Moses Lake wrestlers finish fifth at Inland Empire tournament

SPOKANE - It wasn't the most desirable finish team, but the Chiefs had successful trip to the Inland Empire Wrestling Tournament in Spokane last weekend, finishing fifth out of 18 teams.

"Overall, I thought we wrestled pretty decent considering how tough the competition was and where we are right now as a program," coach Jamie Wise said. "The kids are coming along, but we still have some things to work on."

Moses Lake finished with a 123.5 team score. Mead High School took top honors with 205 points.

Wise said five Chiefs in particular stood out on the day.

"We had a few surprises on the day," he said. "Fernando Leyva (103) placed third and lost to the eventual champ in the semi-final round. Chase Clasen (113) place fifth after losing a close match to the state finisher last year. Brad Fox (132) placed third, losing to the champ, Nico Moreno (152), who had tough draws all tournament, lost  3-2 in the finals and Jonathan Perales (195) made the finals and lost to a really tough kid from Coeur d'Alene who took third at state last year."

Moses Lake gets back in action Wednesday when the Chiefs travel to Davis for a league meet, then head to the Tri-State Invite Friday and Saturday.

"Davis is not as strong of a team as in past years," Wise said. "But we'll face some pretty talented wrestlers in what has become one of the toughest tournaments in the nation."

Moses Lake 41, Wenatchee 24

WENATCHEE - Moses Lake hit the road last Thursday to match up with Wenatchee and came away with a 41-24 win over the Panthers. Steven Speed (152) earned a 6-3 decision to get things rolling for the Chiefs.

"That was a great open match win," coach Jamie Wise said. "We were kid of shuffling our guys back and forth to begin with ... put Easton Castro at 178 and he lost by pin and then had Nico Moreno at 170 and he won by a tech fall."

Wise said things were a bit tight at the beginning weight and the Chiefs really didn't start putting thins together until the lighter weights began to wrestle.

"That's when we really put the screws to them Wise said. "Won five of the first six matches to distance our selves from Wenatchee."

Results

106-Fernando Leyva (ML) p. Drake Lewis 1:04. 113-Chase Clasen (ML) won by forfeit. 120-Hayden Wise (ML) d. Drue Hunt 6-2. 126-Beau Gleed (ML) p. Andrew Lape 0:21. 132-Brad Fox (ML) p. Hector Alvarez 5:15. 138-Kris Garrett (W) d. Sean Cotton 9-4. 145-Paul Jagla (W) d. Andrew Valdez 3-0. 152-Steven Speed (ML) d. Judd Lewis 6-3. 160-John Campbell (W) p. Easton Castro 1:58. 170-Nico Moreno (ML) d. Zack Paro 19-4 (TF 4:00). 182-Michel St. Clair (W) d. Jordan LaCelle 5-0. 195-Jonathan Perales (ML) p. Aiden Maher 1:47. 220-Kyle Lesmeister (W) d. Derek Fredericksen 3-1. 285-Ignacio Molinero (W) p. Roman Martinez 1:18.