Fluaitt claims heavyweight title at Inland Empire

INLAND EMPIRE, Calif. — Central Valley High School was the setting for the Inland Empire Classic this weekend and the Moses Lake wrestling team came home better for its appearance there Friday and Saturday.

The Chiefs took fourth place at the prestigious tournament scoring 180 points, just behind third-place Coeur d’Alene’s 182.5.

Hermiston won the tournament with 231.5 ahead of U-High’s 222.

Moses Lake had nine of its total 13 wrestlers place.

“I was on one hand happy we placed fourth given we didnt have two weights represented,” Moses Lake coach Jamie Wise said. “But we were in third at one point and didn’t hold on to it. The first portion of the tournament up through the semifinals the kids did great. It was at the final placing matches we didn’t do so well.”

However Kabe Fluaitt managed to put together the Chiefs’ top performance of the weekend.

Fluaitt recorded a major decision, 9-1 win, over Dalton Cosby of U-High to capture the 285-pound weight class title.

“He wrestled a very solid match against a much taller kid,” Wise said. “Kabe just wrestled smart all weekend and didn’t get into bad position at all. That’s why he’s going to win a lot of matches this year.”

Five other finalists fell just short of adding to Fluaitt’s accomplishment to bring home runner-up medals.

Beau Gleed lost 2-0 to U-High’s Ryan Gabel at 103-pounds.

“Beau’s second match Friday night was against Josh Andrew out of Richland - who’s pretty tough - and he handled him pretty solidly,” Wise said. “It was nice to see him come away with that kind of win. He dominated in the semifinals, but didn’t wrestle the way he’s capable of in the final. He had a pretty solid tournament.”

At 112-pounds Robert Leyva lost to U-High’s Brandon Matlock 5-2, David Peralez fell to Joey Delgado of Hermiston via third-round pin, and Jordan Bishop dropped a 2-0 overtime decision to Fabian Scotto of Hermiston.

“Brandon was tied up in the last round before getting turned into a cradle,” Wise said. “Jordan hung with Scotto and that’s why it went overtime. Jordan was staying in great position and even almost got away with a win in the third period. It was a hard to come away with points since both guys were wrestling in such good position.”

Also the Chiefs’ Brian Chamberlain fell 16-10 in the 215-pound final to defending state champion Jacob Trotter of Mead.

“Brian ended up going for broke and got thrown on his back when he was down 11-10 and it cost him,” Wise said.

Wise attributed some of the late losses to team fatigue.

“It means we need to get in better shape,” Wise said. “But you have to expect that the first time out at a big tournament when you are not seasoned and its early in the year. A few more weeks and the kids should be fine.”

Still Wise noted improvement from his squad and now needs to keep working out the kinks he believe could make the difference come state finals time,

“What we need to do better as a team is t when it is late in the day and things are tough and things aren’t going your way you need to put all that stuff behind you and battle anyway,” Wise said.

Warden wins Connell Invite

CONNELL — The Cougars of Warden have picked up right where they’ve left off for the past, oh, three decades.

Dominating.

Warden travelled to the Connell Invitational on Saturday and came away winners with 270.5 points with Chelan a distant second at 168.

Sam Suarez won the title at 140-pounds and was name the Most Valuable Wrestler of the tournament.

Javier Tapia took home the top prize at 103-pounds for the Cougars while teammates Adam Hanson (171-pounds) and Dakota Scott (189-pounds) also took home top prizes.

Runner-up finishes were recorded by Reuben Martinez (112-pounds), JP Martinez (119-pounds), Hector Camacho (145-pounds), Kenny Sullivan (152-pounds), and Matt DeLeon (215-pounds).

Royal also participated in the tournament but no results were made available.

ACH takes ninth

OKANOGAN — Kick starting their year, the Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors attended their first wrestling competition and came away ninth out of 11 teams.

The Warriors took 10 wrestlers to the Okanogan Tournament on Saturday and coach Brandon Walsh found it to be a positive trip.

“I thought we wrestled pretty tough since we only have three kids with wrestling experience under their belt,” Walsh said. “The new guys got some valuable experience under their belt, wrestled tough, it was just

technical mistakes.”

The Warriors’ top finisher was Reid Ashley who took third at 215-pounds.

“His one loss was to a kid who was a state finalist from Omak,” Walsh said. “He wrestled him tough but may have

been more conservative and that may have cost him and he lost 7-3.”

Cody McCleary at 135-pounds and Zack Correll at 285-pounds both took home fourth place honors for ACH.