Four state champs!

TACOMA — They came, they saw, they left champions.

Moses Lake High School Chiefs juniors Brian Chamberlain and Kabe Fluaitt stood high at the medal stand in the Tacoma Dome on Saturday with the best hardware each one dreamt of one day-owning:

A wrestling state title.

Chamberlain (215-pounds) and Fluaitt (285-pounds) capped off the weekend by winning their individual crowns while propelling perennial powers Moses Lake to a third-place state finish in 4A.

Moses Lake finished with 90 points, behind champions University High (156.5 points) and runners-up Tahoma (114.5 points) at Mat Classic XXII.

“I’m very, very happy with how it all ended,” Chiefs’ coach Jamie Wise said. “We had five placers and we only had six qualifiers and the seventh due to misfortune. We had far less wrestlers than others at the top. Taking that into account it was a great year. Kids wrestled their hearts out all the time.”

Chamberlain stormed his way through the post season, dominating the district and regional tournaments before running into a field of young men that athletically could match up with the Chief.

“I just wanted it more because I definitely saw some good wrestlers at 215,” Chamberlain said. “I worked hard every day and wrestled against my coaches almost every day. That builds confidence.”

Chamberlain’s confidence going into the final against Tahoma’s Konner Knudtsen must have been sky high after two pin victories in the first round and semifinals, and a 4-0 smothering of Auburn’s Chris Young in the quarterfinals.

In the first period against Knudtsen, Chamberlain scored the first takedown to take a 2-0 lead before Knudtsen would tie it up at 2-2 early in the second period.

But moments later another Chamberlain takedown gave the Chief a 4-2 lead he wouldn’t relinquish as he pulled away to win 9-4.

“Technically it was a very smart match because Knudtsen is tough and Brian stayed with him,” Wise said. “He never let Knudtsen get in or take a shot. A lot of it really is how big your heart is and believing you trained harder and deserve it more and that offers a mental edge.”

Chamberlain’s dominating win was a culmination of a year geared toward this moment.

“It was my goal from the beginning,” Chamberlain said. “I lost to Knudtsen 12-3 at Tri State but I felt good going in and knew I could do it.”

Fluaitt followed a similar path at the beginning of the post season until a tough finals loss at last weekend’s Regionals started off a drama-filled week.

Early in the week during Mat Classic preparation, Fluaitt got an infection on his forehead from presumably dirty mats in Richland, site of the regional tournament.

Then it was a waiting game to see if doctors would clear him as he diligently worked out hoping his state plans would not be interrupted.

Once he was clear, it was on to Tacoma and it then became a round-to-round battle for Fluaitt against not only his opponents but his dealing with stoppages to treat his wrapped forehead.

All of it simply meant he would wrestle in what would end up the last match to finish in the 2009-2010 state wrestling season.

“I didn’t think he was going to be able to wrestle because a doctor could say no and he’s done,” Wise said. “He faced all kinds of adversity this week and fought right through.”

Coming in to the final off of a first-period pin win over Conner Leeds of Roosevelt, a 2-0 grind-it-out victory over Dean Rogers of Heritage in the quarterfinals, and a narrow 4-3 escape in the semifinals over Nathan Herrick of Kentwood, only Nick Conlan of Auburn stood in Fluaitt’s way.

The two both came out defensively and methodically until Fluaitt scored the first takedown late in the first period for a 2-0 lead.

Each would score and escape over the next two-plus minutes and Fluaitt held a 3-1 lead with two minutes remaining.

A Conlan escape cut the Fluaitt lead to 3-2 until the Chief scored his second and most crucial takedown with just under a minute left to build his advantage to 5-2 and from there he held on for a 5-3 state championship victory.

“I am proud of the way I wrestled and how I prepared this week and all season,” Fluaitt said. “After my two-and-out last year, my goal was to come back and do this and I am proud of myself for achieving my goal.”

Fluaitt admitted the week had it’s share of tension and drama but he held true to his approach of taking each meet, each challenge as one in the same.

“I could tell he was going to have a great weekend by his swagger and his smile and you could see he had super confidence,” Wise said. “You need that to win and he really showed he was ready for any challenge. He knew he had to stay in good position and take few chances and was by far the best heavyweight of the tournament.”

Sophomore Nico Moreno had an opportunity to make it three titles for Moses Lake but he was defeated by an experienced and crafty Tyler Lamb of Tahoma, 7-2, at 140-pounds.

Moreno entered the final having outscored his first three opponents 35-3 in a show of total domination.

“Tyler Lamb is a tough kid and he’s been around for quite awhile and is pretty seasoned,” Wise said. “Hopefully Nico learns from that and doesn’t let it happen again. Overall he had a pretty good tournament but Tyler is a much tougher wrestler than the others Nico faced before him.”

Senior David Peralez wrapped up his career with a sixth-place medal at 125-pounds, winning his first two matches before dropping a 10-1 semifinal decision to Efrain Aguilar of Graham-Kapowsin on Saturday.

Peralez then dropped a last second 6-5 decision to Tanner Sturdevant of Graham-Kapowsin and was pinned by Kamm Freudenstien of Foss in the 5th/6th match.

“David wrestled great Friday and had a tough day Saturday and I’m disappointed for him how it ended,” Wise said. “But he had a great season for himself and the team.”

Also freshman Beau Gleed completed his first season as the seventh-place medal winner at 103-pounds.

“Beau knows now he belongs in the top tier,” Wise said. “He knows he’s worthy of being up there just by how the tournament went for him so I expect better things out of him.”

Gleed went 3-2 in the tournament, winning his opener 13-2 over Chris Ungerecht of Bothel, before falling 8-5 to Tahoma’s Steven Hopkins in the quarterfinal.

He would eventually work his way into the 7th/8th place match where he defeated Exio Garcia of Davis with a second-period  pin.

Senior Andrew Valdez dropped both his matches at 119-pounds and senior Chris Lacelle, who qualified as an alternate, dropped his two contests at 160-pounds.

Lacelle replaced Mead sophomore Jordan Rogers who was pulled after an emergency appendectomy. Rogers was the defending state champion.

A few hours after leaving the Tacoma Dome, coach Wise was able to sit back and reflect on this chapter of Moses Lake wrestling which started with plenty of ups-and-downs before finishing with a flourish.

“How would I remember this team? They ended up being pretty feisty and a lot of them showed a lot of determination and fight through any obstacle,” Wise said. “They wanted to be good and didn’t want to let anything stand in their way.”