Fluaitt leads Chiefs effort at Tri-State
Brandon Buche (right) wrestles Zack Lane of Springdale in the 189-pound semifinals during the Springdale Tournament on Saturday.
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - It may have not been the most ideal way to wrap up their visit to Coeur d'Alene and the Tri State Invitational, but the Moses Lake Chiefs wrestling team still saw plenty to build off of heading into the holiday break.
Moses Lake finished in 11th place with 107 points as Mead's 162 points won the tournament and University-High finished second with 159.5 points.
"I was disappointed that we didn't have a few more in their placing, but we did do as good a job of battling," Moses Lake head coach Jamie Wise said. "In some of the matches we did a good job, but we have to battle a little bit better. We have to do better getting off the bottom and setting up our shots better."
One Chief who did battle to the top of his ability was heavyweight, Kabe Fluaitt.
Fluaitt, who won the Class 4A state title in 2010 in the same weight class, rolled to the championship on Saturday by beating Shawn Burton of Deer Park, 6-3 in the final.
Last year Fluaitt lost in last year to Burton, so turnabout was sweet for the Moses Lake senior according to Wise.
"Kabe wrestled very well and did a great job this weekend," Wise said. "He wrestled very smart. Even in the matches he fell behind he kept his composure and just kept wrestling. He really showed his maturity."
Fluaitt recorded three pins en route to the title.
Junior Chief Nico Moreno got to the semifinals at 145-pounds before getting pinned in the third round by Lewiston's Casey George, who is Boise State-bound, in the semifinals.
"Nico wrestled that kid pretty tough and it was a pretty tight match," Wise said. "The kid is a solid kid heading to Boise State. It was a combination of him being plenty strong enough and being great technically that led to him winning."
George pinned all five of his opponents on the way to the title.
The other Moses Lake medal winner was senior Herson Rodriguez who took sixth place after losing in the semifinals during a very tough match. He then would later drop his 5th/6th match in a second round pin.
"If we could have moved a little bit better and stayed out of that double we would have been able to win that semifinal match," Wise said. "He gave a lot of effort in the tournament. I was hoping he could have gotten into the finals but it's just one of those things. He's in a very tough weight class just as Nico is."
Overall, the Chiefs showed some flashes of strong wrestling throughout their two days at the invitational but they know there is plenty of room for improvement.
"We are going to find out how tenacious they are going to be when we go down to Oregon for our next tournament," Wise said. "Technically we need to be better off our feet and getting off the bottom. These kids have individual issues but they all just need more confidence in themselves. Especially the young kids need to believe they could be in every match."
Othello's bright finish at Sundome Classic
YAKIMA - Amongst a strong mix of teams, the Othello Huskies recorded a sixth-place finish at the Sundome Mat Classic in Yakima this past weekend.
Othello finished with 140 points behind the performances of individual champions Matt Jordan and Amando DeLeon, and second-place finisher Joey Gomez.
Sunnyside won the tournament with 208 points.
"As a team we did not wrestle as well as I had hoped we would," Othello head coach Ruben Martinez said. "We will look at our practices and see where we can make some improvements to get them ready for the upcoming tournaments."
Jordan took the 140-pound title with a 7-1 win over Colby Coates of Ellensburg. Jordan recorded pins in the first two rounds and then won a 9-0 decision over Adan Chavez of Toppenish in the semifinals.
"Matt gave up some takedowns early in his earlier matches, but was able to get the first takedown in the finals and basically dominated the final," Martinez said.
DeLeon captured the 171-pound title following a tense 12-10 win over Nehemiah Salo of Klahowya.
"Amando knows that he did not wrestle to his potential, but champions find a way to win," Martinez said. "He had to come from behind in the finals and fortunately the things that we stress in the practice room paid off for him and he was able to finish with another title this year."
After a first-round pin at 1:59, DeLeon escaped with a 12-7 quarterfinal win and a narrow 8-7 victory in the semifinals just to get to the championship match.
Gomez lost the 215-pound final in a 7-6 decision that went the way by Nathaniel Deardorf of Zillah.
"Joey had a tough semis against the Ephrata wrestler and going into the finals he was able to secure a takedown and near fall to go ahead by three with 30 seconds left," Martinez said. "Butt he was not able to finish the situation that he was in and ended up giving up a reversal and near fall to end the match. It was a tough learning experience for him, but one that we will apply to practice situations to make sure that this does not happen again."
Lucas Garza got to the semifinals at 119-pounds before ending up in seventh place,
Othello had eight of its other weight classes combine to score only 22 points and three of those did not score a single point.
"Sometimes you forget that we do have some young kids trying to help us out in weights where we do not have tournament strength," Martinez said. "It showed the past two tournaments. I am hoping that we can get some kids healthy and get them at some lower weights so we can score some more points at the upcoming varsity tournaments."
Tigers end 14th in Yakima
Ephrata's Tigers finished 14th at the Sundome Mat Classic as head coach PJ Anderson saw some bright spots he could build off of.
Deion Duckworth finished third at 215-pounds, losing a 5-4 decision to Othello's Gomez in the semifinals, while Jacob Green took fourth at 171-pounds.
Jesus Valencia (125-pounds), Seth Kulackoski (130-pounds), and Tyler Childs (119-pounds) all finished fifth in their respective weight classes as the team ended up with 95 total points.
Warriors travel to Springdale
SPRINGDALE - The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors saw three of their wrestlers place at the Springdale Tournament held on Saturday.
"We are still working out some of our early season kinks, but I thought we wrestled pretty well," ACH head coach Brandon Walsh said.
Jesse Billups ended up second at 285-pounds as he got to the final where he was pinned by Oroville's Gabe Beltran.
Before that he defeated Will Peters of Chewelah by first round pin.
"Billups had a huge win in the semis," Walsh said. "Peters was a Class A state runner up last year. It would have been nice for him to win his finals match, but I was happy with how he wrestled all day long."
Third-place finishers for ACH were Cody Payne at 145-pounds and Brandon Buche at 189-pounds.
Payne lost his first match but then recorded three straight wins to wrap up his appearance in Springdale, while Buche lost in the second round before winning his last two matches.
"Some of our young guys are still figuring out what it takes to win at the high school level," Walsh said. "I think that as they start getting that worked out we'll see more and more wins from these guys."
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