Chiefs wrestlers take Marysville title

MARYSVILLE — Only a few weeks remain in this 2009-2010 wrestling campaign and the Moses Lake High School Chiefs may have found their mojo at the right time of the season.

The Chiefs travelled to Marysville for its Premiere Tournament on Saturday and returned home later that night with a first place trophy, beating out 20 other teams.

Moses Lake scored 231 points to nip Snohomish by 1.5 points.

It may not have the glamour of a Sierra Nevada or the numbers of a Pacific Northwest Classic, but this tournament and the subsequent win means plenty to the Chiefs.

“This win means something on a couple different levels,” Moses Lake coach Jamie Wise said. “We didn’t have Brian Chamberlain with us and we saw some other kids step up. Also we took six junior varsity wrestlers who finished tenth. So I am very pleased with that.”

Moses Lake were led by five individual champions, including, Andrew Valdez (119-pounds), David Peralez (125-pounds), Jordan Bishop (135-pounds), Nico Moreno (140-pounds), and Kabe Fluaitt (285-pounds).

Fluaitt’s win clinched the title at the wire for the Chiefs.

“It was nice to see,” Wise said. “They don’t run the finals like a normal tournament and so all the finals go on at the same time. You don’t get to sit back and watch and you hope the coaches are coaching somebody. But the kids didn’t have a let down and wrestled really well.”

Valdez beat Josh St. Marie of Glacier Peak 15-0 in the final. Previous to that match Valdez recorded three consecutive pin wins.

“He was wrestling a pretty tough 3A kid,” Wise said. “Andrew just handled him and that’s a good, dominating win for him. He wrestled tough from start to finish.”

Peralez for the second straight week proved that seeding him is a volatile science. Peralez defeated Robert Campos of Burlington, 8-3, in the final. He defeated the top-seed, Eric Kalmey of Snohomish, 7-3 in the semifinals.

“Two weekends in-a-row now he’s been seeded fourth to go all the way through to win it,” Wise said. “He wrestled very well and wrestling tough. He’s not blowing people way but he’s handling opponents really well.”

Nico Moreno pushed past Wenatchee’s Hilario Farias 10-8 to win his first title of the season. Farias beat the Chiefs’ Ricco Moreno in the semifinals, 14-3.

“What was nice for us is we got to see both of them against Hilario,” Wise said. “Nicco ended up winning and pressed the pace right from the start.”

Bishop beat Ammon Morrill of Snohomish via pin to take his first title of the season.

Fluaitt beat Mike Maybin of Snohomish 7-1 to capture his crown.

Moses Lake wrestled two competitors in six of the weight classes and 14 total Chiefs placed out of the 20 that battled.

Second-place honors went to Robert Leyva (112-pounds), while third-place results were recorded by Beau Gleed (103-pounds), Hayden Wise (112-pounds), Ricco Moreno (140-pounds), and Logan Phelps (171-pounds).

Other top five finishes include, Tanner Long (103-pounds), Brad Fox (119-pounds), James Fitting (189-pounds), and Levi Walpole (215-pounds).

“Obviously I still want more out of them to put themselves in position for the big tournament,” Coach Wise said. “But we’re getting a little bit closer every day.”

Moses Lake continues its season on Thursday at home against Wenatchee which will decide the Big Nine Columbia champion.

The match is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start.

Three Columbia Basin wrestlers take titles at Ray Westberg

ELLENSBURG — Othello continues to make waves as the season reaches its apex and they showed how much so by finishing third at the Ray Westberg Invitational on Saturday.

Riverside took the title with 184.5 points to slip past Selah (180 points), and Othello (178.5).

Quincy took ninth place at 96.5 points.

“As we prepared for the Ellensburg (Ray Westburg) Invite we had two more individuals go down a weight class as we need them to make one weigh-in at their lowest weight class for district,” Othello coach Ruben Martinez said.  “We came up a little short but we came home with our heads high as our young team battled the senior ridden Selah and Riverside to the very end.”

Rueben Lopez (135-pounds) and Amando Deleon (160-pounds) won individual titles for Othello.

Lopez won 3-1 against Mason Yates of East Valley in his title match, while Deleon beat Tyler Coats of Ellensburg 5-2.Gilbert Villa took second at 103-pounds falling 5-1 to Wapato’s Omar Gomez in the final. His teammate Joey Gomez also ended up second at 215-pounds by falling in the final to Riverside’s Hunter Orgill 8-2.

At 112-pounds Lucas Garza ended up third and Matt Jordan did the same at 125-pounds.

“We were able to get four wrestlers into the finals with all of Reuben, Amando, and Joey going up against state veterans,” Martinez said.  “I was extremely proud of Gilbert Villa.  He has not had much preparation conditioning wise regarding wrestling competition and though we were a little concerned going into this week he took that worrying out of our minds quickly.”

Martinez noted his team got a good look at Selah at the tournament with a dual between the two teams on horizon — Jan. 29.

“If we can get the job done this Tuesday at Quincy and Thursday at Grandview and Selah can do their part against Toppenish’s tough team and then get by East Valley we will both be undefeated in League and our dual with them will determine the league champions,” Martinez said. “It was nice being able to see how we match up with them so we will be ready for that big dual.”

Quincy came home with one individual champion, Manny Ybarra, who beat Riverside’s Brenton Beard in a 3-2 pulsating 130-pound final.

Ybarra barely escaped Eduardo Montes of Othello in the semifinal, winning 1-0.

Ben Horning registered fourth-place points at 152-pounds, while Breck Webley ended up fifth at 160-pounds for Quincy.

Quincy coach Greg Martinez was unavailable for comment.

Royal wins Rumble

ROYAL — On Saturday the Royal Knights defended their home mat by capturing the title of the Royal Rumble.

Royal scored 230.5 points to outpace Pomeroy (211 points) and Lake Roosevelt (174.5)

Othello’s B team ended up fifth with 134.5 points and Almira/Coulee-Hartline finished seventh with 69 points.

Danny Barajas won the 119-pound class with a 12-10 win over Lake Roosevelt’s Orin Gross in the final. Alex Myrick pulled out a 3-1 win over Pomeroy’s Jacob Moore to win the 135-pound crown. Myricks’ fellow Knight, Laddie Gorozki took third in the same weight class.

Kris Rick blew out Enrique Romero of Othello, 19-3, to win the 140-pound title while Jake Thomas captured the 171-pounds class’ top honors by virtue of a pin win over Austin Reisdorph of Pomeroy.

Zach Helberg (second at 112-pounds), Pedro Lopez (second, 125-pounds) were both pinned in their title matches.

Zac Reisenauer of Columbia Burbank beat Royal’s Omar Gomez 6-1 in the 145-pound final and Knight Justin Kincade dropped the 189-pound title in a pin loss to Klyntis Bott of Pomeroy.

Hank Ellis took third at 130-pounds for Royal.. Othello’s Sergio Montes took third at 112-pounds, while ACH’s Reid Ashley was the Warriors’ best finisher ending up third at 215-pounds.