younger wrestlers don’t get many matches and at duals, at times, individual matches get over quickly by pin either in our favor or vice versa, so the wrestler doesn’t get much competitive experience. So by getting them at least two matches or more if they can get an opponent similar to their talents it gives them more wrestling competitive experience.”

The tournaments also benefit coaches who are in the middle of still determining the proper lineups for the stretch run.

“Firstly, wrestlers and coaches have a chance to evaluate performance and re-direct focus for wrestlers for the following week,” Ephrata coach PJ Anderson said. “You also have the opportunity to coach wrestlers on how to manage themselves through a tournament i.e. post weigh-in meals, pre-match, post match etc.”

Such events also come with their various amounts and sizes of hardware to take home but in the long run its about what the wrestlers take away from the experience.

“It will be Ephrata’s focus for each wrestler to have a few goals set for themselves as well as having a plan on how to manage wrestling through a tournament,” Anderson said. “We coaches and wrestlers will watch for execution of techniques being focussed on this week in the practice room.”

Martinez says communicating the needs of coaches and the development of skills can be worked on over the course of a long Saturday on the mat.

“We will learn, both wrestlers and coaches, technique that works for us and the little things that we still need to work on,” Martinez said. “We will notice more things that we have not worked on, and most importantly our wrestlers will learn our (my staff) approach to doing the little things correctly and strategies that we want to emphasize and be good at. The communication will be important as our young team learns through this early season experience.”

Here’s a look at the tournaments on Saturday:

Event: Ephrata Wrestling Invitational

Location: Ephrata High School

Start Time: 10 a.m.

Teams participating: Ephrata, Sultan, Grandview, Hanford, Elma, Medical Lake, Cashmere, and Tonasket.

Format: 8-man format in all 14 weight classes.

Admission: Free

Oberservations: Anderson sees the competition as top notch. Cashmere comes in winning the Omak tournament last week, which featured a strong Warden squad.

“I haven’t seen all the teams wrestle this year so it will be difficult to say who is favored, but we're expecting tough matches throughout the day,” Anderson said.

Event: Othello Leonard Schutte Invitational

Location: Othello High School

Start Time: 10 a.m.

Teams participating: Othello, Selah, Clarkston, Southridge, Tacoma Baptists, Washougal, Chewelah, Wapato, and Goldendale.

Format: Modified 12-man bracket

Admission: $7 for adults, $4 students.

Observations: “The competition will be very good,” Martinez said. “We hope to be right in the thick of things come Saturday night.”

Martinez also is expecting to field some youth during the course of the tournament.

“We will rely on some very young athletes to fill positions,” Martinez said. “Though we are young many of these athletes have a wrestling background. Our expectations are high and we have practiced for this level of competition.”